One of the first things I read this morning as I’m burning through my feeds is the following article: 3 teens arrested in car bombings. What a way to end the week. I began the week reading about some idiot kid in Thailand. Then, I end the week reading about some stupid kids in Georgia. What do they blame for their brainless actions? What do you think?
UPDATE: Here are a couple of more related international news bits (via GamePolitics):
Spain: Spanish Cabbies Want GTA Banned in Wake of Thai Taxi Murder
Singapore: Should Grand Theft Auto be banned here?
Yeah. Before I even asked the question, you knew what classic scapegoat they had turned to . . . video games. Not just any video game. GTA IV. Why? Why would you do that? Why can’t you just leave it at, “I was being an idiot.”
While I was in Thailand a few weeks ago, I heard a story about a kid who was trespassing someone else’s property and decided to monkey around in the lake at said location. Nobody knows exactly what happened, but the kid ended up dying in the lake. Did the parents blame the property owner? No. Why? Because their kid was an idiot. I hate to sound cold, but it’s the plain frickin’ truth.
Next year’s four-twenty day will mark the tenth anniversary of the most infamous attribution of violence to video games . . . the Columbine shootings. I am not going to reiterate how long I have been playing video games (violent ones included), but I have yet to have the urge to purchase semi-automatic weapons and turn on my classmates or co-workers or random people on the street.
I’ll go ahead and say it. Games have absolutely nothing to do with the violence in the world. Games don’t kill people, stupid people kill people. Stupid people blame it on games and ruin it for everybody. Guys like Jack Thompson are just waiting for opportunities like this to bring the hammer down on the gaming industry. If you want further ironclad regulations on gaming by the government and basically the elimination of free expression through the medium of video games, then go ahead and point the finger. The wiser of us will not crack under the pressure of inhumane methods of torture. As true gaming patriots, we will protect our comrades.
Its a sad thing when people can’t be held accountable for the things they do. Its even sadder to blame a video game for your actions. I mean if a video game makes you kill somebody or destroy property then I think i say this for all smart people in the world that something was wrong with your head before you played the game. This is just the new insanity plea that every one is using because its going to get them a shorter sentence or have people feeling sorry for them. What i don’t get is how courts are playing into this bullshit. Like how the kids said gta showed them how to make maltavs, i played every gta since the very first one and no where does it show you how to make a maltav cocktail it might let u use one as a weapon but doesnt show you how to make it. Then what also gets me is that the kids are underage in the first place where are the parents? How did they get the game? But none of that comes in to question any more these days its got to be something else that is making stupid people do stupid stuff. The world we live in where stupid people don’t have to take responsibility for their actions
Are people that crazy? Can they not see the difference between real-life versus a video game? Do they not realize what they are doing and think twice (or even more) about what they are doing?…I know people make mistakes…All people do…but killing is different…Man…Video games making pple violent my ass….It’s more like stupid/violent pple who play video games kill…It’s a problem they had before playing a video game not after…Games are meant for fun not for torturing/killing or any of that crap…That’s not the reason developers made games is to “Oh…Let’s make everyone play video games so they can know how to shoot someone in real life”…They made it so that we can have fun…so when we are tired or stressed out…We could forget about it and just play and have fun…so that when we have a bad day…WE can have a good day by playing video games…