It's funny how the most of us remember GTA as a childhood memory even that it is a +18 game

[SM-W]

My parents were / are semi-old fashioned, and had me a bit later in life than most (my youngest sibling was 16 when I was born). Fortunately, this meant they weren't adverse to video games completely, and I was in diapers playing on my older siblings' consoles. I am infinitely grateful I got to grow up with NES and SNES games (even if they were just a tad outdated by the mid 90's) and saw firsthand how games evolved from Duck Hunt, Zelda, etc. to what they are today (for better and for mostly worse). My first console was a Dreamcast at around 7 years old, and that little area in time was probably one of the happiest of my entire life. (I then eventually ended up owning a PS2, Xbox and GC over time.)

The one caveat is that they didn't want me to play bloody games. So yeah, GTA was obviously a no go, even though I remember really, really, really, wanting to play Vice City because it took place here in my state. But yeah, it was about stealing cars, shooting cops and bloodily killing people, so it was completely out of the question.

 

My first GTA wasn't until I was about 16 or 17 when I played GTA4 for the first time (around 2011-2012?) and my computer at the time was too crappy to handle it. The only way it ran was if the graphics were so low the lighting/reflections completely bugged out. I also got to finally play the original 3D GTAs around that time, and yeah, I still have a tender spot for VC even if I never played it when it came out. Took me many years later to get into San Andreas, but I eventually fell in love with it, too. It's also what helped me start enjoying 90's alt-rock and New Jack Swing.

Spoiler

In recently talking to my mom, the subject of Grand Theft Auto came up, and I laughed when she said, "The one I remember is Vice City, because that's the one where they told you to kill the Haitians!" Having played the games, that perception of it is quite hilarious. Also funny is seeing how mild, cartoonish and a little childish those games all seems today, versus in 2001, 2002 and 2004. But yeah, this is why you shouldn't get all your information from CNN and Fox News.

 

Something funny, though: They didn't want me to play bloody, gory video games or watch overly violent, gory movies because they didn't want them to desensitize me to blood and violence. BUT I was also extremely squeamish to blood, and because they didn't want me freaking out in an emergency, they made me look at cuts my dad got while working, which I hated, so that way I ... wouldn't be so bothered by blood........

Unfortunately, due to this, not only do I still get the heebie-jeebies at the sight of bad injuries and seeing lots of blood, but at the same time, I can't get enough gore in games and movies. I hated The Expendables because of its cheap CGI gore (which they do so it can be easily edited out for foreign releases). I want every game to have Sniper Elite style high-detailed anatomical destruction, Postal 2 style chopping up people and disemboweling them as they crawl away crying, and where the average human carries 20 gallons of blood ... but a real life cut with dripping blood will make me recoil in disgust.

 

Don't get me wrong, now that I'm older, in some ways I'm kind of glad they raised me the way they did, in that respect. I still got to enjoy a great number of shooters and other unique gems. I still consider Timesplitters 2 the greatest game ever made, and remains an unsurpassed and genuinely fun experience almost 20 years after its release, so obviously I don't feel like I missed out on the best of the era...

 

...But once in a blue moon, I still humorously give my folks a little bit of a hard time about that lapse in their parenting logic.

[CynicalMexican]

My parents never gave a crap. I played GTA 3 when I was 5 years old because my brother got it. In fact my mom bought me a PS2 and San Andreas for Christmas.