It's rare that you have a series as successful as Grand Theft Auto from a developer as taciturn as Rockstar Games. The company isn't very media friendly, and the creators of the games rarely do interviews. So it's worth pointing out when British site MCV scores an interview with Rockstar co-founder Sam Houser.

Unfortunately, the context and entirety of Houser's comments aren't included. He was apparently asked what his biggest challenge was. His response:

Surviving in an environment in which large numbers of powerful people want to put you out of business for their own political or economic capital.

I'm not sure how much to read into this, but it's an interesting insight into Rockstar's mindset. It's disappointing that Houser imagines a nebulous conspiracy of shadowy forces out to get him. It implies the company isn't responsible for the controversy surrounding the Grand Theft Auto games. Demonizing the other side of an issue is the first step to completely losing touch with the issue.

While there are certainly nutcases like Jack Thompson using Rockstar as a favorite whipping boy, there are legitimate concerns about the developer's games. Plenty of people, powerful and otherwise, are concerned about violence in entertainment, about minors having easy access to inappropriate games, and about whether or not a company like Rockstar is completely oblivious to the mixed moral messages they're sending. Count me among those people. Furthermore, count me among the people who feel Rockstar deserved what they got in the aftermath of the Hot Coffee controversy, in which they arrogantly flouted the ESRB's ratings system.

But the last thing I want is for Rockstar to go out of business. I want them to keep making great games, and to be aware of their audience, and to take some responsibility for what they're creating. Mostly, I want them to put more effort into good gameplay. And I'm happy there are people in our government working out the legal boundaries of these issues. I can't imagine a single one of them cares whether Rockstar goes out of business.

I bought a copy of Unreal Tournament 3 for the Xbox 360 this week at a Gamestop. The woman behind the register told me the game was rated M and she read the content warnings to me.

"Blood and gore, intense violence, and strong language," she said with a question mark, almost as if it was an offer. Kinky!

Although more often than not, the minimum wage nerds working at the Gamestop don't bother with that step when it comes to slacker nerds like me coming in to buy games. But I'd love for Rockstar to be more like that woman at Gamestop: willing to let me throw white supremacists under threshing harvesters, or to drive to the airport to shoot sad old men in the head, or to have sex with a hooker to restore my health, but conscious that maybe I've got kids and don't know any better. It's called being responsible for what you do. Sam Houser should consider it sometime.

In a slightly related note, here's an unnecessarily crass but entertaining article about ten outspoken videogaming personalities who should consider taking a cue from Houser's reluctance to speak.