How much has “GTA” evolved over the years? Watch.

Every great game franchise needs to start somewhere. Today, we continue our new video feature “120 Seconds” by highlighting the meager beginnings of the beloved “Grand Theft Auto” series. Inspired by its recent blockbuster game release, we decided to take a look back at all the series and see just where our adventures in Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas began.

First off, “Grand Theft Auto III,” our first time playing in the sandbox:

I consider myself a feminist and a gamer. And you know what? I love playing “Grand Theft Auto.”

But some articles calling the game misogynistic have inevitably cropped up.

Samhita, a writer at Feministing.com, thinks “GTA” promotes the idea to young men that “it is cool to be violent and kill prostitutes.” She asked, “Where does this put young women gamers? How do they feel when playing video games with such violent representations of women?”

It didn’t help matters that IGN made a video called the “Ladies of Liberty City,” which was a collection of clips showing lead character Niko Bellic having sex with prostitutes and then killing them (it was pulled down following an inquiry from Multiplayer).

I was appalled by the IGN video; I was turned off by the disturbing montage and felt it presented the game grossly out of context.

So why do I like this game?

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Grand Theft Auto IV” may have gotten some things wrong about New York City (we were only kidding, angry Rockstar fans!).But one of the things the developers got right was the home of MTV.

Our MTV building, where this very post was written, resides at 1515 Broadway at the heart of Times Square. Our office tower was faithfully recreated in the game as MeTV at 1717 Burlesque, in the heart of Star Junction.

We went outside, and then into the game to prove just how good a job Rockstar did representing us. It’s almost like our own virtual Cribs.

Check out some comparison photos after the jump:

(Video not viewable by anyone logging in to this site from Canada or the U.K. Sorry)

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Two weeks ago, I talked to three teenagers about how they’ve been playing “GTA” for years.

They explained how their parents felt and how they got to play the M-rated games even though they weren’t 17.

Now that the game is out this week, we’re taking a look back at a few of the comments from both young people and parents who have different opinions on the subject of underage “GTA”-playing.

Here are two teens who said their dads are police officers:

• Multiplayer Reader Rob P.: “I’m 15 and personally, I hate the GTA games for one reason and one reason alone: you have to kill cops especially in San Andreas. My dad is a cop and I know the real-life bull crap he has to take in NYC and killing cops or any sort of person who risks their life to save others like firemen or doctors in any form of entertainment is disrespectful and disturbing.”

• Multiplayer Reader Andy: “My father practically grew up at the local arcade which included violent games and he actually became a police officer fighting violence. The first game I was ever introduced to (by watching my dad play them) was DOOM, then Duke Nukem, and more. … Bottom line is they toght me early the differance between fake violence (horror movies, games, ect.) and real life.”

Some readers, who are “GTA” players, find prostitution to be a problem:

• Multiplayer Reader Ryan: “Maybe a 12 yr old kid doesn’t need to see me pick up a hooker, have sex with her to replenish my health, let her out of the car, beat her to death with a baseball bat and mug her of the money I just paid her for sex; but who am I to say who can/cannot play a game? It should be up to parents, not censorship.”

• Multiplayer Reader cody richardson: “after looking at gta iv i would [not] even let my little brother touch it with a ten foot pole, ill let him play gta3 but thats because the things werent so grapical then like with the prostitutes. now you can see them crawl on you and basicly have sex with you as in gta3 only the car shakes.”

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Did you hear about IGN’s “Grand Theft Auto IV” montage that exclusively featured clips of the game’s lead character having sex and shooting the women he had sex with?

You won’t see it on IGN any longer. The gaming giant says it messed up and is taking it down.

“IGN’s goal is to show our users all aspects of popular games on the market,” an IGN spokesperson just informed me by e-mail. “In this case, we crossed a line in how we portrayed some aspects of the game and we’ve taken this video down.”

Yesterday, I discovered that IGN had made a video called “Ladies of Liberty City: Very Bad Things” that showcased just two elements “GTA” is notorious for and that some critics say is entirely what the game is about: sex and shooting women. This is how the video was teased on the site:

The video was a collection of “GTA IV” gameplay scenes. It starts with a montage of pole-dancing and lap-dancing. That’s followed by the drive-by shooting of a woman, then a visit to a strip club.

Footage of an acrobatic lap-dance is immediately followed by a scene of the game’s protagonist, Niko Bellic, gunning down a scantily-clad woman in the middle of the street.

Etcetera.

Why would IGN make a video like that?

• Did they think sex and the killing of prostitutes is an excellent combination for a video?
• Did they not think that but think their audience would give a video like that a lot of hits?
• Were they simply reporting the facts?
• Were they being ironic? (”Enjoy” the working girls, indeed.)
• Or did something just go wrong?

I reached out this morning to a spokesperson for Fox, which owns IGN and, after several hours while the video remained online, was told it’s now been removed.

IGN has made many other gameplay montages of “GTA,” but this is one I didn’t expect them to create. It already was making a poor impression (clips of the now-removed video can be seen at those links).

What do you think? Did IGN just do critics of the game a favor? Or was this pure “GTA” reflected back, warts and all?

Contrary to some reports, you can play “Grand Theft Auto” games without behaving like a virtual sociopath.

Well, at least, you can tone it down a little.

I’m 16 hours into “GTA IV” and I tried, in the early hours, to keep Niko as reasonable and peaceful a man as possible.

I was also classy:

• Niko has dated only one woman so far and treated her to nice dates at the cabaret.
• I’ve returned most of Niko’s friends’ calls, though now that they call really often, I’m beginning to blow them off.
• Most importantly, I tried to take the non-violent route as often as possible and attempted to respect the Liberty City Police Department. The game didn’t let me keep that up. But to compensate, I’ve apprehended many of the city’s Most Wanted criminals.

If you “GTA” gamers can tear yourself away from the game for a moment, tell me, how are you playing Niko Bellic?

The time has finally arrived. “Grand Theft Auto IV” is in stores today. It has been 1,282 days (or three years, six months, and four days) since “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” was released for the PlayStation 2, and 2,382 days (or six years, six months, and eight days) since the numerical prequel “GTA III” was released.If you’re stuck at work, and reading our blog, we thank you. For everyone else who is preoccupied in Liberty City to keep up, don’t worry, we completely understand — just this once.

In case you’ve missed any of our GTA coverage up until release date here’s what we have to offer:

Videos:

• First Minutes With ‘GTA IV’
• “GTA 4″ Trailer Asks, “Good Lord, What Are You Doing?”
• “GTA 4″ Box Revealed
• Niko’s Looking For That Someone Special - Trailer 2
• “GTA IV” - Trailer 1

From Multiplayer and MTV News:

• Impressions of an Impressive First Seven Hours
• Who And What “GTA IV” Mocks
• Seven Made-Up Achievements to Pursue
• The Price of Gas In Liberty City
• Public Service Announcement #2: “GTA IV” Does Not Have LAN Or Single-Screen Multiplayer
• Underage and Playing “GTA” For Years - How Three Teens Got The Games
• Public Service Announcement: “GTA IV” Does Not Have Split Screen Multiplayer
• See How “GTA IV” Has Invaded New York City
• I Was A Girl In “GTA IV,” Less Sexy Than Expected
• How Stephen Confirmed That The Controls Are Finally Good
• “GTA IV” Multiplayer Hands-On: Experience The Mayhem With Rockstar
• Surprise Features: Saturday Appointments and Slow-Mo Driving
• “GTA IV” Hands-On: Less Like A Video Game Than Ever Before
• Developer Talks PS3 Challenges, Violence, And Whether There Will Be Another “Hot Coffee”
• Details Unloaded In Lengthy Private Demo At Developer’s Headquarters

Last week I re-reported my findings that “Grand Theft Auto IV” does not have split-screen multiplayer. While the game has more than a dozen multiplayer modes, those modes are made to be played over Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.

Readers of my post asked if the game supported multi-system LAN play, or if it had any single-screen multiplayer gameplay that two friends could play with one system and one TV. The answer to each of those questions is “No.” I’ve checked and double-checked this with Rockstar Games.

“GTA IV” multiplayer is all online or bust.

“Grand Theft Auto IV,” like its predecessors, is rated “M” for “Mature.” That means that the game’s content is only “suitable for persons ages 17 and older.”

But we all know that won’t prevent everyone under 17 from getting their hands on the game.

I recently talked to three teenagers who have owned and played “GTA” since well before the age of 17 — with and without their parents’ permission — about their past experiences with “GTA” games.

One 15 year-old told me his parents don’t allow him to play M-rated games without their approval, and “GTA” is strictly off-limits. However, he acquired “San Andreas” though a game-trading website, and they don’t know he’s been playing it:

“They would probably be more upset that I didn’t listen to them first, and about the content second. In my defense, I feel that going to high school has prepared me for the content in M-rated games.”

Read on to learn how these teens got their “GTA”s, what their parents do and don’t know about it, and whether they plan to acquire “GTA IV” later this month…

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On the left is a painting of “Grand Theft Auto IV” protagonist Niko Bellic spotted in a doorway in Brooklyn.

How’d it get there?

A popular song about New York begins, “Start spreading the news…”

And that’s just what Rockstar has done, across New York City.

With Rockstar’s headquarters located in New York and the new game set in a city almost identical to the Big Apple, I spotted a few pieces of guerilla marketing for “GTA IV.”

Have a look at more sightings below (and click the images to see a bigger version).

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It’s been a whole week of us passing along our favorite links to you, our favorite people. Hopefully we were able to turn you on to some wonderful happenings across the world wide web that you may have missed otherwise. This week has finally come to a close, and we can only hope that you everyone has a weekend full of gaming ahead of them…

Stephen’s Pick:

How To Explain “GTA” To Mom and Dad: The WhatTheyPlay website presents an 11-step explanation to parents of what “Grand Theft Auto” is all about and what aspects of it, if any, parents should worry about.

Tracey’s Pick:

DC Preps New ‘Watchmen’ Hardcover : Out in October, the $40, 436-page hardcover edition is a “deluxe presentation” of the classic graphic novel. Speaking of Watchmen, I wonder what’s going on with the video game…

Jason’s Pick:

Exidy, Inc. History Lesson: There’s a good chance you missed out on the “classic” arcade and unlicensed NES titles that Exidy, Inc. released. Take a quick strole down memory lane and check out some of their more alternative titles like “Chiller” and “Crossbow.”

Patrick’s Pick:

Army offers chance to win Wii: Doesn’t the title say it all?

This week I’ve been posting interviews with various black professionals in the games industry.

We’ve heard from Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal, Crystal Dynamics’ Morgan Gray and Nerjyzed’s Brian Jackson.

Now we have Felice Standifer, a producer at Sony Computer Entertainment of America. Working in the industry since 1993, Standifer has been a producer on several racing titles, including the “ATV” series and “MotorStorm” as well as the non-racing “Eye of Judgment.”

During our conversation, we talked about her personal experiences working as a black woman in the industry. I asked her if gender or race has played a more significant role in her career:

I would say gender [has affected my career] more so than race. I think sometimes [people] aren’t sure if you really play games or if you really know what you’re doing. So I wouldn’t say race, I would say gender because you still run into those kinds of people that can be surprised or “What kind of games do you play?”

Read on to learn about how she was mistaken for a booth worker at E3 and why she has a problem with “Grand Theft Auto” …
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