GTA V removed from Target stores in Australia

conorhal · 04-12-2014 01:26PM

I always thought that Aussies couldn't give a 'Castlemaine XXXX' about PC drongos. When did that change?

bear1 · 04-12-2014 01:35PM

And we call Ireland a basketcase of a country.

Greenmachine · 04-12-2014 01:42PM

Cue a wimpy cross-dressing Australian man in GTA 6. You have been warned.

wes · 04-12-2014 01:51PM

Its rather sad, that the game has been removed from stores due to something that isn't even in the game. The game doesn't encourage you to kill prostitutes or even Women in general. The vast majority of people who you kill in these and most games are men.

Either way, none of it is real in anyways, and its frankly absurd for anyone to get worked up about a video game.

lee_baby_simms · 04-12-2014 01:56PM

Australias long history of racial violence is far more offensive than anything in GTAV.

Grayson · 04-12-2014 02:19PM

I've had a few female friends, who don't play games often, play GTA 5 on my xbox.
they loved it. they went nuts. they were driving around and moving down civilians like there was no tomorrow. they shot up cars, blew up petrol stations. they were nuts. One even wanted to try and pick up a hooker.

When I'm playing there's plenty of girls online playing too. It's a very popular game with women.

And like someone said in the first page, it's not like the violence is directed at women. As for the portrayal of female NPC's as dim etc... It's not like the male characters come off looking good. None of the characters in that game have the moral or intellectual high ground.

bear1 · 04-12-2014 02:22PM

Grayson wrote: »

I've had a few female friends, who don't play games often, play GTA 5 on my xbox.
they loved it. they went nuts. they were driving around and moving down civilians like there was no tomorrow. they shot up cars, blew up petrol stations. they were nuts. One even wanted to try and pick up a hooker.

When I'm playing there's plenty of girls online playing too. It's a very popular game with women.

And like someone said in the first page, it's not like the violence is directed at women. As for the portrayal of female NPC's as dim etc... It's not like the male characters come off looking good. None of the characters in that game have the moral or intellectual high ground.

+1, I've played the game on my brothers Xbox and I loved it. I think the most appealing thing in the game is you can break any law you want to in the safety of your own home.
It gives you the chance to go absolutely crazy with no strings attached.
Stealing cars, blowing everything up, prostitution, kicking the living daylights out of whoever you want, murder etc. It's like The Purge in many ways.

Manach · 04-12-2014 02:23PM

The use of the term "majority" in the initial Target statement is reminiscent of a dictatorship's such as North Korea's use of the term. In that this is what we have been told is good-thought so anyone not agreeing is not worthy to be in our intellectually correct majority.

Grayson · 04-12-2014 02:27PM

bear1 wrote: »

+1, I've played the game on my brothers Xbox and I loved it. I think the most appealing thing in the game is you can break any law you want to in the safety of your own home.
It gives you the chance to go absolutely crazy with no strings attached.
Stealing cars, blowing everything up, prostitution, kicking the living daylights out of whoever you want, murder etc. It's like The Purge in many ways.

I was a bit shocked. I tend not to be as wanton with the violence. the girls were squealing with delight as they mowed people down

bear1 · 04-12-2014 02:31PM

Grayson wrote: »

I was a bit shocked. I tend not to be as wanton with the violence. the girls were squealing with delight as they mowed people down

I remember vividly shouting abuse as I was mowing the cars down

Great craic altogether

Irishcrx · 04-12-2014 04:00PM

No chance of a manhunt remake so....damn that was an excellent game.

I actually still have the original on Ps2 at home. Only game I have for the PS2.

pragmatic1 · 04-12-2014 04:10PM

Manach wrote: »

The use of the term "majority" in the initial Target statement is reminiscent of a dictatorship's such as North Korea's use of the term. In that this is what we have been told is good-thought so anyone not agreeing is not worthy to be in our intellectually correct majority.

Exactly. I'd wager that I'm much further left than you, but I think it's really dangerous when opposing opinions aren't given enough time. No real progress can ever be made.

IrishCule · 04-12-2014 04:14PM

martyos121 wrote: »

Oh Jesus, the feminazis are out in force again I see.....:rolleyes:

No no, they are only a minority and don't effect anything nor do they represent the views of "Real feminists"™ so we shouldn't worry about them. :rolleyes:

ALiasEX · 04-12-2014 04:38PM

Greenmachine wrote: »

Cue a wimpy cross-dressing Australian man in GTA 6. You have been warned.

Does that mean women=wimpy to you?

mikom · 04-12-2014 04:41PM

Heard the wan that got it banned was named Abby Winters........

Skullface McGubbin · 04-12-2014 05:57PM

On a similar note, "The Warehouse" (New Zealand's equivalent of Target) Has been taking 18-Rated games & DVDs off the shelves.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11363676

04-12-2014 05:59PM

I'm more concerned about it not being sold to kids than this. This is silly

The_Valeyard · 04-12-2014 06:04PM

Been in sale for a year. Everyone who wants it, has it, excluding the ps4 and pc group.

Simple solution, Rockstar refuse to let target sell their game. See how Mich it hurts Targets pockets next time a big release it planned.

Still haven't forgiven them for how they treated the PC market though

shruikan2553 · 04-12-2014 09:11PM

Got a laugh from the counter petition. I don't see why not, 30k people deciding what can or cant be sold. What could go wrong?

https://www.change.org/p/target-withdraw-the-holy-bible-this-sickening-book-encourages-readers-to-commit-sexual-violence-and-kill-women

The One Doctor · 04-12-2014 09:15PM

All of the the GTA series were unbanned after an appeal.

qt3.14 · 04-12-2014 09:20PM

Daaryl wrote: »

What a joke, It's only a game really, It's not like when you're done playing the game, You're gunna say i'm gunna give me girlfriend, wife a baiten...

Link of source :

Grand Theft Auto V, holder of seven Guinness world records and recently confirmed as breaking the UK's all-time software-sales record, has found itself removed from Target stores in Australia.

According to a media release from Target, the R-rated game has been removed due to customer feedback about the game's depiction of violence against women.

The release (seen in full here) does mention positive support for the game, but believes the decision to stop selling the game is in line with the majority of its customers.

Target will continue to sell other R-rated games.

Target General Manager Corporate Affairs Jim Cooper said, ""While these products often contain imagery that some customers find offensive, in the vast majority of cases, we believe they are appropriate products for us to sell to adult customers."

"However, in the case of GTA5, we have listened to the strong feedback from customers that this is not a product they want us to sell."

A campaign to remove GTA V from Target was started by a group of women survivors of violence. The petition found on change.org had over 41,000 supporters at time of writing.

Rockstar have yet to release a statement.

Quote:
The researchers probed correlations between crime rates and video games sales, Internet searches for game guides, and the monthly and annual release dates of popular violent games. The researchers reported, “Annual trends in video game sales for the past 33 years were unrelated to violent crime both concurrently and up to 4 years later.” In addition, they found that “unexpectedly, monthly sales of video games were related to concurrent decreases in aggravated assaults and were unrelated to homicides. Searches for violent video game walkthroughs and guides were also related to decreases in aggravated assaults and homicides 2 months later. Finally, homicides tended to decrease in the months following the release of popular M-rated violent video games.” The paper does not draw policy conclusions, but the results lend support to one course of action: Relax and let gamers harmlessly murder pixels. ■

irishmover · 05-12-2014 08:11AM

https://www.change.org/p/kmart-continue-to-sell-grand-theft-auto-5-in-australia

I seen the original change.org petition the OP linked a day before the thread was made. I figured it wouldn't be taken seriously as nobody could be that ignorant. Turns out I was wrong. Watching mainstream media hamper on about it here in Australia is embarrassing for Australians.

These are literally people with nothing better to do. I must say though, how did this woman come about to discovering this sexual violence in the game? Was she playing it herself and purposely beating the **** out of women or was one of her underage children playing it??

Anyway there's a new petition up against this ludicrous vendetta. Sign if you like. There's more stores following suit now. Can't let people like this think they've won. Society is heading down the tube if we are allowing things like this to be a social issue.

darkpagandeath · 05-12-2014 08:23AM

These people do know it's a game and not reality don't they ? Or they thinking they are controlling some kind of real life avatar ?

First it was films then TV then rock music pretty sure people were killing eating each other well before any of these were invented. No evidence that any games TV films music and so on make people do anything.

DeadHand · 05-12-2014 09:23AM

Playing GTA never made me feel like going out and murdering women, no more than playing Total War inspired thoughts of donning heavy armour and invading England.

Just another case of contrived outrage from sections of what passes as feminism these days.

Naturally, no mention is made of the fact that violence against men is overwhelmingly more common and compulsory in the game.

Greenmachine · 09-12-2014 03:14PM

ALiasEX wrote: »

Does that mean women=wimpy to you?

Seem you like you are trying to find evidence of something that isn't there.

keithclancy · 09-12-2014 03:47PM

DeadHand wrote: »

Playing GTA never made me feel like going out and murdering women, no more than playing Total War inspired thoughts of donning heavy armour and invading England.

Just another case of contrived outrage from sections of what passes as feminism these days.

Naturally, no mention is made of the fact that violence against men is overwhelmingly more common and compulsory in the game.

It's like saying Rap music makes black people commit crime.

Beano · 09-12-2014 03:58PM

mikom wrote: »

Heard the wan that got it banned was named Abby Winters........

kowloon · 09-12-2014 04:45PM

bluewolf wrote: »

I'm more concerned about it not being sold to kids than this. This is silly

Even when a game shop won't sell to kids, parents often have total disregard for the age ratings on games and buy them on behalf of their children. They undermine the system in a way they wouldn't do for films.

Beano · 09-12-2014 04:52PM

darkpagandeath wrote: »

These people do know it's a game and not reality don't they ? Or they thinking they are controlling some kind of real life avatar ?

First it was films then TV then rock music pretty sure people were killing eating each other well before any of these were invented. No evidence that any games TV films music and so on make people do anything.

These people have nothing better to do so they spend their time interfering in others peoples lives. They put a "parental advisory" on a frank zappa album. The fact it was an instrumental album wasnt of any consequence.

riclad · 09-12-2014 10:49PM

Target sell loads of 18 rated game,s, dvd,s etc
they just think we,ll stop selling it ,it s not worth going against the protest.
XMAS is the peak time for selling games ,consoles etc
Australia only in the last 2 years brought in an 18 rating,
uptil then games were rated 16 or just banned if they had adult themes or extreme violence in them.
I Listen to gaming podcasts ,there,s many storys of parents coming in to buy 18 rated games with for their children,in game shop s,
many parents presume any game is suitable for kids .
ignore the ratings on the box .
I have not played it ,but i think the point of gta v ,is you are in control ,
you can kill anyone ,its an open world game.
but in the story mode ,your victims are men .
I think you can play it without killing any women in the story mode.
Every week on uk tv, itv, bbc there seems to be crime drama,s
usually with a woman as the victim.
eg the fall,

GTA V removed from Target stores in Australia

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