Grand Theft Auto has become the poster child for everything wrong with video games. From glamorizing criminal activities to shooting cops to abusing women and engaging in every kind of illegal activity, GTA does seem pretty bad. But as the book Everything Bad Is Good for You points out, there are many benefits missed when you judge a game by its box. I’m not making a judgment about whether 4-year-olds should play GTA (maybe a really really mature one), but I think parents and even adult gamers should look at what GTA really offers.

7. Fantasy is good

Imagination is healthy and rewarding. Video games help bring that fantasy to life. Sure it’s a morbid twist on good ol’ cops and robbers, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. GTA is a chance to pretend to be something most of us could never be. The key is to…

6. Learn right from wrong

And hopefully parents, or adults, can us GTA as an example in right and wrong. Specifically, anything you do in GTA is wrong. Easy to understand, right. So go crazy, enjoy yourself, but remember, don’t try this at home…without a game controller.

5. Budgeting your time

With several hundred hours worth of content in each GTA game, no one can finish everything and maintain a job, social life, and good hygiene so sacrifices have to be made. Sometimes people might not make the right decisions with their time (hygiene is important unless you also give up the social life). Even in game, you have to decide to pop a cap in someone or work out to level up before the big fight. These are stressful times.

4. Problem solving

With a huge environment and tons of options, you have to make lots of decisions fast. The strength of many video games are the unique world rules that challenge players to learn and adapt quickly.

3. The game is hard

Little kids might like GTA because the game is hard. Many challenges have time limits requiring you to memorize the massive city and reach destinations quickly. There’s lots of quirks to gameplay, characters to keep track of, weapons to understand, and rules to follow and sometimes break. Understanding all this takes lots of effort and brain power. It’s gameplay for the mind.

2. No free lunch

Crime doesn’t pay was never really true since lots of criminals make very good livings. But no free lunch is a value everyone should learn, and even criminals understand this. You have to work to make a buck. GTA lets you live the fantasy of a criminal moving up in the ranks by doing every grungy job your sicko bosses can come up with. IT’s lots of tedious work from all the people who’ve given up on a GTA game before beating can tell you, work is hard. For the more civil minded gamers, they can earn their cash working as a cabby or other wholesome professions showing even the life of criminal isn’t all whores and guns.

1. It’s a really good game

We have some standards for the movies and TV shows we watch. These aren’t high standards, but there are standards nonetheless. So why not apply the same standards to video games. GTA is the blockbuster of the video game world, on par with the Star Wars, Super Bowls, and Harry Potters of other mediums and it takes pride in that position. The GTA franchise had radically influenced the gaming world with movie quality scripts, innovative gameplay, stellar graphics, and more value for your dollar than anything on the shelves. GTA IV, even ignore all it’s perfect scores, packs a 30 hour campaign, plus side-missions, plus dozens of mini-games like darts and bowling, plus 15 inventive multiplayer modes making GTA almost four games in one. If you want quality gaming, even the violent kind, GTA is one stop shopping.