CBS listened to me...
Okay, I should've written about this a while ago, but this happened during spring break, and my attention wasn't exactly focused on blogging.
Anyway, on March 6, 60 Minutes ran a story on Grand Theft Auto, and its relationship to a crime that occured, that was linked to the game by the moronic comment by the suspect upon arrest: "Life is like a video game. We all have to die sometime."
Not an exact quote, but the gist is there. And this resurrected the whole GTA bashing extravaganza, wherein concerned conservative groups (family based ones, of course) yelled at Rockstar and co. for releasing a game of moral decay.
Well, 60 Minutes did a story on this, and I watched it.
As with traditional news stories, it only reports, doesn't really interpret, which is fine by me. Of course, the people they talked to did more than enough interpreting.
The thing that irked me was that they said that the main draw of the game was that you can have sex hookers (to regain health), run them over, and get your money back. Tons of violence, in other words. And, to the outside observer, that seems to be the main draw.
Well, this is the message I sent them was this:
----
This is regarding the section on the evilness of GTA.
Just like the other fifty thousand emails you recieved today.
*cough*
Anyway, the main problem I have with the program is that you haven't asked any industry insiders on why the game is so popular.
There are a few dozen gaming mags that love press and would be perfectly happy to give you guys some information.
Should you ask one of them, they'll probably tell you that the beauty of the GTA series is not that you can kill cops with no consequences. That's just one of the elements that is created by the real greatness: Freeform gameplay.
Most games have a linear series of events, and you go from point a to point b, usually killing everything in between. GTA opens up an entire city, and state in the most recent version, to the player. Yeah, you can kill cops, or have sex with a hooker, run her over, and get your money back, but you don't have to.
Its more about freedom than vice. And because your avatar in the game is something of a god, due to his ability to take tons of bullets without falling, consequenses are lessened, which might be a problem, if teenagers are as impusive as you suggested.
But, in the end, you assumed something about the game that was wrong, that the draw is the violence, not the superb freeform gameplay. You guys should be better than this.
----
Later, I recieved this email from CBS:
----
Thank you for taking the time to write to CBS. Your comments have been shared with the 60 MINUTES staff.
Cordially,
Ray Faiola
Director,
Audience Services
----
Now, I know what everyone one reading this is thinking. Well, you four, I highly doubt that its a general response email.
This is because of two reasons:
1: The message says that what I said has been shared with the staff. If I were writing a form letter, I wouldn't put it exactly like that.
2: The email was sent on March 23.
The observant will understand.
For the unobservant, that's a 17 day time elapse. So either they had a massive email server malfunction, and I do mean massive, or they actually shared the email with the 60 Minutes Staff.
Probably because I didn't go out of my way to horribly flame the hell out of them.
*puts on sunglasses*
Rock on :).
Anyway, on March 6, 60 Minutes ran a story on Grand Theft Auto, and its relationship to a crime that occured, that was linked to the game by the moronic comment by the suspect upon arrest: "Life is like a video game. We all have to die sometime."
Not an exact quote, but the gist is there. And this resurrected the whole GTA bashing extravaganza, wherein concerned conservative groups (family based ones, of course) yelled at Rockstar and co. for releasing a game of moral decay.
Well, 60 Minutes did a story on this, and I watched it.
As with traditional news stories, it only reports, doesn't really interpret, which is fine by me. Of course, the people they talked to did more than enough interpreting.
The thing that irked me was that they said that the main draw of the game was that you can have sex hookers (to regain health), run them over, and get your money back. Tons of violence, in other words. And, to the outside observer, that seems to be the main draw.
Well, this is the message I sent them was this:
----
This is regarding the section on the evilness of GTA.
Just like the other fifty thousand emails you recieved today.
*cough*
Anyway, the main problem I have with the program is that you haven't asked any industry insiders on why the game is so popular.
There are a few dozen gaming mags that love press and would be perfectly happy to give you guys some information.
Should you ask one of them, they'll probably tell you that the beauty of the GTA series is not that you can kill cops with no consequences. That's just one of the elements that is created by the real greatness: Freeform gameplay.
Most games have a linear series of events, and you go from point a to point b, usually killing everything in between. GTA opens up an entire city, and state in the most recent version, to the player. Yeah, you can kill cops, or have sex with a hooker, run her over, and get your money back, but you don't have to.
Its more about freedom than vice. And because your avatar in the game is something of a god, due to his ability to take tons of bullets without falling, consequenses are lessened, which might be a problem, if teenagers are as impusive as you suggested.
But, in the end, you assumed something about the game that was wrong, that the draw is the violence, not the superb freeform gameplay. You guys should be better than this.
----
Later, I recieved this email from CBS:
----
Thank you for taking the time to write to CBS. Your comments have been shared with the 60 MINUTES staff.
Cordially,
Ray Faiola
Director,
Audience Services
----
Now, I know what everyone one reading this is thinking. Well, you four, I highly doubt that its a general response email.
This is because of two reasons:
1: The message says that what I said has been shared with the staff. If I were writing a form letter, I wouldn't put it exactly like that.
2: The email was sent on March 23.
The observant will understand.
For the unobservant, that's a 17 day time elapse. So either they had a massive email server malfunction, and I do mean massive, or they actually shared the email with the 60 Minutes Staff.
Probably because I didn't go out of my way to horribly flame the hell out of them.
*puts on sunglasses*
Rock on :).
posted by Wraithy at 4/29/2005 01:02:00 AM
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