Censorship Paranoia

The Australian Target and Kmart created chaos in the world of “vidya.” Both stores—owned by the Wesfarmers Group—recently removed Grand Theft Auto Five from their shelves due to a customer petition. Since then my twitter feed flooded with accusations of censorship. While others claim it is not. This situation saddens me and mirrors my frustration with progressivism; however, people are conflating two separate issues.

Let’s begin with definitions. According the Merriam-Webster dictionary a censor is “a person who examines books, movies, letters, etc. and removes things that are considered to be offensive, immoral, harmful to society, etc.” Censorship (the same dictionary) is “the system or practice of censoring books, movies, letters, etc.” or “the actions or practices of censors; especially : censorial control exercised repressively.” No dictionary is the absolute arbiter of meaning, but that’s where my analysis begins. Notice that neither definition demands a government institution be involved in the censoring. Personally I believe censorship can occur outside government institutions, but in practice that rarely happens. Almost every instance—both historical and current—of censorship has come from a government or a governing institution. Now to the actual controversy.

I’ll admit the reason behind the decision is weak, but I understand why some people object to the game’s content. Take-Two Interactive Software claims the game “explores” mature concepts, yet I don’t buy that. Others claim the GTA franchise is a satire of American culture. Certain aspects of the game achieve that, like the radio shows, but the games as a whole do not. Even if GTA was meant as a satire, it’s interactive nature eliminates authorial intent. GTA 5 is a guilty pleasure game. Players are encouraged to do immoral activities because the characters are bad people. Does this have any real life impact? Not for adults. I’ve enjoyed all these games since GTA 3, but would I defend their merits beyond game mechanics and open world sandbox? No.

Wesfarmers’ decision to stop selling GTA 5 is not censorship. One of two criteria must be fulfilled. Either it becomes illegal to own the video game in question or it can’t be sold legally. Any retailer has the right to decide what they sell. While inconvenient, Australians can still purchase GTA 5 from other retailers. No censorship has occurred and no one’s rights are being infringed upon. I do understand peoples’ concerns especially circles within #Gamergate. It’s improbable that two retail chains have enough influence to encourage all stores in Australia to follow their example. Enough cultural resistance still exists to combat moral busy bodies so games with mature themes will remain.

This is another instance of video games being singled out. There are movies and books that have an equal, if not greater, amount of violence; yet they remain on Target’s shelves. Interaction alone hasn’t been proven to increase peoples’ violent tendencies or be the genesis of them. If Wesfarmers were fair, all material displaying violence against women would be banned. It is also their right to not be fair. If you don’t like it, take your business else where. It is foolishness to labeling this situation as censorship. Don’t make GTA 5 a martyr until an actual ban occurs. Thanks for reading. 

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