Okay kids, send your comments here:

http://cbsnewyork.com/shame/

Personally, I hope I stop laughing long enough to comment.

http://cbsnewyork.com/shamestories/local_story_310210921.html

http://cbsnewyork.com
Shame On You: Rockstar Video Games
Nov 6, 2003 11:38 pm US/Eastern

Brutal, bloody images and racist messages. It's all packaged in a popular video
game. One outraged Haitian American viewer, who didn't want to appear on camera,
says the message is unacceptable.

CBS 2's Arnold Diaz takes a closer look, but a word of caution, what he found is
not appropriate for children.

It's the best selling video game of all time, and may be the most graphically
violent. The object of "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" is to kill, kill again,
then kill some more.

"This game is very extreme. There's a lot of blood, you can shoot people's heads
off," says John Difenderfer

Difenderfer says he's addicted to the game, plays it for hours on end, and
admits it can mess with your head, "I think you have to have a strong mind to be
able to play this game and not want to go out and kill people."

While much of Vice City's violence is random and indiscriminate, Shame On You
found as you get deeper into the game it takes an ugly, racist twist. Players
are instructed to exterminate an entire ethnic group!

"My mission in the game is to kill the Haitians," says Difenderfer.

That's right, kill the Haitians! Just read to the game's dialogue:

"I hate these Haitians. We'll take them out, we'll take these Haitians down."

The Haitians are portrayed as evil drug dealers in "Vice City." the player's
goal? Wipe them out, an order given both verbally and in writing:

"Stinking nest of Haitians. We gonna kill them all. Kill all the Haitians."

"This is a game that is not only racist, but it is dangerous," says Dr. Henry
Frank.

Frank, Director of the Haitian Centers Council, was shocked and outraged when we
showed him the game. He says this is a cultural attack on the one million
Haitians living on our area. "To kill the Haitians like beasts, like nothing,
you are attacking our self-esteem, our respect and everything that we have."

He fears the worst may happen, "You don't know where you are going to get some
crazy mind who will apply exactly what they have seen on the game."

Why is Rockstar Games, the maker of "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" using the
killing of Haitians as entertainment?

The company is based right here in New York City. Its president, Sam Houser, is
ranked as one of the entertainment industry's most powerful people. But he's
hiding, refusing to speak with us at all, refusing to even acknowledge the
community's concerns about the game.

"They don't care who they are offending," says Dr. David Walsh.

We spoke to Dr. David Walsh from the National Institute on Media and the Family
via satellite from Minneapolis. He says while "Vice City" is rated M,
inappropriate for kids under 17. Studies show the game is hugely popular among
young teenage boys, and that's got him worried. "For them to be playing a game
that dehumanizes and makes a whole group of people the object of derision and
persecution, that's not the kind of message we want to be sending to our young
people. "

Haitian leaders now say they won't stand for it. "When our self-esteem, our
prestige is down, we'll fight for that. I'm going to mobilize my community, they
have to do something," adds Frank.

So into the CBS 2 Hall Of Shame we induct Rockstar Games and its president, Sam
Houser, for cashing in on racism and violence.

One thing is certain: The violence and racism haven't hurt the video's sales.

Estimates are that Rockstar Games has already made $260 million from "Vice City"
in its first year of release.

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