Email us to point out interesting game-related stories.


Tough Trade
Interesting how many people are waving the freedom-of-speech flag when it comes to the portrayal of sex-workers in GTA IV.

This is in comparison to, say, African zombies in Resident Evil 5, which was said to be beyond the pale, and provoked an intense and proper debate.

We felt the Res Evil 5 trailer failed to recognize a raw cultural nerve and we criticized the makers for a lack of sensitivity to likely reactions. The problem we had with the African village was that it reminded us, and others, of horrible entertainment mores of the past, and their celebration of the unjust culture that spawned them.

Is it hypocritical of us, and others, to join in the celebrations about the so-called “irony” of using and beating and murdering ‘whores’ and their portrayal in GTA IV as disposable urban trash?

The comparison here is not between Africans and prostitutes, but between groups of people who are vulnerable, today and in the past, to demonization by the media.

There is an unpleasant tradition in entertainment of portraying prostitutes as morally flawed characters (possibly with a ‘heart of gold’), doomed by their own immorality and highly likely to wind up dead. This tradition fails to recognize that prostitutes are often victims of society, rather than of their own immorality. Many are, literally, slaves.

Where does GTA IV (an amazing, brilliant, important, influential work)  fit into that nasty tradition? We haven"t finished the game yet, but let"s hope it"s not in just the same place as bad hip-hop and nasty action-movies. None of these art-forms have a responsibility to portray groups of people sympathetically. But the media should invite and study reactions to these portrayals.

We don’t argue against game-makers being free to portray characters as they will (up to a point), especially in the context of entertainment for grown-ups. But we do reckon it might be time to once again think about how we in the media react to the portrayal of society’s most vulnerable and despised people.  

MTV has a good story on IGN’s decision to pull a video showing rough treatment of sex-workers, which is most interesting for the debate it’s inspired showing as it does the positions taken by those who think it’s “just a game” and those who think it’s another example of misogyny.



GTA IV Review Gets a Hike
Why did GameSpot change its review score of GTA IV from a measly 9.5 to a more satisfying rounded 10? It was a bug in the publishing system. Here’s the explanation. You can"t be too careful these days, what with all these conspiracy theorists and their vile notions.



Obama Talks GTA IV
Here’s what he said: “I was just catching the news this morning about Grand Theft Auto, this video game, which is gonna break all records and make goo-gobs of money for whoever designed it. Now, this isn’t intended for kids, although I promise you there are kids who are playing it, but these video games are raising our kids.” More from GamePolitics.


What Other Developers Think About GTA IV
Our sister site GamesRadar has interviewed a bunch of Rockstar’s rivals to see what they think. Among the quotees are Bungie, Gas Powered Games, Gearbox and David Jaffe who says he is “crapping his pants”. Nice image.


Matt Damon...The Controversy Continues
Here"s Tom Chick castigating lazy or flippant journos for our rather silly coverage of Matt Damon and his alleged aversion to violent games. Having been roundly scolded, we hold our collective manhoods cheap. Another mental image worth forgetting.


Some Idiots Talk to Heather Chaplin
GameTheory Podcast is presented by Gary Whitta and two of Next-Gen’s own editors. This week we talked to one of our favorite reporters, Heather Chaplin. The podcast usually covers about six or seven separate topics. This week we only covered one. You can guess what it is.

Why We Need Star Developers
Ye Gods. Something that has nothing to do with GTA IV. Kieron Gillen has done the Peter Molyneux interview, and what a fine job.

“Behind the scenes, I think it"s more true than ever before that a director or producer - or a "vision holder", if you don"t want to think of it in film terms - is pushing a franchise forward. It"s not as if these teams are run in a communistic way, where everyone has their view and you can"t point and say well, this game is being driven by this person. You can"t have 100 people working on a project without there being really clear creative leadership. Games aren"t done in that sort of way – no creative vision is".

I just had another look at that feature. The first three words are Grand Theft Auto.

Enough!