GTA3 too violent for Japanese minors

http://www1.gamespot.com/news/2005/05/31/news_6126706.html

I don't recall the setting of GTA3 bearing any resemblance to Japan. How does playing as a white guy create an illusion of reality for a Japanese youth? Is the cruelty and violence in this game much worse than what Japan develops? Are they doing this to hinder the sales of a foreign yet popular game? The Japanese can be hookers at 13 but they can't beat hookers in a videogame until they're 18.

 

Don't mention the underage hookers. We will not acknowledge such a problem. They do not exist. They are just a figment of people's overactive fantasies. Move along,

 

I fully agree with this decision, GTA3 contains a lot of pointless, extreme violence and isn't fun to play at that (imho). I haven't seen any "kill as many random civilians and the police" games coming out of Japan.

 

I fully support the move by the Kanagawa prefecture. GTA III is just another pointless kill as many people as possible in a realistic setting. Psychonaut, your comment about GTA not bearing any resemblance to Japan is irrelevant. GTA is a game that promotes "Real life" violence. Japanese developed games do have violence but it's always fantasy based. You won't seen then developing shite like that new game staring 50 cents or which ever dope they have staring in it. Also your comment about Japanese being hookers at the age of 13 is bollocks ! Yes there maybe 13 years olds for sex which of course is illegal and very unusual but tell me a place in this world that won't have something similar.

Yakumo

 

I bought GTAIII and VC for my xbox about a month ago - I play them whenever I can't be bothered with CounterStrike or Halo 2 and I just want to drive aorund and relax. I don't try to kill as many random people as I can, I have enough fun driving around the city trying stunts, popping wheelies doing the taxi/police/ambulance missions and when I can be bothered; the main missions. I guess maybe it's because I'm becoming a lot more ncasual nowadays especially now I work compared to my old hardcore self, but it does offer more freedom than other driving games where you are forced to race around a track and only change car at the begging of a new event, not during!! IMO the biggest problem GTA has is dumbass wannabe gangsters taking it all the wrong way and assuming they can somehow do some of the shit for real =/

 

I really do understand their objection to GTA games, I personally don't see the need to shoot off peoples' heads, deal drugs, constantly swear and stuff like that.
Even though I really did like San Andreas, I seriously believe I would have liked it equally as much if it hadn't've been completely full of violence and general vulgarity, one of the main reasons being that I could've played it on my grandparents Bang & Olufsen TV at their house =)

Is the fact that the Yakuza runs a prostitution ring in japan a figment, too?
I'm not being sarcastic, I genuinely want to know whats real and what isn't.

 

GTA3 is too violent and inappropriate for minors of ANY nationality. I am often forced to bite my tongue when there's customers in the store whose kids are begging to get the game - it's like, "No, lady, that game is ass any way you look at it. Go buy the kids Tomb Raider. Sure, it controls like shit and the heroine is oversexed, but compared to GTA it's like Super Mario Bros."

Actually, the quote was: "its setting is very similar to real society, and its level of violence and cruelty is extremely high." The game is set in a large urban environment with enough of a changing nature to simulate a real city, even if on a very basic level. I'm not sure where the bearing resemblace to Japan or creating the illusion of reality for Japanese youth came from...

 

Im a minor. I play violent games all the time but Im too timid to even squish a fly. Please dont tell me that Im too young to understand. Most people my age even have stong political views. This is like saying that Doom caused Columbine

 

...Unfortunately not everyone is as sensible and level headed as you are, and I include adults as well as children.

 

lol where?

 

in Denmark sadly (nothing to do with Japan)

 

they'll most likely ban Super Mario when some kid runs out and eats mushrooms and hits bricks with his head. Damn Mario corrupting the kids.

 

Don't forget the cosplay. Some do it just right but some characters where never meant to be.

I think what that prefecture/city in Japan did was ok. It just goes into the useless law file that does nothing more than keep a politician in office. Thats why its done here in the states.

 

I don't really thinkt his has as much to do with the game being violent as it does with more kids these days having the balls to do things "they shouldn't do". Japan is a country famous for not checking IDs for anything... smokes, booz, whatever. The age system on games is in effect but other than obvious hentai stuff, I don't think it's really enforced (same with other aforementioned vices). They're just starting to put their feet down.

This is a smart move for retailers though. It's only a matter of time before Japanese figure out that they can blame video games and maybe sue the company for their bad parenting. One part of American culture that thankfully is not emulated (in Japan).

 

If your going to pay out on GTA can you please not use the tired old "it's just killing" routine. As Legit said it's about the freedom. You have a massive interactive playground to explore and thats where the fun is.

 

For some reason, this suprises me, but in other ways I'm not suprised.

On the one hand most of Japanese pop culture (magna, anime, games, etc) revolves around characters that do acts of violence or live in a violent world. Even cutesy characters like Mario, Pokemon, Hamtaro, etc have to kick some ass once in a while. Attitudes towards sex and violence tend to be a little more liberal, as it is in the parts of the world that doesn't have thier heads up thier rectums when it comes to sex and violence, namely everywhere else but my country and say, Saudi Arabia.

But as Yukumo said, violence in Japanese pop culture usually revolves around fantasy settings that are pretty much impossible to duplicate in real life, and even in those settings where it's not fantasy based (say Gologo 13, Crying Freeman, sorry I'm no expert on Anime or Magna, etc) even then there are certian sylistic aspects to the violence that caricutures it into "fantasy" (like a samurai movie where a decapitation results in a firehose blast of blood shooting out of long minutes.)

Of course you could say GTA caricutures it's violence unitl it's near fantasy as well. Like carjacking a cop and getting away with it, yeah that's "realistic."

So anyway, I wonder if there is a "traditional values" movement in Japan akin to our wacko fundamentalist Christians neocons who are trying to censor everything, and if they had any hand in this banning of sale to minors? Becasue I just don't see a chain of stores restricing sales of anything, unless it's a publicity stunt (make people think they can't have it and they'll want it even more after all.)

 

Now that would be funny

Yakumo

 

Who was that guy again that said "if Pac-man influenced us as kids we'd all be running around in dark rooms munching pills and listening to repetitive music" ?