As my readers and followers likely know by now, I've been playing GTA V for an obscene amount of time the past week, including an all-nighter starting with the midnight release. Although I know the game contains extremely graphic and violent material, I found it extremely enjoyable and think it's a strong contender for GOTY. However, whenever a game as controversial as Grand Theft Auto is released we seem to have the same damn conversation about whether these games are appropriate for children. Having played the game first-hand, the short answer is no, and the long answer is hell no.
So why am I chiming in about this topic? Recently a friend of mine Josh, aka - The Noyse, approached me about sitting in on a roundtable discussion regarding a very sensitive subject: violence in video games. Particularly, the discussion centered around GTA V and whether it was appropriate for children to play this game. Having bought the game and played it for about 50 hours at the time of the podcast, he felt I had enough knowledge to speak about the content on the game. I will say that I do not have children and haven't had to deal with this topic yet, thus my opinions may not mean as much as those coming from a parent.
However, I was raised by two awesome parents who also happened to be of the opinion that games like Grand Theft Auto were inappropriate for anyone under the age of 17, especially young children. Given that I went through a time where I was unable to buy and play those types of games until I was old enough to buy them myself, I feel that I was able to bring a unique experience to the group, who all just happened to be not only older than myself, but also parents and/or uncles to younger children.
Because I love making sentences into hyperlinks, you can find the podcast by clicking this. [WARNING - Content NSFW. We do discuss GTA V after all.] I hope you enjoy the conversation. Please feel free to comment below with your thoughts on the subject. For more information about game rating, check out the ESRB website where they give more detailed information about the ratings games like GTA V.
