Point_Man: People's (In my opinion ridiculous) reasoning was that in Hatred you were compelled by the plot/story/main character to commit acts of violence on the innocent and police whereas in GTA it's all optional. Not sure why that supposedly makes GTA better. Shouldn't it be worse if you're committing those acts of your own free will? Or are we supposed to believe people go through GTA never killing innocents/civilians, intentionally or otherwise.
I agree such reasoning is quite dumb. It's more likely that people were just uncomfortable with the idea of Hatred and then tried to come up with arguments against it to support their instinct. Naturally such arguments are quite forced and inconsistent.
Fiction is fiction, and many if not most games put us through more or less morally questionable things. Thankfully it's fiction so we can play the bad guy without actually being a bad guy.
And honestly I don't think it's all optional in GTA. Well, at least it compels you to kill people. And they're certainly not terrorists or foreign armed forces. Sure they may have some dirt on them. Maybe they're "bad guys" too. Maybe they're gang members. That's a shallow justification for killing. They're still, ultimately, civilians. And you go and kill them. And the cops come after you. Sure you don't have to engage them but.. the game *kinda* compels you to. And then there are the missions where you steal state property and get the military on your tail. And what about rampages? Yeah, the game compels you to kill people (be it gang members or not) for reward.
Then we have games like Thief and Hitman.. where, well, you steal and you murder. Maybe your targets are not pure of heart, but then who is? And we have RPGs where you can play chaotic evil, and the game rewards you for stealing or being evil. Light people on fire and piss on them in Postal 2? Oh the game doesn't *force* you to.. but sometimes such confrontation can be hard to avoid. There's Evil Genius where you commit acts of malice around the world and trap & kill inspectors that arrive on your premises, storing their rotting bodies in freezers... Heck, even Deus Ex hands you a gun and puts you in an organization that compels you to kill people who are fighting for their right to a cure against man-made virus.
It really is a farce. Games are just games, and the moral outrage over a select few titles is quite inexcusable. Especially the outrage that was caused by HuniePop. It's no porno, it's not violent, it's a rather tame game of match three with a dating theme and some consensual "fun" at the end.