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MADD Attacks Grand Theft Auto IV

by Jarrett Martineau | May 1, 2008 at 09:07 am

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Any video game that is poised to become the biggest and fastest-selling entertainment property of all time is bound to provoke strong reactions to its content.

But when that game happens to be GTA IV, with its heady mix of excessive drink, drugs, violence, sex and driving, controversy is an inevitability that will undoubtedly help rather than hinder its sales.

LOS ANGELES — Mothers Against Drunk Driving want a stricter rating on "Grand Theft Auto IV."
The organization is calling on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, the independent organization that assigns video-game ratings, to reclassify "GTA IV" as an Adults Only game. The action-driving game, which includes the ability to drive while intoxicated, is currently rated Mature.

"Drunk driving is not a game, and it is not a joke," MADD said in a statement released Tuesday. "Drunk driving is a choice, a violent crime and it is also 100 percent preventable."

MADD is also calling on publisher Take-Two Interactive and developer Rockstar Games to consider stopping distribution of the game — which analysts expect to sell 9 million copies and make over $400 million at launch — "out of respect for the millions of victims/survivors of drunk driving."

In the critically acclaimed open-world game, players have the choice of patronizing a bar and then attempting to drive drunk. While virtually under the influence, the screen becomes blurred and the controls are more difficult to use.

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Jordan Yerman

at 09:19 on May 1st, 2008

GTA: Vice City features a drunk-driving mission that was really hard to complete: the player has almost no control over the vehicle, the field of vision becomes heavily distorted and the little radar becomes inaccurate.