What? Moar GTA Pondification?!?

By Matt Armstrong

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

So, basically the geek-side of the internet shit it's pants last week, between the release of Iron Man (great), Mario Kart Wii (even better), and of course, Grand Theft Auto IV (holy crap it's amazing). The pundits all went racing to those tired old "experts" on violent behavior, and their gray suited wet squirts of "Corruption!! Murder!! Shenanigans!! Our Children!!". They even rolled out that old trick of titling article's with questions, so you could get their bias without having to go through all the trouble of reading the article. According to them, the world's gone mad, as every other person on the face of the planet went out, bought the game, and had a grand old time.

And by the way, none of those articles state exactly what the notorious study was that proved that children displayed violent behavior after playing violent video games. There's a reason for that; namely that the method they used instantly convinces you that the research is bullshit. And believe me, the explicit details are hard to find, scarcely referenced here. Basically, kids were allowed to play games, and when they felt like they "won", they honked a horn. When the kids were playing slightly violent video games (nothing rated M, of course), the honks were a little bit closer together and/or longer in duration. Conclusion: games make kids potentially violent. You know, towards, like, horns. This is why Hillary Clinton wants to fine retailers for selling Resident Evil IV, but doesn't mind stores renting Irreversible.

There isn't anything that I can say about the game that hasn't been said before, and much more eloquently, by others. But there is one aspect of the game's release that I haven't seen focused on, and that's how relatively small the advertising campaign was. That may seem silly, given the above photo of HUGE BUILDING SIZED posters. But I mean it. When Halo 3 came out, or God of War II, or any number of game and hardware releases, you simply couldn't escape the advertising. Hell, Halo was responsible for viral ads, a television campaign, an internet ARG, magazines, posters, special editions, a price drop on Xbox's, not to mention a new flavor of freakin' Mountain Dew!

The ad also gets bonus points for the hidden message of "USA! USA! YOO ESSSS EEEYYY!!!"

It totally turns me off on a product when it's forced on me so roughly. It's garbage that has come alive and found a way to get back in the house. But Rockstar has been pretty clever in it's campaign, using posters, outdoor billboards, and a few short title screen ads, all pretty tastefully placed. Of course that hasn't stopped the afore mentioned pundits from calling fowl, and not letting up until cities pulled the ads from the public eye, but that was to be expected. The way the coverage was spread out, it wasn't insulting to it's own audience. It didn't pollute our already crowded lives, making us tired of it's presence before it had even been released. I have to respect that in our age, in a time where the brands that are already the most monolithic are also our biggest advertisers.

-m@

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Posted by OtherJoel (anonymous) on May 7, 2008 at 12:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Completed unrelated to THIS post, but I wanted to make sure you knew about this:

My Bloody Valentine

09-27 Chicago, IL - Aragon Ballroom

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/ne...

Posted by PatrickJoseph (Patrick Giroux) on May 7, 2008 at 3:11 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Matt: Thanks for linking to the Destructiod piece about how Rockstar, this time around, has given much more thought to how they handle deviant things like attracting police, prostitution, or drunk driving (which I think is new to the game). I've put quite a few hours into the game and it's unfolded in a much different way than the past three titles. Relationships with people get emphasized more and committing the more depraved aspects of the game are downplayed quite a bit. I've probably explored more in this title than the previous ones.

For instance, the one time I went to a bar with a friend, got drunk and decided I could jump into a car ended up in an immediate police chase (with impaired control). I didn't attempt that any more. I fact, I felt more direction (and reason) to hail a cab the next time (which is actually fun to watch the city roll past).

What? Moar GTA Pondification?!?

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