I played GTAIII, Vice City and San Andreas. Don't really like the first one that much, but the other two are awesome.

As you said, everything doesn't revolve around killing people, what I like to do the most is... well, random stuff. Especially in San Andreas. One thing I liked to do in SA is grab a plane, land it on Mt. Chilliad, make it blow up (which gets me 2 stars), hijack the police jeep that suddenly appears and... jump off the mountain with the jeep! It's really worth it.

Riding a quad bike aimlessly in the countryside forest is pretty enjoyable too.

I've played GTA2(the flat 2D one), three, and Vice City.


I really don't like them....although I almost kind of like GTA2 because it's more of a wacky, doesn't-take-itself-too-seriously kind of thing.

If it weren't for the extreme violence/sex/whathaveyou, I'd still not like it for the very reason that I kind of DO like it -- it's an open-world 'sandbox game'.  Which means aside from some actual missions that I DON'T want to do, I can do everything....but have no real satisfaction from doing it.  The car driving aspect of the games is really good, I'd like it almost for just that, but half the time I'm just holding down the gas and hitting everything anyway.

In a way, I almost kind of liked Hulk: Ultimate Destruction better...but like other sandbox games I play, it just got boring.  Not that I hate sb-games, but they do tend to just fall apart if you're not feeling up to doing much.

I played an old, ugly 2D game on dreamcast that I *think* was GTA.  I couldn't get into it.

I don't really have anything against the GTA games any other graphic titles. I'm all for free speech, freedom to create virtual worlds (with whatever themes you want), and all that fun stuff as long as it's not really hurting anyone... They're just pixels and polygons so no real people are being directly hurt by in-game actions.  If people don't like it, no one's forcing them to play. No harm is being forced on anyone else just because those games are available.  They're as real as dreams and fantasies.  In a way, video games are a way of bringing other people's fantasies to life for others to play in.

Of course there are issues if a young child plays a game that exposes him or her to extreme  depictions of violence or realistic sex without proper guidance.  ...But there is worse stuff on the news, and possibly just as terrifying stuff in the house down the street.

But really, it's up to the individual to self-censor and the parents to censor the media that gets to their children.  I think the ESRB does a VERY good job overall of providing even non-gaming parents' enough information to assist in choosing games appropriate for each child (as far as content goes).

There are far worse things going on in real life that deserve our lawmakers' attention than restricting sales of "objectionable" art. Video games are art just as much as paintings, operas, films, and books.


I'm not saying that we should stream video of such shocking things straight to kids' rooms to lull them to sleep or anything. I'm not even saying that it's good to expose them to the harsh realities of life, death, and sex when they can't understand it.  But the outcry over violence and sex in media needs better focus, I think, if any discussion on it is going to be useful. 

Instead of the knee-jerk reactions of "It's bad to beat people up, and I never want my children to see that! Ever! Ban it!" I think it's more healthy to try to evaluate *all* of the messages that kids and individuals get from media, peers, and society, and try very very very hard to keep an open dialogue with the kids (or anyone, really) about it.

About violence:

*America is involved in a war. War is violent. How are we presenting those issues to kids? Is it ok? Justified? A sad reality? Something to be proud of?
*Self defense can be violent. How do we teach kids that we have to make exceptions to the violence rule if we're in serious trouble?
*How do you safely deal with aggression?
*Is escaping into a video game to blow off stream ok?
*Is it ok to feel angry?
*What are our responsibilities to others around us?
*What is our relation to law enforcement and government?

I'm just kinda thinking as I type here... <_< I think I'm getting off topic somewhat. My point is that I think it's WAY better to keep the topics open instead of just shutting them down with moral judgments of "That's bad!" and spending the rest of your energy trying to get laws enacted to support personal sensitivities and weaknesses.


Kids aren't even the target audience for the GTA games... >_<  But the media in general influences the thoughts and conversations on the playgrounds and campuses (and water coolers ) so the lightening rod aspects of GTA games (violence, sexual content) are important to try to understand.

I think we're incredibly fortunate to live in a way that gives us the *luxury* of worrying about fake violence when so many other young people suffer with the real thing first-hand every day of their lives. When congresses argue about if we should have restrictions on games showing very unrealistic (and consensual?) sex scenes (clothed!), there are real people who are actually being hurt in devastating ways.

I AM!

 Feu: On the Dreamcast? That was most likely GTA2
   You raise a lot of interesting points. I think that people tend to forget that video games are merely pixels and polygons and that games present people with a virtual world in which they can act out fantasies that that could never (and in most cases would never) act out in real life, be those fantasies donning a bee suit and floating about or stealing a car and driving it into a military base in oreder to steal a tank. It is a means of entertainment and escape, sort of like reading a book or watching a movie.
 
 Feu and Boogie, the GTA series has evolved tremendously since GTA 1&2. GTA 3 evolved the series to such a point that it created its own genre. To this day games try, with varying levels of success, to emulate what GTA 3 did. If the furthest into the franchise that one has played is GTA 2, I would strongly suggest at least trying one of the more modern installments of the series. Vice City or San Andreas would be the best places to start.

 I really feel that the GTA series gets a bad reputation because of the way that the media has portrayed it. I have played GTA: Vice City and San Andreas in their entirety and GTA 3 and 4 in part. I have yet to see a bare breast in a GTA game. I did see a bare breast in God of War. How many times have you seen God of War ctiticized in the media for its depictions of sex?
 The violence in GTA is also significantly less graphic than that seen in other M rated games. I have decapitated someone in GTA, but that usually entales someones head merely disappearing and three or four drops of blood splattering on the ground. Resident Evil 4's decapitaions are much more violent. I've never once seen an up close chainsaw decapitation in GTA,head lolling and blood spurting.
 The point again is that because of GTA's media attention I believe that it recieves undue criticism not only from the general public, but from the gaming community as well. The nature of the sex (which is completely optional I might add) and violence that can be found in GTA is a great deal less graphic than that seen in many other games. If you are denying yourself these games because of an opinion that you have formed becuse of what you've heard, I would suggest that you try these games for yourself and make your own opinion.

 

I like only a few select types of games. Naturally I don't purchase games that don't fit my interests.

I do do research on games before deciding if it might win a place in my collection or not. Racing games don't really get me going. Mario kart is pretty much the only exception and even it doesn't really keep me really interested for very long.

Aside from that, a game that encourages violence, sex, drugs etc and the general things I hear that surround the game are plenty to make me fully opposed to it.

Opposed in a "I'm not going to own this game" kind of way not as in a "I'm going to go out and make a ruckus in public about how terrible this game is" kind of way. I won't be allowing my children to play this game -- until they are much older if at all. If Alex wants it he'll have to play it somewhere where the kids (and possibly I) don't see it.

Stupid game IMO.

I'm sure other people think the games I enjoy are stupid so whatev.

 
 A lack of desire to play a game that wouldn't hold your interest is understandable. I don't typically play sports games, however there are a few exceptions to that. Wii sports is one of the most fun games that I've ever played and I do enjoy the Mario sports titles.

 Having said that, I do not deny myself the experience of playing sports games based simply on what I've heard about them, rather I have actually played sports games and developed my own opinion of them.
 
 Like I said, insulting someone or inciting an argument is not my intent. I simply feel that a lot of people have formed opinions of this series based on what they've heard rather than what they have researched and discovered for themselves.

 If someone is just dead set that series is not for them, well, I guess some minds won't be changed. However, I would still urge anyone to try something before judging it based on someone else's opinion.