What is the appeal to games like Grand Theft Auto?

To be able to behave as an adolescent w/o getting in too much trouble, right away, I feel.
edit: I didn’t mean it this literal. I meant to able to be rebellious and counter-sociatal, in that sense of adolescence. Luckily most adolescents don’t actually behave as in GTA

I think what dragged me into the GTA series was the freedom. The freedom to carjack and get into fights with the law. Before playing GTA, I was just used to playing Pokemon and Mario and stuff like that, so it totally blew my mind. Nowadays, it doesn’t really interest me anymore. And no, I never got into trouble after I played GTA.

‘Cause it’s fun.

My experience is that we all seek scapegoats; rock music, metal, sex, lack of prayer in schools, Dungeons and Dragons, video games… basically whatever the youngest generation is into that the older folks weren’t becomes EVIL and is targeted as the cause of all murders, rapes, wars, cancer, tooth decay, and excessive flatulence. There are kids that go on shooting sprees without playing games like this too. In fact, it used to happen before video games were even invented! There are plenty of things out there in the world that are far worse than games like GTA. Just turn on the evening news.

As for it not being healthy for young minds, if your kid can’t tell games from reality then somebody did a shitty job as a parent. It’s just a game! I find such games a nice release. Like many guys, I am naturally aggressive and I find that random violence with no consequences helps blow off steam without risking prison time.

GTA is fun because of the freedom to do pretty much whatever you want. You can take out your inner aggression by crashing cars and beating people up, or otherwise doing illegal or inadvised things without any real consequence.

I’m not a violent person at all in real life, but I do have fun playing GTA. Maybe it’s my rebellious streak, but I think it’s fun to have a harmless avenue in which to misbehave.

To pretty much do whatever the hell you want. Or at least that’s how it was for me. And then I discovered Garrys Mod.

I just visited Garry’s Mod and I’ll probably try that first…as my first game on the computer. I’ve just never played. Thanks for your comments about Grand Theft Auto.

@MissA I’d be wary of Garrys Mod, actually. It’s got a pretty steep learning curve sometimes, but it is a really fun game. You just have to jump through some hoops with Steam and the Source Engine, which, to put it simply means you’ll need to buy another game alongside it via Steam that Garrys Mod supports.
You’ll also need a bit more powerful computer, but if your computer is less than 2 years old (and not a netbook), you should be able to run it reasonably well.

Once you spend some money on it, download it, and get it set up, though, it’s a blast.

You’re living the life of a character who you essentially shape the way you want. You can be an asshole and kill everyone, or you can go out with a girl and treat her properly. Granted the game reeks of false stereotyping, but in terms of gameplay, it’s also a breakthrough in the whole gaming spectrum as these game invented the sandbox genre. Personally I’m not into that series, but I do recognize it for what it is.
I love video games, and they help to take away some stress and frustration with either their mindless violence, or immersing fantasy worlds.
That’s how it can be healthy. If your kid doesn’t know the difference between reality and fiction, it’s not the video game’s fault, it’s your fault for being a shitty parent and not teaching them anything besides how to harness rebellious tendencies.

As for the issues of morality, well, I don’t actually get why people blame violence, strife and conflict on video games when all these things have existed centuries before any video game was invented.