Violence in Video Games. Bad influences? Exploring the game "Urban Crime".

As I was browsing through the App Store the other day, saw this game called “Urban Crime” came up in the Top 25 chart. Two things that made me download this game was that, first, it is free and second the screen dumps of the game in the description section seem interesting. 

A brief storyline about the game. (According to the app store game description)
“Since Johnny Gainesville left, two massive gangs have waged a bloody war to replace him and take control of Miami. In this spin-off of the successful Gangster: Miami Vindication, it’s your duty to make sure your gang not only survives this war, but rises to the top and claims the seat of power”.
“Earn more than money, fame or power… earn RESPECT! Stop into Urban Crime, into the 1^st full – 3D crime simulation for free on iOS and become a true gangster”. 

Urban Crime is a third person trailing perspective game with 360-degree camera angle. The game sets in modern Miami. Very similar with Grand Theft Auto where you are given a character to play and there are missions for the player to complete. You can interact with the pedestrians on the street, you can steal or rob a car and you will become wanted by the police if you have caused too much “trouble”.    

 

During the loading of the game, it mentioned “This Game Contains Coarse Language InDialogs and Actions That Should Not Be Reproduced”.  This gave a player a hint of what the game will be like and you have been warned in terms of the inappropriate language used within the game.

According to Jeffery Goldstein, he argued that the meaning of violence in video games can be categorized along different dimensions. “Whether it involves fantasy character or representations of humans; whether the perspective of the player’s character is first-person or over the shoulder, whether the motivation for violence is clear or justified”.  From the screen shots above, we could clearly see that Urban Crime is a gang-based game, where it involved lots of killing and shooting.  Both gang members are defending themselves and attacking the oppositions. 
The motivation for violence in Urban Crime could be justified in many ways, for example the vileness’s is carried out from the name of the game. “Urban Crime”, when we come to the word of “Crime”, the first thing we associated with is dangerous, intense and might involving violent actions.  As the goal for this game was not only to "get your gangs survived in this war" but also to "rises to the top and claims the seat of power”. Therefore, you must to defend your own gangs, and attack your rivals.  Also in the game, the notion of “Crime is the law here” illustrated that committing crime is a right thing to do and it is also powerful. 

When you started the game, there are instruction pops up and tells you what you do and what you will be expecting. Here are some of the screen shots that I took when I was playing the game.

From these screen shots we could see that the basic of play and each of the mission has involved lots of violent actions. Also through the use of colloquial and unfriendly language it also demonstrated a sense of rebellion and outrage.

Personally, as I was playing this game, I felt that there is so much freedom in this game. But the question is. Will this type of game will make the player think that been a gangster is the coolest or the best thing to do? This game runs on iPhone, iTouch, and iPad, the prize of these interfaces are not that expensive comparing to a game console like PlayStation or Xbox360.   

Most importantly, it is free. Majority of the teenagers in now days might own an iPhone or iTouch, they can easily download this game from App Store and start playing.  What concerns me is that, because Urban Crime is putting the player as the role of gangster, and the flexibility and freedom that the game provided might makes the player think it is good to become a gangster. 



Once you become one, you will have the power to overcome the others. Urban Crime has used a lot of objects to attract more young teenage adolescence boys. For example, the flash cars, hip hop or I should say gangster music in the background, bling bling fonts, also the tattoo that was on some of the character’s body. Especially the location is set in Miami, where it is modern, flash and it is also known as the city of drugs and crime? (don’t quote me on this! This idea purely came from CSI:Miami) all of these aspects might attract younger audiences because it sounds exciting, you have the total control of the game and gang community do exists also everyone wants power. Therefore, It made in a way as if this would be the ideal life and place for anyone who could ever dreamed of to have a life like this.


The idea of “the games make people who play them violent”.  I think it is mean by that the player is affected by what is happening within the game and their violent action might have carried out from the game during the gameplay. Therefore, we could argue in both sides on violence in video games. One it is the game itself is designed in a way to portraying violence through the gang community and there is not a peaceful way to resolve an issue but to fight. On the other side, the player are been affected by the gameplay and made them fully immersed within the game to form violent actions based on their gameplay of the game.

So. Does violent video games can causes bad influences on others?