GTA IV influences another murder (Apparently)

[Damn Dirty Ape]

He's just saying it so he can get a second appeal or something. Nobody rushes audi's through the streets after watching Ronin do they?

 

[Zeddicus Zhul Zorander]

would have been interesting if he tried to mimick a Russian accent.

 

[Melaisis]

Its L1 to flag a taxi!

 

[wgreer25]

Bottom line: GTA should NOT be allowed to attempt realism, GTA should go back to the cartoon roots of GTA 1,2,3.

Just because you are not influenced by something, you shouldn't assume everyone else isn't influenced by them either.

But they are singling out games. Anything could be an influence to someone who lacks a moral center or the mental capacity to know that killing is wrong. He could have just as easily seen Dark Knight too many times and decided to plant a bomb on a ferry, or cut his mouth open. The only cencorship that should be allowed is the right not to buy the game. This person was an adult so he would have access to anything, a rated "R" movie, a website, a book like Helter Skelter. Hell, lets take this to it's logical conclusion. If you say a media can be held responsible for a person's actions, you better get ready to ban the Bible and the Koran. People have misinterpeted those books for thousands of years and millions have died because of it. Think about that.

 

[Fraught]

I didn't even know people were killed for murdering these days. :S

 

[Iron Mal]

Allow me to point out one inconsistant part of the accusation here...'showed no signs of mental problems' yet they decided to carjack a taxi with a knife 'to see if it was that easy in real life'. I would say that anyone who is curious in that respect probably does have some mental,social or emotional deficiancy somewhere.

 

[Johnn Johnston]

I read The Independent this morning, and I found an article on the subject. The article was only a few lines long, which shows that they were reporting and not sensationalising, which was a nice breath of fresh air considering I just changed newspapers from the Daily Mail.

Back onto the subject, I noticed a line saying that...

...he was angry that his parents could not afford to buy the game for him...

So, if I understand correctly, he was affected by a game that he didn't own and therefore hadn't played. Now it all seems much clearer.

 

[kinch]

I skipped the second page (sorry, didn't have time to read it all) but I saw the article first in my newspaper this morning (under the very imaginative title of "Grand Theft Killer") and from the article I read, it strongly implied that the reason for the killing was that he couldn't get the game. He wanted to play the game, but couldn't, and so enacted it out in real life to see what it was like.

Obviously there are several possible interpretations of all the multiple news articles and what they all say, but if the above is true, then it's possible that by playing the game, he might not have committed the crime. Unlikely, I admit, but nonetheless possible. An interesting new spin on the typical old "someone played a violent game and it turned them into a killer!" spiel don't you think ?

 

[Iron Mal]

Good point actually kinch...someones actually going to have to do research into that (since most people in authority just utilise violent films and games as a scapegoat it is suprising that these accusations are never really justified).

 

[dukeh016]

Hmmm. Everyone seems to agree that the media is not doing their research and blowing things out of proportion. Hmmm. What surprises me about that claim is no one bothers to look for actual research about the issue to disprove the media. Maybe that says something about the nature of everyone's response; its a product of our own desire to be right rather than some rational conclusion about the situation. Hmmm.

http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/abstracts/2000-2004/01AB.pdf

For your consideration~

 

[Johnn Johnston]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but usually I'm a little skeptical when articles use 'Road Runner' as an example under the subheading "Violent Media".

 

[dukeh016]

Um. The 'Road Runner' is violent. It's not the gory, explosive, and "omgawds I wet myself" violence that most of us have come accustomed to, but its still violence. I think the fact that the 'Road Runner' is the media they are working with and they still find a clear correlation just makes more of a case.

 

[Johnn Johnston]

Noted, but I still think that by including that they went a bit off topic.

 

[kamstew]

First it was book burnings, then movies were bad for you, then tv, even comic books were not allowed by some parents cause of shit like this its just video games turn to take shit from everybody

i have a funny point to make. ever notice how many rape scenes are in movies. just think about it if someone put that many rape scenes in a game even if it wasnt commited by the player, the media flipped out over mass effects consensual sex scenes they would go freakin bannanas over that yet yesterday i watched the hills have eyes 2 and some chick gets raped my a mutant or something, What the hell ?

 

[Johnn Johnston]

Having only seen a bit of the film, I am asking "What the hell?", not so much at the fact that there wasn't an outcry, but more at the fact that the whole idea seems...just wrong. Read the sentence again and tell me you don't think that's weird.

 

[McMo0^]

apologies if someones already said this but it looks like a setup to me. No mental problems, yet he wanted to see if it was just as easy to steal a taxi irl as it is in a computer game... yeah cos thats every day behavior. Why only the other day i was trying to throw my mate through the shed like i can on crysis. If i'm honest i couldn't lift him by the neck let alone throw him through a frikkin shed but thats not the point.

Plus i thought you only THREATENED a driver with a knife on gta 4... can't even imitate a the fuckin game right...

 

[PhoenixFlame]

http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/abstracts/2000-2004/01AB.pdf

For your consideration~

The issue is that most people are coming from an opinion-based viewpoint rather than one based in research, because research either way has sort of nullified itself out. There are some studies out there that find a correlation between violence in video games like GTA and children's violent behavior, and an equal number saying there isn't.

There've been some recent books out talking about the subject, one being "Grand Theft Childhood" (http://www.grandtheftchildhood.com/GTC/Home.html), which has some interesting points scientifically about violence in video games and children.

Honestly, you could rehash the same arguments for and against all day, but what it comes down to is children having a source - any source, even if it isn't the parents - for learning how to differentiate between video game violence and violence in the real world. It's also a matter of instilling moral values and preventing that crap that happens between children that causes them to regress into the world of games to escape their problems and blur the lines.

 

[BBLIZZARD]

The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, it was originally published in 1774.

Supposedly more than 2,000 readers committed suicide.(Note the supposedly.)

That is very strange, even if the number was smaller than 2000, it's weird for any number of people with something linked to commit suicide, but what was the book about? The book could of been about something that only appealed to whackjob suicidal nuts. As for the GTA IV incident, everytime there's a crime remotely like GTA IV, the media will rip through it quicker than a fatkid through a bag or oreos

 

[Slayer_2]

A classic parent outlook on new things... Seriously, they don't reward as when we stay sane playing violent games, but then when something happens and the murderer owns GTA... Scream and point fingers!