Getting Grand Theft Auto IV for my son

The Game Room
1

My 15-year-old son wants a copy of GTA4, and I just can’t seem to get straight answers on what the game is all about. He claims that it’s a rich gaming experience and that stealing cars, shooting cops, driving drunk, humping whores, robbing banks, and various other sex, profanity, and graphic violence aren’t really part of the game. “It’s just some optional stuff people are talking about that you don’t have to do.”

On the other hand, the game’s official Web site plays up the murder aspect and indicates that certain parts of the game depend on getting drunk with various characters so you can get favors from them later. Stealing cars is the NAME of the game! And the review in IGN includes quotes like these:

It sounds to me like drunkenness, sex, profanity, and hardcore violence are the very core of the game, and that’s why it has an M rating for “blood, intense violence, partial nudity, strong language, strong sexual content, and use of drugs & alcohol.” My inclination is to say no.

Would someone who has experience with the game please chime in and tell me if I’m off-base?

2

I give your boy 10 points for effort and creativity.

He is however, full of crap. Murder, drinking, theft etc are all integral parts of every GTA game. If you don’t want him playing a game with those themes, then do not buy this game for him.

3

It’s definitely a game for grown-ups. I mean, my understanding is (I just started playing it) that there’s a lot of moral nuance, ethical consequences, etc. in it - but for grown-ups. A kid is going to be more involved with the hookers and blow.

4

Well, technically, if you’re playing a baseball game, you don’t have to swing the bat. But there’s not much to the game if you don’t.

5

Hopefully I can help a little. Drunkenness is not portrayed positively in this game by any means. I have drunk and drove once and, while amusing, it’s impossible to achieve anything. You can’t drive at any speed without crashing spectacularly and the cops will start chasing you. It’s an advert against drinking and driving.

That’s pretty much where the good news ends.

Sex, as far as I’m aware, is not a main part of the game. You have to go out of your way looking for it. Basically you go down a darkened street at night and pick up prostitutes. It’s not linked to the storyline (where I am in the storyline anyway). It’s there, but not in your face (unless you pay for it).

There is a lot of profanity and hardcore violence, if considered to be the wholesale slaughter of innocent people and cops without nary a concern, is a major part of the game.

Stealing cars - Major part of the game.
Shooting cops - The storyline forces you to kill a lot of cops.
Driving drunk - It’s there, but portrayed very negatively.
Humping whores - It’s there but not a main part of the game.
Robbing banks -There is one storyline mission where you rob a bank, you kill a lot of cops to make your escape.

Without all the violence, profanity and sex; this game would probably play like Burnout Paradise.

6

I just started the game but I have played the others. You play a criminal. He does illegal things. That is the point of the game. When it first came out it was refreshing because games like Driver had similar themes but felt the need to make you an undercover cop just to be safe. There is no safe in GTA. And no language filter either. I play at night when the kids are in bed. But I let my son play when he was 16. Nothing in it that a R rated movie doesn’t have. Less actually since there is no cartoon nudity.

7

How do you feel about him watching Scar Face? GTA: Vice City was pretty much that movie and all the games are similar. That should give you an idea.

8

When my wife and I watched Scarface, she walked out partway through and flat-out refuses to see it. She would object strenuously to our son watching it. Given his personality, I’d say it would probably be a bit over-the-top for him, too.

9

In case the other replies didn’t tell you enough, I wanted to add that you can go to strip clubs and get lap dances - the controller vibrates when the girl rubs up against you. And you execute people point blank. No way in hell I’d let my 15-year-old play it.

10

For what it’s worth, I found Scarface a lot more disturbing than GTA4.

11

Only because the graphics are better.

12

No offense, but I think you’re not giving your son a fair shake. He’s 15, sounds plenty mature and seems to know exactly what he’d be getting himself into with GTA4.

I wouldn’t buy the game for him, but if he’s got the money and wants to buy it himself, let him. (or rather, go to the game store with his money, because they won’t let a 15 year old buy GTA4).

13

I have a couple of nephews who were playing GTA 3 when they were 10 or so. They came out OK. I think most 15 year olds should be mature enough to handle it.

14

Grand Theft Auto games have themes similar to rated R movies. If you wouldn’t let your kid see a rated R movie about bank robbers that kill cops to make their escape, don’t let him get this game.

15

Just to throw something in here a mature fifteen year old shouldn’t have a problem and you’d know better than us. At the same time he’s certainly being dishonest with you and knows it (find me a teenager who isn’t aware of what’s in the media that is tantalizingly out their reach and I’ll be shocked); rewarding that seems wrong to me…

16

I will say that GTA4 is far less gratuitous in it’s over the top violence, swearing and sex than the last one GTA:SA. They don’t even come close IMHO. In GTA4 you do alot of bad shit, but the main character is not generally portrayed as a bad guy and is in the game for his own reasons. There have been several times where Niko has voice overs talking to himself about whether or not he should do something becuase it’s wrong etc…

I wouldn’t buy it for a 15 year old, but if that 15 year old was allowed to play GTA:SA then he should be allowed to play this one because it is not as rough as that one was.

17

I’m 29 and have been playing GTA IV for a week now. If I had a 15 year old I wouldn’t let him play it. It’s still not as fucked up as Manhunter though.

On a side note: I think it’s incredibly strange that the game is surely not meant for young children, but much of the dialouge, in game jokes and not so witty double entendres are really marketed for mid teens. Either thats thier real target market no matter what they say, or they think anyone playing this has the mind of a mid teen.

18

Having watched someone else play most of the way through it, so far I think it’s actually a decent commentary on the subjective nature of morality, why we draw the lines where we do, and the real excuses we make to justify our actions. At least, a good case could be made for it. There’s some jokes about current politics, about organized crime stereotypes, and about the GTA series itself. Stereotypes abound, but whether they exist for purely juvenile reasons or to make the point that anyone can be scum could be debated. There’s some pretty funny stuff. There’s also some pretty screwed up stuff. Of course, I’m 24, I’ve had a few philosophy classes, and I’ve been known to use words like “post-modernism” without a touch of irony. I’ve got the context to make this judgment about it.

It’s very violent, very foul-mouthed, and very anti-drug and anti-prostitution.

[spoiler]The main character will drink, but you can drink and drive or get a taxi, and it’s almost impossible to control yourself when you’re drunk. The main character has a decided distaste for drugs and drug related crime. He won’t accept any offers of illegal drugs, but there is a mission where you go and pick up some coke for a dealer. The main character gets mad when he finds out that he was sent to kill someone just because the guy who was paying him was in the middle of a roid-rage. He’d apparently rather kill for other reasons, like “I don’t like this guy.” or “He fucked my cousin’s girlfriend.” or “This dude’s being blackmailed and payed me to do it.”

The main character can also frequent prostitutes, but has absolutely no respect for them, and makes comments after having sex with them about how he’s lost respect for himself. Despite this, I don’t think the game demeans women. Other women aren’t disrespected in the game and the female characters are just as strong and/or screwed up as the male characters.
[/spoiler] (Hence my point about subjective morality.)

It would depend on the 15 year old. Some might take the tongue-in-cheek asshole radio commentary to be the word-for-word opinion of the people at Rockstar, and some will be more savvy than that. FWIW, I watched *American History X * at age 16, in school, and while it horrified and disturbed me, it was overall an experience that taught me about the darker side of humanity.

GTA is a far cry from even a movie like Casino, which deals with similar issues, let alone something like American History X. I’d let a 15 year old play it, but I’d sit right there and watch it with him and make him talk about his opinions on the subject. I think playing a “bad” guy in a video game could actually be a useful teaching tool–how you feel when the game forces you to choose a side, the value judgements you must make, how you feel about violence after the game forces you to finish off a character who’s begging for his life. (This actually does happen, but he’s a drug dealer and an asshole…so is it ok now? No? Why?) I’m not a parent though, just a loudmouth young’n.

19

That is perfect. A parent can say yes but make it so that the kid no longer wants to play.

20

There was an interesting article in Slate on the queasy morality of GTA 4. I can’t find it right this second, though - it’s only turning up another article (which was also interesting - about crime and community). I’ll link if I can find it.