![]() My own red line in games is the unthinking use of rape, whether as a "character building" incident for female protagonists (but, strangely, not for male ones) or as an "edgy" version of a sex scene. That's enough to make me sigh, but not give up. The novelist and critic Tom Bissell has described the protagonist's Jewish lawyer in 2002's Vice City as "an anti-Semitic parody of an anti-Semitic parody", while in the new game one of the main character's daughters has a tattoo that reads "skank", and one mission involves you helping a paparazzo capture a starlet's "low-hanging muff". The Grand Theft Auto series is certainly guilty on the last two counts. And that makes it hard to articulate the idea that while the medium is thrilling, exciting and innovative, individual titles can too often be derivative, nasty and riddled with stereotypes. We have a chip on our shoulders the exact shape of a tabloid front page. Games are an easy scapegoat for horrific acts committed by those who happen to play them, despite the lack of evidence of any causal link.Īn unpleasant feedback loop has developed: between the sneers and the moral panics, gamers have become hyper-sensitive to criticism. Finally, there's the spectre of violence. Then there's the idea that games are a "niche" or "geek" pursuit, even though GTA V took an astonishing £500m worldwide in its first day on sale. Partly, this is down to the old hangover of the idea that games are for children, when the average age of a player is now 30. What distinguishes games from books, or films, is that the dodgy sexual politics and wanton violence of one is used as a stick to bash them all. In both London Fields and GTA's Los Santos there's no place for me I can visit, but I'll never feel welcome. I admire the cold brilliance, the execution, the imagination: but I will never love that world, and I never feel inclined to return to it once the story is over. Playing the new Grand Theft Auto, I realised I feel about it the way I feel about Martin Amis novels. That feeling isn't unique to video games. I'm not 'offended' that I can't play as a woman I'm disappointed at the missed opportunity." "I think that's why its problematic elements rankle – not because I'm 'offended', but because it seems lazy, repetitious. "The medium has grown up, and now the GTA franchise is a giant juggernaut that appears to be punching down instead of up," says female games journalist Leigh Alexander. I'm bored, more than anything, as well as irritated that another generation of young players isn't being offered something more exciting than this. Well, yes, it is creepy, but worried isn't the right word. When I went on Channel 4 News to talk about GTA, Jon Snow asked: "Aren't you worried, as a woman, that the whole thing isn't a bit creepy?" Given all this – and the way the series has allowed you to visit a prostitute, then kill her to get your money back – perhaps the horrified reactions shouldn't be surprising. It was the same in the last game: women were there to nag you, or be bribed – whether with fancy dinners or cold, hard cash – into having sex with you. There aren't any female characters to root for, be impressed by, or even fall in love with. You can rescue one whose car has broken down, spy on another having sex with her boyfriend while she checks her phone, and, of course, visit the obligatory strip club and "make it rain" bank notes. In the latest instalment, released last week, women are once again pushed to the margins. Loved by teenagers, it has become one itself: yet in the 16 years of its existence, it hasn't once offered players the chance to experience its sprawling scenery and high-octane thrills as a female character. ![]() ![]() The GTA series certainly isn't female-friendly.
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