A step too far…
Tabloid newspapers aren’t famed for being factual and reliable news sources, normally relying on sensationalism and exaggeration to shift copies but it’s stories like this that expose them for what they are. Earlier on Twitter, I noticed that Charlie Brooker tweeted a message saying “I hope Rockstar sue the shit out of the Daily Star [UK] for this” with a link to the gaming website Computer and Video Games (CVG). Intrigued, I clicked on it and when I saw the title appear:
Raoul Moat GTA story makes Daily Star look like idiots
my immediate thought was that this was yet another article that says games are evil and turn normal people into psychopathic killers and that they are “sick” and so on and so forth. Amazingly I was wrong.
When CVG’s article loaded up, I quickly discovered what the outrage was about. Instead of going for the tried and trusted template mentioned above, the Daily Star went with the heading “Raoul Moat Video Game, Film and Books cause fury.” I soon realized that this wasn’t just any lazy article I was reading.
The story in question
Provided you took a second or two to look through the article above, let’s get what could be potentially true out of the way first. The book could be the only truth to this story but judging by the quote from the author, it seems that it’s questioning why some people painted Moat as a type of tragic hero. Now lets say that the book is real, what are the chances the people responsible for this story thought “hmm we have something but we need something more for it to jump out and demand your attention.” My guess would be pretty damn high and besides, there’s space to fill in the paper so four or five lines won’t cut it as a story.
Their answer to these problems was stumbling upon a doctored image of Grand Theft Auto that featured Moat and images of the scene. Obviously whoever made the image did it as a joke but whether the Daily Star realised that or not is irrelevant. They must have thought, “Bingo! Here’s our angle” and it fits perfectly with the whole killer theme since in their world, GTA is all about having sex with prostitutes before brutally killing them with a baseball bat.
That image and one paragraph – that claimed that gaming websites were showing the cover of Grand Theft Auto Rothbury – was the only proof they had to back this claim, both of which were unbelievably weak. Clearly they were aiming for the older audience who don’t come into contact with games and believe the “games are pure evil” mantra the tabloids throw out on a routine basis and consume this without questioning it. Yet they would be the people who would buy the paper on a regular basis so the article would, in theory, be only seen by its target audience. However, when you put an article up online, it’s exposed to everyone which is how gamers caught wind of it and why the Daily Star are (or at least should be) into trouble.
The article on CVG already covers the main complaints that I have with their article but to be honest, if this game actually existed, you can pretty much guarantee that the article would have featured a list of the horrible and “sick” things you could get up to. If I wanted to be pedantic, I would point out that games normally take quite a while to develop – at least a good few months if you’re working on an expansion game and years on a new IP – and the first pictures developers will ever show is either a title or a picture of its trailer or current in-game footage. The box art is always one of the last things to be done in a games production schedule since obviously aspects like concepts or art design can very easily change before a game is finished.
Would you believe that this is a real game?
While this isn’t the first time a tabloid has printed a completely fictional story (and certainly won’t be the last), all it shows is a surprising lack of awareness and stupidity by some journalists when it comes to publishing stories and filling up copy. While I hate that my hobby is treated like this (and kudos for those who spoke out against the Daily Star and condemned them for it) I feel sorry for the relative that was quoted, Moat ex-girlfriend’s grandmother who, quite naturally, was horrified about a game, book and film based on Moat last few days was being made.
The situation was terrible for those involved and suffered subsequently and I can only be sympathetic towards her reaction, I know I’d react the same if I was in the same position. However, when you make something like this up and present it as fact to somebody who has experienced something as emotionally draining as the Moat situation, it’s at that point it stops being harmless lies and becomes cruel and exploit those who are emotionally vulnerable.
The only credit I can give the Daily Star is that they weren’t sloppy enough to include the developer’s name Rockstar in the article. Again if it was true, they would have went to town on them and condemn them for it but the fact that they didn’t mention them not only proves that the game doesn’t exist but it means at they avoid any major libel.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, The Daily Star have taken down the story (despite the link to the article still featuring on its home page as the most read article of the day) and instead you’re greeted with a error page accompanied with an image of a semi naked model with the caption “Why not check out the babes section?”* Perhaps that screen alone is an apt summary of the Daily Star and of tabloids in general.
*Needless to say, I didn’t!
