I’ve played a few of those games before, and still my prostitute murder count stands at 0.

Hate to break it to you but we’ve been murdering drug dealers, pimps, gangstas and cops for years in this game.
Oh wait, that’s right, they’re male..who cares..

“Stab her with a hatchet”. what an awkward way to kill someone.

Hold on, you have a problem with murdering prostitutes but regular murder is fine? I’m a feminist, I believe in protecting prostitutes through legalisation and unionisation, but seeing an article like this is just crazy. No mention of the fact this game allows you to Rob banks, rob shops, start gang wars, set someone on fire, murder non-prostitutes, steal cars or steal aircraft.

Games are escapist, they allow people to live a reality that they would never do themselves. Goat simulator, does playing that game mean someone will take to the hills and live like a goat? Does playing farmville make you more likely to start a farm?

So what’s your point? You want the game banned? Good luck with that.

The daily attempt at social engineering. You have the nerve to condemn a videogame, and yet you admittedly lower yourself to the standards of the Kardashians and the shallow, self obsessed standards of the media. If you had bothered to do any reseach, you would have seen the studies that show that violent videogames to not lead to violence. Sort your own life out first before you condemn anyone elses

A game that lets you murder a few pints and a hang sandwich should sell well .

Impressionable girls and boys should not be playing this game which is for adults over the age of 18. Anyway why focus on prositiutes when you’re free to murder virtually anybody you wish in the game?

This article comes across like it was written by an impressionable teenager.

When I was younger we used to play pacman all the time, when I grew up to be an adult I started swallowing little yellow pills in dark rooms listening to crazy music. Only loosers lose drug’s.

All of the Gta franchise has been for adults 18+ with warnings of grahic sex and violence on the covers. They are not meant for young boys/girls to be playing.

Rockstar do love the controversy though, the more the media talk about it the more people want to try it for themselves.

You can also beat a priest to death with a huge purple dildo if you wanted to, or any other random person on the street in the game for that matter although the prostitutes always seem to be the ones brought up…

I’m so shocked by this that I failed to notice that it has been going on since the release of GTA III a decade and a half ago when the columnist was probably still learning to read

Assuming theres been no massive surge in prostitute murders, car thefts, pigeon shooting and helicopter spawning on a global scale we’re since 2001 we’re probably safe to say it’s not really a problem

Killing them afterwards is a necessity on GTA, 100$ is a rip off for a virtual bonk.

Play the game.

It’s no use saying how much you got upset looking at a preview clip, just play the game and form a more improved opinion other than “I saw a clip of something I know very little about and am now offended at this particular event”

Also, GTA 5 isn’t new, it came out ages ago. In fact it made a splash because it was the biggest selling release of recent times. A lot of people own a copy of the game. The first person view is a new feature, but other than that nothing much has changed. Were you offended enough to write an article back then? Nope.

The game is not about murdering prostitutes. It actually has a plot, a story-line that you choose to play out at your own pace. At no point in the game did I bother to murder a prostitute, because I was enjoying the narrative and didn’t particularly see the point anyway.

Please have the common decency to at least make an attempt at educating yourself on a topic before just making silly assumptions.

I’ve come to the conclusion this article is basically above the line trolling with the aim of getting page views. Try and manufacture an outrage about a game that’s almost universally popular sit back and watch the frenzied reaction in the comments section. It’s desperate stuff Journal.

Jesus what an overblown load of emotional nonsense you’ve written here. The game is 18+ so there shouldn’t be any children playing it, nor should you be worrying about your children playing it unless you’re a crap parent.

“As weird and embarrassing as it is to admit, I cried after I watched the clip. Then I was overwhelmingly outraged. And the reason is twofold.”

You cried over a videogame? Did you also cry over the countless males that get murdered in the game or did your feminist senses only direct your unhinged emotions to what happened a pixelated female? Actually you know what, I’m not even going to comment any further on this piece of dross. There’s enough ill informed ridiculously hypocritical opinion pieces online without TheJournal giving people like you a platform as well.

The game is for adults. If children are playing it they shouldn’t be.
An adult who doesn’t know the difference between real life and a game has issues already.
While we’re at it lets ban all adult rated movies for fear of people being misled.
You don’t HAVE to kill prostitutes, the game just doesn’t stop you from doing so.

As for the line “I don’t want it to exist in my world, and a world into which I might one day bring a child into.”
I personally don’t want people who are like this; “not a ‘stereotypical’ women’s rights campaigner. I take selfies. And I watch The Kardashians” to exist in my world, but I have to put up with you.

I’ve been playing Fifa for years. I’m still waiting to be called up for Man Utd

So to some up your a sheep (first paragraph), your offended by the content of a game with an age rating of 18 and over, the rest of us are also sheep and you’re worried that the game will influence us to murder prostitutes because you somehow know more than the average sheep……..

Eh……*scratches head wondering where to begin*

Look I enjoy shoot em up style games and while I haven’t actually played Gta 5 I’ve played previous Gta’s and found them good fun, I’m not a murdering psychopath nor am I a criminal, just pointing out most rational people know it’s just a game just like most rational people who watch violence (eg Love/Hate) on tv know that it’s just a show! If anything I’d be more worried that you watch the Kardashians, the stats show that the average viewer is ment to become dumber after watching it, I vote we ban that instead!

You can “virtually” murder every single character & animal in GTA 5.
You can “virtually” steal cars, rob money, rob banks and shops in GTA 5
You can “virtually” get a lap dance in GTA 5
You can “virtually” run a marathon in GTA 5

It. Is. A. Game!

Get over it. You picked out one element of the game to give out about.
You say there’s a possibility of it affecting a boys attitude towards women. Well, women play games too and yes, women play GTA! Shocking, isn’t it!?
Do you think it will affect their attitude?

The amount of feminist related articles covering the internet lately is ridiculous. “I’m a feminist and to prove it, I’m gonna walk around in my underwear”.
“I’m gonna record men staring at me and cat calling to show how wrong it is.”
“Women deserve to be treated as equals with equal rights and equal pay”

Here’s an example for you, the prize money for the Mens & Womens Wimbledon champion is the same because the women demanded it. However, the women have to win 2 sets while the men need to win 3. Is that fair?

A final note…it’s cheaper to kill a prostitute in real life. Save yourself €70 by not buying GTA to do it! ;-)

you know whats really sexist, women only gyms :’(

“As weird and embarrassing as it is to admit, I cried after I watched the clip. Then I was overwhelmingly outraged. And the reason is twofold.”

Oh would you give me a break,it’s not “weird and embarrassing” it’s sensationalist and ridiculous. Do you know why Rockstar don’t put a warning on their games saying “No prostitutes were harmed in the making of this game?” BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT REAL! What you should be more concerned about is the scary fact that you have trouble telling the difference between reality and a computer game.

Pointless article. Stick to watching your kardashians

You can also drive around a golf course running down anyone in front of you, don’t see the golfers crawling out of the woodwork to complain.

In Legend of Zelda you can slash chickens with a sword, why don’t we ban that game for promoting animal cruelty?

In Super Mario you can kick a turtle out of its shell, pick up the shell and kill the turtle with it. Want to ban that as well?

I was going to make a long point about how you can also kill random members of the public – male or female, Police – male or female in this game but this has been made many times and I don’t think this will resonate as relevant with the author anyway.

What really bothered me was: “It sends the wrong message to impressionable boys and men. And I don’t want it to exist in my world, and a world into which I might one day bring a child into.”

Firstly, I dislike the use of “MY world”, it’s OUR world, not just yours, no matter how narrow your views may be.

Then there is the fact that she is only concerned about poor impressionable men and boys, and not worried at all about any girls/women who play the game, and that it may affect them.

Article is littered with mistakes.

The “first version” of Grand Theft Auto came out in 1997 and you couldn’t murder prostitutes in it.

The player creates the scenario of killing the prostitute, not Rockstar. They don’t plug it as you seem to think. They are after taking a massive step forward with their first person mode and you see to think this bizarre prostitute killing scenario is the reason why, get real. There is so much more to do in the game.

Also, you can actually do yoga in the game, you should try playing it some time.

The evidence suggests that violent games don’t cause real-life violence. Suffice it to say, if someone murders a prostitute, it will be because they are a psychopath, and not because they had questionable taste in video games.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/violent-video-games-dont-make-you-aggressive–difficult-games-do-says-new-study-9246838.html

PS, while I am in no way suggesting the author is not entitled to their opinion, if The Journal is running a think piece on this subject, they should ask someone to write it who is aware of the wider debate around the subject of how video games represent women. Publishing an article on this topic in late 2014 that makes no reference to Gamergate, Anita Sarkeesian or Zoe Quinn is bewildering; it is the equivalent of an article about cancelled gigs that didn’t mention Garth Brooks, or a piece about the state of Irish politics that didn’t discuss Irish Water.

Sounds like a pretty horrible game to be fair, but is it really any different to an objective to assassinate a pope in a video game ie. Assassins Creed, or baddie ie. Call Of Duty etc.? It’s bad to murder anyone in real life, but video games aren’t real life. As long as they stay that way, it’s no problem. In the end, if you don’t like a game, don’t buy it.

This is a real lazy article. Couldn’t find anything note worthy to write about so decides to bring up the tired old “video games causes violence” spiel.

You can kill anyone one in the game so why are they making it a woman’s right issue? Just imagine the hysteria if a virtual gay was harmed. It doesn’t bear thinking about. I blame Vladimir Putin.

I’d rather see her tackle the issues that she’s mentioned she’s interested in like Kardashians and other “Reality” TV shows before taking on what is clearly a game (author might be a missing link between fantasy and real life from too much infatuation with these virtual lives). The lives portrayed in these reality shows are as far from reality as anyone will ever get and portraying this fantasy to young impressionable teenagers is simply wrong. Tackle issues close to home before going up against something that has no actual bearing in real life, if you run out of actual problems then maybe you can go after the game.

What an absolute shambles of an “article”. I won’t bother reiterating the reasons why it is stupid to blame computer games on violence, which even a child could understand. But I will say this – who at The Journal deemed a fashion model, Ms Callan Price, qualified enough to write a piece on such a complex topic?

Yet another hysterical women’s issue article. We really have reached saturation point now. Ban ban ban give us more of everything ban ban ban.

It’s documented that, in the past, people had these worries about other media, even including novels. How would gullible readers tell the difference between fiction and reality? How would people tell the difference between characters they’re supposed to detest and ones they’re supposed to admire – and might they start imitating the wrong ones? However, I’ve yet to see anyone say “I’m worried that *I* will be negatively influenced by these media, that reading, or watching, or playing might cause *me* to do terrible things.” It’s always other people who are supposedly so weak-willed. We esteem ourselves more highly.

To be fair I’ve often tried to kill a prostitute in GTA and had her pull out a knife and stab me. Damn those crafty prostitutes.

“Can we really say this won’t influence attitude toward women?”

To borrow a saying “Yes, we can.”

I genuinely feel that the pervasive nature of celebrities (like the author’s favoured Kardashian’s), are more harmful to children than games which they are not (or should not be) exposed to. Last week Kim Kardshian tried to “break the internet”, by getting naked on camera, if you want to talk about what’s harmful to women, it’s her. She shows young women that to be considered successful, you bare all and collect a cheque and she shows young men, that this kind of behaviour is what women should be engaging in, which in turn pushes men to prompt that behaviour.

As many people have already pointed out, this is content for adults, not children, therefore it should not affect them whatsoever.Say whatever you want about the nature of the content, find it enjoyable, repulsive, hilarious or horrific. But don’t say it influences children. The only reason it could ever do so, is if they are given it by an adult (in most cases a family member).

I have no idea if this is an apochryphal tale or not, but when GTA III was released a woman sued Rockstar because of the graphic nature of the content that her grandson was exposed to (if memory serves he was in his early teens), the judge threw it out simply noting that the content was not for him and she should not have exposed him to it. The same applies here.

What??? WHAT!!! You’re free to shoot up anyone you want in game, that’s part of the free-for-all, what-will-happen -if-I do-this aspect of the game. If you want to make a new point concerning the representation of women in GTA why not advocate for a female lead in game?

So it’s okay to murder anyone you want, but not women prostitutes? Plus the game is for over 18′s so little children shouldn’t be playing GTA in the first place

Reading that hurt my brain

feminists don’t get outraged like that, a man can be raped and murdered and its ohh the poor fella, but if it happens to a women its an outrage, and we should all take to the streets and protest unless we are sexist, not to mention Feminists are the most sexist people on the planet because wheather they want to admit it or not, THE DO NOT BELIEVE IN EQUALITY!!!! they believe if a women hits a man he deserved it but if a man hits a women he deserves jail… even though women are guilty of domestic abuse, which is usually against a man who has a moral standard and wont hit a woman,

you want equal rights means if a woman punches me im gonna punch her right back because it would be sexist not to hit her cause she was a woman.

and GTA where do i go with this, you fail to mention selling drugs, robbing cars,banks… random shooting spree’s killing cops, but you did the typical Feminist thing and only got offended when it was a woman being killed……

Feminists are maybe not 100% of the time but id say a sizable chunk are sexist but use the women card, like some people would use the race card,

But you get your money back when you kill them it’s a win win situation!

Duke nukem 90s kids will remember . Opening level in a strip club mowing down lap dancers who turned into giant pigs.

There are lots of games that portray women in a bad light and by contrast 90% would portray all Russians as being the go to bad guys.

That scene in grand theft auto ( not a fan personally, more of a Bethesda person) the feature was available in multiple games.

Many modern games paint nasty pictures and draw you in, but then the reality is do you hide everything non pc (like shooting cops Russians or if we remember people in airports -call of duty )or do you not buy your young son an over 18s game.

I don’t see the value of the feature but as a young man I remember playing vice city and was told by a friend to do the same in the game. Not appealing and rather unsettling , but then again 5 minutes later you were on a building with a rocket launcher counting how long you could survive on 6 stars .

I guess it’s a matter of content and parental consent on what games young people own. (I was raised on command and conquer and age of empires) Age restrictions should probably be taken more seriously, .

This article is really terrible pointless outrage firstly this is an over 18′s rated game so little boys should not be playing it and secondly this article was not researched at all this feature came in in the 4th game in the series GTA3, there is more violence against men in the game including sexual violence and one of the strongest characters in the game is Michaels wife who spends her time belittling her husband while living a pretty independent life. Maybe before printing this nonsense somebody should check what they are talking about.

This is a terribly written article. The conclusion is idiotic.

As you are focusing on a minuscule part of the game which is optional let’s look at other optional parts of the game. .

You can drive home random avatars in the game who are too drunk to drive themselves, you have the option of intervening and stoping muggings and thefts if you wish, in past games you could play side games where you are a police officer, fire fighter or paramedic.

Are we going to see a lot more acts of random kindness and an influx of applications for the emergency services? It would be great if we did but No we are not, people do not base life changing choices on what they seen in a video game. It is entertainment, an escape from reality not an enhancement of it.

I was an early adopter of the first grand theft auto. I have yet to murder anyone or sell drugs and that’s fifteen or so years ago. When does the influence kick in?