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Following protests and petitions from groups headed by ex-sex workers in Australia, retailers K-Mart and Target have removed GTA V from the shelves, after claims that the game “encourages players to commit sexual violence and kill women.” This comes less than two years after the Australian ratings board created the R18 classification to allow the sale of adult only video games, after years of anything above a 15 age rating being banned from sale.
However this latest move has nothing to do with regulators, and everything to do with retailers making choices on what they sell, which they are entirely within their right to do. It just seems a shame that they would take it upon themselves to censor their games selection, when regulators have cleared the game for sale and parents can decide whether they allow anyone below 18 to play it.
As usual with violence in games though, there's also some clear misconceptions at play here. While GTA V is understandably violent and gives players free reign to do what they want within it's sandbox universe, violence is committed against all sorts of people, regardless of skin colour, gender or any other defining characteristic.
This picture is used as the petition's header. By their standards, couldn't you suggest that this image itself promotes violence against women?
This petition and campaign however, seems driven by a disliking of Youtube clips which show people having sex with an in-game prostitute before running her over and taking their money back. While that might seem like a graphic act to someone that hasn't played a game in the series before, it seems hard to believe that they haven't heard of the on-going gag with GTA titles that even makes it possible. To some extent, hiring and then murdering a sex-worker is the game's calling card.
But the protesters don't appear to ‘get' the joke, nor understand the gameplay: “It's a game that encourages players to murder women for entertainment,” the petition reads. “The incentive is to commit sexual violence against women, then abuse or kill them to proceed or get ‘health' points – and now Target are stocking it and promoting it for your Xmas stocking.
“This is Grand Theft Auto 5. This game means that after various sex acts, players are given options to kill women by punching her unconscious, killing with a machete, bat or guns to get their money returned.”
The petition was created by several ex-prostitutes, who having faced sexual related violence in their own lives, find that games like this cause them “great pain and harm,” despite the fact that they've clearly not played them. They consider them dangerous too, believing that they are “grooming yet another generation of boys to tolerate violence against women.”
While nobody is going to suggest that GTA games are known for their positive depictions of women, they aren't known for their positive depictions of men either. In GTA games, you aren't playing the good guy, you're playing the bad guy, so the things you do aren't going to be nice. It's all a parody of contemporary culture and the ultra-violence is a satire of that obsession in our media. It's exactly the same as films like Clockwork Orange or to a lesser extent, Running Man.
It's societal commentary. You can argue that GTA misses the mark sometimes, but you can't suggest that nobody should be allowed to play it because it offends a small number of people.
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KitGuru Says: It's artistic expression. You don't have to enjoy it and you may even find it offensive. But with art, the greatest thing about it, is you don't have to look at it. Plus this game shouldn't be in the hands of children, that's why it has an 18 rating. It isn't grooming anyone.
Ya Australia sure does a good job stopping violence , If you’re a women you have a greater chance getting raped walking down any Australian city ,then getting mugged in america’s worst street. Gun’s are not allowed and crime SKY rocket after that bill was past , hmmm damn criminals don’t follow the law lol. This is what you get when you country tries to hold your hand.
https://www.change.org/p/kmart-continue-to-sell-grand-theft-auto-5-in-australia
…No. Just no. Guns do not solve problems and now that they’re heavily restricted there are ten times less gun deaths per capita than in the US. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/14/america-mass-murder-australia-gun-control-saves-lives
If you chose the Guardian as a reference source you are either incompetent in researching facts or don’t wish to actually taken seriously. You have chosen a group that is affiliated deeply with social liberalism and you chose them to “research” or “make a point” in alignment with your own? Seems like the easy way out. Try searching some sites that have no “easily obtainable” reference to their own agendas and beliefs.
Want a piece of advice ?Dont become a prostitute u lazy ass bitches and get a real job !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Guns for every man woman and child solves all crimes! Y’know, until someone with a chip on their shoulder goes and kills loads of people. But hey, those high school massacares, drive bys, muggings turned sour and random blood baths weren’t that bad because it hasn’t effect you yet, right?
Crimes done with guns are 99% done with illegal firearms which means used by criminals and those school massacres and all that are all done with illegal firearms so ya learn your stats before spouting off shit . Alos the sandy hook was also proven to be a fake and was admitted to being a test . Guns don’t kill people , people kill people learn that saying since a gun doesn’t pull it’s own trigger moron, more crimes of passion are done with knives any ways , more people are killed with other weapons other then guns also, better ban anything you can carry with your hands lol MORON.
True less gun crime per capita but crimes with other means like bats and knives has risen to the point where it’s worse then the US and that’s because criminals know it’s safe to do these crimes since no one is armed, Criminals don’t follow the law retard , i know you like to think they do but they’re called criminals for a reason lol man people are dumb.
Right, but given how easy it is and how many guns there /are/ in the US, do you not think it would’ve been significantly harder for people to get hold of illegal or legal firearms in the first place if they weren’t so readily available? Other countries that allow firearms have much more stringent laws than the US when it comes to firearm ownerships, which is why they don’t have massacares or shootings on a fairly regular basis. The US has more shootings than 36 other countries put together.
http://qz.com/37015/how-school-killings-in-the-us-stack-up-against-36-other-countries-put-together/
Just because you’re a criminal, that doesn’t automatically give you links to the black market arms market. Deciding to become a criminal doesn’t magically put an illegal gun in your hands. Plus how often do you hear of civilians stopping masacarres by shooting the dude? Rarely, if ever, they either get caught by the police or they shoot themselves.
Furthermore, James Eagan Holmes to name one, purchased all of his hardware from retail stores, not the black market.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Eagan_Holmes
Actually if YOU had done your research, you’d realise that most of the massacares are performed by people who purchased their weapons and hardware legally.
It’s a lot more difficult to pull of a massacare with a knife or bat though isn’t it? It’s also possible for people to subdue someone with a bat. And it’s less personal. Stabbing something to death is a completely different experience to shooting it.
If you’re going to call someone a moron, best not to do it when you’re applying obtuse comparisons, fridge logic and can barely make use of grammar and proper sentence structure, it just highlights the fact that you don’t have a proper argument as you just resorted to insulting me more than making any proper points.
LOL your sentence is just one long pile of shit, you don’t know the underworld of crime so trying to talk like you do don’t make it true buddy. Canada has laws too but if i wanted i can go get a bazooka and hand grenades and other shit but hey those are illegal but it’s easy to get moron. Most massacres are done with illegal un-registered weapons moron and most are done with KNIVES .
What the hell are you on? I never said knew “the underworld of crime”, my point was that most people (including myself) DONT know black market arms dealers. Are you completely incapable of comprehending anything you read? You can’t even make anything that resembles an argument, just calling me a moron. If you’re going to state “facts” you do need to back them up with more than just insulting people because they don’t agree with your warped world view.
I’m very much sure you can go and get a bazooka and hand grenades. You go do that. I wouldn’t want to mess with a hardcore gangsta such as yourself who really knows about the underworld of crime.
Keep living in your comfy home on gum drop lane where it rains M&M’s and people fly cars, i’ll be here in reality and reality says ya the world is warped .