Wasn't the guy who wrote that a guest on the Colbert Report a month or two ago? That book title is really familiar.

Interesting bit about the author, he went along with a gang to better his analysis.

That's what I call dedication.

@ben:

Dude, that's only his opinion. =/

@ Article:

Im astonished that someone found something POSITIVE about the game.

@Al Wesker:

I sense your question was rhetorical but, if not, here's your answer: it's because the average 4-year-old's way sharper than your average politician.

@ JDKJ & Al Wesker

I am of the understanding that children tend to develop an extremely zealous view of morality early on in life, given that they come from the right background, therefore he would have grasped the general idea that bad things have consequences in real life and that would probably translate over to whatever was happening in a videogame.

By the time we are older (say 10 years old) we have had much of our morality and sense of right/wrong affected by the real world, becuse the more we watch the news and look about on the streets we see the true evil nature of our race, we eventually realise just how immoral the world really is, so when you think that a politician, someone who has to have no morals in order to get to that position, someone who can lie, steal and cheat an entire country with a straight face, they would have forgotten that in the real world, actions have consequenses, in their political bubble they are free from too much police attention, and as such they would expect the same of videogames, something that they already see as childs entertainment, they would not expect morality and consequences to be a part of a videogame.

@ Article

Nice work by the man, at least he tried the game before casting his opinion on it, and he actually tried to live the life for a day? That is good reporting!

"As you can see, Britain is now firmly in the grip of gang culture.
This is John Simpson FOR THE ITN MASSIV!"

"But I have to admit that I was surprised a video game had such a well-developed, fine-grained understanding of human nature."

I just love how he has just notice this. Other games does this like the Metal Gear Solid games, Mass Effect, Most RPGs, and Final Fantasy games.

@jesse

It seems to me that many people don't see games as a respectable storytelling medium. Because they only see them as mindless violence, they never actually see the brilliant stories that some games actually have.

Not a bad assessment, but if the game is making you naucious, I've got one word: Dramamine.

“But I have to admit that I was surprised a video game had such a well-developed, fine-grained understanding of human nature.”

I just love how he has just notice this. Other games does this like the Metal Gear Solid games, Mass Effect, Most RPGs, and Final Fantasy games.

I assume, that as a professor of Sociology he didn't have to try those games out see what the fuss was about. :) But you are correct, there are games with amazing storylines everywhere.

Interesting article GP, thank you for linking it.

I am amazed and I congratulate Sudhir for making a fair report about a game that he hates for its violence.

Well done, 'cept for that "makes you nauseated" line.

I actually took the "slightly nauseated" line as an example of how Venkatesh saw the game as true to life. It appeared from the article that he saw in GTA the same things he saw in his study of real gangs. From my reading at least it was not that GTA as a game nauseated him, but the fact that it hit so close to what the truth was, and what he had seen.

Mind you I could jsut be being charitable because he is not spewing misinformation. Well that and his idea of gangs with actual territories in GTA sounds very interesting.