The Cultivation Analysis Theory focuses on the powerful effects of media, specifically in the form of television, and how it somehow has a something to do in the formation of society's idea. It argues how something small can actually turn out to be something universal and consuming to a wide number of audiences. As Gerber and company would put it, Television "brings about a shared way at viewing the world", arguably providing society with a set of biases, perceptions, and generalizations that would somehow be distorted compared to the truth. Though, Television may be the main medium when it comes to this theory (because of the wide number of people it reaches and it's ability to connect with those people with little or no effort at all), the theory can also be said to apply to other kinds of mass media such as radio, print, and more recently, video games.

With new advancements in technology, the gaming industry has been booming. It is a billion dollar industry racking up total sales of 19.66 billion USD at the end of 2009. With this in mind, it wouldn't be hard to imagine that each common, middle-class household wouldn't have some form of gaming apparatus hooked up to the family room TV. Also, as with TV, there has been a growing concern about how violent video games nowadays are getting and how large a grip it has on it's respective consumers. And out of the pile of zombie-killing, old lady-beating, terrorist-shooting genre known as action adventure or shooting, one video games stands alone as the most violent and controversial - Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto.

Take it from someone who has been a fan of the series since he was 13, this game is as violent as it gets. With it's mix of over the top and overbearing humor, coupled with some entertaining cuss spitting characters, and of course, some guns, cars, and money, it is not hard to see why the Grand Theft Auto series has been a success with the audience for over the course of a decade. For the latest installment of the series, players step into the shoes of Niko Bellic, an ex Scandinavian soldier turned mercenary for hire on the shores of Liberty City (Rockstars version of New York City complete with it's own version of the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, and so forth). As the main story progresses, the player finds himself shooting down his enemies without prejudice with a plethora of weapons at his disposal, running from the police and "accidentally" running over some pedestrians along the way, and even commandeering an army helicopter to deal with some of his foes. The most controversial parts of the game however is probably what players do when they're not busy completing the main storyline of the game. Since the game is of an open world, players have the ability to run around the wide expanse of the city wasting their time. Players can choose to go out on dates, check on the game's fictional internet, do side jobs for other characters, go bowling, play darts, go out and party the night away in bars, clubs, and strip clubs, and wait for it......invest in the services of a prostitute for a little health boost. And yes, if you do shift to a certain angle, you do get to see the action happen in all it's softcore goodness. Moreover, this type of "gameplay" isn't all that new to the franchise. Back in 2005, the predecessor of Grand Theft Auto IV, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, came under flak when a mod(ificataion) for it's PC version presented a mini-game in which the player could have intercourse with one of his girlfriends, sparking outrage all over not just the video game community, but of all society as well.

Like the way girls dress up like Blair Waldorf or Serena van-der-whatever, ugh, scratch that, Blake Lively, there have been a number of reports where people have emulated the main protagonists of the game. For one, a man in Vancouver, Canada was apprehended following a string of car thefts. After being arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (who obviously caught him while on horseback), his mugshot revealed a Grand Theft Auto tattoo on his back and admitted to being a very big fan of the game. A second instance was reported in Virginia when a 6 year old child intentionally missed his bus and actually drove his family's Ford to school instead. Michael Schumacher, Jr. over here made it 6 miles before crashing into a pole. When asked by the police, he told them that he learned how to drive by playing the game. Props to the kid though, when I was 6, all the driving I could do was to drive my parents insane, aaaaaaand queue the laughter...

It may be the very charismatic and humorous characters who just seem to grow on you (so much so that spin-off games have been made for 2 of them), or the element of freedom it gives the player ( As Alicia Keys would ironically put it, it's a "Concrete jungle where dreams are made of".), or even that small sense of the feeling of power (take it from me, flying around in an army helicopter with miniguns and rockets mounted on it makes you feel like a cross between the Terminator and Barack Obama), video games such as this prove to be a catalyst when it comes to the theory. However, it is, in the end, always up to the person whether or not to fall victim towards this false perception.