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.
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 online ad requesting stories from gamers on how the games they played turned them to a life of crime. The ad states, “Write a few lines about how computer games turned you to crime and if it’s something we like, we’ll call you straight back.” The paper is apparently willing to pay hundreds of pounds for anyone willing to sell their story.
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 over visiting the shooter, a 13-year-old. The two visitors were playing God of War when the 13-year-old left the room, retrieved some bullets and then returned and without saying a word shot the 15-year-old in the head. It is unclear exactly how the shooting tied to God of War (a game in which there really aren’t guns). The link is credited to a parent. (more…)
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. (more…)
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 instead that most major news stories involving gaming seem to lend toward the negative side. Is there a good reason why? You bet.
First, one must understand that without a detailed statistical analysis it is difficult to claim the mainstream media has a negative bent towards gamers. Any perceptions are just that-personal views shaped by anecdotal evidence. That, of course, doesn’t mean the perception is inaccurate, just not proven.
Second, one has to define what they mean by the “mainstream” media. For example, are magazines such as EGM, Maxim, and others that cater to large male demographics considered mainstream, or is the debate only concerning Newsweek, MSNBC, and The New York Times? If the former, then the argument that the mainstream media has it out for gamers seems much less defendable, as both these publications obviously feature gaming coverage and tend to sell well. If the latter, then one might have a better argument that such media outlets tend to focus on the bad rather than the positive. (more…)
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 wasted away in its own waste the couple was “playing video games, watching TV, feeding and caring for themselves.” There is something disturbing about this quote. For one, the question arises of how did the police find out exactly what the two were doing? Did they admit to this as their activity during the time they let their infant die? Also, how can one simply ignore a baby for eight days? It’s not too uncommon to hear of parents who leave their child unattended for several hours while they doze off, but eight days? At no point did they consider this baby in the other room? (more…)
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’ credit, they did take down the original post of the member asking if he should burn down a church and school. On Wednesday night the poster, Jediknight12345, asked if he should take such action. By Thursday morning he was posting he had indeed gone through with his threats and set the fires. Members of the community did not immediately believe him (and who would online?), but he followed up his original claims with pictures taken from his camera phone and mocking photos of reports of the crime. He added, “”Oh…and the best part…the whole school caught up on fire from 3 simple little fires. One was a bunch of computers, another a bunch of bibles, and the last was towels in an oven.” (more…)
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