Writer recounts experience with innovative violent video game

By Carrie Mitchell
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

In the last week I've been a ghost at school. My alternate life has taken hold.

During the past few weeks I'll readily admit I've killed dozens of undeserving pedestrians, a handful of loose-lipped stool pigeons, and some undesirables who got what was coming to them.

I've stolen countless cars, shaken hands with the devil, and put slugs into the skulls of a few gang leaders.

I've been in the hospital. And in the lock-up. I've been tracked down by law-dogs. I've caroused with a hooker (or two).

I've fallen face-first into the most dangerous world known to man.

But it has all been fantasy, a mere video game.

I was playing the most innovative, outlandish, controversial video game I've ever seen, Grand Theft Auto III.

Truth is, I'd rather be playing Grand Theft Auto III than writing about it.

"You don't need to be acquainted with the GTA series to love this game. I've never played the PS one GTAs, and I don't plan to," said Game Reviewer Todd Zuniga in his December interview with Official Playstation Magazine.

Here's how the game works: You are on the run from the law. You've been betrayed by your ambitious girlfriend, and your only buddy is a fellow jail-breaker named 8-Ball.

He leads you to a friend of a friend. Boom, you're working for the mob. That friend of a friend asks you to drive prostitutes and pull a few triggers. Then you're in for good.

The game could last forever, and you can do the creative missions, or you can jack an ambulance and get a few hours of community service under your belt. You can swindle a cop car and engage in Vigilante missions where you'll put hits on key witnesses.

You can purloin a taxi and make a few extra bucks giving rides to the locals. If it's the type of thing that you think, "I wish I could do that in a game," you can do it in this game.

"It looks like fun," said John Flewellen, a 22-year-old communications major from East Hartford, Conn. "It's virtual reality."

The realistic design of the game is actually causing quite a stir throughout the world. Countries have actually pulled GTA II off store shelves and refused to sell it because of the level of graphic violence in the game.

"I would think twice before letting a child of mine play the game because of the level of violence in the game," said Vinney Thomas, a 21-year-old criminal justice major from Burriville, R.I. "I think it's violent and graphic to the point that it's fun."

The Australian government's OFLC (the Office of Film and Literature Classification) officially has ruled that Take-Two and Rockstar's popular action game Grand Theft Auto 3 has been refused classification in Australia.

While GTA III has been accepted in the West (North America and Europe), receiving an M (mature) rating in the U.S., the OFLC's Classification Review Board unanimously refused classification for GTA3 in Australia after an official meeting with Take-Two representatives, considering it unsuitable for a minor to see or play. More significantly, GTA III is now officially illegal to demonstrate or sell in Australia, leaving retailers liable for prosecution under state and territory legislation. All stock of GTA III is to be recalled from shelves and retail storerooms. The board said cited scenes of graphic violence, including assaults on the homeless and the elderly as the chief reasons for declassification.

"I have been assured by the distributor all stock will be recalled and retailers had previously been asked to remove stock from their shelves," said Director of OFLC Des Clark in a Dec. 2 interview with Gamers.com, a web site filled with tips and hints about the newest PS2 games.

"Community Liaison Officers also have been visiting retailers to let them know of the substantial penalties involved in selling refused classification stock."

In response, Take-Two and Rock Star plan to have GTA3 modified so that it could be sold in Australia as early as January 2002.

"We are working closely with the (OFLC) on these changes and anticipate a revised version to be available for Australian gaming fans in January 2002," Dawn Berrie, a Take-Two spokeswoman in a statement sent out nationwide on Dec. 13.

GTA3 continues to be legally sold, demonstrated, and displayed in the U.S..

When asked what some of the funnier parts of the game were Thomas said: "You can pick up prostitutes and pay them to perform duties, and you can steal police cars, fire engines and tanks."

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