Vice City Stories ads banned in Boston |
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Remember last month when we told you guys that some people in Boston were saying that the GTA: Vice City Stories ads should be pulled off the subways and other forms of public transit?Well, it seems that the backers of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood were able to pressure the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) enough to take down the ads for Vice City.
According to a Daily Comet report, the MBTA has decided to stop displaying ads for video games that touches on "sensitive" adult material. This is due to a complaint filed by a citizens group that sees VCS as a game that "encourages players to steal, murder and have sex with prostitutes."
In a letter dated Monday, MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas told the people behind CCFC that the MBTA's board had approved the move to ban advertisements for games suitable only for persons aged 17 and above. Here's what Susan Linn, co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood had to say about this:
We are thrilled that the MBTA has been so responsive to community concerns. The children of Boston can now ride the MBTA without being targets for advertising that glorifies violence. [The decision] sends a strong message to the videogame industry that public property cannot be used to promote violence to children. We hope that other cities will follow suit.
The NIMF or National Institute on Media and the Family are also on GTA's case, listing Vice City Stories as one of the non child-friendly games that parents should persuade their kids to avoid. Now I dunno about you guys, but I really think we oughta give kids (and people in general!) more credit. They're not that stupid to think that it's okay to go out and commit various crimes just because video game characters do it. Surely the gaming community knows how to delineate virtual realities from the real world, right?
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Comments [refresh]
What a byotch, why is she trying to limit what kids play?!?!?!
The game isn't exactly meant for everybody you know >.>
One of those nuts that believes kids are so stupid and influential that they'd jump off a cliff if you told them to. You know, if kid's really were this influential, wouldn't there be hundreds of football and basketball and baseball stars from all those sports games? Bleh.
...if only the parents buying it for kids, and that group realized that. RATINGS EXIST FOR A REASON, PEOPLE! Jeez.
what happened to free speech? oh yeah, that's right, we gotta sheild kids from the world, i remember now.
A few soccer moms who don't know what they're talking about bully them and cry and moan about advertising for a game that's been around as a franchise for years and is doing nothing wrong by advertising there, and like ***** punks they let themselves be bullied into taking the ads down.
1. The game's being advertised all over the place, not just some train stations. The kids already know it exists. Be responsible and make sure they don't have it if you are so much against it.
2. These idiots probably haven't even played the game. R, probably in response to criticism, made the protagonist such an Angel who doesn't want to be a criminal but is forced into it, the kids, if they're just brainless and do whatever they see in videogames, will probably be influenced to be good law abiding citizens.
3. it's a goddam videogame. If the kids can't see the difference between some cartoon violence in a virtual world and the real thing, then you should be worried about their mental health rather than what game they're playing. And you'll find more sex and violence on one night's worth of television than in this particular gta game.
File this under: Freak'n ridiculous.
I am against censorship, but think about it. GTA ads on public transportation is pushing it anyway. I think the whole thing about keeping kids innocent is bull, but advertising a game like this on public transportation (mainly due to the fact that the game is titled after the term for stealing cars, which is form of transportation) is a bad idea.
I mean, if they advertised it in an extremely straightforward way, then you would walk onto a bus and see a sign asking if anyone is interested in pretending to steal cars, kill the people you stole them from, pick up hookers and kill them, and kill random people for fun. An ad like this certainly does not pose a threat, but it is distasteful, and since most people know what GTA is about, people will be offended.
Truth is, the MBTA is better off removing the ads for their own sake.
Also, hypotheically, if a bus sporting the ad got hijacked, or a cab driver with the ad in his car got shot, then that would be bad new for GTA because all the weirdos who think that video games make people violent would be all over it. I don't want to risk fueling the fire.
Kids shouldn't play games but they can drink all they want?
check it out:
www.bostonpublitransit.com
There is now a new Cheat device out for VCS!!!!!!!!!
V2.2 check it out at www.cheatdevice.com
IT IS WICKED!!!!
I used to sit across from on of the ads my whole ride home while playing VCS:) Now the Train station is festooned with the HUGEST whiskey ads I have ever seen in my life. YEAH BOOZE Boo Games
a-holes!
These people are so stupid I'm surprised they are able to breathe and walk and talk all at the same time. I'd think their own stupidity would have caused them to collapse into a puddle of retardation long ago.
Anyone who thinks that violent games adversely affect people or influence them into doing bad things is obviously an idiot, and should be ignored, for nothing good can come from listening to an idiot babble about how the world is going to end because of video games.
doesnt it entice a childs intrest let alone any one elses such as an adult to know what it exactly is that they are being censored from.
Thank god, I was hoping somebody would remove those obnoxious advertisements for a game that was cutting edge last year. Kids, parents, whatever, as long as they get that faux-eighties drek out of my face. In addition [your favorite game here] sucks. I have scientific proof. Thank you.
http://boards.ign.com/psp_lobby/b7205/132956778/p1/?32
are you taking apprentices?
YES, the game encourages you to steal, kill and have sex with prostitutes to increase your vitality. Yes, dumb*****s.
I really don't care if ads were taken down or whatever, but the reasons are so *****ing retarded it's hilarious. Ah, whatever... XD
So I've seen some of the things that have happened. I saw one train where it looked like if the ads were ripped off of it. So either it was vandalized, and they removed enough so you can't see them anymore, or the MBTA workers were lazy.
The REALLY weird part is that there were no problems at all when they had the Liberty City ads, even though they looked just like the Vice City ones do/did.