How Grand Theft Auto Affected me Positively
About a week ago, and quite against my better moral judgement, I purchased for my xbox 360 a game that strikes fear in the hearts of conservative parents everywhere, Grand Theft Auto IV. I think it's horrible that any parent would help their kid get a hold of a game that has some of the mature content that is in this one, but being an adult myself, and being one that enjoys high-speed car chases and shooting automatic weaponry in a virtual New York City, I was able to overcome my own moral fear and enjoy playing it.
What I wasn't expecting, was the positive impact it would have on my life - specifically, my social life. I've never been good about keeping in touch with people, just ask any of my friends (the few that are left after my horrible social skills killed everything). I've started playing this game, though, and the way it works it that you have to build up relationships with certain characters in order to get special benefits from them (free taxi, reduced price guns and ammo, etc). This means answering text messages and phone calls and hanging out with people when they want to hang out.
After ignoring some of the characters, and subsequently watching them drop out of my virtual-life, it got me thinking about how miserable I am at keeping in touch with friends in my real one. In just the past week I have made sure to keep in touch with everyone that I mean to keep in touch with and so far, it seems to be working.
So to all those news columnists that love to trump the evils of the GTA franchise, let me just say, "HA!" For responsible adults that can handle playing the game and its mature content, there can even be a good lesson or two in there.
Steak is delicious. Steak and cheese-even more delicious.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment