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AIBU?

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Original poster

to feel scared for our girls when kicking prostitutes in a video game

345 replies

Duckierub · 13/05/2014 12:54

gets you more points.

Did anyone see the program about women's roles in video games? I was utterly horrified when I saw the imagery of how women are portrayed as sexual objects and kicking female prostitutes to get your money back earned you points. I was also shocked that the teen girls interviewed said it was normal for them to be molested by boys.

AIBU to think that we should be campaigning against some of this stuff?

OP posts:
kali110 · 13/05/2014 21:42

Watch not what

theselegswermad · 13/05/2014 21:47

I have told the parents that my son will not be going if they are to play those games, they have been very accommodating and one of the parents have even banned GTA and COD after I told her about the content and she actually watched the game herself!
My older son is very good in that he will tell his friends that he is not allowed to play 18 games and they seem to accept it :-)
They think he's cool cause his dad works in the industry

sassysally · 13/05/2014 21:48

Why do people think other parents have to share your opinion on kids playing violent games? Not agreeing with you is not laziness or fecklessness, it is weighing up the evidence and coming to a different decision

NinjaLeprechaun · 13/05/2014 21:49

"Oh dear"? What oh dear? Why oh dear? Whose dear? If I say dear one more time it's going to lose all meaning, dear.

LoveSardines · 13/05/2014 21:51

Read some and skipped some I'm afraid.

Re the fucking prostitutes and then beating them to death thing.

Quite a lot of posters have said that actually you can beat anyone to death in the game and it's all equal etc.

I've not played it, but I was wondering, are there male prostitutes in the game that can get fucked by a person playing a male character, and then get beaten to death?

theselegswermad · 13/05/2014 21:55

www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2014/05/13/take-two-finishes-rakes-in-additional-1-billion-net-revenue-off-gta-v.aspx

Don't think you have a hope in hell banning GTA and the likes with those kinds of $$$$$

kali110 · 13/05/2014 21:55

Love no male Prostitutes but a lots been made about it been violent to women when actually it just violent to everybody in the sandbox mode.

LoveSardines · 13/05/2014 22:00

So that doesn't make any sense then. It's not "equal" at all.

Any points trying to claim that are void.

If the only people you can pay for sex in the game are female, and you can then beat them to death and take your money back (which is kind of materially different to killing someone in a shop or whatever as, you know, you've just fucked them) then quite clearly the game is sexist, and misogynist. Presenting women as the sex class to be fucked and then disposed of, when men are not.

It's kind of obvious.

TucsonGirl · 13/05/2014 22:10

I don't understand how video games are any different to violent films, internet porn, or anything else. It is up to parents to monitor what their children are exposed to.

theselegswermad · 13/05/2014 22:17

TucsonGirl I totally agree

Fasttouch · 13/05/2014 22:23

Whilst playing GTA the majority of people killed in the game will be male. Anyone killed will drop money.

kali110 · 13/05/2014 22:27

I meant equal as in the violence is not all directed at women it's directed at everybody.

Please excuse any typos i really need to find my glasses

LoveSardines · 13/05/2014 22:29

And apparently 100% of the people you can pay to fuck are female.

So that says something, doesn't it.

TucsonGirl · 13/05/2014 22:32

That the majority of people who buy video games like GTA are heterosexual men? Would it really be a lot better if they stuck some rentboys in the game for people to able to fuck or kill? I can't see any controversy over that at all...

Really the problem is the attitude that all video games are for kids, which many parents still seem to have.

LoveSardines · 13/05/2014 22:32

Why are there no men who you can pay to such in the game then?

What message does that reflect and reinforce?

Much of media output revels in presenting women as sex object + victim it is really disturbing.

Ideally what is required is change on both sides but we seem to be going backwards in a lot of ways.

Catsize · 13/05/2014 22:33

This is absolutely sickening and makes me want to move to a desert island to raise my children.
What is wrong with society that this sort of thing is mainstream?!

LoveSardines · 13/05/2014 22:36

Tuscon if you can't see a problem with women being continually portrayed as sex objects and victims for the entertainment of the masses then that is your lookout.

[Shrugs]

LoveSardines · 13/05/2014 22:38

Additionally tuscon you seem to imply that you would be uncomfortable with the addition of men to fuck and then kill in the game. Which is interesting.

I'd prefer neither really.

TucsonGirl · 13/05/2014 22:42

I'm not interested in playing these games. But I don't think they should be banned.

Fasttouch · 13/05/2014 22:43

Personally I think they should leave prostitutes out of the game. But when they are making absolute tons of sales and have always been known to be controversial they don't care what people who don't get their games think.

PitchSlapped · 13/05/2014 22:43

Why are the women portrayed as victims? You can kill them, you can kill everyone and anyone and they will all drop money. Its not like there's a compulsory mission where you have to find and kill a prostitute.

Have you played the game?

JCDenton · 13/05/2014 22:45

Because every character thus far has been written as heterosexual? Maybe if they go with a gay man or woman next time.

JCDenton · 13/05/2014 22:48

As others before said, as a fan of the games, I'd prefer neither, it's only in for the controversy. It's a tiny part of a huge game but every time GTA comes up on here, it's a dozen pages of talking about prostitutes.

ApoqA · 13/05/2014 23:00

I don't like GTA but I don't think it is as damaging as all the parents that let their kids have unrestricted access to the internet without using any parental controls. It the same as leaving a pile of the most disgusting porn magazines in their bedroom cupboard and hoping they won't look at it.

I think parents that go to the bother of having parental controls on their home networks but then give their kid a mobile with unrestricted internet access particularly daft.

DrFunkesFamilyBandSolution · 13/05/2014 23:04

What JC said ^.
Another rock star game, Red Dead Redemption (the Mail readers will know it as the one you can tie prostitues to train tracks and get them run over, when infact toucan do it to all characters), set in the Wild West, has a male amincharacter without the option of sleeping with the prostitues, you can save them from beatings/bad customers and they'll come in to you but as you're playing as a Nice Guy there is no option to shag them. GTA you're not a Nice Guy.

Fallout New Vegas you can shag male, female or robot prostitues and there is an option to upgrade your 'charms' to use on members of the same/opposite sex wth either gender you choose for your character.