Games in the dock (again)

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The accused

Toca 4’s M25-based racing has outraged people who live in large houses in the home counties and drive 4x4s with allergies to anything but bitumen. And that’s before it’s even been released.

After a giant helping of tutting and sighing from ‘outraged of Surrey’, the RAC has chimed in with the perfectly reasoned assertion that the game may trigger a host of copycat races. It might. But it seems we managed perfectly well without a driving game giving us the inspiration.

When the M25 ‘circuit’ opened for the first time, we were told illegal racing around the London orbital was rife. Well, if you will build a motorway in the shape of a speedway…

The argument

We reckon with or without the cultural influence of gaming, there’ll always be some loon who takes things a little too literally. If you’re going to blame games, then films should be flagged as an even bigger culprit. At least they look real.

Games, despite the leaps in graphic tech, still don’t mirror films in terms of reality. But it isn’t the graphics that are the problem – it’s the ideas. Ideas that have often already been dreamed up, and executed, before they ever get introduced into films and games.

As if half the adult themes of GTA and The Getaway had never seen the light of day in real-life… Car chases, people getting mown down with automatic weapons, burning, looting, muggings – all of these are taking place in the real world every day, without the intervention of gaming.

The conclusion

So let’s stop blaming games for the failings of people and society in general. And let’s ban books instead. They kicked the whole fantasy thing off, after all. Burn books. Burn them all.*

*Don’t burn books

For more info on the TOCA series go here