1 post tagged “grand theft auto iv”
Popcorn kills too, you know!
Many millions of game-developer hours ago, one of the first free-roaming action/RPG games was released with a very robust interactive environment: Ultima Underworld. In this early medieval FPS (First-Person-Spellcaster..), players could pick up items from the ground and use them, put them down or throw them, and the items would bounce and fall 'realistically'. They would even persist until the end of the game wherever the player chose to drop them. Players could also combine items to make new ones.
An example of this creative use of game items was combining a burning torch with a bushel of corn, which then populated the players inventory with yummy (digital) popcorn! This undocumented and largely useless feature of the game shows how an open world game environment was meant to be played. Sure.. popcorn is tasty, but how many people die from choking on popcorn every year?
Admittedly, not many.. but probably some. And everyone has cumulatively spent days of their life attempting to get a popcorn husk out of their gums!
Maybe, then, the ability to create popcorn shouldn't have been programmed into the game?
Drunk driving is bad. It kills people. I would never suggest that it is an acceptable choice and I would never say that I disagree with the efforts of MADD to prevent drunk driving. However, this is what MADD has to say about the latest offering in the 'Grand Theft Auto' series which gives the players the ability to visit a bar, get drunk, and (attempt) to drive a car:
Each year nearly 13,500 people die in drunk driving crashes and another half a million are injured in alcohol-related traffic crashes. This is why MADD is extremely disappointed by the decision of the manufacturers of the game Grand Theft Auto IV to include a game module where players can drive drunk. Drunk driving is not a game and it is not a joke. Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime and it is also 100 percent preventable. MADD is calling on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board to reclassify Grand Theft Auto IV as an Adults Only game, a step up from the current rating of Mature and for the manufacturer to consider a stop in distribution – if not out of responsibility to society then out of respect for the millions of victims/survivors of drunk driving.
That is a terrible statistic, but MADD has completely missed the point! When a player gets hammered and tries to drive a car, it is almost impossible to avoid accidents due to the completely messed up controls and twisting display.
This isn't intended to be a fun experience in the game.. you could mess up your mission, mess up your shiney car, or hit someone and get the police chasing you!
There is no reward for drinking and driving and there is no mission requirement where this must be done to complete the game. Its just something that can be done. But you don't have to do it.
The lesson that the player will take away is that, "If I do this in real life.. it could really suck!" Isn't it better to learn that lesson on your sofa than upside down in a ditch somewhere?
Another important point that MADD has chosen to overlook is that if the player makes the choice to get digitally drunk, they aren't required to drive.
The player has the options of walking (still hard, but not as bad as driving).. or calling a cab! Why not celebrate this life-lesson/"public service announcement" instead of criticizing the developers?
MADD, I like your general platform, but in the case of GTA-IV, you have missed the mark.
