Video Game Media has a post about the new Denzel Washington movie, Inside Man, and a video game that is portrayed in the movie. The game has close allusions to the Grand Theft Auto series, and has been provoking some interesting conversations about the whole matter.
The robber takes the child’s PSP and asks how to play the game. As he does, a fictional Grand Theft Auto-style urban crime simulator is shown on screen. The boy explains how the game gives you points for “jacking people rides,” killing hookers, and a variety of other unsavory acts. As we hear this description, the in-game protagonist (an overweight black man in a wife-beater — showing some obvious San Andreas allusions) plasters a thug with dozens of bullets as realistic blood splatters all over the street. As the screen flashes with the message “Kill the Nigga” the protagonist gets out of the car, sticks a grenade in the bleeding thug’s mouth, and steps back as his head explodes, spouting expletives all the while.
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Its quite pathetic to see a 1-Dimensional view of computer gaming. The showing of violence and gore is equally infuriating. While I don’t think that the ‘smart’ folks in the studios can actually go anything deeper than GTA, they should not stereotype it either.
My beef is that they made a specific “game” or rendering, if you will, to portray gaming. The vast amount of people who aren’t into gaming may see this movie and think it is representative of what gaming is like these days, and they couldn’t be more wrong. I understand trying to illustrate a point, but a movie that glorifies violence to some degree really has no business sullying the gaming industry.