Life is NOT a Video Game

08/10/2005 17:20 Filed in: Culture Watch

Okay, I think this was the sequence:
 
1. Play Grand Theft Auto. 
2. Kill three policemen in real life. 
3. Blame it all on the video game. 
4. GO TO JAIL ANYWAY.

Wired News is running a story about a 20-year-old in Alabama who blamed his murder of three policemen on child abuse and playing too much Grand Theft Auto. The jury didn't buy it, thankfully. As tragic as child abuse is, there are lots of people who rise above their situations. And there are lots of kids who play violent video games (for better or worse) and don't confuse fantasy and reality.

Lots of attention was given recently to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas because a secret sex scene is hidden in the code of the game . Well, I've got news for the parents who pay no attention to the games their children are playing: the violence in the GTA games is much worse than a brief sex scene. When I had an XBox, I admit that I tried playing GTA. I'll be honest that initially it's a lot of fun. You basically get run of a virtual city and you can do pretty much whatever you want. But this game is different from say a Halo or Medal of Honor game where you are fighting an enemy--bad guys. GTA is a game that glorifies violence and vice without consequences. Need a new car? Pull grandma out of the driver's seat and take it. Decide you don't like someone for no reason at all? Beat him up or kill him. I played the game a little while, but never finished it. Even in a virtual world, I can't let myself become that. A number of my students at Whitefield Academy played GTA and laughed about the violence and sexuality. I tried to discourage them from gaining enjoyment from virtual vice, but they generally said, "It's not that bad." How do you break through to that kind of attitude? Here's a clue--it's the parents' responsibility to set the moral climate for any home.

Occasionally in Grand Theft Auto, the police will, in fact, catch up with you. But there's no real lesson to the player. It's an inconvenience. You start over on the steps of the police station. Well, not in real life. The boy in Alabama may claim that he was influenced by the game--that he didn't know the difference between fantasy and reality when he killed three policemen. But as he sits in a jail cell--without video games and possibly facing a death sentence--I bet he knows the difference now....