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GET
ready: There’s a new Grand Theft Auto (GTA) game about
to roll out this week, and we’re probably in for a burst
of discussion about violent video play. I’ve never found
it likely that bloody video games cause bad behavior in
kids, but then again, I’d also never pass any of my old
copies of the games to a child. So I’m a little unsure
about how to react to a recent study showing that the
game is more popular than any other among 12- to
14-year-old boys.
Grand
Theft Auto IV is almost inevitably going to be one of
the biggest game releases in a year that is already
looking like a prosperous one for the industry. Market
research firm NPD said that Americans expect to spend
less on entertainment this year, yet they’re also going
to spend more than ever on video games. Video-game sales
jumped 57 percent in March, compared with the same month
last year, according to the firm.
SURE-FIRE HIT,
Now available for
the Sony PlayStation 3 is the latest iteration of Grand
Theft Auto, certainly one of the most controversial
video games around which has spurred even a
congressional inquiry in the US.
The GTA
franchise is practically an industry unto itself.
Electronic Arts has attempted a hostile takeover of
the game’s publisher this year with an offer valued at
$2 billion. One analyst has even speculated that the new
game could dampen opening weekend ticket sales for
Iron Man, the comic-book-inspired action movie
starring
Robert Downey Jr. The film opened in theaters a few
days after the game’s release.
Like its
predecessors, Grand Theft Auto IV is rated “M” (for
“Mature”), and stores are only allowed to sell it to
folks ages 17 and up. The game industry’s ratings board
has even spelled out the types of content that could
make parents squirm. The game, released for the
Xbox 360 and
PlayStation 3, hits all the hot buttons: It contains
“blood,” “intense violence,” “partial nudity,” “strong
language,” “strong sexual content” and “use of drugs and
alcohol.”
The
game’s developer, Rockstar, has mostly kept quiet about
the storylines of its latest game, set in
Liberty City,
a satirical version of New York City. Previous
installments of the best-selling games have all followed
the paths of young strivers who go from rags to riches,
building careers as gangster kingpins. On the way, there
tend to be a few zillion explosions, flattened
pedestrians and rival gangs that need to get squeezed
out.
Rockstar
did not respond to requests for comment last week. But
one of the game’s writers, Lazlow Jones, who has also
appeared as a radio deejay in the games, spoke on a
local D.C. radio station recently and put it as plainly
as possible that the game is “too intense” for kids:
“If you
let your child play this game, you’re a bad parent,” he
said. “The thing is, Rockstar does not want kids playing
this game.”
By
Jones’s definition, it looks like there are some, ahem,
“bad parents” out there, at least according to that
recent survey of 12- to 14-year-olds on this subject.
The authors’ research team asked 1,250 kids to name some
video games they’d played in the past six months. GTA
was at the top of the list for boys, way ahead of the
Madden football games and
Microsoft’s sci-fi blockbuster Halo. Among girls the
same age, the game was No. 2, behind The Sims.
But
here’s the not-so-terrible news, according to the
study’s architects: Even if your kid does play the
game...well, it might not warp him or her for life. The
study was conducted by a husband-and-wife team who are
cofounders of the Center for Mental Health and Media and
serve on the psychiatry faculty of
Harvard Medical School. The findings are published
in their new book, titled Grand Theft Childhood.
Lawrence
Kutner and Cheryl K. Olson say that although some
studies have claimed to show a link between video games
and violent or aggressive behavior, most research in
this area has been flawed. Some studies dating back to
the ’80s looked at now-vintage arcade games that don’t
remotely resemble modern video games. Some studies
followed the behavior of only a few dozen kids. Many of
the studies don’t define what constitutes violent or
aggressive behavior, and many confuse short-term and
long-term behavior.
You’ll
sometimes see kids coming out of an action movie making
kung fu moves against one another, said Kutner, as an
example of the type of thinking behind some of the
studies they looked at. “But that doesn’t mean they’re
going to do that against the sweet little old lady down
the street,” he said.
In any
case, Olson said, real-world statistics paint the
picture as vividly as any research. “In some ways, it’s
common sense,” she said. “Game playing has been going up
and violence has been going down.”
Olson
said parents should keep an eye on whether their kids
only play M-rated games, however. “We’re not saying that
games are great and your kids can keep playing whatever
they want,” she said.
I don’t
have any doubt that people can learn from video games. I
played one of the previous GTA titles to such an extent
that I knew my general way around parts of Miami during
a vacation there; my only previous experience in the
city had been playing a satiric, virtual counterpart,
Vice City.
I didn’t run over any pedestrians, however, or steal any
cars.
Though
I’m not exactly worried about GTA warping the mind of my
seven-year-old stepson, I’m glad that he’s so young it’s
not a question yet. At this point in his life, he won’t
even come into the room if he suspects I’m playing a
scary video game.
Funny
thing about Grand Theft Childhood. I had picked up the
book expecting that a tome with such a provocative title
would take a dimmer view of the influence games have on
kids.
Olson
said she and her husband wanted the title to be phrased
as a question (“Grand Theft Childhood?”), but
“publishers don’t like question marks.”
She said
she hopes that folks who want to think there’s a link
between violence and video games read the book—if the
title hooks them in, so much the better.
“We
didn’t want to preach to the choir,” she said. |
