OMG The Grand Theft Auto Thing

KatRobin

I have just read the article that Alison wisely tweeted a link to, about the contents of the new Grand Theft Auto game. I am literally shaking as I type this in, I'm so incensed , and Catherine too. How is this filth allowed to bypass censorship controls and why does the government not act? As teachers, we spend hours undergoing child Safeguarding training, and the care and protection of vulnerable children has now ( in my opinion) superseded the time we spend actually educating them. It is a constant battle to confront and try to deal with kids with " anger management" issues, disrespect and confused ideas about the "real world". This really makes me despair and is one of the reasons why so many good, hardworking teachers want to leave the profession because we know we are fighting a losing battle. I have children with special needs and the mental age of 4/5 bragging about their games console collections and "achievements", kids who can't work with numbers beyond 10 or write a sentence. Their parents are happy to feed them this GTA drivel, completely disregarding the age " restrictions" on it in order to keep their kids occupied and " happy".
My teaching role has changed dramatically over the past year or two. I no longer teach the traditional subjects, but lots of PSHE topics around Mental Health, Social Media, Personal Identity...etc etc...and the Sex and Relationships Education bit. In the teaching profession we are pulling our hair out trying to gain the upper hand in installing morals, ethics and just basic damn manners in the kids, but they come to school exhausted, having been awake all night playing shit like this. And guess what....? What does the average child aspire to be when they leave school? A games tester or a tattoo artist.
How bloody sad. I'm going to email my MP about this and spread this info in as many local schools as I can and prompt others to do the same. Thanks to Alison for posting this. Wearily fighting the crusade to make a nicer country to live in....sigh...

Pet

I don't imagine that I'm the only person on here who isn't on Twitter, so it might be helpful to post Alison's link on this thread.

In so far as I understand what this is about (which may not be very far as I don't play computer games) I imagine that this is another force hastening the collapse of civilisation as we know it. Other forces at work to the same end incude, for example, the depletion of the world's resources. See here:

http://bit.ly/Z9dayC

No wonder people are ripping out cables to sell for scrap.

What children want to be when they grow up is generally unrealistic. That said, when I was a child in the 1950s, a lot of boys wanted to be train drivers, and a lot of girls nurses. One can't run an economy on nurses and train drivers -- but at least they're useful occupations. Games testers and tattoo artists seem to me a lot less useful.

KatRobin

Pet, Alison's tweets appear under the Little Things on this site menu. I'm sure that when you read the article you'll see why I'm so outraged, and plenty of others like me.
The first thing I did when I got to work this am was to email the article to every member of staff and I believe the management are going to mention it in the next pupil newsletter. A colleague of mine mentioned that one of our high-functioning Autistic students ( v bright, gentle lad) experienced the first GRA game because his parents erroneously believed the 18C on it implied it would have intellectually challenging adult content to stretch him! Make of that what you will...

rewak

These games are for adults and are rated appropriately. End of argument. If kids get them and are somehow affected it isn't the developers fault, it's their parents for not taking a video game rating seriously.

By the way, have you actually played the game mentioned? I have, and they're talking bollocks for the most part to hype up the article. The sex isn't 'realistic' unless you count bouncing in a car fully clothed sex. This isn't a key feature of the game, nor is it a new one. And why did you single out Catherine in your post when it's mentioned nowhere? Because the lady is trapping the man in her Tatas on the cover I'll bet. Seriously, I hope you're kidding with this. If you actually want to be educated on this then play the games yourself or at the very least watch a playthrough of them. These articles are aimed squarely at people like you, not involved enough to see through the BS but just involved enough to get pissy. Seriously, the article is misleading to cause outrage. If you want to get worked up at least pick something worth it, like Hatred, look at that trailer. People who enjoy video games have pretty universally called it stupid by the way.

Low

KatRobin said:
What does the average child aspire to be when they leave school? A games tester or a tattoo artist.
How bloody sad.

I'm really trying to understand your point of view here, but... where is this statement prove to be accurate? Because I know many leaving school and moving onto higher education, yet I know none at all aiming to be any of the above.

Not trying to start an argument here, it's just that particular statement didn't sit right with me.

LuDux

When I want to die violently in vehicle related accident I play ElastoMania

Ponygurl

The really sad thing is that they're integrating degradation of women into a video game. Can you pick up male prostitutes, fuck them and then kill them in the game? Why is this allowed at fucking all in a game?! Why is this allowed at all in real life?! Oh yeah, it's not..it's a fucking punishable crime. Here's a clip of the so called "game." Make your own assumption..you're ignorant if you don't understand this is wrong.

rewak

Don't even bring feminism/social justice into this ok? You wont do well on that route.

Ponygurl

Grow the fuck up.

KatRobin

Well that's made me feel like a snooty middle aged old hag witch! For a nanosecond...! Seems like we've ( or should I say I've) touched a raw nerve Rewak, and sorry if so. But having disseminated the info among my colleagues, every one I spoke to was horrified / disgusted / afraid, because we see the day to day reality of what this trash is doing to our youngsters. Over the last ten years I have definitely seen a rise in kids with anger issues and borderline psychotic behaviours...and neither you nor anyone else can convince me that shit like GTA does not have an impact on young minds. They are immature, inexperienced, confused, testosterone driven adolescents with low self esteem and poor social skills, made worse by the fact that they are cooped up playing this crap. I know I'm trotting out the same old arguments made by the blue-rinse brigade but unless you've worked with socially and behaviourally challenged kids I don't think you have a right to defend this shite. And as for your insinuation that the feminists are getting pissy....well....I couldn't have put it better myself Ponygurl. Lame......

LuDux · Post edited by LuDux at 2014-11-26 02:43:42

Ponygurl said:
Can you pick up males, fuck them and then kill them in the game?

KatRobin

Ps I'll stick to my nice little Ipad jigsaws, mahjong and hidden object games. Cos that's the calm, socially responsible, pompous , sad little mare that I am.
Just seen the Rocket post! Don't think was QUITE the storyline in that vid, but the jelly baby moment still makes me chuckle!

rewak

I'll repeat Kat, these games are rated for adults by the same ratings board that handles movies. I agree with you that kids get this stuff easily but I disagree on your placing the blame on an entire industry when it lies with the individual who purchased the game for them. It's like me saying a teacher being fired for misconduct means all teachers are abhorrent. Make sense?

Pony, got an actual argument? Check out the latest Tomb Raider, a game exclusively about a woman slaughtering an island of men. Did it cause a controversy for this? No, a single scene where a male antagonist grabs Lara by the throat did. That's not feminism, that's bullshit. Feminism is synonymous with equality. If you say one thing is ok because it's a female protagonist but not ok when you swap gender that's not feminism, that's misandry. Those get confused a lot lately...

iuventus

I miss the days of swallowing mushrooms and pouncing on giant turtle monsters.

Ponygurl · Post edited by Ponygurl at 2014-11-26 03:07:35

My argument, Rewak, is that strippers and prostitutes exist in the present day world. It's no "Fantasy Island of Lara Kroft" or whatever the hell her name is. That's pure fantasy. This game is integrating real world senarios with violence. Completely fucked. It's made from a male perspective or else the "hooker" wouldn't have been bobbing up and down on the female player. I know their are all kinds of War games out there..and I really don't like those either. How would you feel about a video game where the player slices off men's dicks?

rewak · Post edited by rewak at 2014-11-26 03:14:11

That exists, its called Saints Row, GTAs main competitor. Play as whatever gender you wish, sleep with whoever you want, then beat them with a dildo. Again, that never raised controversy. Then say Lollipop Chainsaw, a game where a key component is that the female lead has chopped her boyfriends head of and tacked it to her shorts as an accessory (the head still being alive). Again, no controversy there. You seeing my point yet? Oh and the new Tomb Raider is highly realistic, you seem to be under the impression that game hasn't changed since she was hanging with U2 and hocking Lucozade.

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