Gaming for those who care to think.
Another day, another video game made me murder someone case
A 24 year old man from Alabama is attempting to defend his murder of an 80-year-old by claiming video games made him do it. Gamers should be quite used to such negative press by now. It seems at least once a month such a story makes headlines and the gaming community gets up in arms. What’s interesting, however, is that these defenses never seem to quite work. Suppose you can hand it to lawyers for persistence.
Unfortunately, such claims are hurtful in multiple ways. First, and most obviously, they are disrespectful to the family of the victim. Trying to write off a cold blooded murder as someone’s delusional bonus level of Grand Theft Auto doesn’t really give them the respect of simply admitting the murderer was just a bad, bad person. Second, such defenses hurt the gaming community. Look, gamers can cause themselves quite enough problems without having other people help them look bad. Lastly, true cases of videogame inspired crime are hurt by others trying to cash in. It’s similar to how depression isn’t taken as seriously since everyone is on anti-depressants now.
The actual case involves a young man breaking into the home of an 80-year-old widower; apparently to rob a vault he believed to be there. If you’re squeamish, now might be the time to turn away. He then proceeded to stab the man 70 times and gouge out an eye. Some of this was even apparently recorded on a desperate 911 phone call made by the attacked. The 80-year-old did manage to fire off a gun and hit the attacked with one round, though he did survive the attack. The old man was not quite so lucky.
The young man’s lawyer argued that he was a computer geek whose love for video games caused him to live “a different world than you and I.” That’s not really a defense, as anyone who brutally murders someone else lives in a pretty different sphere of reality than most. Still, such a brutal murder is hardly the place to start crying that the video game made you do it.
Related posts:
| Print article | This entry was posted by Justin on February 28, 2008 at 12:25 pm, and is filed under News. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. |
Using Sonic the Hedgehog as a deadly weapon
about 2 years ago - Comments Off
Sonic the Hedgehog might be a little bit past his prime, but that’s still no reason for him to turn to a life of crime. That’s exactly what happened, though, when a hedgehog and a New Zealand man teamed up. Now, the man has been fined by a local court. The man, William Singalargh, apparently
Get paid for committing video game related crimes
about 2 years ago - View Comments
Violence in video games seems to always be the easy answer for rallying politicians. From Jack Thompson to Joe Leiberman, it seems like everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and now gamers have the opportunity to make a buck from reporting crimes influenced by gaming. A national newspaper in the U.K. has posted an
Teen shot over God of War?
about 2 years ago - View Comments
Do you ever stop to consider that perhaps the entire world has gone crazy? Stories like this are enough to make you do so. Apparently a 15-year-old boy in Marble Falls, Texas was shot in the head potentially over the game God of War. The details state that the 15-year-old shot and another boy were
Why the media loves to hate on gamers
about 2 years ago - Comments Off
Gamers, bizarrely, feel like a persecuted group. I say bizarrely not because they can’t find potential evidence, but because it’s fairly ridiculous for any group heavily courted by the media with multi-million dollar advertising campaigns to feel too persecuted by the media. It isn’t like the media completely ignores gamers (like, say, the disabled), but
Couple lets baby die while they play videogames and watch TV
about 2 years ago - View Comments
An Illinois couple faces first-degree murder charges after they left their baby to die strapped in a car seat inside its crib. This wasn’t for thirty minutes, but for eight days. What were they so busy doing? Apparently playing video games and watching television. Peoria County State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons said that while the baby
Gamer burns down church then brags about it online
about 2 years ago - View Comments
Some days the headlines alone are almost enough to make you crawl back into bed. In one of the more bizarre tales of people proving they’re nuts online, a member of the GameFAQs message board alerted members he had burned down a church. Even more bizarre, he asked members first if he should. To GameFAQs’
Man sentenced who beat child to death over damaged Xbox
about 2 years ago - View Comments
A man convicted of beating his 17-month-old daughter to death has been sentenced to 23 ½ to 47 years in prison. Why would drive a man to beat his own daughter to death? Apparently the girl knocked over his Xbox damaging it. Obviously this is not a “video game violence” story in the traditional sense.
Retaliation for game ends in real life murder
about 2 years ago - View Comments
The video posted with this story almost entirely speaks for itself. Essentially, a group of MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) players decided that real life retaliation was needed for a simulated world slight. The outcome? Murder. What’s perhaps even odder is that not only did the group kill the player they were mad at,
Comments are closed.
about 2 years ago
wow thas pretty sad when people do that.