GTA forum feedback

Tim Robbins

Hi,
Just had a look at the GTA forum, under games, the other day.
This thread in particular:
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=MTAQA

I was a bit shocked how violent the clip was. But as far as I know GTA is quite violent and only sold to over 18's.

My suggestion is minors (under 18s) should not be allowed access this forum.
Regards
Timothy

philologos

Yes you are correct to say that it is violent and that it is an over 18's game. However I think in the interest of discussing it that it should be recommended that over 18's view the forum, but I don't think it is neccessary to hide it from those under 18.

Pacifico

Violence......on the Internet?

DeVore

The game is restricted to 18's. This site does not have the game on it. Discussion of the game is not restricted to over 18s.

Your kids..... you had 'em, you rear 'em.

DeV.

Tim Robbins

DeVore wrote:

The game is restricted to 18's. This site does not have the game on it. Discussion of the game is not restricted to over 18s.

Your kids..... you had 'em, you rear 'em.

DeV.

The thread has link to quite a violent clip on youtube with images of the game.
I would suggest at least a warning should put on the thread or the post.

Boston

Well the clip isn't hosted here. You can report stuff like that to youtube and they can require a registered account (no that that does anything).

philologos

Infact if you complain to youtube they can make it an 18+ video. Although that would be very hurtful to the old MTA Dev Team who are working pretty hard on their mod and they would like maximum exposure. But, if it must be, it must be.

Timans

I am going to steal a car right now, AND become a PIMP.

I hope you can't sleep at night Jakkass.

I HOPE!!!

RobertFoster

Timans wrote:

I am going to steal a car right now, AND become a PIMP.

I hope you can't sleep at night Jakkass.

I HOPE!!!

Because you'll be Jakkass's PIMP and you want him to work extra hard at night?

Nick_oliveri

RobertFoster wrote:

Because you'll be Jakkass's PIMP and you want him to work extra hard at night?

Oh no! Vivid images coming in to my head.
Wont somebody please think of the childers!!

DeVore

The internet is no place for kids unless you are the kind of parent who lets your kids wander a city centre on their own because with its playgrounds, commerical buildings, shops, theatres, dodgy areas, thieves and red light districts, thats what it is.

We try to keep Boards safe for kids, but its not and we never claimed it was.

DeV.

Boston

I found boards when I was still an impressionable young kid. It's made me hard and bitter...

peepsbates

it just makes me hard.............

Tim Robbins

DeVore wrote:

The internet is no place for kids unless you are the kind of parent who lets your kids wander a city centre on their own because with its playgrounds, commerical buildings, shops, theatres, dodgy areas, thieves and red light districts, thats what it is.

We try to keep Boards safe for kids, but its not and we never claimed it was.

DeV.

Fair enough it was boards.com.
But the .ie sites are usually a bit more responsible.
The forum on sex has some extra restraint, all I am suggesting is that GTA should too and try to respect Irish law and standards especially if it is .ie site.
Regards

Boston

Tim Robbins wrote:

Fair enough it was boards.com.
But the .ie sites are usually a bit more responsible.
The forum on sex has some extra restraint, all I am suggesting is that GTA should too and try to respect Irish law and standards especially if it is .ie site.
Regards

Well they can't play the game on the site. Respect for irish law. We live in a country where blasphemy is illegal as is voicing opinions which undermine the authority of the state.

jhegarty

Tim Robbins wrote:

Fair enough it was boards.com.
But the .ie sites are usually a bit more responsible.
The forum on sex has some extra restraint, all I am suggesting is that GTA should too and try to respect Irish law and standards especially if it is .ie site.
Regards

But this video is on a .com , if you have .com blocked they won't be able to see it...

If you don't they can go to youtube without boards help..

Don't see an issue here....

philologos

Tim Robbins wrote:

Fair enough it was boards.com.
But the .ie sites are usually a bit more responsible.
The forum on sex has some extra restraint, all I am suggesting is that GTA should too and try to respect Irish law and standards especially if it is .ie site.
Regards

The content isn't on boards, it is on youtube. I suggest that you take it up with them. There is nothing illegal about minors discussing a game that is 18+ because ultimately they shouldn't be able to get their hands on it and youtube should add restrictions on it. Boards.ie is not responsible whatsoever. However if any more show objection I will be more than willing to remove the link.

Boards.com is a site for Phone Chat Lines, so I don't know where you got that notion from.

Tim Robbins

Jakkass wrote:

The content isn't on boards, it is on youtube.

Well you are setting precedent. Is it ok to include a link to a porn adult only site on boards.ie?
If it is well then boards.ie are being consistent.
If it is not, well then the link to graphically violent clip should not be included either.

Boards.com is a site for Phone Chat Lines, so I don't know where you got that notion from.

The point is that .ie sites are usually much stricter about this sort of stuff because .ie sites are government regulated. The GTA forum has no warning in its charter that the Game is actually only supposed to be played by Adults and some of links or discussion may be of an adult nature.
It is quite frankly irresponsible.

It would be a good idea that boards.ie were bit proactive on this issue considering the legal ho ha over a certain concernt promotions company.

Furthermore, in the charter, it states in number 1.
"The posting of information which can cause the illegal copying of games is not allowed. This includes serial keys, crack files or actual copied CDs or CD files."

This is to be commended, by why be so reticent about keeping with the philosophy of the law and protecting minors!

aidan_walsh

Tim Robbins wrote:

The GTA forum has no warning in its charter that the Game is actually only supposed to be played by Adults

It doesn't need it. The rating on the box should be enough to tell people that.

Tim Robbins wrote:

some of links or discussion may be of an adult nature.

Again, unnecessary. A game intended for people of a certain maturity shouldn't need discussion of it to carry a warning that the game is of a certain nature. Players will already know this.

The onus is on parents to ensure that their children do not play unsuitable games, not on boards. Nor should it be.

philologos

Tim Robbins wrote:

1.The point is that .ie sites are usually much stricter about this sort of stuff because .ie sites are government regulated.

2.This is to be commended, by why be so reticent about keeping with the philosophy of the law and protecting minors!

First things first, IE sites aren't government regulated. There are various restrictions to registering for a .ie name but the government don't regulate this site. We do live in Ireland and we are allowed free speech.

Secondly, it is against the law to play GTA if you are under 18. It is not against the law to discuss it.

Tim Robbins

Jakkass wrote:

First things first, IE sites aren't government regulated. There are various restrictions to registering for a .ie name but the government don't regulate this site. We do live in Ireland and we are allowed free speech.

Secondly, it is against the law to play GTA if you are under 18. It is not against the law to discuss it.

Well you have both ignored the porn question:
I repeat:
You are setting precedent. Is it ok to include a link to a porn adult only site on boards.ie?
If it is well then boards.ie are being consistent.
If it is not, well then the link to graphically violent clip should not be included either.

aidan_walsh

Tim Robbins wrote:

Well you have both ignored the porn question

With good reason - it was stupid. Pornographic material is a special case, because many people have various, personal reasons for disliking it. Its something that stems down to the core of who a person is, unlike a video of someone playing a computer game.

However, you will find that discussion of pornography in and of itself is not banned, nor prepended with warnings that it may be unsuitable for people who don't like such stuff.

seamus

Tim Robbins wrote:

Well you have both ignored the porn question:
I repeat:
You are setting precedent. Is it ok to include a link to a porn adult only site on boards.ie?
If it is well then boards.ie are being consistent.
If it is not, well then the link to graphically violent clip should not be included either.

You're not comparing like with like.
Videos of GTA can't be compared with videos of porn, for a number of reasons that I'm not even going to bother getting into.

It's a bit like saying "You're showing videos of people smoking, so why don't you just go ahead and show videos of car crashes?".

And besides, boards.ie never claimed consistency. Porn is banned. Simple as. In my opinion, there are enough porn sites on the web, so boards.ie doesn't need to turn itself into one of these. YouTube is accepted as a de facto provider of non-porn, non-violent, and generally legitimatly interesting content.

That video of MTA was no more a violent video than a video of a couple kissing is a porn video.

If you think GTA is violent, stay out of the GTA forum.

And for the record, the Sex and Sexuality forum has in the past contained discussion more explicit than any porn I've ever seen.

Tim Robbins

seamus wrote:

You're not comparing like with like.
Videos of GTA can't be compared with videos of porn, for a number of reasons that I'm not even going to bother getting into.

It's a bit like saying "You're showing videos of people smoking, so why don't you just go ahead and show videos of car crashes?".

And besides, boards.ie never claimed consistency. Porn is banned. Simple as. In my opinion, there are enough porn sites on the web, so boards.ie doesn't need to turn itself into one of these. YouTube is accepted as a de facto provider of non-porn, non-violent, and generally legitimatly interesting content.

That video of MTA was no more a violent video than a video of a couple kissing is a porn video.

If you think GTA is violent, stay out of the GTA forum.

And for the record, the Sex and Sexuality forum has in the past contained discussion more explicit than any porn I've ever seen.

I have no problem with adults talking about a violent computer game, I just think as adults we should have a bit of responsibility and not including video links to people getting their heads cut off in graphic detail, its gratuitous and irresponsible. Either boards.ie is a responsible member of the internet community or it is not.

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one,
Timothy.

aidan_walsh

Tim Robbins wrote:

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one

The only disagreement I see is what constitutes graphic detail.

Tim Robbins wrote:

Either boards.ie is a responsible member of the internet community or it is not.

In the minority there if we are, I would think

monkeyfudge

Jakkass wrote:

Secondly, it is against the law to play GTA if you are under 18. It is not against the law to discuss it.

Actually I don't think it is against the law for an under 18 to play it... the industry just practices a bit of self regulation in regards to age ratings on games.

Nick_oliveri

So is it right to show a movie of someone playing a Medal of Honour game.....with the blood removed...teaching us and our kids what REALLY happens when you get shot by a bullet (absolutley feck all!).

I dont think thats right, i also dont think its boards.ie's responsibility to babysit children on d'internets.

Sorry, i dont mean to derail the thread.

philologos

monkeyfudge wrote:

Actually I don't think it is against the law for an under 18 to play it... the industry just practices a bit of self regulation in regards to age ratings on games.

Yeah you're right actually. I think it's only against the law for someone to sell GTA to someone under 18 years of age.

DeVore

If the link was to something illegal then we would cut it. As it is, it should probably been marked as violent or NSFW etc. I'm not going to try and regulate the internet though, it would be like holding back the sea.

DeV.

Boston

Jakkass wrote:

Yeah you're right actually. I think it's only against the law for someone to sell GTA to someone under 18 years of age.

You know, I wouldn't be sure about that. I think the ratings are more for guidance then anything else.

Tim Robbins

Boston wrote:

You know, I wouldn't be sure about that. I think the ratings are more for guidance then anything else.

I think this thread is done, thanks to all who contributed.