Currently Gaming Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for PlayStation 2 By Rockstar Games see related

It seems the Republicans, engaging in a game of election year politics, are going after violent video games. Of course there is no way they could go after an issue of no importance to me. I happen to enjoy video games, and I do not discriminate against violent ones. In retrospect, I did not know they would go after violent video games, but I figured that they would continue to attack elements of American culture that they deem “excessive.” However, the “excessive” elements that Republicans usually attack are almost always exclusively limited to what I do with my penis.

The main target of Republican idiocy was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This video game happens to be my all-time favorite. Many of you who know me will recall that I list Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as number one on my list of the greatest video games of all time. I believe that within ten years, most video gamers, designers, and critics will also list Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as the greatest video game of all time.

I do not claim that San Andreas is not violent. San Andreas would not be San Andreas without the carjacking, drive-by shootings, and slaughtered hookers. It is just so typical that Republicans would attack the game without focusing on the nonviolent elements. I first played Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on October 25, 2004. I am proud to say that I purchased it and began playing on the first day of the game’s release. After my first session, I was astonished at how revolutionary one video game could be. Rockstar North designed an entire state! They did not just limit the game to one city, like the previous games in the Grand Theft Auto series. The game includes the three major cities of Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas. There are also several small towns, not to mention a massive countryside. Rockstar North designed all of this, designing and placing every stop sign and traffic light along with every tree and dirt path. They designed all of this while developing characters, personalities, and several interweaving stories and missions. The hero (or antihero) Carl Johnson, can do pretty much anything. He has the luxury of wearing thousands of different wardrobe combinations, buying real estate, gambling, dating, working out, eating and becoming fat, racing and pimping out low-riders. Carl can also work as a paramedic, firefighter, vigilante, pilot, figure-eight track racer, etc.

Despite what Republicans say, crime and violence make up only a fraction of Carl Johnson’s life. Republicans did not focus on any other element of the game other than violence.

I guess the Republicans should have tried playing or at least reading a review of the game. As usual, they chose a wedge issue and exploited it, despite the fact that the issue at hand was unimportant to the point of asininity.

-Brian Murphy