New York Senator Criticizes <cite>V-Tech Rampage</cite>, <cite>GTA IV</cite>

New York Senator Andrew Lanza has called on the gaming world to shun V-Tech Rampage, urging retailers and Web site hosts (Newgrounds, he means you) to boycott the game. "There are certain things in life you don't make light of and should not be turning into a game," he said. That would've been a fine day's work right there, but then he had to go and ring the GTA IV bell:

You've got Grand Theft Auto where you murder police officers. To me, I can't imagine people marketing and distributing it, and putting it in the hands of kids, but it's happening.

This disappoints me. Not because I think he's wrong about GTA, per se--I don't think kids should be playing it either, that's what the rating is for--but because it's wrong to compare, however obliquely, a work of pure fiction to a game that turns the death of actual people into entertainment.

'V-Tech Rampage' Internet Game Sparks Outrage [Staten Island Advance, via GamePolitics]