Category: Gaming
Charlie Kirk murder online role play banned from Grand Theft Auto: ‘Tasteless, unacceptable’
The online world for Grand Theft Auto V is seeing a rare instance of censorship despite its usually anything-goes environment.
GTA Online is the game’s online platform, which has thrived for more than a dozen years since its original 2013 release.
‘Tasteless, unacceptable, and inappropriate.’
In December, publisher Rockstar Games launched a feature that allows players to design and publish their own missions online for other users to play. At this point in the game’s lifespan, this was about the only thing that users could not yet do.
It only took a few days for this feature to be immediately taken to its limits, though, as at least one user took it upon themselves to recreate the murder of Charlie Kirk, which happened on September 10, 2025.
A user named “Yaarpen98” created a mission titled “We are Charlie Kirk,” in which the gamer is meant to go on a rooftop and shoot a person standing in front of school under a fruit stand.
YouTuber ICER relayed fan reactions to the created mission, saying it had users split, with half of the fans saying it was simply dark humor and an example of player freedom. The other half of fans, he explained, described the mission as “tasteless, unacceptable, and inappropriate.”
He added some have argued that “players have crossed a line that even the developers should not tolerate.”
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As reported by Variety, Rockstar Games has banned missions of this nature and added “Charlie Kirk” to its list of prohibited terms through its “profanity filter.” Furthermore, the developers will change the name of this tool to something that reflects how it will be used to flag content violations, not just profanity.
Rockstar’s community guidelines already prohibit showcasing “violent extremism,” which includes “glorification or promotion of real-world terrorist, extremist, or criminal organizations and their ideologies.”
This rule has already been allegedly enforced in regard to rapper and producer Sean “Diddy” Combs, after missions that recreated a raid on his home were removed.
RELATED: Conor McGregor removed from Hitman video game after losing sexual assault case
Photo by Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images
A user named “Vexnyllith” said he created a mission that had authorities raiding the home of a “celebrity” known for “hosting parties and is wanted for serious crimes.”
The user said he also created a mission called “Diddy Disciples,” but both missions were removed. He then vowed to create a new series of missions and advised fans to follow him.
The mission creation feature is similar to that of Hitman Online, which also sparked controversy when UFC fighter Conor McGregor was removed from the game over real-life legal troubles.
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25 years later, the gaming console that caused so much chaos is still No. 1
After a quarter of a century, one console still reigns supreme.
It has been nearly 25 years to the day since iconic photos and video of the Paris launch showed just how crazy the world was for PlayStation 2.
‘I never leave my house.’
On November 24, 2000, crowds in Europe lined up, camped, and even pushed through crowds to get their hands on a PlayStation 2 for the first time. The launch was almost a month after the American Oct. 26 debut and signified a true consumerism-fueled riot that became synonymous with Black Friday.
From its launch day through Christmas 2000, Sony said it sold 1.35 million units in North America and another 1 million units in Europe during that same period.
The PS2 has sold an average of over 6 million consoles per year since then, or 500,000 per month, totaling more than 160 million lifetime units sold as of this November.
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As reported by Techgaged.com, the PS2 eclipses two Nintendo products at the top of the list.
The second-most sales are for the handheld Nintendo DS at 154 million, followed by the Nintendo Switch portable console at 152 million.
A steep drop occurs for fourth place with the original Game Boy, released in 1989, having 118 million units sold. Sony’s PS1 and Nintendo’s Wii are the only other gaming systems to have sold over 100 million.
Interestingly, the PlayStation 2’s main competitors during its era, the Nintendo GameCube (launched in North America on Nov. 18, 2001) and the original Xbox (launched in North America on Nov. 15, 2001), do not even crack the top-20 list.
The Xbox, Microsoft’s first foray into gaming systems, has sold 24.65 million units in its lifetime, while the GameCube has sold 21.74 million units.
Both company’s modern systems — Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch — have already surpassed the sales of their 2000s counterparts.
Photo By Eduardo Parra/Europa Press via Getty Images
The PS2 was so pervasive, historical image banks provide a bounty of time capsules showing celebrities flooding PS2-themed parties that were constantly taking place to promote the product.
There were events like the PlayStation 2 and the Hip-Hop Summit “Race to the Polls” event in 2004, or the mouthful, PlayStation 2 Celebrates Red White and Blue with Poolside Party at the Bentley Hotel in NYC, temporarily referred to as the PlayStation 2 Hotel for the occasion, in 2003.
Super Bowl parties became linked with the console during that era too. The Sony PlayStation 2 Game Over Party saw celebrities like NSYNC in its first year and Paris Hilton in its second year. In fact, the celebrity sightings and performances connected to PS2 events at that time are nearly limitless.
If readers don’t believe the PS2 was as much of a cross-cultural phenomenon as it seems, refer to this quote from “Friends” actor Matthew Perry in 2000.
“I used to have a social life, go on dates, go to dinner parties, have a job. Now all I do is sit in a big chair and play PlayStation 2,” Perry said, per Digital Journal. “I never leave my house. My friends have wondered what happened to me. Howard Hughes must have had one of these.”
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