Rockstar Uses Actual Gang Members for GTA V Voice Acting

[Ken_J]

Is that...is that even legal? I'm not sure.

Yes it is legal to hire gang members, criminals, felons and what not but it IS frowned upon depending on the Job.

It's what makes it hard to people who are out of prison to have a job that doesn't involve prison time

 

[nightmare_gorilla]

actually this bothers me alot. i get it there's some people making bad choices and an olive branch to legitimate work might be just what they need to turn their life around. but what about taking people who "were" gang members. someone who has shown a legitimate desire to change and make their life better. it sounds like they are using current gang members, if it's all former gang members thats one thing but you give a thug a paycheck and it will be used to commit crimes and in a very real way rockstar is enableing them to continue down this path. supose a guy takes the money rockstar gave him, buys a gun or even just bullets and uses them to murder someone. isn't rockstar moraly responsible for that in some way. maybe not legally no, but moraly? i don't think a criminal record should be a death sentance we need to focus more on rehabilitation and less on punishment but this is putting money into the drug fund or the gun fund not the rehab fund. yay hurray for you the game is "authentic" i don't know that that's a worthy enough cause to employ violent criminals who have no desire to change their life.

 

[Kenbo Slice]

To all the people bitching in this thread:
This practice is not new, it's been done numerous times before in a bunch of different forms of media. I guess for you guys, ignorance is bliss after all.

I like the idea and want to see how it pans out.

 

[MarsProbe]

I actually don't want to buy the game now.

Wow, well done Rockstar, you found a way to fornicate the canine. I just can't support giving money to gang members, and though I can't quite believe I'm saying this - I won't buy GTA V as a direct result of this.

Are you actually serious? You would really turn down buying a game you (I assume) were previously going to buy because of this? If so, then, good lord man! I'm sure we'll all be thinking of you come the 17th.

 

[MarsProbe]

As a game developer I don't think it a great idea/ethical to support criminal gangs. Reformed gang members I would probably be ok with, but taking actual criminals is another.

Wouldn't this apply to anyone who wants to give gang members a job?

Hey you know that guy who played Machete? The big Mexican guy who's been in a bunch of movies (he was the bartender in Anchorman). Well he's an ex-con and now he's an actor.

Also, don't know how many people have seen/heard of the film The Angels' Share, but the actor playing the main character in that was brought up amidst gang culture as well as being a repeat offender himself before getting into acting. In what way would thee gang members that Rockstar are using here be any different from these folks?

 

[Baldr]

As a game developer I don't think it a great idea/ethical to support criminal gangs. Reformed gang members I would probably be ok with, but taking actual criminals is another.

Wouldn't this apply to anyone who wants to give gang members a job?

Hey you know that guy who played Machete? The big Mexican guy who's been in a bunch of movies (he was the bartender in Anchorman). Well he's an ex-con and now he's an actor.

I wrote, I have no problems giving reformed/retired/EX-con jobs. What I have a problem with is paying gang members to be gang members and still have them engage in criminal activities.

 

[Full]

So apparently now everyone thinks that a criminal out of jail doing honest work is worse then doing criminal stuff. Ok...

Yeah, seriously, what the hell 'scapes?

This is the pinnacle of "sure, fine."

 

[wulf3n]

I'm talking eat a single meal a day if you're lucky. Or eat out of the garbage.

Add on top of that losing quite a few friends to random/gang violence and a not insignificant chance of getting stabbed, shot, or just beaten to death every time you leave your house and you'll have a better understanding of why some people join gangs

 

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

I doubt they're active gang members. Otherwise the police will be looking very eagerly at the credits. Also funny how easily some Rockstar researcher can find gang members but the police can't.

 

[TheScottishMexican42]

Sigh. Great. So Rockstar continues to support the fall of Western Civilization. Why does this not surprise me.

How? They gave these guys very temporal voice acting jobs, probably for very bit characters. It's not like they are giving these guys permanent jobs or making them the lead characters.

 

[frizzlebyte]

I'd just love to know who this "specialist" is that found all these gang members. That would be one hell of an eye-brow raising CV.

A police reporter who is fairly competent at his job, someone who grew up in the poorer parts of LA but isn't a gangmember, ex-gangmembers or current gangmembers.

Huh, hadn't thought of that. Don't know a lot of cops, or anyone who covers the cop beat for the papers, so my train of thought wasn't really going in that direction.

I guess it ain't exactly rocket science, though...

 

[Olikar]

Again, this isn't going to get anyone "out of the hood." If you want to, you will

Oh please, it's easy to simply tell people to get a job and get out of poverty and gang life but in reality it's never as easy to actually do it.

 

[alphamalet]

Snip.

Besides the fact that you appear to show a complete lack of human empathy

Sir, certainly you have to see the irony in your own statement. This is what you said, nay bragged about in your reply to me.

Oh and about the charity comment, I've been employed since the age of 14 and 9 months and live fairly well and not a damn cent of mine has gone to charity.

I ask you, who displays a complete lack of human empathy? You are so concerned about the human condition that refuse to sacrifice "a damn cent" in order to perhaps improve peoples' lives. The hypocrisy is beyond astounding.


I don't believe in giving money to active criminals. I am sympathetic to the social ills that may cause a person to turn that sort of thing, but I refuse to be an apologist for someone who perpetuates a lifestyle that is detrimental to society. Saying that I lack empathy because of this, or that this viewpoint makes me a bad person is capitulation in the purest sense. You want to talk empathy? How about empathizing with the victims of the gangsters' criminal behavior? I think that would be a good place for you to start. You would rather empathize with criminals than their victims.

I also see that the only thing you do in your post is say I lack human empathy (what a joke coming from you), and refused to address the finer point of my post.

 

[Baldr]

As a game developer I don't think it a great idea/ethical to support criminal gangs. Reformed gang members I would probably be ok with, but taking actual criminals is another.

Wouldn't this apply to anyone who wants to give gang members a job?

Hey you know that guy who played Machete? The big Mexican guy who's been in a bunch of movies (he was the bartender in Anchorman). Well he's an ex-con and now he's an actor.

I wrote, I have no problems giving reformed/retired/EX-con jobs. What I have a problem with is paying gang members to be gang members and still have them engage in criminal activities.

They gotta start somewhere and they're paying them for a legitimate part time job not to be gang members.

This is not a part time job, it just a one time, couple hours in a sound booth.

 

[wulf3n]

What I have a problem with is paying gang members to be gang members

Technically they're being paid for their knowledge of gang behaviour, but they're not being paid to be gang members.

This is not a part time job, it just a one time, couple hours in a sound booth.

Is it going to change their life, probably not, that doesn't mean the act itself is bad or shouldn't be offered.

Me donating a dollar a day to world vision isn't changing the world that doesn't mean I should stop.