Having a consortium of lawyers, politicians and
policemen calling for a ban of your flagship title is obviously not enough these days. Take-Two and Rockstar can now
add sex workers to the list of pressure groups calling for a boycott of the Grand Theft Auto series of games.
Citing a 2001 research document from the
National Institute on Media and the Family (the group that gave the games
industry a D plus), the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA claims that GTA "accrues points to players
for the depiction of the rape and murder of prostitutes" and therefore should be boycotted by parents.The strange thing here is that we find ourselves agreeing with SWOP's aim, if not their methods. Parents should already be boycotting Grand Theft Auto, at least for the purposes of buying the game for a child under the age of 18. The fact is that GTA should not be played by children, yet parents or older siblings are usually the people that children use to gain access to rated games. A boycott isn't needed (parents need to have fun too) but increased awareness is.
[Via digg]
