Ethics

Grand Theft Auto, the first instalment to the series is a game that raised a lot of ethical questions when it was released. Grand Theft Auto is set in three cities which the player is free to roam, the main objective of the game is to reach a certain amount of points for each city, the player can achieve this through various criminal activities; stealing cars and selling them, running people over, killing and assassinating people, also missions can be completed which include robbing banks, being a getaway driver, returning stolen drugs to syndicates and more. These raise ethical questions that Toshihiro Nagoshi designer of the game Yakusa reflects upon in this article from kotaku.com "I thought one day someone is going to have to make something like this. Personally, because I think you must think about the influence games have on people, I would never think about wanting to make a game like this. However, because of the moral issues in this game, I think we should have a healthy debate...In gaming, if you make a decision, there is a reaction, and it's the most stimulating form of media, I think. And thus, it can asked if it's the most dangerous media... Depending on what you make, perhaps." (Nagoshi, Yakuza Creator On Grand Theft Auto by Brian Ashcraft, Kotaku.com, 2009) I believe Nagoshi makes a good point, it’s a debate that has been running about films for years, do they have an effect on people? Here is an article from cbsnews.com. This is a report by Correspondent Ed Bradly. Devin Moore of 18years “who had played Grand Theft Auto day and night for months.” (Ed Bradley, Can A Video Game Lead To Violence, n.d.) Shot dead three police officers after being brought into Fayette police station on suspicion of stealing a car, he then “grabbed a set of car keys. He went out the door to the parking lot, jumped into a police cruiser, and took off.” (Ed Bradley, n.d.) Its reported that after his capture Moore said “Life is like a video game. Everybody’s got to die sometime.” (Moore, n.d,) Frighteningly these do feel very similar to events from the game and there is no denying the assumption that Grand Theft Auto could be a contributing factor. Attorney Jack Thompson on the case says “What we're saying is that Devin Moore was, in effect, trained to do what he did. He was given a murder simulator... He bought it as a minor. He played it hundreds of hours, which is primarily a cop-killing game. It's our theory, which we think we can prove to a jury in Alabama, that, but for the video-game training, he would not have done what he did.” (Thompson n.d.) My views on this moral question on video game related violence is that if someone is capable of committing such an extreme act of violence they would find some other medium to vent themselves with, for Thompson to say Grand Theft Auto is a “Murder simulator” (Thompson n.d.) and provokes violence from individuals in the outside world is unfounded as there would many more cases across the globe. I believe it a possibility Devin Moore was capable of crimes even before he played Grand Theft Auto, but I am not denying that it may have desensitised him and contributed towards his actions, which could have been from elsewhere in his life or yet to be, from another media source for example, reading about a crime, or watching a violent film or documentary.