Grand Theft Auto V: The Role Of Violence In The Video Game Industry

The perpetrators of the massacre such as school shooting have drawn a considerable amount of attention on computer games containing violence. In response to this, the theoretical relationship between violent game play and aggressive behaviour has been a centre of psychological research and such attention is unlikely to decrease over a short period of time as the massacre is believed to be associated with adolescents who play violent computer games (Granic, Lobel & Engels, 2013). The term ‘computer games’ which is used substitutionally with ‘video games’, refers to a game that can be played on a variety of electronic and digital devices from computers to televisions, mobile phones, home consoles and other types of machines (Commonwealth of Australia,

Looking at computer games that have been sold on the market for the last ten years, it can be seen that over 85% are comprising of violence (Anderson & Carnagey, 2011). This proportion seems to suggest that violent games have proven to be popular among customers and contribute significantly to the gaming industry’s profits. An example of this is Grand Theft Auto V, which is one of the best-selling video games in the history of the gaming industry and is also well known for its portrayal of race, terrorism and sexuality (Elise, 2014). According to Guinness World Records, Grand Theft Auto V has become a worldwide best-selling video game by grossing over eleven million dollars within a day and reaching a billion dollar in sales just three days after the game’s release. Given such sale’s figure, it is thus not surprising to believe that censoring such popular games would greatly affect the economy of the entertainment and media industry. For example, in 2013 the US consumption and expenditure of video games contributed more than twenty-one billion dollars to the economy (ESA, 2014). If the violent content of these games were to be censored, the logical conclusion is they may not be as popular and therefore may not generate as much

Some researchers claim that playing such games promotes social advantages. According to Granic, Lobel and Engels, it is often misunderstood that gamers are antisocial and socially separated. On the contrary, with the advent of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) such as World of Warcraft, these researchers argue that the nature of computer games nowadays is highly interactive as gamers are playing with peers, parents and even with complete strangers, overcoming linguistic, age, topographical and cultural difficulties. Recent findings indicate the encouragement of cooperative behaviour. For instance, Ewoldsen and his colleagues (2012) gathered a group of sample contributors to play Halo II, which is a shooting game and considered as violent. Players were divided to play in two different conditions, competitive and cooperative; and after playing, contributors were requested to complete a survey of behavioural observation. The results point out that when playing cooperatively, compared to competitively, players showed more collaborative and obliging behaviour outside of the game context. Therefore, it is logical to believe that gamers may engage in more extroverted and supportive behaviour both online and offline when they play even violent