Sex, Violence & Chaos
May 12, 2008 8:10 am > MAUI TODAY, Maui Curmudgeon |
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Limerick Day
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Mea paani: Games PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Abus: Game HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Where the odor is bad, there flies hum.” HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “When you get to the fork in the road, take it.” (Yogi Berra)
WEB SURF SPOT OF THE WEEK — FactCheck.org WEB VIDEO OF THE WEEK — Voter Watch PODCAST OF THE WEEK — Podango Podcasts BLOG OF THE WEEK — Twitter.com
On April 29, 2008, the video game Grand Theft Auto IV
was released.On Maui, the Gamestop Stores expanded their hours, and retailers like Wal-mart purchased additional quantities for the expected demand. On the mainland, thousands camped out near their favorite dealer for the 12:01 am openings and the chance to be the first to play the game. What’s all the fuss? Mayhem and Money. The computer gaming industry, which is nearly 30 years old (and has expanded to include console gaming systems like Playstation 3 and XBOX 360) is huge, and strangely, most Americans don’t realize just how big it is. A little perspective might help. Today, this one day, it is expected that GTA IV will earn $400 million. That’s not total, or for all games. That’s just the sales of this one game on this one day. It is more than likely, particularly given that the game can be played online against other humans, that GTA IV will earn more than $1 billion within the the next three months. And that is just domestically. Now the perspective: in a six-month run in theaters around the world, the largest grossing film of all time - The Titanic - earned $1 billion. Here’s another: the last Star Wars movie earned more than $400 million at the box office, total. The game based on the movie earned $150 million in its first day of release and paid for the cost of the entire movie production, with $40 million to spare. Recent figures show that the video gaming industry is now earning more than three times what the entire movie industry is, and it’s expanding its lead. And no wonder: a movie can easily cost $100 million (sometimes double that) to make. An expensive game can cost $10 million to create. The profit on a $10 million game that earns $1 billion is mighty enticing to investors.
That is not to say that every game makes money - most do not. So why GTA IV? That’s where the mayhem comes it. As one reviewer wrote: “blood, intense violence, partial nudity, strong language, strong sexual content, and use of drugs and alcohol. Yes, concerned teenage boys of America, if your parents are irresponsible enough to let you get your hands on this, you can still kill and maim and plunder and screw until your heart is full.” All for $59. The old argument of whether art imitates life or life imitates art is up for grabs here. The right-wing nuts will yet again decry that such games will corrupt our youth and cause a wave of violence.
Others will say that a world where one man can start a war and kill 150,000 innocent people has far more pressing problems than a video game. What is clear is that the public around the world is scrambling for such entertainment in droves and is likely to continue to do so. Players will tell you that as economic decisions go, video games are among the smartest.
That $59 gets you a game that requires 60 hours of play just to finish the first time, and real gamers will play games several times, because gaming architecture now allows them to wander video worlds, to live in them, without having to complete quests under time constraints. At the highest priced end of less than a dollar per hour of entertainment, games like these are far more economically viable than a matinee ever was.
– Maui Curmudgeon
HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — May 12th
- 1896: Spitting on the sidewalk is made illegal in New York City
- 1940: The Nazi blitz conquest of France begins (by crossing the Muese River)
- 1949: The West begins the Berlin Airlift to get supplies around Soviet blockade
- 1970: Harry A Blackmun is confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be a justice on the Supreme Court
- 1984: South African prisoner Nelson Mandela sees his wife for the first time in 22 years
- 1997: Susie Maroney, 22, of Australia, becomes the first to swim from Cuba to Florida
- 2001: Singer Perry Como dies in Jupiter Inlet Colony Florida at age 88
- 2003: Suicide bombers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killed 26 people, including nine U.S. citizens.
- 2003: Fifty-nine Democratic lawmakers brought the Texas House to a standstill by going into hiding in a dispute over a Republican congressional redistricting plan, instigated by U.S. House Minority Whip Tom Delay, now under inditement for criminal activiites related to this illegal gerrymandering.
BORN ON THIS DAY — May 12th
- 1921: Farley Mowat, writer
- 1925: Yogi (Lawrence Peter) Berra, baseball manager/Hall of Fame catcher
- 1929: Burt Bacharach, composer
- 1936: Tom Snyder, newscaster
- 1943: Billy Swan, rocker
- 1948: Steve Winwood, rocker
- 1950: Bruce Boxleitner, actor
- 1961: Billy Duffy, rocker
- 1962: Emilio Estevez, actor
- 1973: Mackenzie Astin, actor
- 1986: Emily VanCamp, actress
