Thanks for the Brainy Gamer links.

I heartily agree with a pointed, reasoned smackdown of IGN.  Everyone who has played GTA games at length rolls their eyes so hard it hurts when someone goes after GTA (whichever one, really) for such activities like patronizing prostitutes or running over people (or whatever random mayhem they've been spoonfed).  As John Davison brilliantly points out, most of the most horrific activities in GTA games are *purely voluntary* - meaning YOU decide to make yourself a monster, not the game.  That sort of facile analysis also totally ignores the depth of story, character and setting that make it a compelling experience.  We don't (or, perhaps to say we shouldn't) cover and review movies and books this way, why games?

That's just a windup to say that IGN's video is a self-inflicted gunshot to gamers' virtual feet, as it panders to the worst superficial instincts of irrationally implacable GTA critics.  Irresponsible only begins to hint at the tremendous stupidity of this move, and the worst to come out of this incident is if IGN doesn't 'get' why this is so bad.  We rightfully decry critics who go for the cheap shot, and we must upbraid our friends when they screwup, as IGN did here.

GTAIV is so big that it has given gamer-knowledgable people an outlet to the general media and a non-gaming audience, and it's a shame if that opportunity to spread a positive gaming gospel is lost.

Sorry, N'Gai, I didn't realize that recommendation had come from you first. So thanks to you, as well. It's a whole chapter of history I knew nothing about. Even the Henry Stanley stuff was all new to me.

Now I'm all jazzed up to read Heart of Darkness next.