Voice 2013 2014 award winning pages

Comment The Grand Theft Auto Debate

T

• Jonah Hamilton

Google Image

he release of Grand Theft Auto V sparked a whole new series of debates over the negative effects of violent video games, once again bringing the debate to the national stage. Some critics argue that violent video games such as Grand Theft Auto degrade society by desensitizing vulnerable young people to egregious violence and misogyny. Other critics believe violent video games are essential outlets of rage or frustration.

S

ome critics even argue that violent video games contribute significantly to atrocities such as the Columbine High School shooting, or the 2011 Norway attacks. Grand Theft Auto V is truly grotesque at its worst moments, which range from revoltingly misogynistic to excessively violent and unnecessarily gory (infamously, a torture scene in which the player must take part in in order to complete the game). However, throughout it all, the game remains just that: a game.

While it can be disgusting and jarring at times, the game never makes the mistake of taking itself too seriously. In fact, it doesn’t take itself seriously at all: the game makes seemingly endless fart jokes, and includes stupidly unrealistic elements added simply for laughs (the ability to ride a dirt bike off of a skyscraper—and survive). Players love Grand Theft Auto because it allows them to do crazy, stupid things they would never (or could never) do in real life. The beauty of Grand Theft Auto is the fact that there are no repercussions-- every time there is a police chase or a car crash, no one is actually injured, no property is destroyed, and no lives are changed. The game is a true escape from reality; it offers a fantasy world where there are unlimited lives, never-ending missions, and nonstop music.

The game is not trying to be like real life, in fact, if it were, it would be ruined. Players want fantasy, not reality.

S

imilarly, few if any players confuse Grand Theft Auto with reality. Good people who would never kill or steal in real life can play Grand Theft Auto for the thrill, the silliness

and the fantasy of a world with no consequences, and no repercussions.

T

he Grand Theft Auto series was originally designed as a way to poke fun at the real issues in our society, and the fifth installment holds true to the original goals of the series. The game is quick to allude to the darker aspects of our society: from plastic surgery, to drunk driving, to an obsession with body image and the texting and driving epidemic. Grand Theft Auto puts societal problems upfront, and makes them a talking point for young people. Rather than leading teens to commit horrible atrocities (recent research on Forbes.com displays that while the sales of violent video games have increased exponentially, violent crime has steadily dropped) Grand Theft Auto puts some societal issues in the spotlight, a rare thing for a best-selling video game.

G

rand Theft Auto V raked in $800 million in its first day of sales, and it’s now become the highest grossing video game of all time. So now more than ever, our mothers, fathers, sons and daughters will pick up the controller and dive into a world of criminal mischief, only to come out of the fantasy world unchanged (well, maybe a few hours older). Let’s leave video gamers and their games alone for now, and handle the bigger societal issues that currently face us. And we can thank Grand Theft Auto 5 for pointing those issues out.

Fast Times at First - Job University

• Jonah Hamilton

Last June, I was hired as a laser tag marshal at a local arena. I was expecting an easy, if not somewhat slow, summer job that wouldn’t be particularly taxing. However, on my first day of work, I arrived only to find that the haven of my childhood had been transformed into a place where greasy food met salivating mouths, children met each other in head­on collisions, and trash met anything but the trash can.

June: The marshal is called in to deal with a “situation developing in the girl’s bathroom”. Upon entering, the marshal is confronted with a powerful stench and the scarring sight of 2 pounds of digested strawberries plastered onto the walls and floor. An hour of mopping later, the sight is mostly gone, but the stench lingers.

Strawberries are never to be seen the same way again.

June: Nightly cleaning begins on an unfortunate note when it is discovered that an unidentified customer has completely, and utterly, missed the toilet.

July: A girl loses her tooth in the maze. The marshal crawls around on hands and knees until the bloody and cracked tooth is located. Still no raise.

August: A man calls to book a birthday party, only to later explain that he isn’t sure what exactly he is doing, because he is “tripping balls”.

August: Marshal (yours truly) is interrogated about the details of his shoes. Conversation ends with, “Well, Prometheus (my code name), you have ape feet.”

September: A large, inebriated man interrupts my safety briefing to loudly inform all present that he will not “run, climb or hump” in the arena. Actually, it’s a good thing he didn’t try ANY of these.

October: Nine males and two females from a recent tech startup pass around a bottle inside a brown paper bag, in the parking lot, before entering our place of business. They then proceed to play three rounds of drunken laser tag, punctuated by one employee challenging his boss to a fistfight.

November: Nine drunk 20­somethings arrive via one taxi, and proceed to commit multiple PDAs, before finally asking us (the employees) for a discounted rate. Request denied. The marshal is getting the hang of this job.

December: A teenager bumps into a young party­goer, and refuses to apologize. The burly father of the victimized child picks up the offending teenager by the neck ­­­and sets him against the wall, hard. Police called, father runs out the door, through the Burger King parking lot, over a fence, and into a residential neighborhood. During questioning, the offending man’s partner, “forgets” her spouses’ name. All in a night’s work.

January: Customers walk in, smelling strongly of cannabis. The leader of the group proceeds to pay four times, before finally playing their first (and decidedly only) game. If this is what Colorado and Washington are going to look like, maybe legalization of marijuana will at least be especially good for business.

Sean O’Connor Artwor

Despite the initial culture­shocks I encountered, I was able to assimilate well (even though I still occasionally struggle with booking a birthday party). Now if you’re looking to land a gig as a Laser Quest marshal in the future, be warned: this place can be weird. If Laser Quest wrote up incident reports for every strange situation that I have witnessed, the log might appear as follows.

Mallory Smith Artwork

Lit

Hands

•

Caley Droof

We look down at our hands and see two tools vital to our continuance.

These hands work until their knuckles turn white. These hands are wrinkled from participation in experiences and life. Each phalange devotes itself to the prosperity of its possessor. The fingers, willing servants of any hand and mind, hold ready for the command of their master. These minions are the voice of the deafened. These minions act as the eyes of the blinded. These minions are the scribes of the muted. Without their grasp we are unable to see, feel, and encounter life. Our hands are the vessels that expose us to the possibilities of the world. Without their grip, we are unable to open a door literally and figuratively to knowledge. Contradictory to its small nature, a hand or digit’s significance to the success of humanity is tremendous. Therefore, we must extol and praise these miniscule laborers, for without their capabilities, the realm of human actions would become extraordinarily limited.

Lily Feinberg Photo