It's a story as old as videogames...Well, at least as old as Exidy's Death Race, which first graced American arcades in 1976. Ironically, this game touched off the first wave of concerned mothers against violence in videogames. I say "ironic" because the mission of Death Race sounds too much like Grand Theft Auto: Drive a car over animated stick gremlins and score points. Gremlins that have been run over will scream and a cross will appear where they died. Two players compete against each other at the same time. Of course, these "gremlins" could just as easily be people; this "gremlin" business would certainly not fool anyone who had seen the film which gives the game its name: Death Race with David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone.

So what's up with GTA these days? According to this CNN article, California is deciding whether to ban the game. However, the effort to ban the game isn't by concerned parents, but rather concerned Haitains, who are rather plussed about the game's mission: Haitian civil rights groups filed the lawsuit because the game instructs players to "kill the Haitians" and awards points for each kill. The article continues: "Earlier this month, about 100 Haitian-Americans demonstrated outside a Wal-Mart Supercenter in nearby Boynton Beach chanting, "Stop Vice City."

For those of us familiar with videogame history, this is an interesting case. With the exception of the otherwise unremarkable Atari 2600 cartridge Custer's Revenge, which instructed players to rape a Native American woman--the game quickly aroused the violent ire of Native American groups all over the country--GTA is the only game I know which has managed to anger an ethnic group to the point of litigation. No one seemed overtly concerned about the slaughter of Smurfs in SmurfHunt or the relentless slaughter of Nazis in Castle Wolfenstein 3D. Traditionally, the "bad guys" in videogames are, well, pretty obviously bad. They're either aliens hell-bent on annihilating the human race, terrorists, deranged robots, orcs, etc. Rarely do we see games where players are rewarded for killing innocents, more the less a particular ethnic group.

Even a seasoned videogame enthusiast like me doesn't know the full extent of what's out there, though, especially now that the internet has enabled so many small companies to promote and distribute their videogames. This Wired article points out a whole new generation of "White Power" videogames that are enjoying some success among certain segments of the American population. One of these games is called Ethnic Cleansing. The purpose of the game? The game -- which is based on the Genesis 3D open-source software –- takes place in an urban setting where the protagonist kills Blacks and Latinos on city streets before descending into a subway to slay Jews, and ultimately Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. When a dark-skinned player is killed, a monkey sound is played; Jewish characters shout "oy vey" when they are shot.

Of course, these games are low-budget and hard to find; indeed, they are unworthy of our attention--only the intended controversy they produce causes them to flicker on our radars at all. These beasts are something like a hydra; every effort by "concerned groups" to lop off their heads simply generates free advertising and causes their distribution to increase exponentially.

Rockstar Games, makers of GTA, have agreed to remove the line.