I think most of us could agree way too much attention is paid to Grand Theft Auto IV. This is not to say it's a game unworthy of a significant amount of attention, because it is. But there's a difference between significant, and 'Oh God I'm drowning in GTA IV news, somebody please saaaave meee.' So, with that in mind, I've chosen to write this little piece in spite of the already enormous amount of attention the game is receiving because I feel this particularly topic is worth paying attention to, overhyped or not.

One of the things I do love about the Grand Theft Auto games (their 3D selves anyway), is the things they force society to face and analyze. No matter your take on violence, for example, it's pretty hard to be playing one of these games and not at some point think 'wow, so this is my culture.' This, of course, presuming you're not some braindead teenager (damn dirty kids!) playing the game because it's 'teh koolest' and/or you're not supposed to.

Anyway, Rockstar VP and co-writer Dan Houser sat down with New York Magazine (the city which the game is based on, if you don't know by now) to discuss many of the perspectives surrounding the game, the most interesting of which I found regarded the violence (sidenote: the first thing he says in the interview is "fuck all this stuff about casual gaming." At this, I can't help but laugh). This is what Houser had to say on the issue (if you think of it as one):

"If you don’t like any violent content in your entertainment, then I apologize because I do. And I’ve unfortunately been exposed to it my entire life. I agree that the world would be a greater place if all of the guns and all of the bombs disappeared, but that certainly is not in the agenda. If we equally got rid of a lot of books that talk about violence, okay. But if we don’t like these games because they've got content that we’re happy to see in movies and TV shows, then what you’re saying is you don’t like the medium because we don’t have a George Clooney type sticking his face in front of the camera. There is nothing in the game you would not see in a TV show, or a movie a hundred times over, so I don’t understand what the conversation is about. We set out to make games that felt like they could culturally exist alongside the movies we were watching and the books we were reading, and hopefully we’re getting close to those goals."

I really do admire his passion on the subject and for his games - from the rest of the interview, you can tell how much he cares about GTA IV. But yeah, it seems what he's saying is the game, and in a way, himself are both just products of their environment. Though another perspective to take (and maybe both apply) is that simulating real life provides the ideal set of circumstances within which to criticize it, or at least provoke thoughts on it, any thoughts. We all know most people hate it when others preach, and I think this is why films like The Godfather are so successful, because rather than shoving a view down your throat, they simply present what actually happens and let you do what you want with it. I wouldn't say The Godfather glorifies violence (though some less tasteful movies certainly do), and I wouldn't say GTA IV does either. In fact, just by giving the player to opportunity to exploit violent potential in the game, doesn't that reflect society in the most ultimate sense? In these respects, the game succeeds as well as great mob movies in its own way, and in some other ways, surpasses them.