And so it begins: CNN reporter Glenn Beck has gone proper off on one, warning parents on television of the new 'murder celebrator' Grand Theft Auto IV, which he says is "training our kids to be killers". Ban this sick filth!
"Whatever happened to Pong?!" asks a furious Beck, going into a frenzied rant we thought only existed in GTA's own media-mocking radio shows.
"Here's what you need to know tonight; in Grand Theft Auto your son, husband or boyfriend can hire a prostitute, have sex with her and then beat her to death with a baseball bat.
"When a police officer comes after him, he can either light that police officer on fire or cut him in half with a chainsaw. This is entertainment?!"
The CNN presenter continues: "We are training our kids to be killers and we are training our sons to treat women like whores."
Brilliant ideas there from Glenn, but unfortunately as far as we know there's no chainsaw or flamethrower in GTA IV. We dare not suggest he hasn't played it, though...
This is just ridiculous. I wish these so called 'journalists' would do some real research and present an unbiased view on video games such as GTA, instead of shouting out their own uninformed opinions to millions of viewers.
18 do these people fail to notice the game is aimed at and should not be sold to people under 18.
I mean how many parents have gone out and bought their children GTA4 thinking oh its got 18 on the cover but its only a videogame it can't be that bad.The ratings are there for a reason and shops should make sure any mothers who go in trying to buy there child this game are aware of the content.
Anyway where can i get the cheats for the flame thrower and chainsaw
the point here goes back to the stores growing a pair and not selling to minors and more importantly, parents actually paying attention to their kids and not letting them play it.
The backfire begins! after the fairly positive media coverage (apart from the stabbing in the q thing that was totally unrelated, tabloids you got to love them well not really i hate the gutter press but moving on). The networks want mass panic ala viewing figures and gta4 is the fall guy. What next terrorists go to a gta training school to practise blowing up stuff. P.S no chainsaw or flamethrower im gutted(Im not crying iv'e just got a flyin my eye that's all)
This is just ridiculous. I wish these so called 'journalists' would do some real research and present an unbiased view on video games such as GTA, instead of shouting out their own uninformed opinions to millions of viewers.
Exactly - if I were to be so sloppy in my job, I'd expect to be fired. The other thing is, don't these shows have teams of researchers? - wouldn't that mean that there is some actual research going on?
Still - I guess we all expected this kind of nonsense....it doesn't seem to stop the parents going and buying it for their kids, does it?
This is all propoganda by the media corporations to prevent children from playing video games to which the only alternative for a inside entertainment activity is television or movies.
This is a war over money more than anything. Its about competing medias.
I think its common sense that the parents have the power. The parents hold the complete power in shaping their child and their child's future.
A violent upbringing will be far more detrimental to a child than a violent video game.
This guy is an idiot who simply takes the extreme position on mainstream topics to get a few more people to visit the website so their sponsors can pay the mortgage on his mansion.
Why is that people who don't like video games take everything in them so seriously? GTA is a parody, it's about as serious as an episode of the Simpsons or Monty Python!! And as for saying the introduction of TV caused the murder rate to double, that's just pure bullsh!t.
The problem is that while a journalist can watch a violent movie or listen to a gangsta rap album in a couple of hours, absorbing a game is a far more time-consuming task. It's especially time-consuming if that game gives you an entire city as your playground, wherein lies a brilliantly conceived maze of satire that may take weeks to fully explore. Add to that the fact that reporters like Mr Beck clearly have no inclination to even play the cursed things to begin with, and we're onto a bit of a non-starter in terms of journalistic integrity.
You CAN Kill prostitutes, after making love to them, But You don't have to. If You have a sick mind and set out to do this then you can. It doesn't encourage this in any way.
I've just watched the 2 videos on youtube and it's made me feel sick. Pretty much everything they said was wrong.
For a start, there is obviously no chainsaw in GTA4, so good luck cutting people in half with aformentioned chainsaw...I mean where the hell have they even got that information. Good research. Morons.
What really annoyed me though was the whole slant of the report. "In this game you have sex with prostitutes and then beat them to death with a baseball bat, then you can kill a police officer and set him on fire" Yes! BUT YOU DON'T f**king HAVE TO!
It's not like there is a mission within this game that says "Go and set fire to a police officer". The game wouldn't have sold as many copies as it has done so far if the sole f**king aim of the game was to set a copper on fire.
But they don't seem to get this, and so obviously fail to mention that the game actually has a narrative, and that within this narrative, Niko "the same guy your husband or son plays as", sees his soul slowly destroyed by all the crime he's asked to commit. They don't mention it because they haven't f**king played it.
Also, strangly they mention that you can have oral AND anal sex with women who are engaged in S+M "acts"...Firstly...you can't. Simply not true. Secondly...as it's a game for adults, with a big red 18 sticker on the front, would it really be a problem if you could?
Surely, the main problem these people should be dealing with is informing parents that just because it's a "videogame" doesn't mean it's for kids! That way, the moron parents who lap up the s**t like this report daily, might not then wander into a game store and happily buy there little Timmy the latest murder simulator only then to go off and sue brilliant and creative companies like rockstar, when Timmy then goes off the rails and shoots up a school.
Another thing, that permataned idiot ranting about the guy who shot up Virginia Tech being trained on "counter strike half life" whatever the f**k that is...Again, not true. And saying Vice City is capable of training you up to go on a murderous rampage...I'll remember that statement next time I decide to go postal and get upset when I find I can't glitch kill the police through the f**king wall.
In reality, as everyone on here probably knows, nothing in the game is any more violent than anything you'd see on the average 18 rated film, probably much less so. The sex in GTA4 is TAME in comparison to most 12 or 15 rated films, let alone 18 rated stuff...Why can't the news agencies get their news RIGHT?!
Oh, and the comment about videogames and the media conditioning people to kill, and comparing trigger happy soldiers nowadays to soliders who couldn't even pull the trigger back during the 1st world war. FORGOT ABOUT THE OTHER 10,000 YEARS OF MASSACRES BEFORE THAT DID YOU!?
come on. you dont make love to prostitutes! you f**k them! then f**k them up with a f**king bat to the face, then to the back of the bitches head while shes lying on the floor, head spinning, in a f**king daze. then rob their f**king money the f**king sluts! i love to p**s on prostitutes, and also skull f**k them, through the hole made with the bat! i love the warm squishiness of their brains. oooohhhhh baby. (im joking!! if theres anyone out there that takes offense, i know its easy to notice im f**king around, and not just with my yearly dose of dutch prostitutes.. but jack thompson might quote me or something.)
come on. you dont make love to prostitutes! you f**k them! then f**k them up with a f**king bat to the face, then to the back of the bitches head while shes lying on the floor, head spinning, in a f**king daze. then rob their f**king money the f**king sluts! i love to p**s on prostitutes, and also skull f**k them, through the hole made with the bat! i love the warm squishiness of their brains. oooohhhhh baby. (im joking!! if theres anyone out there that takes offense, i know its easy to notice im f**king around, and not just with my yearly dose of dutch prostitutes.. but jack thompson might quote me or something.)
Jesus dude - joking or otherwise, you have issues...
your son, husband or boyfriend can hire a prostitute, have sex with her and then beat her to death with a baseball bat.
So your wife,girlfriend,daughter obvioudly pay her then leave a nice comment in the feedback section of the call card.GET REAL,AND SHUT UP.THE ONLY IDIOTS OUT THERE ARE THE ONES NOT PLAYING THIS GAME AND TALKING LIKE THEY KNOW WHAT IT IS.
I'LL F**KING KILL YOU, I'LL F**KING KILL ALL OF YOU C**TS, I'LL MURDERIZE YOU ALL WITH A AND THEN I'LL F**KING AND THEN I'LL BLAME THE GAME AND I'LL GET AWAY WITH IT, AND SELL MY STORY TO THE DAILY MAIL AND BE A MILLIONAIRE!
I got the idea by watching CNN, sweet, huh?
I should watch more CNN, they have great ideas on there.
Oh dear. I've not watched the videos cos I'll just want to chin that guy. Its not cos I'm a violent person or have been warped by the game (which I can't play as yet due to my 360 being in for repair). Its because I hate f***ing liars and idiots who don't do their jobs properly. Is he out to cause some sort of panic? Because I doubt it'll happen. People have been killing each other long before videogames were around.
I bet the CNN site or whatever will get bombed with loads of abuse from people. These snooker cues think they're so good with their overpaid wages. They should be shot cos all media idiots like these do is get paid to lie to the masses
No, the media trains us to hate each other and go join army and kill other races. GTA kinda defuses those kind of thoughts (in me anyway) If I wanted to be corrupt for real, Id become a politician and send the kids to kill themseleves in a country that has Fck all to do with me. Atleast most people who play gta see it for what is which is a game. Journalists dont. But then they have to sell their souls to make the headlines so I guess thats ok.
I love what people seem to fail to notice is that you're not forced to actually do those things.
But you know, at the tender age of 15, i was actually thinking to myself earlier, whilst trying to kill a prostitute and her friends to get my money back on GTA, oh i know! I think i'll go out on a murderous rampage on the way to school tommorow, why not!? the worst that could happen is i wake up in hospital and lose a bit of cash!
Interesting that this comes from the same news station that claimed terrorists had put anthrax in our mail and that bird flu will wipe us all out. Do rockstar even bother paying for ads when tools like this patronising snooker cue sell far more copies of the game.
Training what kids? The ones who aren't legally allowed to buy the game?
Sounds to me like the parents don't care too much, rather than the game being the problem.
And regardless of how you kill in the game, games have involved killing for years, as have movies. I fail to see why some games should be seen as 'less acceptable' than others.
Come on! I can't take anyone who says the following seriously:
I'm not blaming all of society's problems on videogames; that would be stupid to do. It is the entire Pop culture. It's movies, it's music, it's radio, it's television, it's all of it"
Sounds to me like he just hates young people! And wait a second...he's blaming TV for societies problems...but...doesn't he appear on that medium?
So this game encourages children to go out hire a prostitute, have sex then kill her to get his money back? and teaches them how to kill too? well im no kid and i dont even like violence....this game is just that a game....its not real life, this guy whos dissed more than likely every other GTA game really should get a new pair of specs so he can see wth hes playing and find out which parents cant read when buying a game for the child with an 18 certification on it.....dont blame the players, dont blame the makers, blame the stupid idiots who think that copying games into real life is fun
Top advertisement for GTA 4, Hes just sold the game to me, I wasn't that interested in the game before watching the vid, now I know i can do all that in game im off to get my copy lol.......
The game is a critically acclaimed masterpiece. Those kind of remarks make it sound like it is more than it actually is, entertainment!
The message that GTA is in fact socially reprimanded is wrong and will only make it more atractive to kids under 18 who watch this type of nonsense on TV. Even more with the quickness it tends to spread online.
Society will always have problems and kids will always play games regardless of the rating. To make a game so real as to make comparisons of crimes committed to real people instead of characters(puppets if you wish) is to me even more dangerous than actually playing the game. It's sending out the wrong idea to parents who will in return consider it a serious issue when in fact it isn't!
CNN and all other TV networks should be teaching kids and parents to enjoy videogames as being a pure virtual way of expression that instead of making stupid discussions about a potential criminal "produced" by games like GTA that has a tendency to brainwash innocent kids who become a menace to society when they just think it's fun to play it. What is that supposed to mean?
This man is coming across very narrow minded. Does he really think that a game would drive a stable minded individual such as myself to violence?
Remember fellow PS3/360 owners this game is to show up the wii as last gen. And you wii owners don't disagree with me otherwise I will find you and remove you're spine and brain as the Preadator is so well known for. Also I will murder all who know you by taking a chainsaw and cutting of there limbs one by one. So don't buy a wii or you're dead and I'm going to kill you after you're dead then put you in a bath of acid......
Funny how the only people who seem to have trouble seperating videogames from the real world are people who are clearly already unstable and critics like Jack Thompson.
Personally I don't find GTA 4 any more violent than The Godfather or Goodfellas... Yet many journlists regard both of these movies as classics made by visionary directors, but they regard GTA as a mindless video game that glorifies violence and teaches children how to be killers.
"Here's what you need to know tonight; in Grand Theft Auto your son, husband or boyfriend can hire a prostitute, have sex with her and then beat her to death with a baseball bat.
Yes you can do all this, but you're doing it while sat in front of a tv screen "killing" 2D representations of 3D models. Someone needs to tell this guy that it's not real.
"When a police officer comes after him, he can either light that police officer on fire or cut him in half with a chainsaw. This is entertainment?!"
Yes it is entertaining. In much the same way that it's entertaining to watch most mainstream American movies, many of which feature at least one scene where a police officer, or a soldier or some other kind of official figure gets shot, stabbed or blown up.
The CNN presenter continues: "We are training our kids to be killers and we are training our sons to treat women like whores."
There were people that were killers and people who treated women like whores before computer games were invented.
Roger Kibbe is an example of this. He was a psychopath who stalked prostitutes and young women traveling deserted stretches of interstate I-5 of the Sacramento area in the 1970s and 1980s (before computer games as we know them were invented). Another example would be Jack The Ripper who did his killings a long time before even motorcars were invented.
The GTA series is a computer game based on things that happen in the real world (car crime, murder, gangland warfare, robbery). It's the game that's copying real life, not real life that's copying the game.
GTA 4 is an 18. Kids shouldn't be playing it. End of story.
but that's not really the point is it? The fact is, people under 18 will play GTA4 and i think some of them are mature enough to have every right to do so. SO long as it's ok with their guardians.
It doesn't matter if the journalists have played it or not. Or the fact that parents are ignorant and buy the game for their underage children. Journalists will always point the finger at violent videogames to grab ratings and evoke a reaction, even if they're (always) wrong.
YE MOONSKAM IS RIGHT THE RATING SYSTEME THATS WHY IT IS SO IF UR GOING TO BAN GTA FOR THAT STUFF BAN ALL THE DVDS THAT HAVE THE SAME VOILENCE AND STUFF COME LEAVE ROCKSTAR KEEP ON MAKING THESE FANTASTIC GAMES AND DONT BE JEALOUS FOR THEM THEY ARE JUST MAKING GAMES INSTEAD WATCHING A MOVIE GO ON ROCKSTAR IM UR NUMBER 1 FANNNN MR ICEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I personally think that Rockstar should make a game for all ages, a Bugsy Malone style game where people shoot dessert at each other through splurge guns. Nothing to get annoyed about and still fun.
Water pistols could be used to bring gang members 'back to life'.
As long as it doesn't turn out too much like playing Super Mario Sunshine.
Ah, it was inevitable really. Someone who knows F*** all about games slating something he dosn't understand. Maybe he should team up with Jack Thompson and they could both drown in their ignorance together.
"In the days following the release of GTAIV (hyper violent Murder Simulator that kids can play.) We feel it is our Duty to the PEOPLE of AMERICA, and the rest of the world to make clear our plans for BANNING LIFE.
In this sick, twisted and degrading existance, you can also pay to have sex with a prostitute, murder her with a chainsaw, and then kill some cops for a laugh. You can Traffic drugs and guns. You can kill innocent by standers, and blow up vehicles "Just for kicks".
What makes all of this worse, is the fact that all these actions have real consequences, no longer is this sort of action restricted to a TV and controller.
And the final nail in the coffin, there is NO rating system in place.
PARENTS! We urge you, lock your children in your house, lock yourself in your house. Drug your family to the eyeballs with Rytalin/Prozac and whatever good LEGAL substances you can find.
A chainsaw and flamethrower hmm... They would be a welcome addition to GTAIV I reckon ^_-. Perhaps they'll be part of the downloadable content lol =P
To be perfectly honest I don't pay any attention to the flag waving, finger pointing, hypocritical idiots that are the American media. It is after all entirely up to each individual parent to govern their children in regards to overage, inappropriate games. It's just a sad fact that parents fail to do so and instead buy these games for their children, and turn around and blame the games and their developers for being inappropriate. It's totally ridiculous, but I fear we'll never see the end of it.
What a silly man If you have a look arund the CNNi website you can see that there view on GTA IV is much more even than this blokes.Thay talk about how parents are willing to buy the game for there young children, and how shops are selling the game to kids. But nothing is done to them to stop this. Once again it seems America is unable to face up to the fact that it needs to be active in stoping kids getting hold go things they should not be getting hold off. Rather than just blaming every thing but there at times totaly daft laws.
me myself is one living example thats literally against these views about turning kids to killers or criminals. i got the original GTA on my 12th birthday (i asked for it because i played it at a friends house), and during the past few years to got all the ps2 and psp games, i only didn't had the london expansions and GTA2. i always enjoy playing these games, im now 19 and the only thing i do that could relate to GTA is the bad language, i know whats right and whats wrong, the difference between reality and a game, have i been in trouble with the police? no, am i a criminal? no, have i been in prison? no. maybe one reason why i don't do bad things thats GTA related is that i was bullied throughout my school years, so i know whats its like to be a victim and seriously, its not nice. people that do things and say they copied from games like GTA are idiots who don't have a brain to think about this and deserve to be locked up.
Notice how the media will tell you how evil these games are and how they are destroying society etc but not one newstation or paper has the balls to point out the real problem. As anyone in games retail will tell you the penalties for selling a BBFC rated game to someone underage are very strict, games retail staff take constant s**t from people who don't have ID (many of which probably old enough to buy the game) because of the refusals we have to do by law.
No one is power is willing to point out the fact that kids get a hold of these games because parents are too weak to refuse to buy them. If they want to stop kids buying games they need to make it illegal to buy those games for minors and need to make it a crime to buy a game that you are not old enough to own.
you think asking for ID before selling a 18 rated game was bad, sometimes i still get asked for ID when i put the lottery on at my local CO-OP, thats for people 16 and over, im 19, that really does takes the p**s.
As anyone in games retail will tell you the penalties for selling a BBFC rated game to someone underage are very strict, games retail staff take constant s**t from people who don't have ID (many of which probably old enough to buy the game) because of the refusals we have to do by law.
I noticed that one of the CNN vides only slightly touched on the fact that the US has no such systyem were retailers (staff) are punished if they sell an 18+ game to miners.
you think asking for ID before selling a 18 rated game was bad, sometimes i still get asked for ID when i put the lottery on at my local CO-OP, thats for people 16 and over, im 19
Try being 25 and still asked to show ID. Now that really takes the p**s.
I loved this bit " The CNN presenter continues: "We are training our kids to be killers and we are training our sons to treat women like whores.""
KIDS should not be plying this game, only people 18 and up who know the difference between right and wrong, if they DONT know the difference then they are a crack head who is going to do it anyway, and thats societys and the governments fault, not the game.
Also I dont think this reporter has heard of an organisation that actually DOES train people to kill, they train them to be nothing else but an effecient killing machine and those people end up with little or no regard for human life, its called THE ARMY!! And being an American he is very VERY proud of his army, whose the mindless killer now?
As anyone in games retail will tell you the penalties for selling a BBFC rated game to someone underage are very strict, games retail staff take constant s**t from people who don't have ID (many of which probably old enough to buy the game) because of the refusals we have to do by law.
I noticed that one of the CNN vides only slightly touched on the fact that the US has no such systyem were retailers (staff) are punished if they sell an 18+ game to miners.
you think asking for ID before selling a 18 rated game was bad, sometimes i still get asked for ID when i put the lottery on at my local CO-OP, thats for people 16 and over, im 19
Try being 25 and still asked to show ID. Now that really takes the p**s.
Unbelievable, im 25 and got asked for ID to do the lottery, I had to go home to get my ID, had a good laugh about it though, at least it stops the chavs from buying stuff they shouldnt.
All reports like this do is show the narrow minded views some of the older generation have towards video games. To put it simply, video games have evolved and are not just something to keep little Johnny busy. They are pretty much at the same level as movies in regards to entertainment, content and age ratings. Also, no research has obviously been put into this report as most of the info is false. I've yet to see a chain-saw and I've yet been forced to shag a prostitute and then murder her. Obviously you *can* do this as GTA is all about freedom and parody.
Last time I tried to beat a prostitute with a bat I got a warning from PETA, a confused look from the prostitute (something about being "kinky" and a rabies shot...
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chainsaw or flamethrower not in the game! Quick phone Rock* somebody has to pass Becks suggestions to the DLC team
