Dear Ivan Pereira, Michael Saul, Alison Gendar,
"In previous incarnations [of the Grand Theft Auto series], players advanced through the game by killing cops, selling pornography to children and killing prostitutes."
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/2007/03/31/2007-03-31_pols_rage_as_vid_game_takes_shot_at_city-4.html
After reading the above-linked article, I believe there are some discrepancies that need to be brought to your attention. I have extensively played Grand Theft Auto 1, 2, 3, Vice City, and San Andreas, yet I have never encountered any opportunities to sell pornography to children, nor is there is no way to advance in the game through killing police officers or prostitutes.
In every game in the Grand Theft Auto series, killing a prostitute within view of a police officer will cause him to try to subdue and arrest you. If you kill a police officer, more will come in squad-cars, attempting to stop you. If you continue to kill officers, SWAT teams will attempt to subdue you. Eventually, the National Guard will arrive to subdue you. When your character is subdued by law enforcement, he returns to the game outside of a hospital, without weapons and with a hefty monetary fine. Similar to real life, attacking police officers has consequences, none of which are good, and in the end, you can't win.
I am not a lawyer, nor am I making any sort of threat of legal action (I am in no way connected to Take-Two Interactive Software), but making false, harmful claims about a game's content sounds like libel to me. As I can not trust the New York Daily News to provide accurate, unbiased information, I will never purchase an issue, and advise my friends and family likewise.
If I am wrong about selling pornography to children, please tell me in which games, and in what location it is found. I would like to verify the content, and if it is present, I will gladly inform everyone who will listen.
To close on a slight tangent, Liberty City is modeled after New York City. On November 15, 2005 the video game True Crime: New York City http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/adventure/truecrime2/index.html?q=True%20Crime was released. Surely you can guess where this game takes place. Yet, there was no public outcry regarding True Crime: New York City's setting.
Like it or not, video games have become an art form, just like movies. When such movies as "Escape from New York" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082340/ are allowed to exist, the average age of video game players is 33 http://www.theesa.com/facts/top_10_facts.php , and games have ratings with more depth than movies http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp , why are games held to a different standard?
