http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/10312420/GTA-5-the-violence-debate.html
- debate on whether GTA is too violent and the effect it has.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2428024/PETER-HITCHENS-GTA-V-If-Devil-invent-game-one.html
- The evil of gaming
http://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/the-franklin-conspiracy-why-gamers-decided-the-police-in-gt
- Racist police in GTA
GTA is thought to be a game that is violent,racist and sexist and to a high extent it is, however this is done as this is what the GTA audience expect from the game. They want a place where they can have the freedom that they cannot experience in real life, for example going and killing random people in the most ridiculous way possible, or going to a strip club and getting a lap dance. These are the conventions that the audience of GTA expect form the game. However with that being said a vast majority of people (parents) are concerned about their children and the values that they learn from games such as GTA, and there have been cases where games like GTA have been blamed for the cause of terrible situations. Bur I would personally blame the upbringing of the person and the morals and values that they have been taught, as most people are taught right from wrong and they know that what they witness in video games and movies is fiction and that none of it should be rein-acted in any form.
Also the gamers that play GTA don't think of people differently just because of how they have been portrayed within a game e.g. they don't think that ll females are hookers because that's how they've seen them in GTA. Or that all black males are thugs.
The budget of GTA 5 was £170 million. When producing the game the producers would have put in a vast amount of thought, in to what extent they would want the game to be racist, sexist, stereotypical or misogynistic. Thus I think that they have done this as it's what they're audience wants from the game, as this is what they have experienced in GTA games before, thus they expect a consistency through the series.
This is a image of from GTA of a perfume that is made for females, as you can see it says, "smell like a bitch" some people (feminist) will see this as misogynistic. However this is 'tongue and cheek humour' which it's mocking something in order to create humour,
however this humour may only be seen by the audience that you would associate with GTA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpJGkG1g-Lk
This is one reason to why women may think that they aren't represeted fairly in games such as GTA, one being that most game developers are males, thus they create a game which will be male dominated and they will make females look sexy and they will show them with less power and as sex objects. Just as in a women's magazine you wont find anything very manly, you'll see images of females in bikinis or how to get a flat stomach. This is because they editors of these magazines are mainly going to be women, thus they give their audience what they want. Just as this GTA have done the same thing and giving the audience what they want.
http://www.giantbomb.com/mortal-kombat/3030-15743/
Games have always consisted of some sort of sexism and a high content of violence. For example Mortal Kombat, was one of the goriest fighting games that was made during 1992, with it signature killer finishing moves, that involved characters being torn apart or burnt or killed in a horrific way. The game also only had 1 female character, Sonya Blade even her finishing moves were made mildly sexual, one move was when she grabbed her victim with her legs and through them across, and her finisher was the kiss of death, were she blows a kiss which turns into a fireball and incinerates her victim.
The first time my brother allowed me to play Mario Kart with him on his Nintendo 64, I immediately selected Princess Peach as my player character. Peach’s shiny hair, princess gloves, and pink dress made me feel as though there was a character just for me in what my brother had made seem was a game just for boys. But as I played the game more I stopped selecting Princess Peach- or any female character. Through strings of losses I learned that my brothers masculine characters, just as they appeared, were in fact faster and more powerful than the feminine characters I was choosing.
Choosing Princess Peach based on her appearance was not an uneducated decision on my part; in versus games in which the operator selects a character based solely on the images presented on the character selection screen, it makes sense for the appearance of each character to represent their personality and skillset and therefore video game designers costume their characters with an appearance or accessories that reflect their unique abilities.
Even with games that have female characters, they aren't shown on the same level as the males, prime example in the article above. The Princess Peach character is much less powerful in the game, and she doesn't have the same ability as the male characters. Has this been done because she's female? Well no, as in Mario Princess Peach is the more vulnerable character, thus in the game she has been portrayed in the exact same way, whereas Donkey Kong is much more powerful in Mario, thus in the game he is also shown as being very powerful.
http://www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/4-articles/34-the-good-and-bad-effects-of-video-games
this is a article on the positives of gaming within young kids, Cognitive researcher Daphne Bavalier talks about the effects of video games and some of the possible effects that are said to be forced upon people when playing games, for example playing video games has a negative effect on your eyesight, when in fact it has a positive effect as it can improve the smaller details that you see. Another one is that playing games such as GTA and Call Of Duty have negative effects on young people. When after conducting many different runs, it was found that playing games like GTA and COD (call of duty) actually helped you increase certain skills that you can not learn easily through everyday life.
Some of these consisted of:
o Quick thinking, making fast analysis and decisions. Sometimes the player does this almost every second of the game giving the brain a real workout. According to researchers at the University of Rochester, led by Daphne Bavelier, a cognitive scientist, games simulating stressful events such as those found in battle or action games could be a training tool for real-world situations. The study suggests that playing action video games primes the brain to make quick decisions.
o Accuracy - Action games, according to a study by the University of Rochester, train the player's brain to make faster decisions without losing accuracy.
o Strategy and anticipation - Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter, calls this "telescoping." The gamer must deal with immediate problems while keeping his long-term goals on his horizon.
o Situational awareness - – Defense News reported that the Army include video games to train soldiers to improve their situational awareness in combat. Many strategy games also require the player to become mindful of sudden situational changes in the game and adapt accordingly.
o Developing reading and math skills – The young gamer reads to get instructions, follow storylines of games, and get information from the game texts. Also, using math skills is important to win in many games that involves quantitative analysis like managing resources.
o Perseverance – In higher levels of a game, the player usually fails the first time around, but he keeps on trying until he succeeds and move on to the next level.
o Pattern recognition – Games have internal logic in them, and the player figures it out by recognizing patterns.
o Inductive reasoning and hypothesis testing - James Paul Gee, professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that playing a video game is similar to working through a science problem. Like a student in a laboratory, the gamer must come up with a hypothesis. For example, the gamer must constantly try out combinations of weapons and powers to use to defeat an enemy. If one does not work, he changes hypothesis and try the next one. Video games are goal-driven experiences, says Gee, which are fundamental to learning.
o Mapping – The gamer use in-game maps or build maps on his head to navigate around virtual worlds.
o Memory - Playing first person shooter games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield series enables the player to effectively judge what information should be stored in his working memory and what can be discarded considering the task at hand, according to a study published in the Psychological Research.
o Concentration - A study conducted by the Appalachia Educational Laboratory reveal that children with attention-deficit disorder who played Dance Dance Revolution improve their reading scores by helping them concentrate.
o Improved ability to rapidly and accurately recognize visual information - A study from Beth Israel Medical Center NY, found a direct link between skill at video gaming and skill at keyhole, or laparoscopic, surgery.
o Reasoned judgments
o Taking risks - Winning in any game involves a player's courage to take risks. Most games do not reward players who play safely.
o How to respond to challenges
o How to respond to frustrations
o How to explore and rethink goals
o Teamwork and cooperation when played with others – Many multiplayer games such as Team Fortress 2 involve cooperation with other online players in order to win. These games encourage players to make the most of their individual skills to contribute to the team. According to a survey by Joan Ganz Cooney Center, teachers report that their students become better collaborators after using digital games in the classroom.
o Management – Management simulation games such as Rollercoaster Tycoon and Zoo tycoon teach the player to make management decisions and manage the effective use of finite resources. Other games such as Age of Empires and Civilization even simulate managing the course of a civilization.
o Simulation, real world skills. The most well known simulations are flight simulators, which attempt to mimic the reality of flying a plane.
Books
http://www.techdigest.tv/2006/12/top_10_things_y.html
This is a book on GTA as a game and what people think of it, then it tells you about the real facts of the game. they talk about different aspects of the game, such as; "Tommy and CJ always exist as a co-constructed semiotic event prompted by the game narrative and player perception of prominent signs during game play. It could be argued that the biomechanical nature of signification during game-play… which is grounded in the computerized and structural nature of the game, exists in a dialectic tension with the social nature of signification…” - from ‘Positioning and Creating the Semiotic Self in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ essay by John A. Unger and Karla V. Kingsley
Jacked: The unauthorized behind-the-scenes story of Grand Theft Auto
"Thompson pops up throughout the book, but there are other lengthy digressions with tenuous links to Grand Theft Auto. A chapter is given over to the story of two teenage stepbrothers who decided one night to shoot at passing cars with their parent's rifle. They killed one man and seriously injured others. When arrested, one said that GTA3 may have given them the idea. Though this incident could be a starting point for enquiring into the nature of video game violence and copycat crimes, its treatment here is relentlessly soft-focus. The story tails off with no-one able to make any sense of the whole thing, least of all Kushner. There's no attempt to analyse, and really there's no story - just a family tragedy, bulking out a book on Rockstar."
Stereotypes in the game.
Females are vain and overly concerned with their looks. Society is painting womankind with one large make-up brush. It is ironic because the majority of the messages prioritizing appearance for women come from the media. Sure, their are some ladies with an unhealthy preoccupation with their looks, but in actuality, more women are moved by worthy causes like caring for their family and community.
This is a book on GTA as a game and what people think of it, then it tells you about the real facts of the game. they talk about different aspects of the game, such as; "Tommy and CJ always exist as a co-constructed semiotic event prompted by the game narrative and player perception of prominent signs during game play. It could be argued that the biomechanical nature of signification during game-play… which is grounded in the computerized and structural nature of the game, exists in a dialectic tension with the social nature of signification…” - from ‘Positioning and Creating the Semiotic Self in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ essay by John A. Unger and Karla V. Kingsley
Jacked: The unauthorized behind-the-scenes story of Grand Theft Auto
"Thompson pops up throughout the book, but there are other lengthy digressions with tenuous links to Grand Theft Auto. A chapter is given over to the story of two teenage stepbrothers who decided one night to shoot at passing cars with their parent's rifle. They killed one man and seriously injured others. When arrested, one said that GTA3 may have given them the idea. Though this incident could be a starting point for enquiring into the nature of video game violence and copycat crimes, its treatment here is relentlessly soft-focus. The story tails off with no-one able to make any sense of the whole thing, least of all Kushner. There's no attempt to analyse, and really there's no story - just a family tragedy, bulking out a book on Rockstar."
Stereotypes in the game.
Females are vain and overly concerned with their looks. Society is painting womankind with one large make-up brush. It is ironic because the majority of the messages prioritizing appearance for women come from the media. Sure, their are some ladies with an unhealthy preoccupation with their looks, but in actuality, more women are moved by worthy causes like caring for their family and community.
They are weak. Women can be quite tough. Unfortunately, womanhood has been labeled “the weaker sex.” How many men could endure hours of pain as their nether regions are being torn open? Some call it torture; women know it as child-birth. Studies have even found that a woman’s perception of pain may be stronger than a man’s.
Women are emotional. Yes, we may have been raised to embrace tears instead of fearing them. Have you ever heard a parent telling a little girl to stop crying or suck it up? Although, despite popular opinion, a 1998 study at Vanderbuilt University found that women and men express the same degree of emotion. The only difference is that women are more likely to express that emotion through outward cues, like facial expressions.
These are some of the stereotypes that are portrayed
These are some of the stereotypes that are portrayed
Dyer’s Utopian Solutions the first theory worth bringing to bear in unlocking what video games offer is Richard Dyer’s utopian solution theory. This has a relatively simple premise: entertainment texts offer audiences a utopian or perfect ideal that they can access through media consumption. This ‘utopia’ is in contrast to the imperfections and difficulties audiences face in their own social lives. In short, escapist texts offer quick wins and rewards that fix the gaps in our social and emotional needs. In real life, clear rewards are rare and much harder fought for.
According to Dyer, the predominantly male audience is offered an energetic escape from the sedentary lifestyles that most males are involved in their place of education or work. Likewise this allows male audiences a means of asserting dominance upon a virtual battlefield with their tactical movement and skill in handling virtual weaponry. The rewarding of this dominant and physically capable behaviour is a means of the audience becoming the most masculine male they can be. This is a form of masculine self-actualisation.
Rockstar’s Manhunt was banned in Australia, New Zealand and Germany for the charge of sensationalising violence and indulging torture – but what authorities missed was the game’s Orwellian temper, with an omnipresent dictator (an ex-film director) forcing the player through a series of ‘scenes’ for his snuff film. The repugnant acts of violence, rated on a 1-5 scale for audience satisfaction, is clearly mocking of a Big Brother culture, and the game’s bleak social commentary means that the violence is supposed to be barbaric – our emotional investment depends on it. Largely misunderstood, the game was even removed from UK GAME shelves in 2004 when it was implicated in the murder of Stefan Pakeerah – recalling the earlier blame of Child’s Play 3 (Bender, 1991) in the torture and murder of James Bulger.
Rockstar’s Manhunt was banned in Australia, New Zealand and Germany for the charge of sensationalising violence and indulging torture – but what authorities missed was the game’s Orwellian temper, with an omnipresent dictator (an ex-film director) forcing the player through a series of ‘scenes’ for his snuff film. The repugnant acts of violence, rated on a 1-5 scale for audience satisfaction, is clearly mocking of a Big Brother culture, and the game’s bleak social commentary means that the violence is supposed to be barbaric – our emotional investment depends on it. Largely misunderstood, the game was even removed from UK GAME shelves in 2004 when it was implicated in the murder of Stefan Pakeerah – recalling the earlier blame of Child’s Play 3 (Bender, 1991) in the torture and murder of James Bulger.
All of the above articles are from Rockstar Games, Rockstar Games are the company that are also behind GTA, as they have been part of many games that have had a negative or have been very explicit in what they show, could show a trend between the violent games that are released and who is releasing them. On the other hand, as Rockstar Games have been a successful business for so long they know what their customers want in games, thus they have reason to release, such as GTA and Manhunt.
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