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Buzz propels violent video game

Critics panned 25 to Life, but gamers sent it to the bestseller list.

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN
Published March 26, 2006

When the video game called 25 To Life came out in January, the critics agreed: It stunk.

They called the graphics sloppy, the plot confusing and the controls awkward.

But 25 To Life rocketed up the charts anyway. Many local video game stores can't keep it in stock. The reason: a controversial storyline that lets people play as gang members who take hostages and kill cops.

Police officers around the country want stores to boycott 25 To Life. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said it is "unacceptable." Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm asked retailers to refrain from carrying the game to send "a message of support to our law enforcement community."

Still, the game keeps selling.

The NPD Group, which tracks video game sales, says both the PlayStation and Xbox versions of 25 To Life were among the top 10 bestselling titles in the country just a month after it was released. Also, 25 To Life has consistently been one of the 10 most-rented video games in the country, according to Rentrak, which analyzes video game rentals.

"It's okay," said Joseph Preville, 14, who plays the game at his friend's house. "You can take people hostage, and shoot at cops, and get shot at and all that gangster stuff."

Preville says he's accustomed to violent video games like the Grand Theft Auto series, and doesn't think most kids are affected very much. His biggest complaints about 25 To Life are about "glitches with graphics."

But business experts say those technical features don't matter. Because the game gives kids the chance to do something outrageous, it's generated enough buzz to overcome its shortcomings.

"The marketing point is that it lets kids do something that's forbidden," said Erik Gordon, a University of Florida marketing professor. "Kids are all about limits and what they can and can't do."

The 25 To Life game was on the drawing board for years.

Other companies had already made lots of money with titles like Grand Theft Auto or Max Payne, a series of games about "a man with nothing to lose in the violent, cold urban night."

In a May 2004 conference call, Mike McGarvey, the chief executive of Eidos Trading, told analysts that 25 To Life would "be our biggest focus in terms of a new release on new content next year, without a question."

After some delays, London-based Eidos released the game in January. The company hyped the game's most controversial elements.

"Strive to survive as a criminal fighting your way out of the streets," Eidos said in a press release.

"Players can fully customize their own law enforcement or criminal characters with the latest gear and take them online to battle for their turf in an array of different play modes."

It got panned.

"There's really no reason to buy this game," said one review from IGN entertainment. "The single player is boring, arrestingly conventional and entirely forgettable."

But its portrayal of criminal street life generated attention. Players choose to be either cops who crack down on criminals or gangsters who take hostages and murder cops with weapons like shotguns, handguns or machine guns.

Players can also form "clans" and compete against each other online through personal computers, Xbox and PlayStation 2. If players rack up lots of kills, their rating improves.

Those features quickly drew protests from police officers, who said the game denigrated their profession and glamorized gangster life.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund gathered more than 260,000 signatures on a petition calling for the game's removal from stores.

"We're concerned with this game on many levels," said Bruce Mendelsohn, a spokesman for the Memorial Fund. "In addition to the gangster element, it grossly misrepresents what law enforcement officers do, that they go into any situation with guns blazing."

Eidos did not respond to numerous messages last week seeking comment.

Detective Bryan Sims, who works in the St. Petersburg Police Department's gang intelligence team, said different kids would react to the game in different ways.

"Some kids are really impressionable," he said. "It could be one of those things that draws them into gang culture, gets them deeper into it."

Researchers are still investigating the impact violent video games have. But the American Academy of Pediatrics and five other prominent medical groups issued a joint statement in 2000 that criticized the impact of violent entertainment on youths.

It said: "Viewing violence can lead to emotional desensitization towards violence in real life. It can decrease the likelihood that one will take action on behalf of a victim when violence occurs."

But people who play the game say they aren't fazed by the violence. To a generation that's grown up with shoot-'em-up games in which players steal cars and attack each other, 25 To Life is no big deal.

Consider Griffin Miller, 22, of St. Petersburg. When he plays the game, he worries more about getting to the next mission than he does about ethics.

"The gangster elements of it are kind of fun," Miller said. "It's not going to make anyone go out and shoot a cop."

But the chance to pretend to do that has produced lots of customers for Eidos.

"There's a lot of hype about the violence," said Richard Nenigar, 24, a sales associate at the EB Games in BayWalk. His store sold out of 25 To Life soon after it came in; they still have trouble keeping it in stock.

Why?

Because, Nenigar said, "the violent games are the ones that sell."

[Last modified March 26, 2006, 21:15:03]