Well how's about that.. Look what GTA caused now!

http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2008/05/06/take-two-fights-back-against-banned-gtaiv-ads-with-lawsuit

yawn.

EDIT: Things like that mess up America, and its debt, and makes me want to move to the Netherlands/New Zealand.

Surely the title should be "look what local government caused now"? ;)

The worst thing about this is that the taxpaying public are going to pay for the stupidity of local government. Don't want to run their ads? Don't take their money. It's pretty simple. I find it hard to believe that anyone who isn't currently living under a rock could fail to predict the public outcry which was going to be attached to this game. I mean Jack Thompson's been cancelling his yoga appointments and everything to free up time in May.

The local government wouldn't have caused anything if 'Take Two' didn't insist on putting up building sized ads for a game that generally teaches how to break the law. I don't think you can blame the local government on this one.

Local government certainly has the right to not accept the ads. But in this case it accepted them and then changed its mind. Can they do this? I would assume that depends on the terms of the contract.

The part I found fascinating was the claim that the deal was worth $300,000. That's just with the Transit Authority in one city.

You think local government is any smarter over here? (New Zealand)

Choose Canada.

Wasn't referring to the local government thing when I said things like that make me want to move.
Actually the biggest factor is if Hillary wins presidency. I swear, if she wins I'm getting out of this country.

The worst thing about that article is the writing.

Personaly, I think I'd like to see Rockstar go down, and anyone else that supports the development of pretty much all their games. But thats definately not going to happen in this particular case.

I can't believe anyone (or company) would spend so much money just to make a game. It makes sense if your certain its going to sell millions, but still.

Surely if anyone was going to have a fairly good idea whether their game was going to make millions, it'd be the people connected to GTA4?

I would think the Internet is a far more valuable (and readily available) resource when it comes to "how to"'s on breaking the law....

I don't that getting banned now do I?!?

Insisted? So you're suggesting that the Transit Authority refused the ads, didn't accept the money but Take Two went round and insisted that they take them? No, the Transit Authority saw dollar signs in their eyes and then panicked when they realized they were going to get hauled over the coals for it, tried to back out and violated a contract they were too greedy to turn down.

And as for "teaches how to break the law". Well you go and try to break into a car by repeatedly pressing RB and see how well that serves you. Or you can try aiming a gun using only your left thumb.


I think you'll find I can, and I believe you'll find a lot of other people do the same.

Yeah, so you'd think wouldn't you? But it'd be even better if you could just take the money and run. I mean if I've learned anything from playing GTA, that would be it. :o>

Actually Take Two didn't insist on anything. They paid 300K USD for the right to put up a building sized ad. And yes, if you had paid that amount of money for an ad, and didn't get the agreed upon exposure, I'm pretty sure you'd be plenty pissed too.

She has about as much chance of winning the presidency as Obama has of walking out alive from a Klan rally, or McCain has of living long enough.

Rockstar and Take 2 are the only developers/publishers with any balls left. I applaud them!

I believe they were breaking even after the first 8 hours of sales. In the UK alone.

Give it time. In many countries public computers (like those in schools and libraries) have censorship software installed.

Also I don't think anybody needs to be "taught" what the outcome is, if you point a gun at someone and pull the trigger. Breaking the law isn't exactly rocket science.

Indeed.

I don't think that americans are in the position to go anywhere about weapons in games, its after all the only country where every idiot can get a weapon. In any other country you normally go through quite some formal stuff before you get the right to even own ONE (not any number you want) and that is for the lowest category. the higher only go to those who need it for their job / military.

The problem with the states is that each state is fundamentaly its own country with its own firearm laws. Very few rules are set by the federal government. So some states are stricter than others, but since the borders between states are open there isn't a lot you can do to prevent the traffic of weapons passing through.

I don't think we should pass the buck onto the parents because they obviouly couldn't care how their kids behave and probably weren't brought up any better themselves.

I think it's fundamentaly our fault that we let standards drop, slowly but consistently through the years till it's hard to change direction and fix what we neglected. Our society is like Microsoft, huge and cumbersome v's Apple who can do an about turn about within a couple of years and change whatever they feel is wrong with their system.

When I was about 15 I remember my friends and I renting 'The Golden Child' with Eddie Murphy, and we were surprised that the film wasn't classed as an 18. These days just the regular adverts for TV shows like CSI, NCIS, Cold cases etc are more graphic than most 18 certificate movies of the last couple of decades.

I mentioned this to Cygnus and realised that most of you were probably 2 years old or not even born when The golden child came out. I really don't think many people here have lived long enough to have a good perspective on this subject, so posting on here is ultimately a waste of time.

Haven't you read Wedoe's age thread? Most people here are much, much older than you think. Why would "The Golden Child" be rated 18? It was a comedy! Where are you from? 18th century Vatican City?

The fact that we don't look back on the cold war era, living under the constant threat of nuclear holocaust with fondness, isn't because we're too young to remember. It's simply because we aren't nostalgic about an over-romanticized childhood.

I only hope the local election results in the UK last friday show how people are tired of the current state of affairs in their local communities and society as a whole. Maybe we will see a swing back to something more centrist where common sense may have a chance to prevail.

The problem is that common sense is suicide in politics. Politics is a popularity contest. What matters is public opinion. Look at George Bush as the prime example. When he ran for governor the first time, with common sense, he was slaughtered. When he ran the second time, with what can best be described as stupidity, we won almost no contest.

Unfortunately if you have a panicked or scared public, you can get them to go along with even the most irrational, ludicrous preposition, as long as you can convince everyone it'll solve their pains.

The problem is that it is in the best interest of your elected officials to have you living in an unsafe and volatile environment, so you spend too much time worrying about street crime, and not enough time worrying about what crimes they're doing in your name.