Since its release last week, Grand Theft Auto IV has caused controversy surrounding the sex and violence in the game. At the forefront of the clamoring against the game is (much hated by gamers) attorney Jack Thompson and right-wing talk show host Glenn Beck.

Both of these guys blame GTA, and popular culture at-large, for violence and sexual abuse, saying, “GTA trains our kids to be killers and we are training our sons to treat women like whores.”

But Beck and Thompson are wrong. They don’t hate GTA because of its violence and sex. In reality, they’re using GTA for a larger purpose–to fear monger and use it as a scapegoat for the horrible effects of evil policies they support.

Unfortunately, gamers haven’t responded well to Thompson’s and Beck’s arguments against GTA. We’re always replying with, “Games don’t make me kill people,” or “It’s just for fun.”

Jim Sterling of Destructiod, for example, recently interviewed Jack Thompson for Podcastle, and obviously wasn’t prepared–he let Thompson walk all over him.

So, I’ll try to go through some of arguments I’ve heard Beck and Thompson make, and offer a stronger case for our side. I’ll start with what they say, and follow with how we should respond.

“GTA is training our kids to be killers.”

Be scared. That’s the goal of demonizing GTA, here. Beck even says it’s not just video games that are ruining America; it’s all media that’s corrupting our society.
Milton Friedman, the right-wing radical, once said that, “Only a crisis–actual or perceived–produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.” The crisis here is media, including GTA, at large.

Beck, and the right, wants to scare us so that they can make radical right-wing policy changes. We’ve been taught to fear communists, Muslims, the French, gays, comic books, and video games, so that we’ll accept dreadful policies like the PATRIOT ACT or the Iraq War. GTA is a, albeit small, part of the right’s fear mongering agenda.

But what about training kids to be killers? GTA doesn’t show you how to load a weapon, aim one, fire one, clean one, or hold one. All it does is train you in using a controller.

Could anyone play “Say it ain’t so” by Weezer in front of an audience because they played Rock Band? Despite the “realistic” guitar peripheral that comes with the game, there is very little similarity to actually playing a guitar. Does Rock Band teach you what a G chord is, or what power chords are, or how to tune a guitar, or how to set up an amplifier? Nope. Similarly, if I play the board game Operation, I will not then be able to perform funny bone surgery on my friend in real life.

Imagine the nervousness you’d feel in front of a crowed for the first time having never held a guitar. You’ll never feel that in Rock Band, or GTA. It takes something more than a simulation to pull the trigger. It takes an environment that condones violence, not just the game’s experience.

We could argue that the NRA does a better job of training kids to be killers. They–whom the right-wing supports–teach kids all the time how to use guns at their youth camps. Furthermore, they stop gun control laws from being passed in cities like Philadelphia, despite the high murder rates there, resulting in the needless death of hundreds. They, not us, want to hand out real guns to real kids.

“Kids are killing cops hiring hookers and lighting them on fire.”

Beck, and Thompson, doesn’t seem to understand that video games aren’t just for kids. According to a USA Today survey:

Contrary to a popular stereotype, the average video game player is not a teenage skateboarder but a more mature fun-seeker old enough to be his dad, according to a survey released Wednesday. The average age of game players was 29 and the average age of buyers was 36, with men making up 59% of the playing audience.

GTA isn’t for kids. Yes, some retailers are selling the game to children, but that’s not the fault of Take-Two, the game’s developer. Walmart, GameStop, and parents are the culprits here. All parents should consult whattheyplay.com, or look at the M rating on the cover, before buying any game for their children.

“GTA desensitizes us to violence, thus making us more likely to commit violent acts.”

Yes, video games have a role in desensitizing us to violence. The more we see it, the more we get used to it. There might even be a killing linked to the game. But that pales in comparison to the truly evil violence condoned by Beck and the right.
Thompson admits that 99.99999999% of the people who play GTA won’t commit a violent crime because of the game. But Beck openly supports the death penalty, which kills hundreds of real people every year.

He supports the Iraq war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of real people and put millions more real people into poverty and despair.

Beck supports racist drug laws that kill and imprisons millions of real people.

Beck regularly dehumanizes immigrants by calling them “illegals” every day.

Beck’s the real fucking monster that influences millions of real people to support evil policies. Not us, with only the power of our controllers.

The right tries to convince us that violence in games causes crime because they want to mask real reasons for crime–mainly poverty and racist drug laws.

Crime in Detroit is consistently among the highest in the country. So there must be a ton of kids playing GTA there, right? I’m sure it’s selling just as well there as it is in white suburbia.

The real reason there’s violence in places like Detroit is that poverty caused by right-wing policies supported by Glenn Beck.

Free-trade agreements, like NAFTA, freed companies (such as the auto industry) to move production to places with cheap labor, like Mexico. This left many Americans without a job, forcing many families into poverty. At no fault of their own, workers were left in a desperate situation, which at times causes people to act out of character to support their family. Suddenly, stealing or selling drugs becomes the only option to stay afloat.

Beck has consistently supported regressive tax policies that continue to increase inequality. Over 24 years, “the share of total income going to the top-earning 1 percent of Americans went from 8 percent in 1980 to 16 percent in 2004.”

Besides, youth crime has dropped, not increased, in the United States over the past 15 years!

“Take-Two only cares about making money.”

Welcome to capitalism, Thompson. That’s what our society cherishes more than anything. I don’t see you scrambling to stop the oil companies from making record profits every year while families struggle to pay $4 a gallon at the pump.
By the way, I just finished playing Wall Street Kid, and now I’m making millions on the stock market.

Where we’re wrong

Gamers need to stop using the “It’s just a game” argument. All media has an effect on our thinking. Everything we hear, read, or see manipulates our thinking in a small way. GTA alone won’t make anyone objectify women. But a constant barrage of sexist propaganda will.

Would the American Revolution have happened without Common Sense? Maybe, but the pamphlet sure helped move the process along.

We need to be above this argument because we want video games to be seen as art. I think we should stop saying they’re just for fun, and start saying they’re for entertainment.

Take movies, for example. I’ll watch Lord of the Rings for fun, but I’m not watching Schindler’s List for the same reason. Imagine if every movie was Shoot ‘em Up? Movies would suck.

So with any medium, we can say some are for fun, and some are for entertainment, and some are politically motivating. As games become more realistic, developers need to take their influence on thinking into greater consideration.

Video games have never done well in including strong female and Black characters. Women are usually damsels in distress (Mario), or sexual objects (GTA). So we should start taking that criticism seriously and start realizing that women, and minorities, make up a large portion of the gaming community. We’re not just the young white boys, blogging and playing games at all hours of the night, that Beck would have us believe.