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Rockstar Censors GTA After Haitian Outcry

Posted by simoniker on from the ulala-and-morolians-next dept.

Thanks to VE3D for carrying a statement from Take Two/Rockstar announcing the removal of alleged anti-Haitian content from future copies of Grand Theft Auto:Vice City, after a furore which started last month following a CBS TV segment on the game. The controversy, which even had New York's Mayor Bloomberg weighing in on the game's rival gang-related urgings to "Kill all the Haitians", has ended with Rockstar's press release indicating: "We believe that recent media coverage has taken certain statements made in the game out of context... nevertheless, we are aware of the hurt and anger in the Haitian community... we will remove the objectionable statements from future copies of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City."

7 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Haitians??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What about the Orcs? Nobody ever backs the Orcs. They get dissed in more games than anyone. How many other enemies explode on eye contact?

  2. A moment, please... by ex_ottoyuhr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is getting just ludicrous. So not only is Manhunt not Adults Only, there's also no appreciable outcry about it, and the Rockstar game being censored is getting censored for a quote that sounds racist out of context, as opposed to being censored for, say, sodomizing a gang member with a crowbar. U.S. society is collectively insane. I'm not sure what variety of insanity (although I'd speculate a diagnosis of disorganized schizophrenia), but still... This is all getting disgusting.

    1. Re:A moment, please... by seraph93 · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Don't people see that this sort of action is PROMOTING racism?

      They don't. Most people take the opposite view: that enforcing artificial distinctions between ethnic groups will somehow bring these groups together instead of keeping them separated. It's okay to use this word to describe these people, but not to use this other word to describe these other people; it's okay to run over or gun down people in a video game, but not if they're of this background; this TV show should appeal to people of this ethnicity, whereas this other TV show is for the other folks; and don't you dare offer any fried chicken to that guy over there, he'll get offended!

      We don't have separate drinking fountains anymore, and only the handicapped and the elderly have seats reserved at the front of the bus. But we have separate television shows, separate music styles, separate styles of clothing, separate vocabularies, and now separate mission objectives in Grand Theft Auto. Segregation never went away; it just got sneakier. The rifts between the races have become more semantic and less physical, but that doesn't mean that they've not there. And now they're being pushed under the label of "Political Correctness".

      You better watch what you say, and especially who you say it to. Don't you dare look at someone else and think, "Oh, another human being." You'd better make sure you categorize that person properly first, and think of the differences between you, long before you think of the common heritage that we all share as human beings.

      After all, you wouldn't want to offend anyone.

      --
      Ph-nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.
  3. Remember kids.. by Stray7Xi · · Score: 5, Funny
    Don't kill haitians.. thats racist
    Kill cops.. thats politically correct

    /sarcasm off
    Wasn't the point of the game to be crude and offensive?? That's what makes it fun. If they're going to censor themselves they have a lot of work ahead of them

  4. They Shouldn't Have Caved In by illuminata · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't believe that they should sensor themselves just because certain people become offended. But, if Rockstar and Take Two truly believed that it is their right to keep a sense of realism in their game, then they shouldn't have removed the content at all. They're already getting enough bad press from the game, which has helped its popularity anyways.

    Most importantly, because Rockstar and Take Two are censoring themselves in this manner, they have severely hurt the argument that video games are an artform. It's going to be much harder to have video games gain the same amount of artistic respect that movies and music have to the general public. Special interest groups will have a much easier time getting other companies to follow suit and self-censor as well, because now they can say "Rockstar and Take Two did it, why won't you?"

    --


    Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
  5. Re:What about BF1942?! by Micro$will · · Score: 5, Funny

    With all the WW2 games out nowadays, I wouldn't be surprised if thats what they'll replace the Haitians with in the censored version. Hell, if they did that, I'd buy the game again just so I could hear German ghetto talk.

    Ja sind jene Weinerschnitzel die Bombe!

    Oh yeah, a Mercedes S class with hydraulics would be better than those slow Voodoos.

  6. Re:surprised? by s0rbix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    not all liberals are PC fascists. i am very liberal and make un-pc jokes all the time... i dont care so much when people are stereotpyed, and it doesnt bother me when a small group of people are offended over an out of context comment from a video game.