Violence. Sex. Satire to the max. It's fun. There's a story and everything. I was playing it for the story, style, and missions. The violence, stealing, and killing became secondary [it was done without consideration to the actual gameplay]. However, GTA IV [and video games in general] is not without controversy. Jack Thompson [pictured via Kotaku] is a Florida lawyer that has a history of denouncing and linking video game violence to real world violence. He tried to connect the Virginia Tech shooter to video games. Turns out, the shooter [Cho] barely touched video games and was just, in fact, crazy. Political groups tried to ban the release of the newest GTA game but guess what, it sold in record numbers [Kotaku].
Does game violence lead to real violence? No, there is no actual linkage. Lawmakers usually use video games as scrape goats because they are unfamiliar with them and have heard some negative report supporting their ideas. Video games are a billion dollar business and is growing faster than the movie industry.
Game Politics is a website devoted to keeping track of video games and the politics that follow them. It has links to many supporting sites and what viewers can do to act.
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