Game news Today, the police are having fun with GTA 6. 26 years ago, they feared Grand Theft Auto!

Game news Today, the police are having fun with GTA 6. 26 years ago, they feared Grand Theft Auto!

Bad advertising is still advertising

You surely could not have missed the various messages published by the National Police accounts on social networks. Faced with the enthusiasm of the first trailer for GTA 6 released on December 5, 2023, she tried to ride the wave by launching “an RP version of GTA 6”, according to a message posted on Twitter/X. In this publication, the National Police met on Tik Tok to show a video inspired by the famous Rockstar game. We see a driver in a first person view who is stopped by a police officer explaining to him that in real life… well it’s not like in GTA ! Crazy, right? This communication campaign was quickly mocked on the Internet, with inflammatory comments numbering in the dozens. Don’t they say that bad publicity is still publicity?

It is precisely by starting from this premise that the first Grand Theft Auto managed to get people talking about it at the end of the 1990s.. With a communication campaign based around provocation, often outrageous, the title quickly gained a bad reputation with certain general newspapers and some political leaders. In specialized Anglo-Saxon magazines, advertising posters highlight varied profiles of delinquents on a double page, with humorous text explaining their dark sides. “I prefer sleek, fast cars with room in the back. You see what I mean ?” can we read under the photo of a woman dressed in zebra-patterned pants.

Other advertisements emphasize the side “bad boy” Game, remind (in red) that the software is not recommended for those under 17, and list all the misdeeds/crimes that it is possible to commit. “Murder, driving, pimping, police raids, adultery”… “this game is going to be the most controversial of all time” we see on the poster, with a quote from GameFan online.

Be careful, nasty game

“All of Britain knows about Grand Theft Auto even before it’s released“writes Mathieu Lallart in the book”The GTA saga: transgressions and visions of America” (Third Edition). In France, BMG Interactive continues the strategy initiated. “Be careful, nasty game” can we read on one of the game’s advertisements, before giving way to another slogan: “as long as you’re a bastard, you might as well be the worst”. Like the posters published across the Channel, we only see a few images of the game. And that’s normal, GTA was already largely technically outdated when it arrived in 1997, when all the eyes of console players were focused on software such as Tomb Raider 2 or Super Mario 64. He therefore relies on the only characteristic he possesses to make people talk about him: his gratuitous violence..

This violence will quickly be singled out in France through Jean-Louis Arajol, then secretary general of the General Police Union. As Mathieu Lallart explains in his book, the police officer discovered the existence of this title through his young son who was able to get his hands on it thanks to a demo distributed in the official PlayStation magazine. In January 1998, the Union claims simply removing GTA. The press of the time reported this information and thus put the title of BMG Interactive in the spotlight. The television news broadcast stories retracing the multiple extravagances of this video game where the objective is to “become enemy number one, killing passers-by and police officers in the process”.

Cops versus thieves

“The kid holding the controller can become the city’s first criminal” exclaims Jean-Louis Arajol in a report broadcast on TF1. Daniel Guerin, the investigation manager of the General Police Union, regrets that he is asked to “deliver drugs” and carry out “murders”, which he considers to be “particularly worrying for children”. “Telling young people that they will win the game (…) if they kill a lot of cops (…), I find that there are enough of these games which incite (… ) to anti-cop hatred” adds Jean-Louis Arajol. The child psychiatrist interviewed insists on the fact that “some children and adolescents do not really distinguish between reality and imagination” and that they can see in GTA “a model of behavior in reality”.

Buy GTA Trilogy at Amazon

On the side of the publisher, BMG Interactive, we are trying to show our credentials. Benoit Deniau, the company’s general manager, explains that he has applied a recommendation for those over 16 years old.on his own initiative”. “I myself do not want my 8 year old daughter to play with this game” he admits. He nevertheless adds that at school, children want to play both the policeman and the thief, which implies that playing the “wicked” is also part, in a certain way, of our education, even if it is done through play. A few days later, senator Philippe Darniche calls out the government so that the latter bans in France “the importation, sale or distribution of this video game unacceptable for its content and intolerable for its graphics” (sic). More generally, the senator calls for the withdrawal of all games “defying all human and civic morality”. Ultimately, the Ministry of the Interior does not opt ​​for any form of ban.

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Grand Theft Auto is quickly becoming the game everyone is talking about. Its provocative appearance – described by the newspapers of the time – gave it unexpected popularity. In the future, each new episode will generate its share of controversies. Grand Theft Auto III will be seen as misogynistic with its prostitutes recharging the life bar, Grand Theft Auto IV will be seen as an anti-cop release with its police officers providing little opposition, and Grand Theft Auto V will be suspected of to advocate torture. The controversies surrounding Grand Theft Auto VI have already started while the game is still far from being available, because of a trailer deemed too vulgar, even degrading for the image of women. Meanwhile, Rockstar and Take-Two are preparing to count the tickets.