Gamers fight back against Target’s ‘ridiculous’ decision to ban Grand Theft Auto V

TARGET and Kmart have yanked one of the world’s most popular games from their shelves amid some disturbing claims. But Aussies are angry, and they’re fighting back.

THE gaming community is fighting back against Australian department stores’ “ridiculous” decision to pull controversial video game Grand Theft Auto V off its shelves over claims it celebrates violence against women.

News.com.au reported yesterday on a change.org petition launched by a group of former sex workers slamming the game for encouraging players to “commit sexual violence and kill women” and calling for Target to stop selling it.

The petitioners said the most dangerous part of the game was the ability for players to pay for simulated sex with a prostitute and then get their money back by killing her.

After our story ran yesterday, Target announced that it would stop selling the R-rated game, citing customer concern about the “game’s depictions of violence against women”.

“We feel the decision to stop selling GTA5 is in line with the majority view of our customers,” Target spokesman Jim Cooper said.

This afternoon, another big Wesfarmers retailer followed suit, with Kmart announcing it too would immediately pull the game from its shelves.

But gamers have been angered by the decision, saying the ban is an overreaction and that the petitioners are misinformed.

Too far? … Gamers have defended Grand Theft Auto V.

Brisbane gamer Kiley McDonald, 26, says she loves the Grand Theft Auto series and disagrees with the argument that the game made players violent or more tolerant of violence against women.

“I’ve been playing these games since I was 10 and I’m not an axe murderer, I don’t run down prostitutes. When I was a kid, I didn’t even know you could do that,” she told news.com.au.

RELATED: Target pulls GTA5 from shelves after sex workers campaign against game’s sexual violence

Nicole, one of women behind the petition who was abused when she was worked in the sex industry, said the game promoted the idea that women deserved to be “sexually abused by men and potentially murdered for sport and pleasure”. She also argued that the game portrayed women as “stupid” and “inane”.

But Miss McDonald, who manages a Facebook page that offers up tips and tricks for GTA enthusiasts, disagreed that the game was degrading to women.

“There’s more violence and stuff like that against men in the storyline. I love this game and I’ve played the whole game from start to finish and it’s not degrading for women. I was not once offended or appalled by the way it depicts women,” she said.

Brisbane gamer Kiley McDonald says the petition to ban GTA5 is ridiculous.

Miss McDonald said the game offered players the personal choice to interact with the virtual world in their own way.

“I’ve made awesome friends playing the game online and there’s no talk of violence against women. We are all equal. We cruise around and do missions together. It’s just really cool,” she said.

Miss McDonald said it wasn’t fair that Target had to bear the brunt of the community of opposition to the game.

“Honestly, I don’t think a retailer should have to cop the blame for something like that,” she said.

“They shouldn’t suffer financially because of one petition.

“And we shouldn’t suffer as gamers. We should have the freedom to purchase it wherever we want. It’s a little ridiculous.”

Grand Theft Auto V allows players to have sex with prostitutes from a first-person perspective.

News.com.au was inundated with comments about the petition on our site and on Facebook yesterday, the majority of which supported Target continuing to sell the title.

“The thing is with GTA5 you are allowed to kill anyone — women, men, sex workers, police. No one is singled out for persecution or favoured in any way. It’s a game that (if you choose to play a certain way) has very few rules. You don’t have to kill anyone at all unless you want to finish the story mode. A lot of players just have fun stealing cars or even obeying all the rules and working as a taxi driver for hours. It’s all up to the player — the game just gives you choices to make. It’s like if someone left a porn magazine on your desk. You can choose to browse the pages or you could just leave it and read a news website instead,” GamerGirl said, in a comment typical of many others.

Many gamers argue that calls to ban Grand Theft Auto V are an overreaction.

Some commenters said there was no evidence to link violent video games and violent behaviour in the real world, while others said GTA5 was simply a game and shouldn’t be taken seriously.

“Censorship and political correctness gone off the bloody rails. It’s an R18+ game; kids don’t have access to it unless their parents go and buy it for them,” Blair Everingham said on Facebook.

And there was this typical comment from Da’bomb Oxley: “If you don’t like it. Don’t watch it or play it.”

The news of Target’s ban has gone national this morning.

In an opinion piece on gaming site Kotaku Australia, Mark Serrels argues that the gaming community should not rush to blame anyone for the ban.

He writes that Target had the right not to sell the game and that the petitioners had valid concerns and deserved to be heard.

One journalist argues that the gaming community needs to argue against common misconceptions about video games designed for adults.

“We have to accept a few hard truths … Female characters in Grand Theft Auto are poorly drawn; they’re either prostitutes or wailing, nagging buffoons. The handful that remain inevitably become damsels in distress … That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t play Grand Theft Auto, that doesn’t mean it’s worthless as a cultural artefact — it simply means that we have to accept that the game has problems, specifically with its depiction of women,” Serrels writes.

He concludes that it is up to the gaming community to fight against the misconception that video games have a stronger impact on their audience than movies, television or music.

A number of counter-petitions have popped up protesting against Target’s decision to ban the game.

Do you think Target should have banned Grand Theft Auto V? Comment below or join the conversation online @newscomauHQ.

Originally published as Gamers fight back against Target’s ‘ridiculous’ decision to ban Grand Theft Auto V