Wednesday, April 30

:
MEZ & THE GTA GAME DEBUT - (3#) -

Senseless Violence
is Exhilarating, Some Say . . .

Grand Theft Auto IV made its debut Tuesday. While I've been surfing around the Internet today, it seemed unavoidable. Of course, it's only a game, but how much of its atmosphere might be absorbed by osmosis?

I've never seen it myself - it doesn't look like my cup of tea. I'm just raising some questions about it, perhaps, because in following the Meredith Kercher Murder Case lately, I've been struck by many people's search for the motive.

Does murder really need a motive? Indeed, there are some people now who are ridiculing the very idea of any motive being attributed to the principal suspects in that case. If senseless violence is said to be "exhilarating," then why couldn't murder be exhilarating?

"A book tells you something, a movie shows you something and a video game lets you do something... When we started you had fantasy or space games. We added gangster to that... We want to do the things you never thought about."

"While the game looks like a fairly run-of-the-mill crime drama at first glance, it won't take long for it to get under your skin and stick with you even while you're not playing."

Just some things to think about.

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