Comments on: "Grand Theft Auto" Makes Crime Pay

Latest Version Of Controversial Video Game Rakes In $500M In Just One Week

[nothappyatall]

" raked in more than $500 million in its first week in stores"

Whats REALLY hilarious is that half a billion dollars in one week is probably a lot more than the right wingers drop in their church collection pits the same week LOL
Goes to show video games are more popular!

[nothappyatall]

Drug addiction is also on the rise. Near the entrance to Destiny Club, one of Thimphu%u2019s handful of new discos, three young revelers discuss the virtues of %u201Cpig%u2019s food,%u201D a potent variety of marijuana, abundant in the Bhutanese countryside, that is used traditionally as an appetite enhancer for livestock. %u201CDo kids in America also get addicted?%u201D asks the trio%u2019s leader, a 23-year-old with reddened eyes. Thimphu%u2019s drug scene might seem tame by international standards, but this can hardly be the kind of happiness the king envisioned. Ugyen Dorji, a former addict who founded Bhutan%u2019s first drug-rehabilitation center three years ago with the help of the Youth Development Fund, says it reflects %u201Cthe anxieties of a society in transition.%u201D

[nothappyatall]

Nabji%u2019s isolation diminishes by the day: The booms reverberating across the valley are the sounds of a road being blasted through the forest several miles away. A rotating crew of 15 villagers from Nabji contributes labor, hauling 150-pound bags of plastic explosive up the mountain slopes. The new road won%u2019t reach Nabji for another year or two, but when it arrives, electricity, television, and commerce will follow. Some elders worry that Nabji%u2019s innocence will be lost.

Bhutan%u2019s traditionalists, however, see a darker force at play: the invasion by a materialistic global monoculture that is eroding their values. The government has banned channels deemed harmful, including MTV, Fashion TV, and a sports channel that featured violent wrestling spectacles. Sonam Tshewang, a junior-high teacher in Thimphu, believes something vital has already been lost. %u201CSome kids have become so Westernized that they%u2019ve forgotten their own cultural identity,%u201D he says. One girl in his class even changed her name to Britney.

Gangs with names like Virus and Bacteria have formed. Violent crime is still rare, but theft%u2014once absent in a country with few locked doors%u2014is becoming more common, as people covet their neighbors%u2019 mobile phones and CD players.

[nothappyatall]

I dont know svrrr, but in the National Geographic magazine March 2008 is an article about a place in India pop 100,000 that was remote and unchanged for 1,000 years, the king abdicated in 2006 and let the people have a democratic Govt. NOW roads, electric, Television and the internet are making their way in and showing them the outside world.
NOW in a place where no one locked doors there is theft of cell phones and other stuff going on, violence has begun and old people very worried about the "western influences" wrecking their country and social system.
A place that survived nicely for 1,000 years now under threat of being destroyed from inside by the corruption of the Western TV;

Bhutan''s Enlightened Experiment

Guided by a novel idea, the tiny Buddhist kingdom tries to join the modern world without losing its soul.

On the eve of the millennium, in 1999, Bhutan granted its citizens access to television%u2014the last country on the planet to do so. (The Internet trickled in the same year.) Euphoria reigned in the towns as the outside world in all its garish glory beamed into shops and living rooms. Pulling the lid off Pandora%u2019s box, however, raised concerns. What happens, after all, when an isolated, deeply conservative society is suddenly exposed to gangsta rapper 50 Cent and the World Wrestling Federation? Such questions carry extra weight in a vulnerable nation of 635,000 people, half of whom are under 22 years old.

[sverre5-2009]

If someone who meets the age and maturity required to play that game wants to, then I see no harm in letting them. Video games should not be blamed for all youth violence, as they aren''t the only contributor. If a violent video game has adverse effects on a minor, does that mean that an equally violent movie wouldn''t? Those who are influenced by a video game so heavily that it leads them to do that have something psychologically amiss in the first place. It''s also not right to generalize someone who would play a video game into a negative archetype. Would someone who watches The Godfather or other movies of the sort also be in this same group? While I agree that the game should not under any circumstances be given to a minor, I believe in the right for people above the 17 and older restriction to be able to play it.

[extradition]

Extradition -- Jack Thompson: enough said.

-bgwinnett

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:c)

[bgwinnett]

Extradition -- Jack Thompson: enough said.

[extradition]

*"extradition: We''''re not anti-gaming. We, the clear majority, are merely trying to protect the weak-minded---people like you---from yourselves. Judging by the literacy level of your post, I guess we were too late to help you. -babykilller"*

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That''s really interesting this should come from a user named "babykiller"...

You''ve obviously ignored what I wrote in my post, so I''ll mention this again:

****"Grand Theft Auto IV" raked in more than $500 million in its first week in stores, selling more than 6 million units worldwide****

Gamers are not a minority... just look at the sales revenue and think about how many people purchased GTA 4.

I have yet to hear and see great public outcry and action(s) taken against Rockstar and Take-Two.

You might hear a few peeps out of that tvvat, Jack Thompson... as always, he will fail. Outspoken antigamers are a minority. Don''t fight it. It is what it is. You lose, you fail. :c)

[bgwinnett]

Xbox 360......

Xbox Live name: Destruct Zero

Posted by NAUcoming4U at 08:18 PM : May 07, 2008

360 too.

Can''t play at the moment though thanks to RROD, but I have played the game on friends consoles.

[naucoming4u]

We all know the types of people who are attracted to violent games and crass rap music and whatever brainless trend that comes along, and they are due a certain level of respect, as long as they get my order right at the drive-up window.

Posted by cneron at 08:08 PM : May 07, 2008
...........

I thoroughly enjoy violent video games (Call of Duty 4, Grand Theft Auto)...

...yet I enjoy classical music (Mozart, Chopin, etc.), and I am a marketing professional at a Fortune 10 high tech company.

I suggest you make sure those carts don''t touch my Acura when I shop at your grocery store!

[naucoming4u]

NAUcoming4U -- 360 or PS3?

Posted by bgwinnett at 08:11 PM : May 07, 2008
.........

Xbox 360......

Xbox Live name: Destruct Zero

[naucoming4u]

extradition: We''''re not anti-gaming. We, the clear majority, are merely trying to protect the weak-minded---people like you---from yourselves. Judging by the literacy level of your post, I guess we were too late to help you.

Posted by babykilller at 07:59 PM : May 07, 2008
.........

I can clearly see the anger in the post from "extradition" simply because the term "protect" is over used and over done. Sadly, too many so-called parents are trying to child-proof society so they don''t have to take the responsibility to protect their own. These so-called parents are both Conservative AND Liberal, and they all feel that various adult forms of entertainment should be banned and/or heavily censored.

I am 33 years old, and I, (along with "extradition" and many others) want the freedom to purchase and enjoy these adult forms of entertainment WHENEVER WE DAMM WELL FEEL LIKE IT! But at the same time, we are very well aware that these games should be limited if not completely restricted from children.

But that does not seem to be good enough for the average TV babysitter type of "parent"... who feels that they have done their job by merely feeding, clothing, and sheltering their offspring.

Alas, we have the types of crimes and school shootings that are a result of the aforementioned "parent"... NOT because of the VOLUNTARY CHOICES of entertainment available.

[bgwinnett]

NAUcoming4U -- 360 or PS3?

[extradition]

Grow up you fv(ks that have nothing better to do then read gaming news and rant about your distaste for violent games.

***"Grand Theft Auto IV" raked in more than $500 million in its first week in stores, selling more than 6 million units worldwide, the video game''s publisher said Wednesday.***

Obviously you anti-gaming pri(ks area minority.

Please ****.

[naucoming4u]

Great game. It''''s satirical take on American society is hilarious too...granted minors should not be playing it though. There needs to be more awareness among parents, that video games are a media and therefore not all of it is suitable for children.

Posted by bgwinnett at 05:21 PM : May 07, 2008
...........

I''ll agree with you highly!

I bought the game last week, and it is addictive to say the least.

Of course, it is the parents'' responsibility to ensure their children either do not play the game, or are taught to understand that the game (as with many forms of media) is a satirical/fantasy land... not to be taken seriously.

However, I''m sure old mother Hillary will disapprove. Boo hoo hoo.

[excoachken]

A sick game for sick people who''s only life at age 28, comes from playing this *** in their mom''s basement.

[bgwinnett]

Great game. It''s satirical take on American society is hilarious too...granted minors should not be playing it though. There needs to be more awareness among parents, that video games are a media and therefore not all of it is suitable for children.

[msay3]

....and we wonder why kids are growing up with such little regard for human and animal lives...DUH!!!!!

[hypnotoad72]

I''ll side with Hillary; the stuff that''s put into games goes too far.

It is not "free speech" if anybody bothered to think about it; and no way should a child have access to this sort of game. Children do see how adults act, and in turn tend to act similarly.