Gamertell

While the streets might be safe for a few weeks while everyone is inside playing Grand Theft Auto IV: Vice City, it’s only a matter of time before hooligans decide to stretch their thumbs and break out of the family den or dilapidated tenement apartment (adorned with a 42 in. LCD screen cranked up to 1080p, natch).

This is the fourth time a GTA has cracked the skulls of our law- and god-fearing youth, and it’s hard not to see its influence everywhere. Take this piece in the Sunday New York Times Magazine about a group of former gang members who try to head off attempts at gangland shooting violence:

“Many of the interrupters seem bewildered by what they see as a wilder group of youngsters now running the streets and by a gang structure that is no longer top-down but is instead made up of many small groups — which they refer to as cliques — whose members are answerable to a handful of peers.”

Hmmmm. Sort of reminds me of GTA avatars bouncing from one group of low-lifes to the next, playing along until the perfect chance for betrayal. Can it be that GTA has helped fracture gang warfare into clique warfare by changing the way our nation’s young think about organized crime?

Probably not, but it’s an assertion I’d gladly sell to FOX news. Remember, Nico Bellic, you can pick the game, but you can’t change the rules. But if you’re the biggest franchises in gaming, maybe you do both.

Read [GameDaily] Also Read [Sunday New York Times Magazine]

Keep up with the latest Gaming news! - Subscribe to our feed →