Controversial Videogame Grand Theft Auto lll

One could argue that video-gaming stimulates different
senses in the brain or improves computer literacy however you cannot ignore the
fact that video games have a high representation of stereotyping women, violence,
culture borrowing and representation issues.
I believe that the gaming industry should take more responsibility
in time they that invest producing these games , overall gaming is ubiquitous
and media does tend to display endless representation of ‘reality’. The industry
needs to take social well-being into consideration. For that they produce,
market and sell has more negative impacts than positive. For this reason
producers and gamers need to be more conscious of what the ‘see’ and ‘do’.
A very controversial
video game in the industry; Grand Theft Auto lll embraces violence and racially
stock based characters. This one game highlights the immense negative
representation of women. This game raises white supremacy and white-male
privileges. The main ‘white-male’ character is sent to ‘Liberty City’ to
control the outbreaks. ‘Liberty City’ is meant to be the worst place in America.
The character Leon drives prostitutes, and rival gang members (all people of
colour). The gang represents a high profile of different races such as Jamaican,
Japanese and Blacks. And then you have the White family men protecting the streets
of Liberty City. Where in comparison Leone family is a stereotyped Sicilian
family, and the Blacks room the streets in their gold chains, hoodies and
street wear – hip hop gangsters?
Famous
Hollywood actors such as Michael Madsen provide their voices for their characters
and close-up shots to give them more ‘detail and character’ however the stereotyped
Black gang member have no voice or face, essentially they have no significance
in comparison to the White characters.

Majority of
the White characters are either upper class or elderly whom also are ‘innocent’
citizens. Grand Theft Auto is a game about the White community under threat by
the Black community. They resort to violence in order to protect themselves. There
is a very clear distinction between good and evil in this game and unfortunately
it is games like this that shape unconscious social values amongst society, in the
process reinforcing discourse. This misconception and misrepresentation about
cultures and society are reinforced and shaped by the ubiquitous nature of
media. If the gaming industry do not take responsibility for this, who will?

In the game,
females are represented as mindless and ‘worthless’ characters, it is only their
bodies that are of any value. The dark-skinned women provide sexual pleasure
for the players to retain their health which raises their health scores. After the
transaction the player has an option to either kill or steal her money. What kind
of message does this send to the youth? Is this where hegemony comes into role
where the dominate gender overshadows the other? Do these games inflict and
reinforce the status quo?