Games expert condemns US gun violence with own take on Grand Theft Auto V
Professor Joseph DeLappe says that by using a gaming simulation, the number of gun deaths ‘ironically becomes more real’.
A games expert is using his own take on Grand Theft Auto V to highlight the extent of gun violence in the US.
Artist and activist Joseph DeLappe has produced a self-playing version of the game to mirror the number of gun deaths America has seen this year.
When it launched earlier in July, Elegy: GTA USA Gun Homicides depicted 7,293 killings – the gun death count since January 1, according to Prof DeLappe.
Prof DeLappe, from San Francisco, said he anticipates the number of US gun deaths to double to more than 15,000 by the end of the year.
The professor of games and tactical media at Abertay University in Dundee said: “The plague of gun violence in the United States is a long-term and seemingly intractable problem.
“We made Elegy as a way to take what is an abstract number and make it more immediate – ironically, using a gaming simulation the data of gun homicides perhaps becomes more real.”
