The screen crackles with criminality as a gang of urban predators itch for a kill. The scene erupts into automatic-weapons fire in a drive-by nightmare of screaming car engines, senseless death and destruction set to a thumping rap soundtrack.
The action is not part of a new film, but of a video game in development -- the latest permutation of Grand Theft Auto, one of the most popular game series ever. Partly set in a city resembling gang-ridden stretches of Los Angeles of the 1990's, it features a digital cast of African-American and Hispanic men, some wearing braided hair and scarves over their faces and aiming Uzis from low-riding cars.
The sense of place, peril and pigmentation evident in previews of the game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, underscores what some critics consider a disturbing trend: popular video games that play on racial stereotypes, including images of black youths committing and reveling in violent street crime.
| Continue Michel Marriott's New York Times article "The Color of Mayhem, in a Wave of 'Urban' Games" or read Slashdot's "Racial Issues Alleged In GTA San Andreas, Other Games"
posted in articles on August 13, 2004 3:13 AM | t (1)
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