to think that UK shops should follow Australia's lead and ban on Grand Theft Auto 5

[namechangeress]

I have never understood why Grand Theft Auto has been acceptable as a main stream game with the amount of violence against women.

Isn't it about time British shops banned it too?

Yabu!

It's an adult game, not meant forchildren, if parents don't want their kids to play it, it's not hard!

So say we ban gta, should we ban mario kart for encouraging violence against other motorists?
Should we ban Animal Crossing because after all its not very neighbourly to hit your neighbours with tools (if you wanted too) How about banning The Sims because after all you can make sims that resemble your friends and family and choose to kill them off. (If you want to)

Better yet why don't we just ban films rated 15+. Where would you draw the line?

I love how GTA is always mentioned in relation to violent games, as if it's the only game in the world where you can shoot something. I don't think it should be banned. It's a game!

I wish they would take the prostitutes out, it's only there for shock value/publicity and adds nothing to the gameplay. I enjoy GTA but it tries so hard to be edgy.

Anyway, maybe I'm cynical but the store in question stocked the game for the PS3/360 release and the first month or two of the next-gen release when 90% of the money is made and now they cave to pressure.

How very bloody good of them.

It's an adult game, it has 'adult' themes. Big deal. I bought it for my son's Christmas last year (he's 22) and watched him play a bit if it. I found it an utterly amazing achievement, the attention to detail is gobsmacking. I may someday play it myself.
I watch adult telly, too.
(By which I don't mean porn)

If you can convince people not to buy it, the stocks won't stock it.

*the shops

It is now up as a sponsored advert on my mums net! So getting lots of publicity from this thread.

Sponsored GTAV ads on MN now?
Oops, OP will not be pleased at having given them such publicity and advertising space!

Yes I do, and I also think there are far far too many films out with graphic needless violence agaisnt women yes. all should be reigned in and toned down.

The hugely vast majority of violence in this game is against men Elf

Someone posted a link to a sex scene on here a while back from GTA 5 after which the prostitute gets shot in the head. I was a bit urm surprised at the detail tbh. Not sure what to think.

Er, I only fuck men.

Does that mean I'm a misandrist? No, it's my sexuality.

In GTA, you can pretty much kill anyone. Male or female. That isn't the same as it being a good idea, because the police turn up, and there can be negative storyline consequences. (Bit like RL. The option to run amok is always open to me in RL, after all, I just choose not to.) In addition, with certain female characters, your character has additional possibilities for interaction: sexual ones.

Comparing heterosexual main characters only having sexual interactions with members of the opposite sex to main characters only having sex with Muslims or black people is ridiculous.

gta.wikia.com/Prostitutes is an interesting read, by the way.

Also, I think this all actually identifies a completely different issue with GTA. The marginalisation of homosexuals- GTA 6 needs male sex workers, too, and storyline relationship choices with same-sex characters (assuming the latter doesn't exist at the moment) so that the player can pick the orientation for their game.

Bit like Mass Effect, IYSWIM?

Timely Build a bridge and get the fuck over it.

I am thoroughly sick of the "think of the children" brigade deciding anything they dislike should be banned. Ban this and what comes next, murder mystery novels, horror moves?

No, YABU.

It is a game that has adult themes and should only be sold to and played by adults.... adults that are perfectly able to make a moral judgement on the content of the game for themselves.

Shops make decisions which make commercial sense.

I don't know what Aussie shops are like. But if these two have decided that it's more profitable to cease stocking it, and they are proved right, then I think it's quite likely that a different pattern of sales will follow.

Perhaps the future scenario will be that it'll still be widely available from on-line stores and gaming retailers, but not all over supermarkets and other ships positioning themselves for sales to families/children.

I always think it's weird that promo material for 18 rated games is often all over the basement of Hamleys.

YABU. There's a bigger following of the game than those who hate it. It's not a government ban at all - the things you can do in the game are there because it's a sandbox game. Do what you want, basically. But, there is a campaign mode (which most games have apart online, mercenaries shoot em ups which you are times and graded on) where you have a set story to follow. Let me tell you that the violence against women is NOT part of the main storyline, you don't have to do it. infact, i tried it. it's hard to find the prostitutes in the first place seeing as in-game daytime is 20 minutes and the night is 20 minutes long. in that 20 minutes, you'er probably in a police chase or pulling a heist.
Australia has a thing where they ban gore. They can't ban Call of Duty because there has been a gore setting. you can turn off all blood and guts which then takes the game down to a 15 rating.
There are better games out now, and the games are now out for next gen consoles. Thanks to GTAV, GAME shops all over england within the first THREE HOURS saved the shop. they earned that much money from the games they're still selling it because people want it - supply and demand.
Always take notice of the 18 rating. Up until about 15 i wasn't allowed to play by my mother but my dad let me play/watch him play zombie games. cue the "it isnt real" talk.
Look, the stuff in the game isn't part of the main story. yes it is violent but its a really, really good game. The story is excellent. You don't have to smoke weed and get high with the aliens, you don't have to go to a woman and kill her, or a man for that matter unless it's a criminal. The criminals aren't women.
You save your own daughter from doing something she regrets (a porn shoot on a boat) which ends up in a shootout on jet skis. you then ground her. for life. It's kind of realistic. you make your own cars, make your own character (on online, you can't in the main game) and make the game yours, play with other people, make friendships... I was added by a lovely girl from tenessee and we talk loads and have skyped, shes lovely and not at all violent. She's about to gradute College! it's just a hobby people have.
and again... the violence against women is not in the main storyline.
it will not be banned. Again... because of supply and demand.
and because Rockstar have made an excellent game.
They made LA Noire, in which it's kind of like GTA but you investigate the Black Dahlia murder, try and capture big time criminals as you're a detective, it's amazing. I loved it. Then in Red Dead Redemption, you're a cowboy. Rockstar is a Scottish company anyway, they have headquarters in Leeds also where they make ports. It's a massive, massive buisness and there are more people who want it than who dont.

ALSO, having sex with ANYONE in the game (one character i played as woke up spooning a man who was whispering "oh nono what have I done... mom's gonna kill me!!") makes your health go up if you have no snacks or just been in a shoot out. you do NOT have to shoot them - me and DP don't as we got 1 billion dollars in a glitch. We've only just got out of Bad Sport, which is where you go when you're playing like a bellend and ruining Online for everyone else, such as shooting up personal cars, killing other people etc...

We've only just got out of Bad Sport, which is where you go when you're playing like a bellend and ruining Online for everyone else, such as shooting up personal cars, killing other people etc...

You're that person! Haha, that's the only part of GTA Online I don't like, people randomly deciding to repeatedly kill me for no apparent reason.

To the OP - YABU. It may have been mentioned (and there are a lot more detailed answers than mine which probably explain things better), but the killing of NPCs is discouraged in GTA V. Any time you do something wrong (with the exception of stealing cars if you aren't seen by a police officer or don't do it too often in a short space of time) the police are onto you, just like in RL. Most people wouldn't bother killing NPCs (I would imagine) because getting rid of the police in that game is a pain most of the time.

I can't say the game has encouraged me to be violent, as a responsible adult I don't take pointers on how to live my life from games, and I think most people will be the same. Due to that, however, I fully agree that the game shouldn't be played by children, it is definitely for adults.

jack yes thats us it's not my cup of tea isn't GTA I like my Resident Evil!

i have only played the older versions of this game, so am asking genuinely, are there any women in the game besides those that are viewed as sex workers or just being there for the pleasure of men? are they shown to have any other roles/worth? from this thread it sounds like men fill the roles of different types of characters, but the only women we have heard of on here are prostitutes, or a daughter who is asked to star in a porn film on a boat?! it would be nice to know that the game doesn't just view women as sex objects, and being solely there for the men, i'd like to know if women are involved in any other way?! are there any tough women criminals, or cops?! do they ever do the killing of the men etc?! it would just be nice to know if they see us as being able to fill those kind of roles as well, not just the subservient/ sex object roles

You have a female computer hacker.
A lawyer.
Michaels wife and daughter.
Many many female pedestrians.
Actresses.
The lady who wants you find celeb souvenirs.
There's more, but that's what I can think of off the top of my head.

thanks longdistancelove :)

YABU.

Just to add to the conversation, a group of GTA enthusiasts gave started a petition to stop Target and Kmart selling a book that encourages the abuse, sexual assault and murder of women. They state that if they can't buy the game then why should this book be allowed.

It's the Bible.

Personally I've never played the game. I see nothing wrong with the game concept of driving etc but I have an issue with murdering female sex workers for fun and points. What if black people were lynched for points etc?

There's no points to be gained from fucking and killing a pixilated prostitute. This is where the original petition is fundamentally flawed. In Australia if there was incentives to do that the game wouldn't be allowed to sell in its current format.

Within the game, you have the ability to kill anyone regardless of gender, creed, age (there's no children in it at all) or even species as you can go hunting.