Angry middle-class people on Twitter are a self-fuelling parody. In other news, water wet.

[hirez]

A cow-orker (gamer, female) was gleefully pointing out the latest Moral Outrage earlier.

Apparently, in whichever GTA version is making the most money now (he said, clearly able to look on the internet for the version, but writing it that way for fogey value) - and this would be GTA the open-world game where I understand you can wander about and do pretty much what you want. Because that's the nature of open-world games, being able to do what you want. Anyway. In this open-world game, which doesn't place much in the way of restriction upon your actions, you can go beat up a prostitute. If you've a mind to do that sort of thing.

The person (or people) who went and ignored sunsets, mountains, fast cars, tractors, pylons and leaping out of presumably serviceable virtual aircraft; and instead were all like 'Hey, I can do anything I want in this virtual world! I know! I'll go and beat up a sex-worker!' were allegedly horrified that they were able to do this and I guess went and did the modern version of penance or writing a stiff letter to the lead singer of Echo and the Bunnymen, which is to go on Twitter and blame someone else. For the thing they did. Themselves. With free will and malice aforethought.

The horrible, horrible bastards.

This is what happens when authoritarians are allowed out of their boxes.

Obviously in this terrible meat-hook (although this would be free-range barn-reared organic meat and an artisanal hook make by a blacksmith called Tarquin using carbon-neutral fuel and a salvaged anvil) future where Brunner's 'Shockwave Rider' is a shit old skiffy book filled with nonsense and lies, one could quite easily see some Polis-sponsored 'down' 'loadable' 'content' that allows the game to grass you up to the Social if you do assault a sex-worker.

And quite right too. Can't be too careful.

Comments

[jarkman.livejournal.com]

Anvils are nearly all salvaged. Or, as we used to say in our youth, 'old'. New ones are expensive, and the old ones don't wear out quickly.

Anyway. If it's an open-world game, is one free to get a sensible job at a nice stable firm and while away the 20-65 period in undemanding and yet comfortable work ?

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

It's been many years since I've played any of the GTA games, but you've been able to beat up prostitutes (and any other random stranger) since number 3. And doing so in front of a policeman will cause him to chase you. (And beating him up will cause lots of policemen to chase you.)

GTA 3 came out in 2001, so they're a bit late for that particular bus.

[steer.livejournal.com]

In this open-world game, which doesn't place much in the way of restriction upon your actions, you can go beat up a prostitute. If you've a mind to do that sort of thing.

Wow... I think he's in a time warp. That was the outrage about the GTA III game from 2001 where you could have sex with a prostitute to gain health then beat her up/kill her (not exactly clear from game mechanic) to regain money. Spin forward and the current outrage is about a hack which revealed an easter egg where you can control the actions of the protagonist while you have sex... oh hold on... no, that was the 2004 panic over GTA San Andreas. The actual controversy is that you can drive drunk and it makes the controls harder making drunk driving seem like a fun challenge. No wait... that was 2008's GTA IV. Right... this moral panic is that one character in the game you control in a compulsory main plot sequence must brutally and graphically torture someone to extract information... it's compulsary to finish the game to do this I believe.

Phew... look, your person is like four or five panics back. It's time to get with the program. Perhaps you could subscribe them to some kind of concerned citizen's mailing list -- or get them a Mail subscription as I'm sure all this gets coverage.

[lee-chaos.livejournal.com]

In GTA since V3 you can do both sex *and* violence. And indeed commerce. So the nexus of these things is to do a virtual sex act, pay virtual money and then do a virtual crime to get the money back. You don't have to do any of these things. It's not a mission (for that, if you're quick, you'll see the version of Hotline Miami 2, although i understand they're currently writing out that particular mission).

The problem is that the morals of the character aren't a game mechanic, but having money is. And what worries me is that this itself is a lesson we are teaching children in wider society through this kind of action. Not that it's okay to beat up a sex worker (since as others mention you can beat up anyone and anything in games) but that the only thing that matters is ending up with what you want and more cash than your rivals.

The psychology of games and interaction has become one of my hobby-reads of late as I get more involved in interface design and installations, and this is a good place to read some deeper articles on gaming culture if you have spare time.

http://killscreendaily.com/

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Yes.

Conveniently, the New Yorker article linked from yon site covers much the same ground I was attempting to, but better.

(Although my actual point was more along the lines of 'Fucking well own the things in your own head because I am beyond fucked off with the ideas that 'men can't help themselves' and 'women are slaves to their biology'. Of course accounting for the malign influence of the patriarchal society that is the turd-filled water we collectively swim in.')

[smogo.livejournal.com]

You can actually. Or at least you can just drive around endlessly being a self-employed taxi driver, should you so wish.

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

Does GTA5 let you honestly obtain a taxi?

[smogo.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I've not played it yet. I'm pretty sure you get gifted a taxi at some point in GTA: Vice City, so technically there you could be legit.