Emily R. Hall’s Oct. 7 article titled “Video game vice,” while informative, completely missed the main problem with media violence. The problem is not so simple as corporate irresponsibility. In defense of Rockstar Games and the Grand Theft Auto franchise, I would point out that the game actually has a rather complex plot. It is not mindless killing and criminal activity.

The game is more like an interactive version of the movie “The Godfather.” Tommy Vercetti, the game’s main character, is the epitome of the American ideal of the “rugged individualist.” The character lacks any formal education and his only means of advancement in society is criminal culture. This is a situation that is all too real for many impoverished Americans. The game also functions as a brilliant satire on consumer culture and American society if one takes enough time to notice.

But all that still doesn’t touch on the key issue. For the sake of space I will overlook where the two teens in the article got the money to purchase this game and also where their parents were while they were playing it. I won’t discuss that of the 25 million copies of this game sold, there are 24,999,998 people who didn’t pick up shotguns and start shooting at passing automobiles. Nor will I give any personal anecdotes about the numerous times I have been carded while trying to purchase a “Mature” rated game.

The problem with media violence is a cultural one. Sadly, instances of media-influenced teen violence are increasingly common. After such an incident we mourn, but before the victims bodies are even cold in the ground a lawsuit has been filed. Americans are impatient, we like to get things done quickly, presumably before reason sets in.

We want to know how to get people to stop selling this trash, how to make it less available and how to keep it out of reach of our children. These are the wrong questions to ask.

The media gives us only what we ask for; what sells. A better question to ask is why a game like “Vice City,” a video game full of violence and criminal activity, is one of the top selling games of all time? Why was it voted almost unanimously as the best game of the year by multiple sources?

Forget why people are selling this stuff — ask why people are buying it. Parents should worry less about the availability of violent subject matter and more about their child’s desire for it. When a nation’s youth start killing themselves, their peers and others, something is dreadfully wrong. Suing the media isn’t going to fix that.

Our media; TV, music, movies and video games, are our art. But art only influences society, it cannot control it. Art is a cultural reflection, a mirror into our ideals, values and troubles. But sometimes people don’t like what they see in the mirror, and instead of trying to change it they just try to shatter the mirror.

Trying to silence the problem will not make it go away. To use an old saying “You can’t cure the disease by treating the symptoms.”

Christopher Baughman

Freshman

Undeclared