Game blamed for murder.

[CptStern]

an old student of mine (special needs) was obsessed with Chucky ...his parents took notice there was something wrong when he strangled his pet bunnies when he was eight ....he's still crazy. He used to wave his finger in front of your face and when he was asked what he was doing he said "slicing your face with a razorblade"

give this guy a video game and he's off the hook: "videogames made me hack up 75 people, I'm just a victem boohoo"

 

[2o3]

I dont believe in banning stuff but while were on the subject of violence and porn for under age kids in games and all types of media. As a parent it realy worries me that anyone can download winamp and in two clicks can be exposed to hardcore porn. What the ****s up with the world man.

 

[Moto]

"Following the hearing she said her son's killer had mimicked a game called Manhunt, developed by Edinburgh-based Rockstar North, in which the players score points for violent killings."

They ALWAYS say that "players earn points for violent killings/brutal murders."

That is not true. You don't have a point meter on your screen that says "Oh yeah, you killed that guy with your golf club, excellent job, here's 1336 points!" They always manage to say that whenever something like this happens. They did it when violence happened and they suspected it was the fault of Grand Theft Auto 3. "You earn points for killing." I can't think of 1 single game in which you earn points because of killing things. Painkiller maybe...

They expect an adult to read this and say "OMG, earning points for killing? All games with a rating above 'eC' should be banned. Lets stop the multi-billion dollar companies from making games. I'm sure they won't mind."

 

[Dynasty]

hear hear, i hear that

 

[Wiseman]

I've never quite understood the cultural meme that says porn is bad. Honestly, in what ways can porn be bad for someone, other than some culturally enforced stigma. Not gonna get pregnant. Not gonna get any STDs (I hope). What is wrong with sexual depiction in media, it makes no sense.

But onto videogames, their arguments never really make sense either. They often say these people are repressed. The general way to stop being repressed is to get an outlet for whatever you are repressing. They say that videogames are realistic, and simulate realistic murder, and thus, is affective in teaching you to kill. But then it would logically follow that videogames are a very realistic an effective outlet for their repressed violent tendoncies.
They also fail to make any connection to a videogame 'teaching' you to kill (we'll say for arguments sake that it does) and videogames making you want to kill. There is a difference.


Has anyone done any real research on this though? I've heard the military uses videogames in training, but I'm sure that's just for tactics; it doesn't make it easier for soldiers to kill. Really what I'm asking for is scientific studies. This's piqued my interest, so I'm looking for stuff on it right now.

EDIT: <sarcasm>You know, sports are really realistic, and violent. Last time I played football outside, everything looked realistic (no duh?), and I'm sure my fps was pretty high too. I think we should ban football, it's violent.</sarcasm>

 

[Dalamari]

That parent (s) has noone to blame except themselves, you blame it on a game oh "The game made him do it, and the drugs!" Maybe you just a bad parent and you shoulda asked him why the hell his eyes were bloodshot and smoke was coming outa his room instead of watching TV. But no, blame it on a game because your lazy ass was too busy to keep track of your kid.

 

[ASnogarD]

What concerns me the most about this whole affair is that some politician will use this to garner some popularity points. Lets see drive a push to ban all violent games and x amount of moms and dads will vote for me...hmmm gamers wont like that but most of them can't vote so who cares.

As it has already been said, the closest connection is that the kid probably got the idea to use a hammer and knife from the game, but the game is hardly the sole agent of the murder. Like it or not the murder will of still happened but some other form of media or incident would of given the murderer the method.

Media should look at the situation overall : How many people play games vs how many gamers commit crime, and then factor in any real solid evidence that the game was the cause of the gamer commiting the crime?

Millions of people play game, I have yet to see a spate of millions of psycho killers.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

heres a reinactment of the situation

mom finds body: SHIT WE SHOULD HAVE RAISED OUR GODAMN KID WITH SOMTHING OTHER THEN A PS2

cops: WTF YOUR KID MURDERED SOMEONE

mom: THAT GAM!! it did th4t!111

cops: HOLY SH!T shes right that game is sick!

press: BAN ALL GAMES THAT EVER EXISTED EVER

GOV.: hmmm..ok

 

[Wiseman]

You'd also have to compare the how many relavent crimes are commited by people in the same demograph, but who are not gamers. In general, if media hype is an accurate depiction of these statistics (it isn't though), being a gamer greatly decreases your chance of commiting any violent crime. Same thing for suicide and Everquest, the chances of suicide decrease by several hundred times (at least) by playing Everquest, based on the statistics that anti-MMORPG groups put out. They parade around ten cases of death supposedly caused by a game, give no evidence that the game caused it, and then tell us to ban the game.

EDIT: we should ban books too. When someone gets killed in a book, my imagination can create that image in my mind infinitely better than any movie or game.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

they should ban Books and Movies and TV and Radio and ..wait oops there goes freedom of expression!

(dosent anyone read 1984, Fahrenheit 451, etc..)

God some parents are such noobs.

 

[Kyorisu]

they should ban Books and Movies and TV and Radio and ..wait oops there goes freedom of expression!

My point exactly.

I don't know what kind of advertising you people get, but I see 100 times the ammount of Ads about horror movies on TV than any form of video game.

Someone seriously needs to round up a few polititions from each country, sit them down and make em play a few video games.

 

[mdpeaco]

Will this change San Andres?

 

[Wiseman]

They should also ban the news. If you don't know about the terrorists, you can't join them. And then they should also give us drugs to keep us all mellow, so we won't care.

Very odd thing I read about this story on one news site. The mum said she heard one of his friends saying he (the friend) thought he (the murderer) played Manhunt, so she assumed it was the cause. She heard his friend say he thought he played the game! WTF is up with that? Very responsable parent. She should be locked up.

I find it kind of odd when someone says they don't care if a certain game gets banned, because they don't like the game. Seems a lot of people don't care about free speach unless it affects them, which I find kind of sad. I'd be pissed off if they banned Teletubbies, despite the fact that I hate the show.

EDIT: then again, I think it was she thought he (friend) said he (killer) played the game, which is even worse imo.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

I say give parents stupid enough to blame a videogame for there kids killing people the chair

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

To be fair, Manhunt is a horrid game and for him to get obsessed with it is quite terrible.

Also, on the parents part having such a traumatic thing happen, you can't blame them for trying to find something to hold responsible. Everything we do influences us a little, but its normally so gradual that we don't notice. Playing this game a lot will most likely not make too much of a negative impact on us (and bny negative, I don't just mean wanting to go out and kill people but just being generally worse off in some way) and perhaps this person would have been influenced more.

You all cry "Don't blame the game" well don't blame the parents either. They are often portrayed as some kind of mental defficients in these articles but it is rarely the case. They are just two people trying to make it through life, hoping their children will grow up the way they want.

Wiseman...Free Speech doesn't exist my friend.

 

[Wiseman]

Just because it doesn't exist doesn't mean we shouldn't care about it.

 

[Dynasty]

its bloody obvious that its the game's influence, therefore fault, that this child has decided to follow in its footsteps. sure, the child isnt to blame for becoming obsessed with the game, as that's what some games do to you.
its the fact that this game came out in the first place that makes me sick. what kind of sick fcuk had the idea to create a game where your goal, and to gain points, is to slaughter random people. i mean cmon!! the developers should be locked up and the key thrown away ffs.
but tbh, i do find that games are becoming more violent as a selling point. but it is kind of the parents fault for not noticing anything. although the kid could've been slightly ****ed up in the head...so the game pushed him over the edge.

but thats just my opinion.