The GTA5 controversy

The GTA5 controversy: Misogyny and promoting violence against women

There's recently been an interesting controversy developing around a campaign to ban a shop from selling a video game. In response and in protest to this cause, a group of gamers started their own petition to ban the Bible from being sold by the same shop. To an atheist, this story is pretty amusing. I think this was a satirical attempt rather than a serious one though, and so I'll focus on the issue within the game itself: Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA5).

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/outraged-grand-theft-auto-ban-754136

There was an online petition started on Change.org to ban a store called Target from selling the game. Of course, even if this succeeded, that would only mean one less source from which to obtain the game, and would hardly be the same thing as an outright ban. Yet, predictably, the free-speech warriors were up in arms, no doubt fallaciously claiming that this was the start of a slippery slope where eventually  they couldn't get the games they wanted, or that developers would have to rein themselves in when making open-world, sandbox type games like GTA.

But there is no way it can be right for the game to be as it is. To allow players to double-cross prostitutes and violently and graphically kill them to get their cash back, then run away with "bonuses"? Seriously, it's unconscionable. When this type of situation arises in other games, it is usually handled as a sequence in a non-interactive area where the money is automatically removed and afterwards you are deposited back outside with no means to take matters further. This approach, though less "realistic", seems preferable.

So in conclusion I think there is misogyny in GTA5, although it just one of the many problems with the game, and indeed with many games of its type, from a moral standpoint. Crimes such as theft and murder are treated as trivial and have no to little repercussion. They are sometimes even demanded by the game's mechanics.

The best games give you more choices on how to proceed through tough situations, often including more morally justifiable options. Take for example, Deus Ex: Human Revolution or the Dragon Age or Mass Effect series of role-playing games. And when you do take the murderous option when there was another way, the game lets you know you fouled up, and gives serious in-game consequences. 

Of course you could say that if someone is going to commit morally questionable or indefensible actions with no consequences, it's best to do it in the virtual world rather than the real one. I don't disagree, and I've said as much before. But do we really need an "out" for that kind of desire? 

I don't think we should completely ban the games, but it may be useful to send a message to the developers that they've gone too far in "freedom" by allowing such casual slaughter in a domestic environment. Remember, this is not GI Joe beating own on the boss of Hydra. It's more akin to recreating a frighteningly familiar reality for many millions of abused women round the whole world. This is why I avoid these types of game.