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NEWS > GAMES > GRAND THEFT AUTO ROCKBURY CANCELLED AFTER OUTING BY BRITISH TABLOID
GRAND THEFT AUTO ROCKBURY CANCELLED AFTER OUTING BY BRITISH TABLOID
July 25 2010
London, U.K. – Like any popular medium, video games have been beset by critics and pundits for its portrayal of violence. Though no scientific study, and no practical experience, has ever found a real link between violence in entertainment and violence
in the real world, every time a particular medium becomes popular it is targeted as the harbinger of the end of human culture. While the motivations for such claims may be genuine, or they may be political piggy backing, the net result is the same time and time again, not a whole lot.
There has been no company more attuned to the potential controversy of video games than Rockstar. Their series of ‘Grand Theft Auto’ games have been one of the most popular, most acclaimed, and most criticized titles in the short history of the medium. While no one debates that the games are violent and even profane at times, there has been no connection, scientific or otherwise, between their content and any acts committed in the real world. Nonetheless they have become the lightning rod for critics, with the every move of the company watched and analyzed for any opportunity to pounce. Now a new controversy over a an article by The Daily Star
purporting to uncover a new entry into the series revolving around the real life crimes of British gunman Raoul Moat has resulted in a fine for the paper, and apparently a whole lot of headaches at Rockstar which had apparently been doing something similar to what they had been accused.
“On 21 July we published an article claiming that the video games company Rockstar Games were planning to release a version of their popular Grand Theft Auto video games series titled “Grand Theft Auto Rothbury,” wrote the Star. “We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication and did not contact Rockstar Games prior to publishing the story. We also did not question why a best selling and critically acclaimed fictional games series would choose to base one of their most popular games on this horrifying real crime event.”
The paper agreed to a substantial financial claim which will be donated to charity.
“Papers like The Daily Star aren’t exactly of the highest journalistic standard so it makes some sense that they would get caught up in something like this. Seeing something on the internet like the mock up cover doesn’t make it so. It’s easy to take things at face value, particularly when it’s a good story, but there is an onus on the editors and writers to make sure that the facts are correct before publishing,” said Scrape TV Gaming analyst Graeme Hawthorne. “That is one of the fundamentals of news gathering and it hasn’t changed because the internet makes access easier. If anything they should be more diligent in getting their facts straight because it is so easy for someone to disseminate false information across the web.”
There has been a great deal of speculation about the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series. Many rumours have placed it in London, the setting of a previous title in the series, not far from Rothbury.
“From what I’ve heard this has really scuttled their plans. Obviously they didn’t know 
about this case before beginning development but they had tried to integrate it into the storyline and now all of that has to be scuttled because of the article. That’s a lot of work and a lot of money down the drain thanks to this little article,” continued Hawthorne. “Games cost a lot of money to develop and they work hard to keep their secrets and now everything is thrown into peril. Of course this guy only shot a handful of people and robbed a bank, that is not the GTA I want to play so maybe its best that they did out them like this. No one wants to play a boring GTA game.”
Grand Theft Auto V is rumoured to have a 2011 release date though Rockstar will not confirm or deny that schedule.
Douglas Havermore, Games Correspondent
NEWS > GAMES > GRAND THEFT AUTO ROCKBURY CANCELLED AFTER OUTING BY BRITISH TABLOID
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