Kotaku
Glenn Beck, star of the previously posted "Stupidest Anti-GTA Vid You'll See Today", recently had Focus on the Family founder Dr. James Dobson on his CNN show to bemoan the disintegration of the institution of the family. The family, Dobson and Beck agree, is under attack from every direction, from politicians, from MTV and, of course, from Grand Theft Auto IV.
Dobson laments "the new video that's out, supposedly for kids" that features "every form of evil and violence, from killing to raping to drugs to foul language to political corruption and racism." Kids exposed to this sort of thing, Dobson says, "some of them, especially those that come from dysfunctional families, go out and do things that are reprehensible." Beck, who has previously called us "losers" (no u are, lol), points out that Dobson is talking about GTA IV, adding "they say it isn't being sold for kids, but it is, kids are buying it."
We're emailing both Beck and Dobson, begging for the rape codes. We simply must try these heretofore unknown feature and readjust our moral compass accordingly.
Wither the American family? [CNN - thanks, Jeremy!]
Comments
Hmmmm. I used to get regularly raped by the Nightmare-level bots on Quake 3, does that count?
Why do you even try having a reasonable discourse with people who are only out for sensationalist ratings?
I am not going to watch it but just seeing that it has "Rape" We can already tell that these people are dumbasses.
.... wait, This game has Racism?
you know this is getting old...
Oh god, the backlash on this is going to be epic.
Why do you even try having a discourse with people who are only out for the ratings sensationalist crap like this brings them?
Not another, maybe Beck should lose that double chin before he starts talking about whats healthy and whats not.
How are kids buying a game that is rated M and requires an adult to purchase?
If it's not virtual orgasmic rape, I'm not interested.
Glenn Beck is lying sack of shit. Plain and simple he needs to be removed from journalism and the media.
Yeah I'm pretty sure GTA IV parodies all of those things.
Wow. Like this hasn't had the interest raped (OMG NO WAI RAPE) out of it a couple years ago.
Maybe if you have (what can be assumed to be)sex with Michelle after a night of drinking and still stumbling....hmmmmmmmmmm
thats realllllly grasping at straws
I like how he places "rape" with "political corruption" and yet he's a staunch defender of what could be considered one of our more corrupt administrations.
This guy needs to take a long walk off a short pier. He's just saying this stuff to get ratings.
ok, they can say what ever they want
Oh and in a more political light, family doesn't mean shit, never has and never will. Why? Because it should never be other's families you're worried about.
This whole "family" bullshit is something radical right-wingers like to sling around to get trailer-trash retards to vote.
Since kids are buying it even though it is not being marketed to kids doesn't that say more about kids than it does about the game?
Kotaku, dont you know that ALL games have a hidden rape code? Its true.
What's there to be said about this anymore? It's wholesale ignorance. Even worse that they refuse to do any sort of research. God help us if they actually played GTA and some how discerned all these things...
I never playd a GTA game till 4, and I was blown away by the social satire. It's like a cynical South Park, and I rarely see any recognition for that.
I can't stop laughing at Intelligent Agenda on PLR. Or Just or Unjust. Or the pharmacudical bit. Or republican space rangers... Well, all of it.
I think the most hilarious part of the video is when Dobson starts implying that Ted Bundy became the murderous maniac he was simply because he was into pornography at 13. Yes I'm sure 90% of boys out there will be just like Ted Bundy
Oh man, I've had it. Between Glenn Beck and Nancy Grace, American journalism is doomed. It seems to me he wants to be an ultra capitalist, but he would probably fall flat on his fat face if that system existed in the States. He knows nothing of reality, and he doesn't know anything about America's problems. His guest was also a massive, southern, idiotic douche bag. He does no research. "No I haven't seen that one, but I've seen enough to make me sick." My god, that makes no sense. I hate these idiots. Teach us Glenn, teach us.
The only rape in GTAIV is online when you spawn by someone and get headshotted before you can do anything lol.
And where the hell are the kids getting the money for games? I suppose from mommy and daddy--give it a fucking rest already, parents need to step it up and retailers need to step it up as well.
This is just a bunch of ultra-conservative bull shit.
The GameStop I worked at carded every single fucker who laid hands on a M-rated game, even if the person was 40. We even asked a parent if she (always moms) was sure if she wanted the kid to play the game. Most of the time, parents were so fucking out of the loop that they didn't give a damn and paid for the game anyway.
This stuff is so fucking annoying. Oh yes, because video games are going to cause the next VA Tech shooting. Give me a damn break.
@DaveyPwnckett:
Ha ha, nice buddy! So true!
Man, conservatives are just so messed up. Their whole culture war is pathetic, all that personal repression just leads to the way they project personal demons on to anything and everything they see. If they're homosexual, you can bet they're convinced gays are plotting everywhere, if they're a pedophile (not to conflate the two) then they see perverts lurking after everyones children. And we can assume from this that Dobson really gets off on rape.
But the big laugh line is that he says video games are exposing children to political corruption, when he is sitting, right there, while he is saying it, trying to corrupt the government into following evangelical dogma (which involves giving lost of money to evangelicals).
You sure have to hand it to right wing media, no one else could away with believing their viewers were this stupid.
Maybe Glenn should first get rid of his hardcore school gym coach haircut before calling someone else a loser.
@LittleBigPlaneteer: Do people still care about these kind of stories enough to get worked up into a uni-polar epic flame war comment thread? I'd doubt that. I appreciate the fact that Kotaku keeps us well-informed on their occurrence though. I just remembered how I got worked up over the Mass Effect story, I lost sleep. I never thought a game-related story could do that to me. Now I hear this and I realized that I've developed coping mechanisms which means I was probably damaged inside :(
Reminds me of something Jon Stewart recently said about Glenn Beck:
"Wow. This guy..... has a show."
@Neo_Deus: I came here to make sure someone referenced this, and was not disappointed.
Hold the fuck on. These guys are screamin' and hollerin' about how ineffective the government is (which I don't necessarily disagree with), and asking "When is there going to be a candidate who will say they'll stay out of our (the families') way?"
They're going on and on about how the system is backwards and upside down and is working against the family.
And they feel like they can step in and make it all better? Who the hell are they? How would they be any better at teaching anything to anybody than the government is?
I mean, what the hell? Do these guys not see how much like politicians they are? "You give us the power and influence, and we'll make it all better!"
Piss off! If a parent is too stupid and too negligent to pay attention to their own children, what makes these people think the parents will listen to them?
I am done with hearing what Glenn Becks opinion is....irrelevant to us as gamers. When he is filing lawsuits or if he is in a political office I might care, until then he is just an opinioned entertainer, not newsworthy. Let's stop wasting on people like him and focus on any attempts at new laws effecting video games.
Haha, Glen Beck. A former alcoholic that appeals to the "common man". thanks CNN, you really know how to pick them.
@ShirtGuyDom: Oh, I feel like I have to say I'm embarrassed by having to share first names with this fucker. Though, mine is spelled with one "n," so I guess it's not that bad...
Dear Misinformed Politicians,
The entrance fee for GTA4 is $59.99 + tax. It is rated M, and most stores ask you for ID to sell you the game even if you appear over 18.
The entrance fee for a movie is $5-$10. Movies are Rated R, but it is much easier to obtain a R ticket than buying an M game.
Let's do a quick comparison, shall we?
Gore:
R Movies: Extreme Amounts of a realistic and graphic nature
GTA 4: Blood violence, but not as gorey. 3D, obviously fake looking characters.
Drugs
Both
Crime
Both
Sexuality
Both
Rape?
ONLY THE MOVIES AND NOT GTA 4.
Why are there no "calling all parents!" for R rated movies, but for this game? Why are you so obsessed with GTA?
Because it's something you do not understand, and that scares you, as well as makes an easy target to preach on your pedestal.
There are things out there that matter a lot more than GTA 4, and it only demonstrates that the media and it's guests no longer feel the need research anything they critique or call to question.
Which is a damn shame.
@okenny :):
I'd rather we have an epic flame war over this than a PR guy saying the oppisite console is bullshit.
Consider my face fully and completely palmed.
"the new video that's out, supposedly for kids" that features "every form of evil and violence, from killing to raping to drugs to foul language to political corruption and racism."
What video is he talking about? The News?
Eventually all the commotion about the "horrible" things in video games will go away, just like in the early ages of cinema when films like Psycho had to avoid showing nudity at all. We just have to deal with it until that time. And the sad thing for you all fanboys, is that the Wii is helping get the gaming market past this hurdle, mainly because people who have never played games finding understand these "weird contraptions".
And we also got people like Crecente's dad playing GTA4 and understanding it, so I think we are heading in the right direction.
Glenn Beck is a idiot in my book.He said just last week video game fans that write on blogs are losers??
God this really pisses me off. Let's disregard the fact that this game does have violence in it. I see no difference compared to any other violent games other than the giant media hype over it.
What really gets my goat, is the fact people have choice. Fine, if you believe violence in video games is disgusting then don't let your children play them. It's the same as violent films. The argument that it is there, so it will be played is completely void in my opinion. People are there, we have choice to commit horrific acts against one another. There is no faith in humanity as a generalisation anymore. People just seem to want something to blame the bad deeds of the young on.
I wonder if they consider the fact that a violent reclusive person with serious problems would be drawn into recreating violence in a game. Not the everyday person getting a taste for murder and crime. I'm just hoping that as I play gta, I won't start feeling the urge to go out shouting racist comments as I rape women waving a chainsaw in the air....
@Kanti_V2: I'm conservative. If it isn't okay to judge people based on what they're born with (race, gender, sexual preference) how is it okay to make fun of them for their choices? Being conservative isn't what you think it is, and don't lump us all into one category.
I have a talkshow for you. It's called Intelligent Agenda on a station called PLR in Liberty City... I think the hosts words fit your style, "This is a show where we, laugh at lots of conservatives and call them repressed."
I wish they had real conservatives on TV, not these clowns who try to take on anything they deem morally offensive just to get more air time and higher ratings. Also, Neo-conservatives fail hard. As a libertarian that leans to the right a little, this embarasses the shit out of me that some might associate real conservatism with these douches.
If anything it preaches AGAINST rape. There was never a scene in the game where a girl was forced against her will sexually. Hell one druggie offered Niko sex and he asks what the hell is wrong with her. If you're going to call the game out provide some evidence. Oh wait, politics doesn't need evidence support anything. As long as you speak confidently it must be right!
Seriously...Is this guy crazy? Like actual mentalist crazy where they should be locked up in an asylum?
@Gouki4u: *Tips Hat* I aim to please. :D
I was going to ask if Beck or Dobson realize the hypocracy of claiming that gun control takes the ability out of the hands of the people to protect their own families, but they they want games like GTA IV banned because people obviously can't protect their families against a video game.
I was going to ask that, but then I realized, of course they do. Modern mass media isn't about facts, it's about who can yell the loudest and most often. More often than not, an average viewer will take something they repeatedly see as truth rather than have an independent thought. I can just picture their train of thought. "Hey, maybe this PhD Dobson guy is right, I mean, I just heard Jack Thompson say the same thing, and HE'S a LAWYER".
Don't believe everything you see/hear/read
What's with the constant barrage of false claims? Last I checked defamation was illegal.
I think it's ironic that these same people are the ones who end up caught being hypocrites in real life.
Frankly saying "kids are buying it" without also pointing out that kids buy/obtain drink, ciggies, drugs, porn and anything else they're forbidden to have is a huge reason to eject this joke off the planet.
We should be making kids more responsible and understanding not filling them with lies and fears so they end up learning from harsh mistakes they can never admit to their parents.
Niko is quite the moral character that just has to do really shitty things. You can always tell he feels bad for what he does, so this guy can blow me.