Before I begin this post, I want to point out that I am not one to voice opinions or complaints about violent games such as the infamous Grand Theft Auto. I myself am a bit of a gamer and believe that those games can be released providing that age limits or warnings are put into place, it just seems that Google+ is lacking those warnings. Now I understand that you have to be at least 18 to sign up to Google+ so it’s no huge problem at this stage.
Remind you of recent UK happenings?
“Crime City” on Google+ is an identical clone of the Facebook app, a 3D version of Mafia Wars for those who haven’t come across it. You control a customised character who can roam around different micro cities committing a multitude of crimes as the title suggests. These crimes range from mugging local businesses to performing assassinations on the street, with each crime being represented with a small animation. It is these animations which got my attention pretty quick, the characters are designed like people from the popular Sims games and while there are no gory details such as blood, it could still be slightly disturbing for some players. Choose to mug or threaten someone in the street and you are presented with an animation in which your character shoots or stabs a civilian from point blank range. I may be over reacting but I imagine this will be a shocking experience for a regular Google+ user who is a newcomer to games, the title should give the game concept away but even I wasn’t expecting to see that sort of “cute” violence.
Again, this isn’t a problem as all Google+ users are (meant) to be over 18 years old meaning that an age restriction would be pointless anyway. I think some sort of “Warning: This game includes violence” tag needs to be included on the front of the game though. I suppose I am also surprised that Google went ahead to include the game as I view them as an organisation with a “clean image”, especially considering it was launched while the riots were occurring across the United Kingdom. It will be interesting to see whether complaints are made and what happens if Google does decide to allow minors under the age of 18 to join the social network.
…so who wants to join my Mafia and help kill “Jimmy the Gooch”?
