We still don’t know when Grand Theft Auto 5 will be released, but what is guaranteed is that this won’t be a game full of rainbows and kittens. Instead it will deal with organized crime and acts of random violence.
Rockstar has for years been targeted by politicians and do-gooders who blame the developer’s games for particular crimes. The question is whether Rockstar should pay any attention to these criticisms whatsoever.
According to The Daily Pixel, a Rockstar spokesperson said (but not really):
“With GTA having been responsible for countless shootings, stabbings and that terrible Japanese earthquake in 2011, we knew we had to take action. We’ve worked closely with a team of cognitive psychologists throughout the entire development process and they’re confident that only 19% of players will feel compelled to brutally murder their family or shoot up their school after playing GTA 5. Better yet, our psychologists predict that the remaining 81% of players will simply engage in low-level criminal behavior, most likely jaywalking or disregarding ‘no ball game’ signs in parks.”
That is, if you hadn’t already guessed a bogus quote from a satirical website. But it does a good job of poking fun at the blatant blame game that occurs whenever there is a headline-making crime such as a school shooting.
Rockstar clearly doesn’t think its games turn people into violent criminals. And the fact that the vast majority of the 20 million-plus people who purchased a copy of GTA IV didn’t then go out and commit wrongdoing backs that view up.
