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| Photo Courtesy of Rockstar Games
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By Christopher Pluta
Grand Theft Auto III is more about social commentary and less about killing cops
or shooting prostitutes. The game teaches us an important lesson by making us
view society from a different perspective. Instead of starting with the heroic
and moral and working our way down, GTA portrays the worst aspects of humanity
and American culture, then challenges us to improve it.
At the risk of being overtly violent, the game makes a strong moral point. It
glorifies nothing. The killing is brutal, the police chases are merciless, and
your criminal friends are hardly trustworthy.
GTA shows the danger of the life of crime and does not limit itself to standard
criminal stereotypes. In fact, one of the biggest crime bosses is the CEO of Love
Media, a large global media corporation. In this year’s release, GTA: Vice
City, the menu has been greatly expanded and no one is left out. From sports heroes
to filmmakers to radio talk-show hosts, everyone plays a part in the continuing
decline of society.
This game is at its best when it parodies the media. It portrays talk radio as
being inundated with commentary from idiots and despots, and Top 40 radio as weak
and frumpy. Vice City even pokes fun at video games themselves, with Pogo the
Monkey and the Degenitron.
From the SUV parody of the Maibastu Monstrosity to the Dormotron, a machine that
lets you exercise while you sleep, GTA pulls no punches. Even the patriotically
flared and aptly-named gun store in the game, Ammu-nation, speaks to our national
obsession with guns. Michael Moore would be proud.
In fact, I feel that Vice City is not a fictional place, nor is Liberty City only
in the imaginations of clever game designers. These places are as real as the
ones in which we live. Instead of leaving some bits out for the censors or ignoring
the issues completely, GTA takes a hard look at society and doesn’t turn
away for a second. 
By Shonta Durham
Drive-by shootings, gang rivalries, bank robberies, car thefts, sniping and drug
smuggling are real-life atrocities. Violence also defines our entertainment. We
all know of movie plots that are nothing more than shooting, killing and blowing
things up, and video games that feature animated blood splattered all over the
concrete.
Grand Theft Auto III, a Sony PlayStation 2 video game produced by Rockstar Games,
takes all of the ills of our society to the next level of gruesome entertainment.
It somehow manages to be racist, sexist and violent all on one disc.
There are several local gangs that call this video game home, each managing to
portray a different stereotype.
The Leone family is a Sicilian gang that uses restaurants and clubs as a front
for its illegal activities. Its members have Italian accents, ride around in limos
and wear fancy suits. The Diablos is a Hispanic gang whose members wear red bandanas
and travel in packs of 50. The South Side Hoods is an African-American gang that,
of course, wears gold chains and teeth, branded clothes and platinum. The Colombian
Cartel brings in the drugs because what else would Colombians do in this world
of stereotypical entertainment?
If the stereotypes aren't enough, the violence in this game is brutal.
Players can run people over on the sidewalk, shoot people from the tops of buildings,
car jack innocent drivers, and murder female prostitutes. All of these acts are
rewarded with money.
A video game that celebrates such stereotypical images really has no authority
to comment on the quirks of our society.
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