More Blind GTA4 Hate

Lobby group Family First wants the latest version of the Grand Theft Auto banned, as it allows players to buy cocaine, set enemies alight and shoot police officers. Why should it be banned? It's already R18, which means on people 18 or over are able to buy or rent it. Hostel is R18 - but they never bothered to say anything about that. There are millions of games, movies and albums full of adult content that they leave alone, but from the looks of this they've taken an easy target. It's sad, because I respected this group. They were trying to have a smacking ban removed - which meant physical discipline on your children is illegal. The government thought this would stop child abuse, but so far it's had a man jailed for flicking his son's ear after he almost ran into traffic. Sickening.

Chief Censor Bill Hastings says the racing game has been given an R18 rating for a good reason and parents should monitor what their children are playing. He says if they allow children to play the game, or if retailers sell it to those aged under 18, they are breaking the law. Hold on...racing game? DID THEY EVEN LOOK AT THE GAME? When I read this, my blood began to boil. Absolutely disgusting. I'm going to track down Bill Hastings and write a desgruntled nerd email :|

Mr Hastings says the game is intended for adults, but there is an option where it can be played without the use of violence. How do these people know what's in the game? It hasn't been leaked as far as I know, and if it has, these people obviously aren't smart enough to find this information out.

Sorry to have a personal rant, but this is plain awful. They obviously have never even seen the game, considering they call it a racing game and don't even know the title, simply calling it "the latest version of Grand Theft Auto". Have any of you seen other reports like this where the people obviously have never even seen the game?

Have any of you seen other reports like this where the people obviously have never even seen the game?

Taalon

Every. Single. Day.

Especially on a channel like Fox News, when they discuss violence or something in gaming, whatever game is the topic, I know not one person on the screen has played it. Not one. They get told whats in the game by radical nut jobs like Jack Thompson, who makes a career out of making things up and playing to peoples fears and disgusting levels of ignorance, because if the TV said it, it MUST be true. Or so most of the barely still living zombies I know think.

I live in New Zealand. You may know as this the place where Lord Of The Rings, King Kong, Dead Alive and The Chronicles Of Narnia were made. It's the little country next to Australia. Now, we're not prehistoric, despite our small population (only 4,000,000 in the entire country). In fact, we were the first people to split the atom. This sounds like I'm trying to show off my country - but my point is the opposite of that. Despite being an important country (as far as blockbusters and sheep) we have a lot of moronic politicians. Today I logged onto Yahoo!Xtra (a tie-in between Yahoo and the main ISP here) to read this hideous article.

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/080427/2/54ig.html
The Chief Censor says if parents allow their children to play a restricted video game, they are breaking the law. Oh, really? So why do video rental stores let my parents rent restricted games for me? Be aware here that my parents do have limits, as I have my own - we follow the Australian system of G, PG, M, R16 and R18. Games like GTA are R18, which is the highest rating before ban. All Soldier of Fortune, Manhunt and Postal games are banned here. I'm obviously not allowed to play them and I respect this. But when I hand Army Of Two to my dad at the desk, they know he's renting it for me, and if this were illegal they wouldn't allow it. How can they have footage of ten year old children playing Halo 3 if it's illegal? I wasn't even aware there was such thing as a "Chief Censor". I call bull.

Lobby group Family First wants the latest version of the Grand Theft Auto banned, as it allows players to buy cocaine, set enemies alight and shoot police officers. Why should it be banned? It's already R18, which means on people 18 or over are able to buy or rent it. Hostel is R18 - but they never bothered to say anything about that. There are millions of games, movies and albums full of adult content that they leave alone, but from the looks of this they've taken an easy target. It's sad, because I respected this group. They were trying to have a smacking ban removed - which meant physical discipline on your children is illegal. The government thought this would stop child abuse, but so far it's had a man jailed for flicking his son's ear after he almost ran into traffic. Sickening.

Chief Censor Bill Hastings says the racing game has been given an R18 rating for a good reason and parents should monitor what their children are playing. He says if they allow children to play the game, or if retailers sell it to those aged under 18, they are breaking the law. Hold on...racing game? DID THEY EVEN LOOK AT THE GAME? When I read this, my blood began to boil. Absolutely disgusting. I'm going to track down Bill Hastings and write a desgruntled nerd email :|

Mr Hastings says the game is intended for adults, but there is an option where it can be played without the use of violence. How do these people know what's in the game? It hasn't been leaked as far as I know, and if it has, these people obviously aren't smart enough to find this information out.

Sorry to have a personal rant, but this is plain awful. They obviously have never even seen the game, considering they call it a racing game and don't even know the title, simply calling it "the latest version of Grand Theft Auto". Have any of you seen other reports like this where the people obviously have never even seen the game?

Taalon

sadly, in the US, you dont need to look at a report.

look at the average parent.

they see HALO 3 rated "m" and its not bad. right?

GTA 4 is rated "M" and so they are totally ignorant of its content and probably never will learn of it.

I don't mean to be rude about Americans in any way, but from what I've seen, American parents seem to be bad at what they're born to do. They follow what the television tells them and can't think for themselves. I know there are many good people in the US, but from what I've read on the internet and seen on Fox News, it's obvious that the news networks have brainwashed a lot of innocent people.

Isn't it sad that in the 90's this all would have sounded crazy?

I don't mean to be rude about Americans in any way, but from what I've seen, American parents seem to be bad at what they're born to do. They follow what the television tells them and can't think for themselves. I know there are many good people in the US, but from what I've read on the internet and seen on Fox News, it's obvious that the news networks have brainwashed a lot of innocent people.

Isn't it sad that in the 90's this all would have sounded crazy?

Taalon

im not offended

I don't mean to be rude about Americans in any way, but from what I've seen, American parents seem to be bad at what they're born to do. They follow what the television tells them and can't think for themselves. I know there are many good people in the US, but from what I've read on the internet and seen on Fox News, it's obvious that the news networks have brainwashed a lot of innocent people.

Isn't it sad that in the 90's this all would have sounded crazy?

Taalon

It's not rude, it's absolutely true. Well more than half of the parents in our country, likely approaching 90% if I had to pull a number out of the air, are massive failures who should never have been allowed to reproduce in the first place. (reproduction is more dangerous than driving, and should likewise require a liscense) You're right about the television too, it's GOD here. People think what it tells them to think, and fear what it tells them to fear, and they'll be damned if they bother putting in the effort to think for themselves, because being told what to think is so much easier. Right now, the TV tells them those vidjamagames are pure evil, and are the reason our youth are a bunch of monsters.

It's a nice thing to be told, because then the blame shifts from them. Doesn't matter if it's true or not, it's convenient to have something to blame so that they don't have to deal with the real problems facing our society. Kid gets a hold of guns and shoots up a school? Focus on the fact he played Counter Strike, not on how he got the guns. Sure enough, the next day at work, if my co workers are discussing said theoretical shooting, no one asks how he got the guns, but how he got the videogames. Pathetic.

That headline is classic: "Parents warned against R18 Racing Game".

Personally, I find it difficult to get upset about this stuff anymore. I don't think anything will ever change their minds, no matter how much logic you throw at them. I think if the industry were throwing money instead things would be a lot different.

I don't mean to be rude about Americans in any way, but from what I've seen, American parents seem to be bad at what they're born to do. They follow what the television tells them and can't think for themselves. I know there are many good people in the US, but from what I've read on the internet and seen on Fox News, it's obvious that the news networks have brainwashed a lot of innocent people.

Isn't it sad that in the 90's this all would have sounded crazy?

Taalon

No thats not true at all. I think that most people are doing a good job. Thing is, normal families aren't news worthy. No body wants to read a story about the family whose biggest dillema is deciding whether to get a dog or cat. Instead what you see are the extremes. The deadbeat dad, the mom thats strung out on dope, the pregnant daughter, the son that no one has seen in 4 months... those are the type of stories that make "good" news.

That headline is classic: "Parents warned against R18 Racing Game".

Personally, I find it difficult to get upset about this stuff anymore. I don't think anything will ever change their minds, no matter how much logic you throw at them. I think if the industry were throwing money instead things would be a lot different.

H3LLRaiseR

I don't mean to be rude about Americans in any way, but from what I've seen, American parents seem to be bad at what they're born to do. They follow what the television tells them and can't think for themselves. I know there are many good people in the US, but from what I've read on the internet and seen on Fox News, it's obvious that the news networks have brainwashed a lot of innocent people.

Isn't it sad that in the 90's this all would have sounded crazy?

Taalon

Weren't you born in the '90s?

Americans aren't brainwashed, they have freedom to think as they may. Rock* is just trying to get contraversy to boost sales, that's like someone shorting a stock after a disaster happens. It's just wrong.