This ham-fisted, hyperbole-laden column in the New York Post explores – in shrill detail – the violent and vulgar nature of uber video game “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City”, and it doesn’t seem to like it much. No sir. In fact, the columnist implores his readers to dump all stock in Vice City’s manufacturer, Take-Two Interactive. Never mind that “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City” reached sales of $160 million before it even hit store selves in 2002, or that Take-Two’s stock has done fairly well, because that doesn’t appear to matter. The columnist would like everyone to dump the stock on moral grounds. The way he makes it sound, Take-Two Interactive is run by people so vile and despicable that the Axis of Evil looks like a sewing circle by comparison.

Here’s the money quote:

People, this [game] is insane. This is 10,000 times worse than the worst thing anybody thinks Michael Jackson ever did to a little boy – or than any lie the feds think Martha Stewart ever told them, or any line in any song that Bruce Springsteen ever sang that rankled a cop in the Meadowlands.

Here’s the follow up:

And trust me when I tell you, Mr. Mayor, what Take-Two Interactive is blowing into your face every day is a whole lot worse than second-hand cigarette smoke.

Maybe I’ll use that one the next time I’m at a bar and I want to light up. And maybe the next time Michael Jackson is hauled in for [allegedly] playing doctor with a cancer-stricken 10-year-old he can say: “Hey, at least I didn’t let the kid play ‘Grand Theft Auto: Vice City’.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 1st, 2004 at 15:06 by Tyler and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.