Drunk Driving in GTA 4 Gets MADD, Well, Mad

Mothers Against Drunk Driving issued a statement condemning a feature in the new hit video game Grand Theft Auto 4 that allows players to drive drunk. In the game you can enter a bar, get soused, and then hit the roads, careening around the streets of a replica of New York City in a car that's nearly impossible to control.

In the statement, MADD said, "Each year nearly 13,500 people die in drunk driving crashes and another half a million are injured in alcohol-related traffic crashes… Drunk driving is not a game and it is not a joke. Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime and it is also 100 percent preventable." The organization called for the game's distribution to be halted until it was reclassified as an Adults Only game.

Given that drunk driving is one of the least objectionable activities you can engage in while playing GTA 4, and choosing to drive while drunk in the game almost always attracts the attention of police, the chances of this actually happening seem pretty slim. We'd still like to know, though: What's your favorite vehicle from the new Grand Theft Auto?

MADD: Drunk Driving Content Should Result in Adults Only Rating for GTA 4 (CrunchGear via Jalopnik)

Comments

[Ethan]

This is in the same line as games like "Medal of Honor" which allows you to fight Hitler in a World War 2 environment. I find this kind of games extremely unsettling and disrespectful to those who died in the war. We are talking about millions of dead people whose great grand children play off their tragedy in a video game. That's simply terrible. Those games should never be released.

[Rob]

MADD itself brings impossible-to-control cars to high schools and lets students drive them, just to see how hard it is to drive well while drunk. So why would they object to a popular video game that provides the exact same experience? Probably because they have a staff of overpaid PR atack dogs always looking for something to complain about to get MADD in the news. Too bad that it's actually not all that hard to drive drunk - it would be nice if every drunk driver backed into a post in the parking lot before hitting the road.

[Doesnt matter]

The funny thing is that if they took a look at GTA IV, they'd realize that a lot of the dialogue supports smart decisions like not driving drunk and not doing drugs. The rest of it is just as bad as an R rated movie. People blow stuff way out of proportion sometimes. What would America be without stereotypes though, right?

[Doesnt Matter]

Let me make a correction, SOME of the dialogue supports smart decisions. Either way, watch any gang related/Mafia movie and tell me it is not the same...

[Spanky]

Ethan is an idiot. How does a game that is historically factual compare to GTA? If anything Medal of Honor, Brothers In Arms, etc honors the people that fought on both sides and it shows you "a little bit" of what it was like.

[Jordan]

You have a choice whether or not to drive drunk in the game just like in real life. You also have consequences if you choose to drink and drive in the game just like in real life. It's such a small part of the game anyway, really not worth getting bent out of shape over especially since there's a lot worse things you can do in the game. This isn't the first game in the series to offer a chance to drive intoxicated, and in the other GTA games that had drugged or drunk driving they didn't give you a choice not to do it if you actually wanted to complete the game, unlike GTA4. I think they're taking advantage of all the publicity surrounding GTA4 to bring attention to their cause, which is okay I guess, but they're wasting their time and efforts trying to get an AO rating for this game. It will never happen.

[Ethan]

War victims are just as factual as DUI-related victims. Factual deaths should not be the basis of a game. If one wants to know what it's like to get shot at or run over, one should try and pause their game, get out of their bedroom and hang out in a hospital ER for a couple hours. Spanky. Seriously?

[Bloke]

I think the whole reason they play video games is because they don't want that experience. And factual deaths? What does that even mean? Get out of here, it is a video game.

[Bryan]

It's escapist entertainment - nothing more, nothing less. If you believe that GTA 4 trivializes drunk driving and excessive violence, don't play it. Don't, however, suggest that the rating itself is inaccurate and try to dictate how other organizations do their jobs.

MADD should take solace in the fact that Liberty City cops can tell you're drunk just by looking at you. If only police possessed the same ability.

You can't look at games and suggest that they incite actual violence or condone cruelty because of their gameplay. GTA offers repercussions for the crimes you commit. It's up to you to make the decisions that shape Niko's life - nobody else.

As far as WWII shooters go, it's a different matter altogether. War is a traumatic action that changes the national zeitgeist - it effects everyone. Could it be perceived as disrespectful to replicate staged battles? I think so. In the eyes of these survivors, it trivializes the actual event by diminishing the mortal circumstances surrounding battle. If you die in Call of Duty, your XBOX doesn't get the red ring of death (okay, most of the time). People just run and gun and forget that popping your head up like a groundhog is the one thing guaranteed to get you killed. All that being said, I think that's why you don't see faithful recreations of these battles - war isn't fun.

As far as GTA goes, we run over hordes of pedestrians when we're sober - the NPCs in this game mean less to us than hitting a parking cone in real life (or other games). We understand that there is a boundary, but most people outside of the gaming community can't appreciate that boundary unless they are directed exposed to the games - by playing them. Hell, in previous GTAs, you couldn't avoid hitting pedestrians. Not because you were drunk, mind you - because the controls themselves were terrible.

[Spanky]

To Ethan & Bryan,

I don't see how a WWII game is any different from a WWII film, or book for that matter. The only difference is that you have a say in the outcome. I found "Brother In Arms" very educational actually. After every battle you can unlock pictures, letters, etc from real people who fought in the war. Are we trivializing WWII with making a game about it?? No more than making a movie about it I say. I guess in Ethan's eyes anything short of signing up for the Army is trivializing the deaths of people that died in a war. I watched the mini-series Band of Brothers...did I trivialize what our soldiers did there? If anything I have a new respect for what they did. 100% of the public will never participate in the miltary so how can we learn about it if we are not allowed to have it simulated in anyway without actually being there? Ethan...seriously?

Now to MADD, the game is already rated mature, which means that you have to be 17+ to buy the game. You really want to halt distribution because of one year? Like an 18 year old is so much more mature than a 17 year old. We need to look out for those impressionable 17 year olds that might buy this game and think to themselves, hey...I want to drive drunk? Okay.

[Sam]

Wow, another attack on gta. If these MADD people (see what i did there?) actually played the game then they would understand how hard the drunk driving is and why there is an option to call a cab. Infact the diving in game is so hard compared to previous versions that it makes you drive more carefully.
PS. Fps's like Medal of Honor etc, actually make you realise "Never ever go to war!" - especially the beach landing level.

[Sam]

I think these MADD people should be sat down and made to play GTA 4. Infact every body who has something to moan about should be sat down and made to play GTA 4 for atleast 4 hours before they are alowed to make a press release or any other public comment about the game.

I'm tired of non gamers laying the blame for society's ills at the feet of gamers, with their 'holier than thou' attitude. We keep to our selves, indoors, playing games! Not screaming at people to follow our ways!

[Troi]

Well where the hell are we allowed to drink and drive if not in the virtual world?.... the real world?!
Typical mad women with nothing more to do then make the lives of others boring.
Protect the children? Why? They dont work, have no bills, no boss, no bank chrages or tax to worry about, every thing laid out on plate for them, damnnn they got it made!
We should have a ban on boring people, they make the world emo!
Infact all these MADD women must have emo kids, but instead of blaming the boring upbringing, blame the rest of society, the evil harpeys!!!

[Neel]

"We'd still like to know, though: What's your favorite vehicle from the new Grand Theft Auto?"

I would have to say that it's the PMP 600 (I Think). It's the Chrysler 300 remake.

Anyway, I don't think that it should be rated AO for that because murder isn't a joke either.

[Infosaur]

Look on the bright side,,, maybe all these people will be inside playing GTA4 and not out on our roadways with the rest of us.