The Ethics of Violence in GTA 6: Balancing Freedom and Responsibility

GTA 6 is just around the corner. The visuals, the story, and new characters are just a few things to look forward to. Expect the violence to return, which is at the heart of the game.

Grand Theft Auto 4 is undoubtedly the best game by far in the franchise. Guinness World Records Gamers Edition 2009 featured the game as the ‘Most Successful Entertainment Product Launch‘ and the franchise as the ‘Most Controversial Video Game Series‘.

GTA Offers Us a Chance to Be Violent but We Can Choose Not To

Fans across the globe and Rockstar North were preparing for the moment they have been waiting for after the years of development Grand Theft Auto 5 was about to be released on September 17, 2013.

The same day, a gunman was locking and loading his weapon to execute what later will become one of the worst mass shootings in the United States. There is certainly no connection between the video game and the event, just that they happened subsequently.

On one hand, GTA 6 will break its long-running tradition of male protagonists by putting Lucia in the lead. Yet, violence will likely still take center stage. Let’s hope she won’t shoot him like Catalina did Claude in Grand Theft Auto 3. What are the chances?

It is not like that world was a safe place before the game was launched, but events like mass shootings have increased between 2013 and 2023. Doing such acts of violence in video games is obviously harmless but what about such events that happened in the real world?

Isla Vista rampage in 2014, San Bernardino attack in 2015, Parkland high school in 2018 are just a few that come to mind when the term brutal is brought up.

And it’s not just the US. Garissa University College attack in Kenya, Janaúba massacre in Brazil, Perm State University shooting in Russia, and more—the world isn’t really happy when we actually open our eyes and look closely at these incidents.

Worlds we find in video games may show the world as a happy place to some extent. Some are stricken by conflict, some are imaginary worlds, and some may allow freedom to execute tasks in a normal moving life that we don’t usually see in our waking lives.

Now It’s Time to Ask Ourselves if Those Acts in Video Games Are Fun Anymore

By now, you may have gotten the idea as to where I am going with all this information. And if you are thinking that video games like Grand Theft Auto may give rise to such kind of freedom, keep reading until you get the idea.

Moving around weapons, shooting cars and people—the characters in GTA aren’t the only ones having fun with those acts of violence. Remember, they are the puppets; we are the ‘Master of Puppets’. Popping the head of a human looks good only in a game.

Adding specific features like hanging from a means of transport is okay, but that too must come with a warning that people shouldn’t try such acts in real life. Players can have fun with that.

But when it comes to mindlessly mowing down a crowd of innocent people, will that really be fun? Especially now, after what the world has witnessed between 2013 and 2023? That may invoke a feeling of guilt inside several humans who are waiting for the game’s release.

Graphically, the game is already likely to be impressive, but that also comes with the possibility of it being ‘graphically intense‘. Now blowing the brains of zombies is a different thing and is certainly enjoyable. But it’s different when an NPC is not really after your brain.

And it’s not just Grand Theft Auto games, but others like it as well. Saints Row, Payday, and more allow mindless mayhem leading to the demise of innocent in-game civilians. If more of those games are coming, will that be fun?

I want to say we all enjoyed taking those civilians down in those games. I was one of them. But that question is bound to keep popping up in the head again and again: Is it fun anymore?

What do you think about the upcoming Rockstar game? How are you planning to enjoy it? We would like to know about it in the comments section below.

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