"Grand Theft Auto Killing" Is Justification, Narrative for Morons

From GamesReviews:

"It makes for a wonderful story, doesn't it? A poor innocent child, excited to play on his PlayStation 3 console, puts in his copy of Grand Theft Auto IV and suddenly becomes a crazed lunatic. He reaches for his grandparent's gun - which happens to be loaded and in an easily accessible place - and then he moves into the other room, shooting her through the head."

[ABeastNamedTariq]

I think that people who have no idea what they're talking about regarding video games (the media) should shut the hell up.

[matgrowcott]

They probably know an awful lot about video games. They're trying to ignite a rather sizeable crowd of people that don't, however.

"Child Turned Killer by the Video Games your Children and their Friends Play" is a better headline than "Tragic Event is Tragic."

[Megaton]

You give them too much credit. Watching mainstream media report on gaming, even in a positive manner, is cringe-worthy. They never, ever get anything right.

[matgrowcott]

@Megaton

Those tend to be people caught out in having to explain something they believe, but have never actually thought about.

Written press is different. A story like this in a major newspaper probably needs to go through the original writer, an editor, maybe a researcher and then a lawyer before it's published. They have to say enough to get the implication across and get people commenting, but not enough that they're saying Rockstar is legally responsible for anything.

Hence why the Daily Mail have five pictures and only three rather uninteresting, unconnected mentions of GTA in the body.

[Cam977]

I heard one of "them" call CoD a 'warfare simulator'.

[Angeljuice]

The "Daily Mail" is a terrible newspaper and should be banned. Its readership consists mainly of the middle-classes with easy, benign existences who's lives lack any real problems.

They drip-feed these people poisonous lies about the society they live in using overreaction, sensationalism and poor journalism to create the right mindset for their own political agenda.

The middle-classes lap it up and tend to base their own views on this hateful, evil publication.

According to "The Mail";

* Anybody begging on the streets of London is in fact likely to be a millionaire, after a days begging they jump into their Rolls Royce's and head back to their multi-million pound mansions (way to turn the privileged middle-classes on the very poorest most desperate members of society).

* All unemployed people are scroungers, most live in grand houses with all mod-con's and its all being paid for by tax payers. (creating unfounded hatred towards the poorest in society).

* Everything causes cancer, they put in a daily article about how eating bread or beans or wearing the wrong shoes is likely to kill you (never backed up by any genuine scientific evidence, but fear is a great controller of minds).

I could go on for days about this filthy rag and all the harm it does, but I can boil it down to: Anything that isn't part of an inane, easy, white middle-class conservative lifestyle is a threat to society and deserves to be treated with venomous outrage and destroyed.

Its neo-nazi propaganda aimed at gentle, respectable, well mannered families, and it is very effective at what it does.

[SynGamer]

Agreed. Here what the media never discusses (at least not in detail): why is an 8 year old playing an M -rated (17+) game? For such an impressionable age, there is no reason a child should be playing this sort of game.

Let me also point out that there is a difference between regular shooters and games like Grand Theft Auto where players are killing other soldiers (shooters) vs killing anyone and everyone (GTA-like games). I'm not saying either shooter is bad, far from it. but CERTAIN kids shouldn't be playing GTA, especially certain 8 year old.

[shivvy24]

Coulnt have said it better myself +1

[snipab8t]

Excellent points.

[SniperControl]

Could not agree more.

My cousin worked for Game years back around the time GTA 4 was released, as the game was rated 18, he was told by HQ that if you suspected someone of being to young to buy the game, they had to be I.D'd to prove there age, no I.D or under age, no sale.
However he was totally shocked by the amount of young kids coming in trying to buy the game only to be turned away for being to young, what shocked him more is the fact that the same kids were coming back with their parents and letting their parents buy the game for them.
Obviously he had no choice but to sell the game to the parents, all he could do was warn the parent of the contents of the game and remind them of the age classification.

Not all but some parents, just dont give a fcuk about what there kids play or buy, it is down to the parent to make sure their child is not playing these sorts of games.

[reaperman]

Oh well of course GTA is to blame. Actually the parents are to blame for buying the game for the 8yr old anyway. Games have certain certificates for a reason. OK I admit I was playing 18/R certificate games when I was younger and also underage, but I know the difference between a game and reality. So they are trying to blame the game for the 8yr old kid killing his 87yr old grandmother. Maybe he also tried to use her as a prostitute first!

[Pintheshadows]

'The game: The Grand Theft Auto video games are notoriously violent and involve both maneuvering cars and shooting'

That is one of the captions from the Daily Mail story. I think they mean driving.

[DeadlyFire]

Can we block gamereviews.com from this site now?

[Pintheshadows]

You didn't read the article did you.

[Kevlar009]

It's interesting how most child gun murders are the result of using a weapon owned by the parents of the child. That child didn't go to a street corner and buy a handgun or rifle from a shady individual, they walked to where the gun was held, stole the parent's key, or in some cases used a weapon given to them by their parents.

The accusation that a video game is the sole reason children (or young adults) commit murder is naive and ignorant. There are many people who play violent video games and never commit a violent crime. It's when they have pyschological issues, no other positive outlet, and only see violence as the solution to their problems when gun murders usually occur.

Parent's need to be proactive in their child's health, if a person commits murder solely because of a video game it's probably because that video game is the only relevent thing in their life. Just like if a person grows up in a war environemt they will usually exhibit aggessive, protective behaviors, someone who only lives for volent video games can be heavily conditioned by it. Even then it does not mean a person who plays video games 8 hours a day will kill because of it.

Blindly accusing video games for our problems is not the solution. All of these "anti-video game" fanatics use poor research for their conclusions, they use simple association as their thesis. To them "playing M rated games leads to violence", not "violent video games, when paired with psychological issues, lack of outlet, and poor coping skills leads to violent tendencies".

They believe correlation is causation, when in fact it is never the case. Take a psychology class and you will learn behavior is not caused by one thing, but multiple working in unison. They're not helping children by blaming everything solely on video games, they are only hiding the real issues.

[TheSaint]

What game was Jack the Ripper playing? GTA Ye Olde London Town?

[matgrowcott]

It was an early version of Surgeon Simulator.

[SchwoererBear]

Rated M for mature. Would you take your 8yo to see a graphic war movie like Saving private ryan? probably not. I think parents now who didn't grow up playing more modern games do not understand that they are actually violent and not suitable for kids. I don't think video games cause these things but young kids shouldn't be exposed to stuff like that.

[Pintheshadows]

I just think they expect the parenting to somehow be someone else's responsibility.

[Stoppokingme]

It's easier for the parents to place blame then to be vigilant and responsible, And the media runs with it to distract everyone from the horrible crap they broadcast 24/7.

[paul-p1988]

We in the UK love the professional journalism of the Daily Mail...

8yo kills his Grandparents after playing GTA... yet no mention that he had easy access to a gun which he used to kill his grandparents, it was the computer game which killed them instead...

Seriously, whenever there is an article on Daily Mail it's either racist, homophobic, or just incredibly badly researched (in most cases, it's actually all 3)

[matgrowcott]

And yet it remains one of the best selling papers in the country.

Depressing, isn't it?

[Mr_Butata]

8 Year-old kid playing M-rated game, somehow is Game Industry fault.

8 year-old kid watching a porn DVD, its parents fault.

Seems legit...