Iwonder: What would happen if I did this? That question is the driving force behind many video games, including the new Mature-rated Grand Theft Auto IV for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360: You can experiment and push physical, ethical, legal and moral boundaries within the relatively safe confines of a virtual play space.
This week, I also wondered what would happen if I read a new book, Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games, and then spent a few days kicking the tires of the new version of the game that inspired its title. It worked out pretty well because both works have a lot in common: They are political, often angrily so, and they are brilliantly put together.
That's a lot of grand theft for one week. One evening, I wandered into another room to give myself (and the whirring Xbox) a break, just in time to see on TV a character in the 1990 series Twin Peaks burst into a police station and yell, "Grand theft auto! The Log Lady stole my truck!" I thought that was a cue to get back to work.
A lot of people who don't usually talk games had Grand Theft Auto on their minds this week, and that is a good thing for the most part. The authors of Grand Theft Childhood, Cheryl Olson and Lawrence Kutner, point out that many players, especially teens and kids, use video games to "build and strengthen social relationships with peers." Games provide plenty of talking points.
The trick is getting everyone talking together, and Olson and Kutner may be able to help with that. They are on the psychiatry faculty at Harvard Medical School and run the Center for Mental Health and Media at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Inspired by their son, who at the age of 6 petitioned his principal to get games put on the kindergarten curriculum, they conducted a large study into the effects of violent games on 12-to-14-year-olds. They interviewed and surveyed 1,254 middle-school students in the United States and then talked to many of their parents as well.
The results may shock some people: Among the boys studied, 44 per cent listed Grand Theft Auto, which is rated for players aged 17 and over, among their regularly played games; it was the most popular choice by some distance. It was the second-most-popular game among girls, just behind The Sims.
What attracts the kids? For that, back to Grand Theft Auto IV. Say what you will about its developers at Rockstar Games, who delight in creating and then feeding on controversy, the new game proves yet again that they are extraordinary coders.
The design elements that make up the game's setting, Liberty City, have been exhaustively detailed this week in reviews. I have one anecdote to add to that mix.
A lot of people focus on the graphics in the game the faces can be easily confused with TV car shows on the Speed channel, or perhaps with the characters in David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises (if you are playing one of the more violent story missions). But underneath those pretty visuals are codes - sets of rules, really - that dictate what you can do in the game.
Often these rules are applied by virtual police officers, which makes sense, and they stepped in during an altercation I had with a disgruntled passenger in a cab I had stolen. (It happens.) The two police officers didn't see me steal the cab, but they did see the passenger throw the first punch. I wasn't in the mood for a fight and moved back. The officers arrested the man, put him in the back of their car and drove away.
