Opposition

One of the biggest points of opposition to my argument is games like Grand Theft Auto.  If I try to argue that games are unrealistic, GTA is there, and games are becoming more realistic in general.  If I argue that violent characters in video games are acting violent for a good reason, GTA is there to stop me.  I read an article by Patrick Osborne about the rhetoric used in GTA IV, and how this rhetoric influences aggression.  This article states that the story of GTA IV, where Niko Bellic comes to America hoping for the American dream, but is forced to go to a life of crime in order to achieve his goal.  The plot of the game is designed to justify Bellic’s actions, which, according to this article, is a bad thing (Osborne 14-16). 

This is reasonable, Niko Bellic does some terrible actions in GTA IV, and because of the game’s sandbox style the player makes the choices he/she makes because of the influence of the cut scenes and the hypermediacy, “…the games representation of other media…” (Osborne), in the game.  GTA IV’s media is designed to show the lower class as “slaves to a capitalist market,” (Osborne 16).  The overall opposition to my argument that video games don’t cause violence is that games like GTA IV encourage the player to make violent decisions in the game, and that this causes the player to be more likely to commit violent acts.