Grand Theft Auto's Big Donnybrook

Is it possible to escape the whirl-wind of drama resulting from ratings boards and parents who disregard them? I think not! My experience with Grand Theft Auto has amounted to that of any other teenager in the days of double-0s; it’s buried into culture, scarcely a mystery, and if you haven’t at least seen the game play, you likely crawled out from under a rock. That would be the teenager code of Grand Theft Auto. I played the original game when it first came out, though I wasn’t the one to buy it. Contrary, my parents had bought it as a Christmas gift for my younger sister. That’s right – younger! Despite the Mature rating, the evident gangster violence, they still went off to buy it. Frankly, it was shallow and rather boring. Even my younger sister grew tired of it. I thought I'd never hear from it again beyond the occasional mention in conversation; yet, here we are, and I'm reliving the moaning, groaning anguish of a law suit that I am invested in, yet simultaneously disinterested in. Why? Oh, motion pictures and a general hatred of seemingly double-standard censorship.

One way or another, Grand Theft Auto made its debut. It was here to stay, and it held ambitions to top the charts as the edgiest game of the century. In fact, it can be argued that Rockstar’s ambition was and always has been to push edgy, controversial games onto the market. This, I believe, is not an inherently bad thing when the target audience is older teen (which is what the Mature rating implies on any video game). Even so, that raises eyebrows. The promotion of gangsters and bullying? In a post-Columbine, gang ridden time, that’s almost too much. But the controversy was not about these legitimate things, which seemed somehow acceptable without qualm. The controversy was about something basic. Sex, and a strip of code that could easily be altered to unveil such context within the game.

My initial response is: It’s Grand Theft Auto, what do you expect? In a world of gangsters, car thefts, and general violence, sex seemed implied. I believe that any reasonable person would have seen it coming. However, this is not how business works, and games with extensive sexual content are typically not rated Mature, but AO, or NC-17, like any pornographic material. This is where the controversy comes from – that the ratings claimed “M” when the content fit guidelines for “AO”. Yet, without the mod, was the game suitable for M? It’s possible, though it may have been borderline at the time. Frankly, I thought Hostel deserved an NC-17 rating from film boards, but it didn’t receive that for its graphic torture (nor has Saw). Grand Theft Auto is a basket of kittens compared to the obscenely delivered Slasher genre of horror films. I’m confused as to why parents are upset about sexual content. It falls back to ratings – but with a rated R film, anyone seventeen and up can see the movie, which is essentially the “M” rating of video games. Voila! There’s my deduction: why is graphical violence in R rated movies not protested, but sexual content is? It’s alright to watch someone’s eye dangling from the socket, but not to see a guy get laid? Apologies! From my personal stand-point, I would much rather pornography be available under a “anyone seventeen years or older can see this” than the radical gore of films like Saw. But this isn’t about violence. This is about sex. Sex, sex, sex! How fascinating! Is it just me, or is society easily offended by flesh, while simultaneously providing sexual education courses for fourth graders in a variety of cities (some school districts in Texas require progressive sexual education starting as early as the fourth grade – I had classes in Elementary, Middle, and High School discussing sexual organs, intercourse, and all of that wonderful nonsense! Sex wasn’t a mystery, and it generally isn’t nowadays, hence why I wonder what the big deal is). Ahem. Regardless, following legal guidelines of circumstance: was the company at fault for not identifying that there is sexual content within the video game? Well, are all motion picture companies responsible for sexual conduct within their movies if they don’t provide a warning? Was Titanic responsible for Rose’s naked portrait; were the creators of the remade Miami Vice responsible for the sexual actions of the characters? Or what about the infamous 8 Mile? If you call one entertainment genre on it, call them all – and this is my qualm. Why was it relevant to the content of Grand Theft Auto and the video game industry, when they followed guidelines similar to that of motion pictures? Sex is bloody sex. I, for one, am sick of hearing about its vulgarity. It’s disinteresting.