Video Games + Media.

[Grey M@a]

Hi All

Well it seems to be that time again when the media comes out of the wood work and you guessed it, games are to blame for the death of a teenager. You can read the story here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/l...re/3934277.stm

Now I'm sorry but saying a child is obsessed with a game so they got the idea to kill their best friend with a claw hammer to the face is just rubbish in my books. It really gets to me when parents/media/government all turn round and say it’s the games, or TV or movies that make our younger generation potential killers. If that was the case how many of us here played doom and have subsequently gone out, got a shot gun and shot all their mates in the faces? How many of your played pitfall and thought "yeah lets dig a hole fill it with spikes and make my friend's walk into it, what a great idea" or if you played grand theft auto and thought “um in that game I can get a GURANGA for running over a load of hippies, lets go down the park and mow down real hippies” anyway you get my drift.

Why do they persist in trying to blame something that is 1) not real 2) is a game 3) is meant for a laugh (please correct me if I am wrong but are there subliminal messages in the games that say pick axe your friend in the face) if this was the case then we would all be out there trying to do harm to others and claim it was the fault of chucky egg or something stupid like that. I am sorry but what it boils down to at the end of the day is that there is something not quite right in the head with a person who decides to claw hammer their friend to death, the game doesn't make them do it or ask them or force them in anyway, so the question that needs to be asked is why did they do it, and its not the games I can tell you.

So what do the rest of you make about this drivel about games being at the root of sending our kids into killing frenzies? If anyone remembers a few years back, first it was TV being blamed, then movies and for the last god knows how many years its been the video games, is it just me or is it the fact that people will not believe that the person in question is twisted so they blame something that can’t fight back!

Just to add to this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3466525.stm this link has sme very good points as to why games would have a hard time being linked to crime etc.

[dkmech]

I think that before shouting to get games banned people should pay attention to age restrictions and enforce them with their kids. Retailers should probably be stricter with asking for id too.

I was watching the Wright Stuff on C5 and mr Wright was arguing that if a game can affect 1 in 50 000 000 people who is already on his way to a psychotic event then they should be banned, even if 49 999 999 people are perfectly capable of distinguishing fiction from reality.

I think he is talking bollocks. Cars kill way more people than videogames - should we ban them? Should we ban books and movies? Should we stop selling sharp objects?

I suppose the fact that it was Manhunt is not helping the sittuation, but it was rated 18, he wasn't supposed to be playing it anyway.

[Flibb]

A friend was working in WH Smiths and the manager made a point of checking kids ages for games. Not only is the store liable but the person selling the game / film is as well. Would be interesting to know if the kids parents purchased the game.

[0iD]

As a parent myself, I think that that boy's parents need to take a long hard look at themselves first, before making scapegoats of the gaming industry. Now Manhunt is a new game & therefore not cheap. How did the young chap get it? Let alone afford it.
I know exactly what my kids play on their PC & their online activites are rigourously policed by myself. Maybe because they're girls I'm over-cautious, but at teh end of the day their welfare IS my resonsibility.

[Byatt]

Personally I think a ban on mass media outcries against violent games should come first.

Will someone please think of the children!?

[Slick]

tbh I do think that video games can influence people. It's worse than watching a violent film because when watching something you're an outsider. In a game you're controling what happens and the character can be seen to be you, that's the whole appeal of them.

After playing hours of vice city, I have had thoughts about doing vice city stuff whilst I was driving. After playing plenty of counterstrike, I have had the split second stupid thought that "I'm out in the open better watch for snipers" or "s**t I have my back to the door". These are just thoughts but its scary that I'm having them and I'm sure plenty of other gamers will admit to experiencing them. I'm not going to go out and kill anyone but if you were psychotic to start with, its easy to see how games could influence them and possibly tip them over the edge.

Having said that I would be against a gaming ban....I enjoy them too much

[PriestJPN]

I really can't believe that people are stupid enough to bawl about having a game banned. Did anyone see the Channel 5 news this evening? Newscaster asks game industry spokesman what the next step might be for possible games: (Excuse my paraphrasing)

"What about a game where you go around raping people?"

The incredulous expression on Mr Games Industry's face said it all.. How about banning cretinous news programmes instead? Muppet.

[megah0]

Notice that the media have conveniently left out the part where he told the police he intended to rob his friend to repay a drugs debt.

If he was an addict you think that may have had more influence than a PC game?

The court heard how Leblanc armed himself with two weapons and killed his victim "in cold blood" having persuaded him to go to nearby Stoke Woods Park, known locally as "The Dumps" -- to meet two girls.

He confessed to the killing when found covered in blood by two police officers shortly afterwards.

Peter Joyce QC prosecuting told the court that the defendant had planned to rob his younger friend to help repay a drugs debt.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe...unt/index.html

[Angel_1701]

Personally i blame the parents of this kid. They should enforce what he games he plays. My parents did, but when i turned 18 they let me make my own decisions and i'm glad they did. When i got vice city i played it all the time and when i stopped playing it i never once thought about stealing cars or beating someone to a pulp with a screwdriver.

[directhex]

argh, this drives me up the wall, it really does.

parenty buys, for example, vice city for their 11 year old. i know it happens, my girlfriend's parents do it.

games, like movies, have these ages on them for a reason. i am sick to ****ing death of the hipocrisy of parents who insist on buying any game regardless of age label because it's just a game and games are for kids, then crying when killrapefest2007 has an effect on an impressionable youth who should be playing nothing more violent than mario.

ARGH!

[FordPrefect]

More mass histeria mass media rubbish. I do not believe that a computer game would make anyone kill someone, drugs debt I could believe that. Another case of the mass media knowing nothing especially about computers then printing clap trap to make up for the fact that they dont really know anything about anything.

[Rave]

Also, it's just krap to say that games are more influential than movies/any other type of media. If you can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality when you're 15, then you have problems, full stop. My youngest brother got GTA3 on his PS2 when he was about 14/15. Has he ever gone out of the house carrying a hammer? No. I'm the eldest of three. My middle brother is the one with a couple of convictions (for drunk and disorderly etc.), and video games aren't the cause of them. Drunkeness was.

Rich :¬)

[Knoxville]

Shouldn't have been playing it in the first place, end of story, the parents shouldn't be allowed to blame a video game which clearly caters for an adult audience when they're own neglegance is blatantly obvious. Not only did they aloow him to play the game but they're son was a drug addict, not exactly the most observant of parents

And German teenager Robert Steinhaeuser, who shot dead 13 teachers and two fellow pupils before turning the gun on himself, was reportedly an avid fan of the game Counter-Strike.

So is every other male between 12 and 80 with the internet, if I could prove that ted bundy was an avid fan of tonight show would he be able to blame that for his murders, the only possible effect cs would have on him is to make him a better shot due to the extra hand eye co-ordination skills he'd aqquired with everyone else that plays cs until the early hours of the morning.

Its all blame culture and it p****s me off royaly "oh whats that you say, my heroin addict son killed his 2 best friends with a machete.........lets blame the company that makes gta as i can't blame myself that'd just be crazy!"

[Grey M@a]

that is the thing they are quick to jump on the bandwagon and say its the fault of the games if that was the case we would all be crazed loonies to say the least, majority of us played games such as mortal kombat when were were kids/teenages but we certainly know that kicking someone to death and ripping their heads off is wrong. There is a line which the majority of us know not to cross we can tell the difference between right and wrong, just get's my goat when they jump on the bandwagon and blame the easiest thing they can.

[mike_w]

All they are doing is trying to shift the blame on somebody else. When I last played Unreal Tournament, I didn't have a strange desire to fashion a flak cannon and start killing hundreds of people with it.

If a person decides to go out and kill somebody, its not because they were playing a game. As Grey_M@a said, most people know what is right and wrong, and no amount of gaming is going to change that. A perfectly normal person will not turn into a serial killer just because (s)he played some violent games. That person must already have something wrong with them to kill somebody in cold blood.

I think that upbringing has a lot to do with this. We learn our morals and our sense of right and wrong from our parents/guardians, and it is their responsibilty to make sure that we understand what is right and wrong and it is their responsibility to make sure we know always do the right thing.

The reason for these killings is rarely the video game - you can find the main reason quite easily in most cases - in this case, the murderer was a bully who was jealous of the other boy and needed drug money; that's the real reason.

[wilsonian]

What i dont get is people buying games for children that are way too young for it. i remember a customer came to the returns counter and asked would this PC be good for gaming, i asked what games are you playing (thinking she'll answer Lego racers etc as she had 3 below 10 yrs old children around her) she said "oh this.." and pulled out a copy of GTA3 vice city which had 18 plastered all over it. i informed her that the PC was way too old for it but also do you know how violent this game is as it's got 18 on it and there are some gorey scences - her reply was a classic

[refering to her son] "he wouldn't shut up when we were in HMV for it so i bought it him to keep him happy."

OMG! can you image the kid in a new agents looking at the top shelf - "mumy mummy i want a copy of escort!" now the mother would never do such a thing because for some unknown reason Porn is bad "as it gives the impression it's ok to treat women like this" however letting your children play PC games were they run around beating people up and running people over in cars is perfectly fine!

at the end of the day whats the differance in showing a child and 18 movie or an 18 game? both have porn and voilence. parents need to know what there children are playing. and need to pay attension to the labels on the boxes! there is a reason why they put them stickers on there!