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Sex workers boycott GTA News
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US organisation the Sex Workers Outreach Project has issued a statement condemning the way sex workers are represented in Rockstar's GTA: San Andreas - asking parents and gamers to boycott the title.
According to the statement, which was published on the SWOP-USA website, the organisation "will always be adamantly opposed to any and all forms of censorship." However, "As concerned parents ourselves, we wish to inform other parents of the potential danger extremely violent videogames pose to children."
SWOP-USA was established with the aim of improving the lives of sex workers, promoting their safety and campaigning for their rights. The organisation is opposed to "any media which represents sex workers as legitimate targets of violence rape and murder." In GTA, players can kill sex workers, along with many other characters, and the game's storyline refers to the rape of a prostitute.
"Censorship is a blight on the freedoms we hold dear but we wholeheartedly encourage citizens to vote with their dollars by refusing to purchase products which encourage the denigration and destruction of prostitutes," the statement continues.
"Since the video game Grand Theft Auto accrues points to players for the depiction of the rape and murder of prostitutes, SWOP-USA calls on all parents and all gamers to boycott Grand Theft Auto."
SWOP-USA quotes research commissioned by the National Institute of Media and the Family which claims that three high profile medical institutes have "concluded that the scientific evidence shows a cause-effect relationship between television violence and aggression among the children and youth who watch it."
According to the research, children are almost 10 times more likely to have taken part in a physical fight if they regularly play videogames with violent content. There is said to be "a strong correlation between exposure to violent video games and various forms of antisocial behavior.”
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Mr_Whacker
15/02/06 @ 11:09
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Ban this sick filth!
Actually, I'd them to show us how you rape someone in GTA. I've never seen it. |
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rockstar have to have the best marketing department eva. this shit is jsut neverending. a casual gamer friend said last week "i have to have this game....i have heard you can shag in it" he is in his late 30s and he fails for this selfhype by rockstar. they are genius
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 15/02/06 @ 11:50
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BlankOBlank!
15/02/06 @ 11:15
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Amazing how many still don't seem to understand the difference between causality and correlation.
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PearOfAnguish
15/02/06 @ 11:22
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Bit late to boycott, isn't it? Every gamer in the world must own or have played at least one GTA game by now.
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'Are all supports group in the world registered?'
'No sir, we are left' 'Please come forward - what is your name' 'Former Leprosy Victims Against Racial Discrimination' 'OK - do you have a charter?' 'Yes, sir, here it is" 'Do you have a members register?' "Yes, sir" 'Have you boycotted GTA:SA yet?' "Er.." "Sorry, you are not a support group. Next". |
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Surely this just draws attention to the fact that they are setting themselves out as a specific group? I'm waiting for some black rights group to say that GTA:SA is racist because it lets you kill black people.
Sad fact is you can't rape the hookers in SA, just engage their services. Afterwards you can kill them and take the money back just like every other single person in the world. Except for Cops, who never have any money. I might set up a support group for people who wear Purple. GTA:SA clearly encourages them to be executed swiftly and brutally. |
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jack_klugman
15/02/06 @ 11:48
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Clearly the sex industry has been unfairly represented by video games. Perhaps more friendly prostitution games are needed encouraging the kids of today to take care of their call girls and rent boys, to show them the respect they clearly deserve. A Sims-style pornography studio management game maybe, with the chance to distribute your home made titles on the internet.
This approach would no doubt be far more acceptable. |
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jack_klugman
15/02/06 @ 12:04
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It could revolutionise context-sensitive and rhythm-action gaming.
"Time-critical sequences where you must employ a variety of tactics to satisfy a range of aging clients! Dance-mat strip shows! Assume multiple roles as sex worker, pimp and the hired muscle who beats up those clients who refuse to pay! Distribute call cards in phone boxes without arousing the suspicion of the local law! Manage shipments of 16 year old kidnapped Lithuanian's using the intuitive Championship Manager style interface!" |
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Hmmm, let's see. In GTA, you can hire a prostitute, receive a bj, give her the money, then take your car and run her over. Several times, if you want. When she's dead you can take her money, and stick a few bullets and a chainsaw into her corpse for good measure.
I mean, really. How could anyone possibly be offended by that? |
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wtf, I read somewhere that "GTA" was worth 900million. No publicity is bad publicity. This will probably IMPROVE sales!!!
Why dont they have a go at TV? I have seen programs ON TV, where women are raped? and men laugh about it etc etc.. yet that goes without any gimps causing a shit stir. How many, prostitutes actually give a fuck? (not literally) |
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"Hmmm, let's see. In GTA, you can hire a prostitute, receive a bj, give her the money, then take your car and run her over. Several times, if you want. When she's dead you can take her money, and stick a few bullets and a chainsaw into her corpse for good measure."
BJ? Weeeelll, actually, what really happens is she gets in your car, you drive somewhere secluded and then she gives you a demonstration of her astounding psychic powers - as shown by the both participants sat quietly in the car and it rocking, moved only by the extraordinary powers of the hooker's mind! Once the demonstration is over, she leaves you to contemplate the myriad wonders of the galaxy. Running her down, filling her with bullets and cutting up the corpse is, of course, all down to twisted quirks of the individual player and not solely reserved for prostitutes. |
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TR: No offense, but that "fine thing" you purpouse is simple bull-shit, I would go to another country if my government wanted to impose me what I's buy or not to my (future) kids, That's non-sense! My kid's education is a matter that will consider only my family - Estaline is dead and Bush will to.
Anyway, it's funny to see how people change the "free art, free speech" speech, when something hits them (or not). |
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"the reality is, the closest the average employee of Rockstar has come to sex is probably a pair of tits and a fanny on their pc screens. "
thats not nice - i know alot of Rockstar employees and most of them are happily married or have steady relationships..... pehaps the closest thing you come to sex is with Madam Pam and her 5 chubby daughters....
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 15/02/06 @ 12:35
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Stormflood_UK
15/02/06 @ 12:39
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Has no one pointed out that when you are supposedly 'doing the business' with the prostitutes in GTA you can switch to in car view and both characters are just sitting there doing nothing. No rape, no sex, no violence.
It's only when you let them out and run them over for their cash that could possibly upset the street ladies. Well, I used to bat them to mush with a baseball bat, but each to their own. |
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MrGrumpy.au
15/02/06 @ 13:22
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Why do I find the following quote from the SWOP-USA group mighty disturbing?
However, "As concerned parents ourselves, we wish to inform other parents of the potential danger extremely violent videogames pose to children." I'm speechless... |
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jack_klugman
15/02/06 @ 13:39
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Perhaps as concerned parents themselves they might wish to inform other parents of the potential danger the sex industry poses to children first.
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MrGrumpy.au
15/02/06 @ 13:48
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@jack_klugman, couldn't have said it any better myself.
The group really does come across as being hypocritical and seem to be using the game as a way to promote themselves. There must be countless other things that are a whole heap worse than unrealistic cartoon violence that they could crusade against? |
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jack_klugman
15/02/06 @ 13:51
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Perhaps Take2 could make a charitable donation to anti-prostitution legislation lobbyists. And talk about it lots.
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In other news...
The UK Plumbing & Gasfitters Union has today announced that it is asking parents to boycott Mario Kart DS because of it's misleading and harmful representation of plumbers and believe the game condones the throwing of shells at plumbers, an act which the plumbing industry has gone to great lengths to halt over the last twenty years. |
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Senor_Sanchez
15/02/06 @ 14:07
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Take 2 should offer them fifty quid for there silence (and a crafty wank)
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Since the video game Grand Theft Auto accrues points to players for the depiction of the rape and murder of prostitutes
I don't remember that at all. There's no representation of rape in GTA. Correct me if I am wrong. The only role of prostitutes in the game is - you can pay them for sex. Doing so restores your health. Which is actually a pretty positive endorsement of whoring, from a very popular videogame! ... and yes, the player can choose to kill a prostitute and take their money. You can do the same with any other human being in the game though. So it isn't as if prostitutes are being singled out and being unfairly represented, and it isn't as if the player is being coaxed, encouraged, or especially rewarded for violence towards prostitutes. The thing is - if you are a one-man-crime-wave and hard core virtual gangster, killing people for their loot is all in a day's work. Don't take it personally! Honestly, where do these people get their information... |
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Mr_Whacker
15/02/06 @ 14:30
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In GTA :SA your weapon skill will increase if you shoot them. Thats points.
You're right that they aren't singled out though. I don't see police getting too bothered and thats interesting. Every group with an agenda is jumping on the ban this filth bandwagon but the actual police don't do that. For them if you commit the crime you pay the price.End of. Let someone else work out why and lay blame if they want. |
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jack_klugman
15/02/06 @ 15:08
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it's still cheaper than an arsefuck though
Voice of experience there. |
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