Grand Theft Auto Hysteria

GTA is a game that inspires fear and dread in the hearts of all peace loving people everywhere. Apparently.

One of my favourite quotes from the hysterical reviews is related to the fact that in the game, it is possible to "sleep" with prostitutes in order to regain health. It's also possible to eat food in later versions of the game, but let's not dwell on that. The services of a prostitute of course cost money; given that one of the aims of the game is to amass money, this doesn't sit well with some players.
So, if you like, you can get out of the car after the deed is done, and mug said lady of the night. Having done so, you may well end up making more profit than you originally spent on her services (presumably, her pimp hasn't collected the takings from her last client).

Some smart person took this to the web as "Wow - you can have sex with a hooker then kill her for the money" - which of course sparked the fear of the game that we all know and love.

Let's set the record straight though - doing this is not necessary to complete the game. In fact, you can complete the game without ever visiting even one hooker, let alone killing one. It is, purely and simply, a possibility - a result of the sandbox style game-play that lets you do pretty much what you want, how you want.

I confess, I did it once (in the game, that is). Mainly out of curiosity to see if it was worth the effort - it wasn't. See, in GTA, killing people attracts the attention of the police, which you then have to shake off or bribe, costing time and money. All that for a few measly dollars?

So, rather than directing criticism at the game for allowing you to do this, why not ask the question "why do people then chose to do it?"

The answer, in most cases, is probably "To see if you can"... and the odds are, most people don't do it all that much - it's just not worth the effort. If one of my friends said to me "I killed 40 prostitutes in GTA last night" I'd be very concerned - it's not normal behaviour.

That's what it comes down to in the end. Normal people play games and react normally, abnormal people play games and react abnormally. The games don't make them that way.

Hmmm... here's an idea - why don't Rockstar add a psyche profile to the game?