(not the awsome movie )
Well its started again, what happened with Videos in the 1980s is kicking up on video games. It's been brewing for a while but a court case and mass hysteria (i'm sure everyones seen that BS news article, and of course, the Mails naziesque crusade):

?50m lawsuit over game

News Source / Read More: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004352369,00.html

Lets see if the obvious defence is used:


The game is rated strictly for those of 18 years and over. However, the parents went out and not only bought it, but were fully aware that an obviously emotionally instable child was playing such a game near constantly. Now although my faith dwindles over the british courts in recent decisions, I think this is pretty damn obvious the way this should play out, and if the Judge is incapable of seeing this there is a serious problem.

There's two obvious people who should be in care at the moment, and one who should be beaten with a stick. If the case goes in favour of the blatantly idiotic, parasitic and clearly incapable parents... well I don't know what to think.

i say shoot the parents and that crazy kid of there's and call it evens

Well I don't not agree

the crazyness have started......

hehe... Read up on the history about how Marijuanna became illegal.

This sort of stuff really annoys me (as I'm sure it does all of you), however, I don't think it'll ever truly go away.
As long as people have a scapegoat available, they'll use it....that goes for society as a whole too.

Thankfully, I think enough research has been done in this area to show that games/films cannot be held responsible for such acts.
Unfortunately, I don't have much faith in the British legal system either.

Although I doubt it would work, if anyone was successful in such a case, I'd love to take them to court myself. There must be some legal case against people who 'remove' others entertainment in this way, although I'm no lawyer, so don't know what it would be.

It gets worse :

http://biz.gamedaily.com/features_new/jack_thompson/

Well that's a lawyer saying the law doesn't matter Total wanker, I find him offensive, is there any lawyer out there that can sue him for being a dick?

oh my. hehe. what's that alarm that goes off?

*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEEEEEEEP* RELIGIOUS FREAK!!!!!! *BEEEEEEEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP*


for a guy who's complaining about violent behavior, he sertainly uses rather "harsh" terms to say the least...



And his refferals to all these "independent" surveys are also pretty laughable. I don't remember the name right now, but there was a rather famous convention in Austrailia I believe, where alot of the entertainment industry's representatives where gathered, and these claims were laid to rest once and for all.

They need someone to blame. The kid was fucked up in the head, the parents should never have allowed him to play the game either, not fair to blame a game.

I have always insisted that if someone can be influenced by a game or film to the point they act it out, then they would be fucked any way, hell they only gotta watch any crappy soap opera and they be burying ppl under the patio.

At the end of the day the game was rated for adults, if the parents let him play then they are partly to blame.

What really annoys me about people like that Jack Thompson guy is that fact that he's the one looking to profit from the kid's unfortunate death, Rockstar certainly aren't.

In fact Rockstar are one of the better behaved game developers, all of their titles carry BBFC ratings, which they don't have to do. These are legally enforceable at retail and should cover Rockstar (in the UK at least).

The other question I would have (Aimed at the family involved) would be "why was it neccessary to go to a US lawyer to bring a case against a UK company over a murder that happened in the UK?" I assume that a UK lawyer would know that there was no case for Rockstar to answer as they had done MORE than the law requires them to do to avoid them selling their games to inappropriatly aged children.

The lack of Parental responsibility in this country is absolutely appalling, and leads to cases like this, I've overheard people buying their 11/12 yr old kids an 18 rated game and saying things like "it's ok it's only a game", I wonder if they'd feel the same way about their kids watching the equivalent level of violence on DVD

Childs play all over again

I auume for a game to get a BBFC rating it has to follow the same channels as a film right? So where does the responsibility fall then? UK officials have passed the game as suitable for adults, so probably not them. I havent read the story yet but I assume his parents bought the game for him, so the repsonsibility lies firmly with them. I know that when I had my shop no-one underage got served with a rated game, and if any shop did sell it to a kid they should be closed down at the very least.

Also I would have though this quote from Jack Thompson would be enough to get him sued for libel :



Or at least defamation of character, but hey I'm not a lawyer

Here's the guys webpage too.

http://www.stopkill.com/

If it makes you hate him even more, his e-mail address is at the bottom of the page

:-o FFS this is childs play again, i expect the soft company will get found guilty in court tho - public/media pressure etc.

here is an example:

a friend (really, not me!)while out at a peaceful protest was arrested for 'assault on a copper' cant remember exact charge but it actually got to court and the copper stood up in court and stated categorically that he had not actually been assualted on that day by that person and that he did not recognise that person as the perpetrator of any violent actions. there was even video footage shown, showing that person was nowhere near the copper at the supposed time of assualt. guess wot......................he was found guilty!!!!

don't need some overpaid american lawyer 2 screw us we can do it well enuf without help

i do think it is due, partly, to the lack of parental responsibility that causes incidents like these.

hey hey hey there PCA, don't rag too much on parents buying children 18 videos.... my parents bought me loads of 18s, although I had to be over 10 to see them, unless they were on TV or borrowed on video.

Now that I think about it, they were very easy on that kind of stuff, but there was always the case that, 'its violent, I'm not sure you should watch it', of course I'd say its only fiction when you think about it, I can comprehend much worse... and then I got Alien on video

I doubt the parents here even bothered to check the game... infact I don't think that's that big an issue, its ONLY A GAME. The big issue is that there parents raised some thick knobhead and didn't educate him right, anyone who could kill someone in the way that happened here is an obvious failing to seek medical attention, and letting someone play obsessively on something like Manhunt... well a sane parent would step in. My little sister actually played on GTA:VC too much so my parents took it off (/me points and laughs), she's gone back to zoo tycoon and some other crap like that I believe. She had that simpsons hit and run which is practically GTA3 without the blood.

The ultimate thing that I can't believe ever gets past a single stage is.... ONLY FUCKING NUT CASES THAT HAVE NO CLUE BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG, AND FICTION AND REALITY, COPY SOMETHING THAT ISN'T REAL. These people would make something up, or copy word of mouth, literature, documentries, or anything and commit the crime anyway.... I can't believe these religious nuts don't see this.

It's not the fact that they bought him the game, nor that he played it. The fact of the matter is they are now trying to blame their son's obvious social inadequacies, not on their obviously poor rasing of their child, but on a game they bought him which quite clearly states he should not have been playing it.

It's their upbringing that caused him to do what he did and it fucking appalls me that people can blame their non existant parenting skills on the media (be it films, games, or books etc) and A) get people to take them seriously and B) try to destroy that medium for everyone else.

Sorry if I'm a bit "ranty" over this, but this has happened before with the "Video Nasty" crusade in the '80s, it pissed me off then and it's pissing me off even more now.

I don't think parenting is completely to blame, although it can play a role in problems like this.
I deal with a lot of kids on a daily basis that don't get much attention from their families. The parents don't care what they do unless they end up being arrested (at which point it looks bad on the parents too).
The way society is changing, becoming more concerned about money, and less about fellow humans, is bound to have negative affects on those growing up. If they can't even find comfort at home, then I think this will lead to an increase in cases like this.

This still doesn't justify blaming types of media though, and as PCA mentioned, we have seen a similar situation in the 80's over video nasties.
People will blame anything but themselves if they can get away with it. Back in the 80's, all those films were banned, not because of facts, but because of the public uproar, caused in part by papers publishing their biased views.
We now see the same happen to games, and the result could well and up being the same if something isn't done.

In the end, I think the issue will be resolved by the more vocal majority.

At the end of the day my parents tolerated me watching scary films and the like at a fairly early age, but twas sinply because A, I watched them at someone elses house and they had little control, and B, and more importantly according to my mum, I had the stability of mind and maturity to realise that the violence I saw was not real and also that it would have been a bad thing to do.

It all boils down to parents recognising what the kids can and cannot comprehend or handle.

I will allow my 12 year old step son to watch some horror, but he knows he will not be mocked if he decides something is too scarey and leaves the room, but he is mature enuff to handle what he does decide to watch. OTOH my 14 year old step-daughter cannot handle it at all, she just freaks out, so she is not allowed ot watch it at all. Her limit is shit like Scarey Movie LOL

That's exactly what I was trying to say