Dial 2-K-Sports for Murder

Take Two Interactive is the target of much criticism from parent groups and politicians for their best-selling video game series Grand Theft Auto.

The game puts the player in a scenario of completing a number of tasks, and rewards them for criminal activity. Players can blow up police cars, run over pedestrians with their car, and help drug dealers do business, among other things.

I am not a fan of the game, but I don't criticize Take Two for developing it-- the game makes them millions, and it's really up to parents to keep GTA out of their kids' hands. It's rated as a mature game, and is marketed as such.

My problem with Take Two is that they are also the developer of the All-Pro Football series, under their 2K Sports division. Since the company doesn't have an NFL license, they can't make a football game that includes current players and teams, so All-Pro uses Hall of Famers and other retired players on teams developed by Take Two's staff.

In last year's game, they decided to include O.J. Simpson, which made me launch my own personal boycott on the game. You see, I don't have a problem with people pretending to be murderers in a game like Grand Theft Auto, but I object to gamers having to play as real murderers when they are on the grid iron.

I'm assuming that O.J. made money by allowing Take Two to use his likeness, and I didn't want to indirectly put money in O.J.'s pocket, so I refused to buy the game. And, if he's in the 2009 version, I will refuse to buy that game as well. O.J. has made the lives of Nicole Brown's family (and others) suck, and his efforts to make money should not be supported.

And, to bring the point home on how ludicrous it was to include O.J. Simpson in this game, here's an eerie video of All-Pro Football 2K8 on YouTube -- with Simpson, fittingly enough, playing on a team called the Assassins.