Geoffrey R was interviewed by our local TV news station, CHCH News, about Grand Theft Auto IV, whose April 29th release had the gaming community braced for the flames of the MSM. Yet, in a surprising twist, news outlets aren’t on the attack the way we all expected. This spot on CHCH is probably the most positive and progressive one on the subject I’ve ever seen. I especially like the part where Geoff points out the argument that GTA IV is a cultural critique, which is the main focus in my term paper for THST 2450.

Contrast this with the tripe on the Glenn Beck show tonight. I lost count of how many fallacies I heard. Watching this brought back to mind, with a vengeance, how grossly misleading the mainstream news can be.  Imagine how surprised people would be if they googled “Jack Thompson” after listening to him describe graphic sex scenes in GTA IV and remind us that Virginia Tech shooter Cho trained on Counter Strike, (if you recall, Cho’s peers noted that he never played video games) and found out that he’s about to be thrown off the Florida Bar for douchebaggery professional misconduct.

On a slightly unrelated note, GTA IV has been raking in record-breaking scores all across the board, including GameSpot’s score of 10. I’m planning on buying an Xbox 360 very soon, and despite having never been a huge fan of the GTA series, this apparent milestone in gaming is starting to win me over.