A hooded male stabbed another man in the head and neck yesterday as they both queued to buy copies of Grand Theft Auto IV from a Croydon Gamestation store.
Onlookers witnessed the Niko-style stabbing, which some bystanders have said they initially thought was a stunt pulled to whip-up yet more excitement for the eagerly …
"Some anti-GTA IV campaigners have already jumped on both incidents as proof that such games are too violent for society."
On the grounds they were queuing to buy (presumably their first copy of) the game they would not yet have played the game and this actually demonstrates that society is, or can be every bit as violent as the game.
I'm glad I wasn't in when the postman dropped my copy off yesterday! I mean, everyone's heard what the postal service are like for taking guns to work!
Other than that, all I can say is what a game it is!
I have played the older versions of the game and sometimes I've wondered at the way you start thinking while playing.
However, in this case the men hadn't yet bought the game so I can't see how you can conclude that the game made them violent.
You could of course argue that the game is attractive to people who are pre-disposed to violence, although I may buy it and am yet to stab or attack anyone so it would seem the game is attractive to others as well.
On the other hand this may make for a good headline in the Daily Mail but you can't draw any conclusions from a small sample like this. You'd have to say something like, 20% of GTA IV players committed violent acts in the month following purchase, compared to 10% who bought Gran Turismo and 30% who support Man U :-) Even then you'd need to check for other possible explanations.
"Keith Vaz, a prominent British Labour MP, said that news of both incidents didn't surprise him."
Well you're government has had 11 years to make things better, Keith. And have they got better? If you're not surprised by these incidents then I presume the answer is "no".
Didn't this happen when the xbox 360 was released? ie - people attacking each other for the limited supply of product?
Aren't there fights EVERY time something long anticipated is released and stock is not plentiful (nearly always)?
This isn't a matter of the GAME being violent, people do this for the hardware itself which can't POSSIBLY be considered a violent influence on its own. People are quite simply selfish bastards who will, on occasion, do ANYTHING to get their hands on the latest shiny.
Considering the previous GTA titles have been among the highest grossing gaming titles maybe the correlation shouldn't be to the violence in the game but to the stupidity of the publishers for not being prepared for the high demand.
Most outlets now are quoting 14 days to deliver - seems to me someone screwed up their supply planning, and now I'll just wait for a second hand copy after one of the fanboys has finished it before the weekend...
Every time something happens in the world that is bad, computers / games / the internet is blamed. If it were really true, Horace Goes Skiing would have caused ski-pole rage many years ago !
What happened BEFORE the days of computer games ? I cannot remember anyone blaming Cluedo for violence ??????
So, this guy had a knife, got in an argument and stabbed someone ? Where it happened is irrelevant - the same thing could have happened at the Cinema or in MacDonalds.
It speaks volumes about the pair of them though - one stabbing someone over an argument, and the other going home to get his knife to stab the guy back.
Let Darwin sort it out, I say !
(Kudos to a friend, however, who when I emailed him this story responded with "Did he drop a glowing bundle of cash?")
Even if they had opened earlier people would still need to queue for the game. Also how exactly could you blame Rockstar, they had to release the game on a day, even if they had released it earlier these people would still have to queue.
How can the anti-GTA campaigners claim its because of GTA when they were in the queue to buy GTA??
Tell youngest son no. It's an 18 title. You have to be 18 years old to buy it. Unless of course you let him watch porn, smoke, have sex, vote on your behalf and drive to the off-license to buy booze, then go right ahead.
I've never understood folk that can't read labels. I know for a fact there will be dick-headed parents in those queues buying GTA IV for their kids. Those morons are the ones that cause folk like Vaz to get their trolleys in a knot, ultimately spoiling it for the rest of us who want to play stuff like GTA.
You're not alone. I've spoken to a number of people with kids under the age recommendation for this game who are being whined at, and a significant majority are in the position where they either have bought, or plan to buy, this game for said kids to end the pester-factor. In every case, I've tried to put them off, because it really, really, isn't suitable for children, and I know I wouldn't want my kids playing it. Some agree, some don't, but a lot weren't aware of what sort of content was in it.
The people I really feel for at the moment is the staff in the real life games stores who will be under huge pressure with kids (some with parents / other adults) coming in to buy this game, and the problems they're going to face with that.
That will probably be a tough call. Do you buy a copy for 'yourself' and if you're not around and your son manages to play on it what can you do. However my biggest concern would not be my son playing the game, as its no worse than a Hollywood film, but when his friends parents find out their kids have been over to your house watching your son getting a reacharound from a virtual prosser.
"The people I really feel for at the moment is the staff in the real life games stores who will be under huge pressure with kids (some with parents / other adults) coming in to buy this game, and the problems they're going to face with that."
thats no different from kids wanting toys that are too expensive. my parent just said NO when i was younger. since then i have gone out and earned my way without help from anyone. saying YES just to make life easier is the reason we have so many unruly kids that cannot take NO for an answer.
if your young kid came up and said 'dad i want a hooker and some smack - all the other kids are f**king and getting wasted" - what would you do? parent have to take responsibility! the ps3 can actually setup passworded accounts - this should be done by parent if they have a copy of a game they dont want the kids to play.
>> On the grounds they were queuing to buy (presumably their
>> first copy of) the game they would not yet have played the
>> game and this actually demonstrates that society is,
>> or can be every bit as violent as the game.
What twisted logic - this is instalment 4 of a game and as they were already queuing on day of release then very likely they had played at least one of the previous instalments or very similar games - can I interest you in scheme to extract money from a Nigerian prince?
Now whether playing violent games, being closeted away from the world with just video screen or just too much testosterone and adrenaline causes young men to be violent is a different matter
This simply proves that the games aren't to blame. Even before having played the game, people are already happy to bludgeon each other.
I've watched violent films and played violent video games for years but I've never felt an urge to go out on a killing spree or sadistically torture somebody. The violence ends when I turn off the TV/console. It takes a deranged individual with a warped (or completely absent for that matter) sense of right and wrong and little understanding that actions (good or bad) have consequences. Video games may be an influence (I'll happily concede that) but they are not ultimately responsible.
This is just another one of many cases where responsibility is taken away from the parents with raising their children. Before any clever dick asks if I have children, no I don't, but as a parent you are always free to say no to buying them such game or going over to their friend's house to play it. So what if they say they hate you or resent you for saying no? Surely part of being a parent is deciding what's best for your kids and not the authorities.
AARRGHH! When will people learn that you're either predisposed towards violence, or you're not. The game doesn't make you do anything you wouldn't normally do yourself. God, this makes me so mad I could just stab someone in the head.
Of course, silly me... Thanks for pointing that out Mr Vaz, computer games and movies are the cause of all violence in society...
The crusades and Jack the Ripper were caused by a particularly violent Punch and Judy act.
Tw*t.
Mr Vaz, the problem is that some people in society have no respect for others. These people have always existed. Maybe if your government hadn't made parents punishing their children for being bad a legal tightrope, the little oiks might have learnt a little respect early on in life.
"Do you buy a copy for 'yourself' and if you're not around and your son manages to play on it what can you do."
Not let him keep the console in his bedroom and punish him if he does play it, e.g. by temporarily taking the console away?
I'm in a position to be complacent, not having any kids myself, but I don't understand why 'no' is such a hard word to say. If the word was 'Kezhangdenaiachisundurek' I could understand, but as it's a simple monosyllable I'm forced to assume that parents just don't have the guts anymore. What was the point of our parents and grandparents developing all those hoary old clichés like 'If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump off a cliff?' and passing them down through the ages if we don't use them?
'Pester power' is a disgusting modern phenomenon, pestering should have no power whatsoever. And in this case, for once, I believe it is a modern phenomenon and not one of those 'ooh wasn't everything better when we were all dying of rickets' things.
Anyway, the fact that the response of the "victim" was to go home for his own knife tells us all we need to know about that one.
Would the story have made it to the news if they where buying a "my little pony"-game or something like that.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:14 GMT
Anonymous Coward
If video games actually modified peoples behaviour -
#
My generation, after playing pacman throughout our youth would have ended up wandering around dark rooms, popping pills and listening to repetitive music.!
"Some anti-GTA IV campaigners have already jumped on both incidents as proof that such games are too violent for society."
As Au Contraire said, they hadnt even played the game yet! If anything it's 'proof' (in the apparently new definition of the word in common usage) of the exact opposite.
Surely it's more likely the case that the sort of sociopathic violent person who is capable of stabbing someone in the head over a dispute in a queue is more likely to be attracted to a game like GTA IV than -say- 'Pippa Funnel - take the reigns'.
So, when one of these people finally goes postal and takes out a whole bunch of poor people, what game are you more likely to find in their home, GTA-IV or 'everyones favourite no-holes barred horse-fest'?
It's not the game that made a knife-weilding maniac. Millions of people play violent computer games without turning into sword-swinging psychos, and concentrating on banning games takes away from the real debate on how we identify and help people with much deeper problems.
Next week: 'Anti-Diary groups say looking at cheeee makes you fat'
(Paris because I bet Pippa Funnel is her favourite game as well)
... clearly nothing to do with the game. For a start, why did the assailant leave his house with a knife on him? Says more about Croydon than anything else.
Obviously if the guy isn't comfortable with his kids playing it then the answer is not to agree to buy it for them.
Smallbrainfield: So you never viewed porn, watched an 18 movie or tried alcahol before 18? Either you lived a shockingly dull life, or more likely your parents and the goverment didn't monitor you constantly allowing you to develop like everyone else.
Kids do things their parents aren't happy with, if their parents are big enough asses about it they'll hide it from them. Personally I'd be perfectly happy letting a 14 year old play GTA, they'd be more than capable of treating it as a form entertainment not career advice.
Anyone who knows Croydon would know that this kind of stuff happens all the time there, and it's not because they play GTA. A colleague of mine recently visited the local college where they had metal detectors on the door.
Someone visiting violence upon another person isn't because they played a violent game or watched Chucky3 it's because they are already broken mentally.
Or is that just FAR too obvious for the modern day jingoistic, bandwagon-jumping, specially-interested, self-motivated, greedy, lame and generally dysfunctional society we find ourselves living in.
And that's BEFORE you add in the political correctness f*c*tards.
"Sadly, my youngest son has started pestering me for a copy of this game.
I should have bought a Wii."
Since the game has a 18 rating tell him he's not old enough.
This is one of the problems, parents buyng games that children should not play. Therefore if a child goes postal they shouldn't blame it on the game but themselves.
Please can we get a rewrite of this story - sensational as it may be, clickworthy as the writing makes it - it's of very questionable veracity.
This version of the story sensationalises and trivialises a nasty street attack, and uses the incident to further inflame the already muddy debate on computer games and their proposed link to violence.
So he was stabbed multiple times, in the head and neck, and instead of going to hospital he went back home to pick up a knife? And he's still alive? Darwin is not happy.
I'm not necessarily condoning it, but out of curiosity can anyone tell me exactly what the consequences of letting a person under the age of eighteen play this game would be? What, exactly, happens to a person on their eighteenth birthday that suddenly means they are less likely to be influenced by games like this?
I remember playing the blood and guts versions of Carmageddon and Duke Nukem 3D when I was in my early teens, but I have so far not run over someone in a spectacular fashion or cut off someone's head to shit down their neck.
To AC I say this: You know your youngest son. If this game has content you personally would not want your son to be exposed to just yet (because he will be, eventually), don't buy it for him. If you think he is the kind of child that would be directly influenced by this game and go out and commit some of the acts portrayed in it, then don't buy it for him; seek counselling instead. If, on the other hand, you want to show him that you have faith in his ability to distinguish fantasy from reality, buy it for him and take the time to play it with him. That way you can ensure that he is not getting over-zealous and, if something appears in the game you'd rather he didn't see, you will be on hand to wrap things up or tell white lies to explain things away.
At the end of the day, how well do you know your kid?
I've just read few a handful of comments from people either blaming this on the game, saying that its not the game because he had not bought it yet or saying that they more likely will have already played the game hence why they are queuing up for it on day 1
I think you've all missed the important fact that the people involved in the stabbing WERE NOT IN THE QUEUE TO BUY ANY GAMES, they were walking past the queue...... jesh.....
A stabbing in Croydon.... and some people were queuing near by..... gee that doesn't happen every day it must be that evil games fault.
Register
Grand Theft Auto 4 queue man stabbed in head
A hooded male stabbed another man in the head and neck yesterday as they both queued to buy copies of Grand Theft Auto IV from a Croydon Gamestation store. Onlookers witnessed the Niko-style stabbing, which some bystanders have said they initially thought was a stunt pulled to whip-up yet more excitement for the eagerly …
This topic is closed for new posts.
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Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:02 GMT
Mark
Blame the store or Rockstar #
If they had opened earlier, these individuals would have collected their copy of GTA IV, and been stabbing virtual people not real ones..
Let the media frenzied outrage commence....
PS, if you want more fuel, this is hotter than Hot Coffee...
http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/O51l7S7Sx3g
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:02 GMT
/\/\j17
Au Contraire #
"Some anti-GTA IV campaigners have already jumped on both incidents as proof that such games are too violent for society."
On the grounds they were queuing to buy (presumably their first copy of) the game they would not yet have played the game and this actually demonstrates that society is, or can be every bit as violent as the game.
Art imitating art, not the other way around.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:02 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Life imitates art #
Sadly, my youngest son has started pestering me for a copy of this game.
I should have bought a Wii.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
Craig
If The Reg had played the game... #
... they'd know the character is called Niko, not Nikko :)
I managed to buy the game without assaulting anyone, but I guess that's not as newsworthy
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
MikeC
Nasty #
I'm glad I wasn't in when the postman dropped my copy off yesterday! I mean, everyone's heard what the postal service are like for taking guns to work!
Other than that, all I can say is what a game it is!
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
Matt
Conclusions #
I have played the older versions of the game and sometimes I've wondered at the way you start thinking while playing.
However, in this case the men hadn't yet bought the game so I can't see how you can conclude that the game made them violent.
You could of course argue that the game is attractive to people who are pre-disposed to violence, although I may buy it and am yet to stab or attack anyone so it would seem the game is attractive to others as well.
On the other hand this may make for a good headline in the Daily Mail but you can't draw any conclusions from a small sample like this. You'd have to say something like, 20% of GTA IV players committed violent acts in the month following purchase, compared to 10% who bought Gran Turismo and 30% who support Man U :-) Even then you'd need to check for other possible explanations.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Getting it back-assward #
"...anti-GTA IV campaigners have already jumped on both incidents as proof that such games are too violent for society..."
Surely it suggests the opposite: that society is too violent for anything this popular to be available on anything but a "free for all" basis.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
Adrian Jackson
Stumbled home for a knife? The idiot. #
Everyone knows he should have stolen a car, then picked up a hooker to recover his health before popping into the local AmmuNation for a shotgun.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
jolly
Keith Vaz #
"Keith Vaz, a prominent British Labour MP, said that news of both incidents didn't surprise him."
Well you're government has had 11 years to make things better, Keith. And have they got better? If you're not surprised by these incidents then I presume the answer is "no".
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
Louis Cowan
Balls! #
So 2 people are injured and they're blaming it on this game, trying to ban it??
How many people have died through football violence/hooliganism? Should we ban that too? I'd think that would take a higher priority :|
The namby pamby wrist-wringers can bugger off back to happyland and leave the real people to their real lives and stop trying to interfere.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
Simon Neill
Doesn't this happen a lot? #
Didn't this happen when the xbox 360 was released? ie - people attacking each other for the limited supply of product?
Aren't there fights EVERY time something long anticipated is released and stock is not plentiful (nearly always)?
This isn't a matter of the GAME being violent, people do this for the hardware itself which can't POSSIBLY be considered a violent influence on its own. People are quite simply selfish bastards who will, on occasion, do ANYTHING to get their hands on the latest shiny.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
Martin Eriksson
Supply? #
Considering the previous GTA titles have been among the highest grossing gaming titles maybe the correlation shouldn't be to the violence in the game but to the stupidity of the publishers for not being prepared for the high demand.
Most outlets now are quoting 14 days to deliver - seems to me someone screwed up their supply planning, and now I'll just wait for a second hand copy after one of the fanboys has finished it before the weekend...
/bfg
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Typical Register these days #
Not only is this story yesterday's news, but it has already been revealed that the stabbing had nothing to do with GTA4.
http://www.bruceongames.com/2008/04/29/dont-believe-the-press/
Keep up the good work.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
Dave
Art imitating art ? #
Nah . . . . . .
Every time something happens in the world that is bad, computers / games / the internet is blamed. If it were really true, Horace Goes Skiing would have caused ski-pole rage many years ago !
What happened BEFORE the days of computer games ? I cannot remember anyone blaming Cluedo for violence ??????
Paris . . . . cos she has had her share of games
Mine's the coat with an axe in the inside pocket
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
mr.K
Contact me when... #
...somebody drives down an entire line of people outside the store in an attempt to get the "Gouranga!" bonus from GTA1.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
Ash
Games don't stab people #
Maladjusted, sociopathic chavs with little or no sense of consequence stab people.
If they want a manual for murder, tell them to go buy a Human Biology text book.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Weirder and weirder #
>Art imitating art, not the other way around.
Erm... the other way round would be the same though....
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
lansalot
err #
So, this guy had a knife, got in an argument and stabbed someone ? Where it happened is irrelevant - the same thing could have happened at the Cinema or in MacDonalds.
It speaks volumes about the pair of them though - one stabbing someone over an argument, and the other going home to get his knife to stab the guy back.
Let Darwin sort it out, I say !
(Kudos to a friend, however, who when I emailed him this story responded with "Did he drop a glowing bundle of cash?")
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
Anonymous Coward
@ Anonymous Coward #
So? He's your son - if you don't want him to play the game, don't buy it for him. Kids need to hear "no".
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
philip jeffery
Re: Blame the store or Rockstar #
Even if they had opened earlier people would still need to queue for the game. Also how exactly could you blame Rockstar, they had to release the game on a day, even if they had released it earlier these people would still have to queue.
How can the anti-GTA campaigners claim its because of GTA when they were in the queue to buy GTA??
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:36 GMT
Smallbrainfield
@Life imitates art #
Tell youngest son no. It's an 18 title. You have to be 18 years old to buy it. Unless of course you let him watch porn, smoke, have sex, vote on your behalf and drive to the off-license to buy booze, then go right ahead.
I've never understood folk that can't read labels. I know for a fact there will be dick-headed parents in those queues buying GTA IV for their kids. Those morons are the ones that cause folk like Vaz to get their trolleys in a knot, ultimately spoiling it for the rest of us who want to play stuff like GTA.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:37 GMT
Mike Crawshaw
@ AC #
You're not alone. I've spoken to a number of people with kids under the age recommendation for this game who are being whined at, and a significant majority are in the position where they either have bought, or plan to buy, this game for said kids to end the pester-factor. In every case, I've tried to put them off, because it really, really, isn't suitable for children, and I know I wouldn't want my kids playing it. Some agree, some don't, but a lot weren't aware of what sort of content was in it.
The people I really feel for at the moment is the staff in the real life games stores who will be under huge pressure with kids (some with parents / other adults) coming in to buy this game, and the problems they're going to face with that.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:37 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Publicity Stunt? #
Must have been
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 10:37 GMT
Anonymous Coward
@Ananymous Coward #
That will probably be a tough call. Do you buy a copy for 'yourself' and if you're not around and your son manages to play on it what can you do. However my biggest concern would not be my son playing the game, as its no worse than a Hollywood film, but when his friends parents find out their kids have been over to your house watching your son getting a reacharound from a virtual prosser.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:13 GMT
Liam
@ Mike Crawshaw #
"The people I really feel for at the moment is the staff in the real life games stores who will be under huge pressure with kids (some with parents / other adults) coming in to buy this game, and the problems they're going to face with that."
thats no different from kids wanting toys that are too expensive. my parent just said NO when i was younger. since then i have gone out and earned my way without help from anyone. saying YES just to make life easier is the reason we have so many unruly kids that cannot take NO for an answer.
if your young kid came up and said 'dad i want a hooker and some smack - all the other kids are f**king and getting wasted" - what would you do? parent have to take responsibility! the ps3 can actually setup passworded accounts - this should be done by parent if they have a copy of a game they dont want the kids to play.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:14 GMT
David Bell
Grow a pair and say no! #
To the person that posted
"Sadly, my youngest son has started pestering me for a copy of this game."
If he is under 18, how about just saying no ?
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:14 GMT
James Sherwood
Health cheat #
Re: Adrian Jackson.
Really, the unfortunate man should have dialled 482-555-0100 into his mobile.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:14 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Re: Au Contraire /@/\/\j17 #
>> On the grounds they were queuing to buy (presumably their
>> first copy of) the game they would not yet have played the
>> game and this actually demonstrates that society is,
>> or can be every bit as violent as the game.
What twisted logic - this is instalment 4 of a game and as they were already queuing on day of release then very likely they had played at least one of the previous instalments or very similar games - can I interest you in scheme to extract money from a Nigerian prince?
Now whether playing violent games, being closeted away from the world with just video screen or just too much testosterone and adrenaline causes young men to be violent is a different matter
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:14 GMT
Allan
Play.com SUCK !!! #
I pre-ordered on May 15 2006 and they have still failed to Deliver !!
Maybe its coming with SP3 for XP ??!!??
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:14 GMT
Anonymous Coward
QFT j17 #
This simply proves that the games aren't to blame. Even before having played the game, people are already happy to bludgeon each other.
I've watched violent films and played violent video games for years but I've never felt an urge to go out on a killing spree or sadistically torture somebody. The violence ends when I turn off the TV/console. It takes a deranged individual with a warped (or completely absent for that matter) sense of right and wrong and little understanding that actions (good or bad) have consequences. Video games may be an influence (I'll happily concede that) but they are not ultimately responsible.
This is just another one of many cases where responsibility is taken away from the parents with raising their children. Before any clever dick asks if I have children, no I don't, but as a parent you are always free to say no to buying them such game or going over to their friend's house to play it. So what if they say they hate you or resent you for saying no? Surely part of being a parent is deciding what's best for your kids and not the authorities.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:14 GMT
Anonymous Coward
...couldn't think of a funny title #
AARRGHH! When will people learn that you're either predisposed towards violence, or you're not. The game doesn't make you do anything you wouldn't normally do yourself. God, this makes me so mad I could just stab someone in the head.
Mine's the one with the kevlar padded hood.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:14 GMT
darsyx
re: Art imitating Art #
"if video games affected children we would all be running around in the dark,eating little white pills listening to repetitve electronic music"
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:14 GMT
DavetheRave
Whats that word? #
Irony?
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:14 GMT
Steve Evans
Ahhh... #
Of course, silly me... Thanks for pointing that out Mr Vaz, computer games and movies are the cause of all violence in society...
The crusades and Jack the Ripper were caused by a particularly violent Punch and Judy act.
Tw*t.
Mr Vaz, the problem is that some people in society have no respect for others. These people have always existed. Maybe if your government hadn't made parents punishing their children for being bad a legal tightrope, the little oiks might have learnt a little respect early on in life.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:14 GMT
Narcolepsy
Fact #
After playing the original GTA I went completely 2-D.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:14 GMT
Spleen
Re 10:30 #
"Do you buy a copy for 'yourself' and if you're not around and your son manages to play on it what can you do."
Not let him keep the console in his bedroom and punish him if he does play it, e.g. by temporarily taking the console away?
I'm in a position to be complacent, not having any kids myself, but I don't understand why 'no' is such a hard word to say. If the word was 'Kezhangdenaiachisundurek' I could understand, but as it's a simple monosyllable I'm forced to assume that parents just don't have the guts anymore. What was the point of our parents and grandparents developing all those hoary old clichés like 'If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump off a cliff?' and passing them down through the ages if we don't use them?
'Pester power' is a disgusting modern phenomenon, pestering should have no power whatsoever. And in this case, for once, I believe it is a modern phenomenon and not one of those 'ooh wasn't everything better when we were all dying of rickets' things.
Anyway, the fact that the response of the "victim" was to go home for his own knife tells us all we need to know about that one.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:14 GMT
Anonymous Coward
is it news ? #
Would the story have made it to the news if they where buying a "my little pony"-game or something like that.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:14 GMT
Anonymous Coward
If video games actually modified peoples behaviour - #
My generation, after playing pacman throughout our youth would have ended up wandering around dark rooms, popping pills and listening to repetitive music.!
Mines the one that I "borrowed" from someone else
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:25 GMT
Thomas Hook
Pippa Funnel is MY favourite game. #
"Some anti-GTA IV campaigners have already jumped on both incidents as proof that such games are too violent for society."
As Au Contraire said, they hadnt even played the game yet! If anything it's 'proof' (in the apparently new definition of the word in common usage) of the exact opposite.
Surely it's more likely the case that the sort of sociopathic violent person who is capable of stabbing someone in the head over a dispute in a queue is more likely to be attracted to a game like GTA IV than -say- 'Pippa Funnel - take the reigns'.
So, when one of these people finally goes postal and takes out a whole bunch of poor people, what game are you more likely to find in their home, GTA-IV or 'everyones favourite no-holes barred horse-fest'?
It's not the game that made a knife-weilding maniac. Millions of people play violent computer games without turning into sword-swinging psychos, and concentrating on banning games takes away from the real debate on how we identify and help people with much deeper problems.
Next week: 'Anti-Diary groups say looking at cheeee makes you fat'
(Paris because I bet Pippa Funnel is her favourite game as well)
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:25 GMT
Test Man
Hold on... #
... clearly nothing to do with the game. For a start, why did the assailant leave his house with a knife on him? Says more about Croydon than anything else.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:25 GMT
Anonymous Coward
@Mike Crawshaw & Smallbrainfield #
Obviously if the guy isn't comfortable with his kids playing it then the answer is not to agree to buy it for them.
Smallbrainfield: So you never viewed porn, watched an 18 movie or tried alcahol before 18? Either you lived a shockingly dull life, or more likely your parents and the goverment didn't monitor you constantly allowing you to develop like everyone else.
Kids do things their parents aren't happy with, if their parents are big enough asses about it they'll hide it from them. Personally I'd be perfectly happy letting a 14 year old play GTA, they'd be more than capable of treating it as a form entertainment not career advice.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:25 GMT
James
Croydon #
Anyone who knows Croydon would know that this kind of stuff happens all the time there, and it's not because they play GTA. A colleague of mine recently visited the local college where they had metal detectors on the door.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:25 GMT
g e
Bring back common sense #
Someone visiting violence upon another person isn't because they played a violent game or watched Chucky3 it's because they are already broken mentally.
Or is that just FAR too obvious for the modern day jingoistic, bandwagon-jumping, specially-interested, self-motivated, greedy, lame and generally dysfunctional society we find ourselves living in.
And that's BEFORE you add in the political correctness f*c*tards.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:26 GMT
Anonymous Coward
@AC: Life imitates art #
"Sadly, my youngest son has started pestering me for a copy of this game.
I should have bought a Wii."
Since the game has a 18 rating tell him he's not old enough.
This is one of the problems, parents buyng games that children should not play. Therefore if a child goes postal they shouldn't blame it on the game but themselves.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:26 GMT
andrew checkley
What bull! #
People are mugged and stabbed for trainers, mobile phones, ipods etc. etc.
But all gta 4 incidents are the cause of the game!
Come on idiots! crime and violence has been with us for years long before these games. and it will be for as long as we live with or without them!
drives me mad!!
Rant over! im off to finish burnout paradise! then im going for a real drive to find some billboard's to crash through!
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:49 GMT
Iain Anderson
And while we are at it... #
...lets ban furniture!
http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=911
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:49 GMT
Steve Kay
I shall cancel my subscription etc #
Dear El Reginald,
Please can we get a rewrite of this story - sensational as it may be, clickworthy as the writing makes it - it's of very questionable veracity.
This version of the story sensationalises and trivialises a nasty street attack, and uses the incident to further inflame the already muddy debate on computer games and their proposed link to violence.
Yours, etc
Steve
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:49 GMT
Charlie
Title #
So he was stabbed multiple times, in the head and neck, and instead of going to hospital he went back home to pick up a knife? And he's still alive? Darwin is not happy.
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:49 GMT
Phil Hare
RE: Life immitating art #
I'm not necessarily condoning it, but out of curiosity can anyone tell me exactly what the consequences of letting a person under the age of eighteen play this game would be? What, exactly, happens to a person on their eighteenth birthday that suddenly means they are less likely to be influenced by games like this?
I remember playing the blood and guts versions of Carmageddon and Duke Nukem 3D when I was in my early teens, but I have so far not run over someone in a spectacular fashion or cut off someone's head to shit down their neck.
To AC I say this: You know your youngest son. If this game has content you personally would not want your son to be exposed to just yet (because he will be, eventually), don't buy it for him. If you think he is the kind of child that would be directly influenced by this game and go out and commit some of the acts portrayed in it, then don't buy it for him; seek counselling instead. If, on the other hand, you want to show him that you have faith in his ability to distinguish fantasy from reality, buy it for him and take the time to play it with him. That way you can ensure that he is not getting over-zealous and, if something appears in the game you'd rather he didn't see, you will be on hand to wrap things up or tell white lies to explain things away.
At the end of the day, how well do you know your kid?
Posted Wednesday 30th April 2008 11:49 GMT
Luke Wells
What has this got to do with GTA4? #
I've just read few a handful of comments from people either blaming this on the game, saying that its not the game because he had not bought it yet or saying that they more likely will have already played the game hence why they are queuing up for it on day 1
I think you've all missed the important fact that the people involved in the stabbing WERE NOT IN THE QUEUE TO BUY ANY GAMES, they were walking past the queue...... jesh.....
A stabbing in Croydon.... and some people were queuing near by..... gee that doesn't happen every day it must be that evil games fault.
Check Croydon local news
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