"Of course, there are a lot of different tendencies in games. I once publicly stated that I hate Grand Theft Auto and got a lot of backlash from the internet. I still hate it. And if I were asked if I think it's a good game, I would say it's an excellent game."
If we take these comments at face value, then that would be the end of the issue. However, Toshihio Nagoshi is the main driving force behind Sega's Yakuza games.
For those of you who are not familiar with this series, it looks like this:
To me, this seems a bit hypocritical. Hating GTA because it promotes the emotion that killing is fun while making Yakuza is like claiming that Pepsi is bad for the health while making Coca Cola. Both the GTA and Yakuza games are about criminals or ex criminals and both of these games glorify violence and violent acts. Not that I'm against this, mind you, I enjoy violent games as much as the next guy - and those making the argument of "oh but the kids" should be mindful of the ESRB ratings and how kids under the age of 17 should not be playing this games. But in all seriousness, despite the difference in design and gameplay, the themes presented in these games are remarkably similar - we just have a US and a Japanese perspective in each of them.
Now, I have already heard various arguments defending Toshihio. Online, various commentators have pointed out that GTA is famous for the open world rampages while Yakuza is better known for its story. I have also read comments regarding how in GTA it's the player who initiates violence, whereas in Yakuza the violence is mostly reactionary. This is to a large extent true. There are also people who have correctly pointed out that in GTA the player is the one who kills NPCs, while in Yakuza any deaths that happen are in cut-scenes which take away agency from the player. A good friend of mine even pointed out that in Yakuza players are not allowed to steal, whereas a lot of what happens in GTA is, well, theft.
These are all valid points, and they all do a great job of qualifying GTA as "more violent" and Yakuza as "less violent" in a scale of "violent video games".
However, the issue at hand is not "which of the two is more violent". The issue as hand is that the person who made the Yakuza games is against the GTA games because they promote violence and crime. And it would seem to me only too reasonable that the people who made the game depicted in the following video...
... the people who made that game don't get to say "I just can't bring myself to promote the emotion that killing is fun and committing crimes is fun."
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