Grand Theft Auto: Vice City...In Trouble Again!
 

From CNN via Reuters


Outrage over game urging Haitian, Cuban killing

Wednesday, December 3, 2003 Posted: 1551 GMT (11:51 PM HKT)


"Grand Theft Auto: Vice City"


MIAMI, Florida (Reuters) -- Miami's Haitian and Cuban communities are up in arms over a top-selling computer game that exhorts players to "kill the Haitians" and "kill the Cubans."

Haitian and Cuban representatives said on Tuesday "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" incited hate crimes and they were considering taking action, whether legal or in the form of a boycott, against creators Rockstar Games and its retailers.

"The game shouldn't be designed to destroy human life, it shouldn't be designed to destroy an ethnic group," said Jean-Robert Lafortune of the Haitian American Grassroots Coalition.

Grand Theft Auto III takes players into the "glamorous, hedonistic metropolis of Vice City," a Miami-like seaside city teeming with Caribbean and Latin American immigrants.

In the game, an ex-convict has to recover stolen drug money and take on the Cuban and Haitian gangs that run the streets.

Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., the parent company of Rockstar, said it meant no offense.

"We empathize with the concerns of the Haitian community and we are giving serious consideration to them," it said.

"Some statements made by fictional characters in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City have been taken out of context. There was no intention to offend any ethnic group."

'Money out of blood'

Ringo Cayard, executive director of the Haitian American Foundation, said the last thing the Haitian community wanted was for the controversy to boost the game's popularity.

"They've made money out of the blood and tears of a whole nation," he said.

Cuban American National Foundation spokeswoman Mariela Ferretti said Cubans felt unnerved at being singled out.

"The saddest part of the commentary is that there seems to be a market for these kinds of violent games, regardless of who they're aiming those guns at," Ferretti said.

Grand Theft Auto is already the subject of a lawsuit.

Two teen-age Tennessee boys who went on a fatal sniping spree said they were mimicking the game.

The suit is seeking $200 million in punitive damages and $46 million in actual damages against Rockstar, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., retailer Wal-Mart Inc., the parents of the boys and the boys themselves.

They game is going to find trouble till the day they allow people to play it.

The previews to True Crime look awesome, but I bet people will try to ban that game also.

Welcome to the last week and it's only in the US that you can find stupid lawsuits like that.

These game and movie lawsuits really piss me off. There's always been a societal push to make media more and more realistic. Then when the development teams really start hitting the nail on the head, everybody's up in arms that its too graphic.

The fact is that the GTA games are based in crime worlds. There are well documented real life disputes between various groups of criminals, many of which had a core of a certain ethnicity. It's not that disputes took place because of the group composition, it was business problems that had related to the groups. So having a part of the game that says "Go kill the Cubans" isn't a slur against the whole group, but a smaller criminal subset - just like a real life reference.

These people need to fucking relax. Just because something has racial/ethnic/religous content doesn't mean its got negative intention. Did you hear there's also some nuts trying to stop the naming of hard drives as "Master" and "Slave" drives!? Who the fuck cares?

Dang it. I wanna say somethin' but it would tick off a firestorm... dang them politically correct people!

hehe, politically correct is overrated.

i.e. "Hefty" people are fat people - done deal.

Elvis Presley was the cause of violence and satan worship too....

according to a lot of people.

Mogul, the master/slave cable issue is funny also. Some people will never understand that these organizations are out to do only 1 thing, make some goddamn loot! They don't give a damn about the rights of their ethnic group, they want money and their will imposed on others, period. Unions in the east, ACLU, the list goes on and on. I guess you can ignore these stupid lawsuits if you have a buddy in one of the organizations and you're getting a nice payout from them...

Yeah, and I saw "the Terminator" last night for the 20th time, I think I'll go mimic Arnie and kill some random people now.



God but some people are mindless idiots. Trying to blame a fucking game for their own retarded actions. :321GFY

I rented Vice City a while back... Didn't really like the game...

One of the all time best games :) Might break it out again and start playing :)

It's "big boned" this week I think. Didn't you get the memo?

I have True Crime.. The game rocks

you = smoking crack? One of the greatest games ever made, right up there with the original GTA, and duke3d :winkwink:

I got tired of the cops... Their response time was ~5 seconds. Other than that it was just ok. The graphics were marginal at best, and the story line just didn't engage me...

god i love that fuckin game

Yea, and the fucking cubans had a problem with Scarface being shot in FL because that's where it all was. Fuck it man, it's a fucking game, a game doesn't fucking tell kids to shoot these people.

And if the kid is young, he should be FUCKING playing games like GTA. It's the fucking parents fault that they allowed their kids to play it. They weren't fucking censoring what their kids do!

I'm surpirsed nobody ever sued a band or artist because they started drugs after listening to them talk bout them! Fuck this fucking world. What the fuck ever to the freedom of speech? The creators of GTA have all the right's in the world to say go kill the cubans over there, if they want!

I'm starting to hate america day by day!

jDoG