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GTA IV Trailer Inflames Big Apple Politicians

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the not-on-our-watch dept.

GP writes "The GTA4 trailer isn't 48 hours old yet, but NYC politicians are up in arms because the game's setting, Liberty City, is a virtual version of the Big Apple." Obviously these guys never played GTA3, since it was also set in the "fictional" Liberty City, that also felt a lot like NYC.

8 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. When "Slow News Day" is way too fast by Mateo_LeFou · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How 'bout "Dead Stop News Day"?

    Meanwhile, the house committee on "intellectual property" ponders how to implement a licensing regime for ephemeral copies of recordings each time they pass through a computer's RAM.

    Sorry, I know I'm not supposed to bitch about rejected stories or (in this case) ones that have been pending for a week... couldn't help it this one time.

    --
    My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
  2. Safest? by kurt555gs · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I live near Chicago ( Joliet ) and travel extensively through ought the USA. "Safest"? and New York do not belong in the same sentence in my opinion. To me, New York is just NASTY. I did a job just across the Brooklyn Bridge in Williamsburg at a public housing project. The guards there leave after dark for fear of being shot.

    I think one of the reasons that New York politico's don't like the New York / Liberty City parallel is that it is just to close to home, and NYC really is very similar to the virtual world inside GTA.

    Chicago is a much nicer, safer, cleaner and just better city than New York. Notice that game makers don't generally use it.

    Cheers

    --
    * Carthago Delenda Est *
    1. Re:Safest? by codeshack · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Erm, Williamsburg isn't near the Brooklyn Bridge. As I write this, from my apartment about ten blocks from the middle of Williamsburg, in a lovely, safe, neighborhood, I am somewhat confused as to what you're talking about. Plus, I'm sure Chicago's housing projects are just delightful. Where was that Cabrini-Green place again?

    2. Re:Safest? by roaddemon · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Uh... no. Chicago is about 3 times as dangerous by every stat here:

      http://www.areaconnect.com/crime/compare.htm?c1=ne w+york&s1=NY&c2=chicago&s2=IL

    3. Re:Safest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      You could see a difference after he became mayor and this difference was more rvident the more the news stations complained about him. I guess he created a floating precinct idea were an entire police station was mobile and could be located where ever the need for extra enforcement popped up in less then 24 hours.

      His greatest success was reducing the bureaucracy and letting the departments solve problems at the lowest possible level. This is the opposite of rigid bureaucratic systems like the French National Police which treat different areas with only one sized brush. If one precinct wants to target jaywalkers, so be it. And if they need help the department could change at a moments notice to move 20 cops to traffic patrols or identity theft investigations, or whatever else was needed. Instead of passing new laws like most politicians he used the laws already passed and worked within the system. If shoplifting went up 10% in the city he didn't ask to raise the penalty for shoplifting, he just assigned more cops to enforce the laws. Crazy ideas!

      If only we would do that in the rest of the country (of course, without micromanaging). How many times have the penalties for drug offenses been raised with nothing to show for it? Or the penalties for littering or speeding? The $400 fines for littering and $150 traffic tickets have done nothing to stop either.

    4. Re:Safest? by benzapp · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Umm, no. Chicago has something called racial divide. It appears to suburban residents like the OP that Chicago is safe because they only stray into very small nearly exclusively white enclaves like Lincoln Park or the Gold Coast. They never go to the south side, which has 75 square miles of land entirely filled with Negroes. The reality, which is masked by the difficulty in finding race based crime stats, is that the vast majority of crimes in Chicago involve Negroes as both criminal and victim. It is mostly ghettoized.

      --
      I don't read or respond to AC posts
  3. hmm by nomadic · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Obviously these guys never played GTA3, since it was also set in the "fictional" Liberty City, that also felt a lot like NYC

    It felt nothing like NYC. Seriously, Rockstar hasn't really done a good job capturing the feel of the cities they parallel. Vice City didn't feel like Miami either.

  4. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Comment removed based on user account deletion