There is No Benefit in Killing Police Officers

In his 1996 run -- well, stumble -- for president, Bob Dole decided to prop up the movie Trainspotting as his obligatory campaign strawman for the depravity of modern culture. Bob Dole famously used part of a speech to decry Trainspotting's "glorification" of heroin use, leaving those who actually saw the movie to wonder which scene was more glorious -- the dive into the filthy toilet, or the dead baby. (Bob Dole went on to cite True Lies as a more family-friendly flick. No, seriously. Bob Dole hasn't been to a movie since Al Jolson got all chatty.)

Point being, Bob Dole had obviously never bothered to do any homework on Trainspotting before holding it up as an example of Edinburgh Hollywood immorality.

Michael Bloomberg, meet Bob Dole.

New York Balks at Next "Grand Theft Auto"

New York City's mayor has denounced the next version of Grand Theft Auto (GTA), for the violent game's resemblance to the metropolis. Although the game is set in fictional "Liberty City," trailers show familiar New York City landmarks, such as the Statue of Liberty, Coney Island's Cyclone, and the Brooklyn Bridge.

A spokesperson for Mayor Michael Bloomberg noted that the mayor does not support any video game where "you earn points for injuring or killing police officers."

OK, Mr. Mayor. I played GTA3. Also Vice City and San Andreas. I'm not a huge gamer, but the GTA series I like. So do the serious gamers -- in fact the GTA3 trilogy comprises three of Metacritic's six best-reviewed PS2 games ever, mostly because its design and storylines are immensely clever and non-linear.

Granted, GTA is amoral. It's devilish. It's ludicrous fantasy that's only suitable for emotionally stable grown-ups. The attention that the San Andreas hidden sex mod got from Hillary Clinton was absurd to anyone who's actually played the game; it was a little like complaining about the profanity in Naughty Nympho Nurses 9. Which, granted, was more than gratuitous.

Here's the other thing: Once and for all, in GTA, killing police officers is not an objective. In fact, if you kill a police officer, the game becomes far more difficult and unpleasant.

And here's another typically misguided contention about the game series:

Child advocacy groups and legislators seem to be Take-Two's biggest foes, complaining that the company produces the industry's most violent, mean-spirited games. In "Grand Theft Auto," players shoot pedestrians and police with reckless abandon.

Sadly, this description is from a straight news story. Again, if you "shoot pedestrians and police with reckless abandon," you won't advance at all in the game. I'm not defending GTA as something other than unseemly trash, but at least get the basic facts straight about the unseemly trash. Meanwhile, back to the Bloomberg story:

In other news reports, city council member Peter Vallone noted that setting the game in the "safest city in America would be like setting Halo in Disneyland."

Halo in Disneyland: I'm plotzing just thinking about its awesomeness.

Okay, so what's all the hubbub about? Peep the trailer for GTA IV, itself an unapologetic homage to the "Grid" sequence from Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi.

October awaits... Tick tock.

Comments

[MattyMatt]

What's alarming here isn't that politicians made shit up -- we expect that -- but that reporters just printed it, with no indication that what their sources are saying simply isn't true. For crying out loud, I'm a freaking BLOGGER and I know better than that.

[porkwatson]

You could say the same thing about journalists covering Iraq before the war. Or the housing market.

[josh]

ok question....so do you think the whole flying planes into buildings issue will crop up at all?