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Release of GTA V: Will it have a negative effect on people?
Other | Tuesday 17th September 2013 | Katie
Wherever you look this week on social media and whatever you hear in conversation, the subject of the new Grand Theft Auto (GTA) game is bound to have come up. It has been going for years and the producers have constantly improved the game design and strategic possibilities as technology and ideas have evolved – but what is the effect it has on people who play it?
Statistically, teenage boys and young men are much more likely to play video games than girls. Instances of violent crime and behaviour among teenage boys and young men are also statistically higher, but this could be unrelated, as this is unfortunately the case whether or not they play video games such as GTA.
However, studies undertaken at the Iowa State University demonstrate that the games can have a negative effect. After getting 47 undergraduate test subjects to play the game ‘Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance’ for 15 minutes, they behaved much more aggressively than the students who had played a nonviolent video game. All of the students, for example, were told to make other students - who did not like spicy food - swallow hot sauce. Those who had played Mortal Kombat made the students taste much bigger amounts of the hot sauce and generally reacted to things in an angrier way after they had finished playing – so imagine the long-term effects on someone playing for hours every day!
The new release of GTA is more violent than ever; nobody is saying that it is not a fun and interesting game, but let’s not ever kid ourselves that it is a “nice” game.But it is already proving to be popular – things which have been said by people I know on my own Twitter and Facebook feeds regarding GTA include:
“Seriously debating whether to go to a GTA V Midnight launch”
“I NEED SOMETHING I CAN PLAY GTA V ON AND A COPY OF GTAV RIGHT BLOODY NOW”
“GOD WHY DO YOU TEST ME ? You know I like GTA and I have music deadlines”
Trailer (don't get too excited):
