Shocking Twist In 'manhunt' Killing Case
KungFuSquirrel
Basher of Muttons Join Date: 2002-01-26 Member: 103Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Basher of Muttons Join Date: 2002-01-26 Member: 103Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">Dude. Seriously.</div> <!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->New Twist In Manhunt Murder Row
New details have emerged concerning the murder of Briton Stefan Pakeerah, which the British tabloid press have blamed on the influence of Rockstar title Manhunt – leading to many chain stores removing the title from shop shelves and calls for all violent games to be banned.
It now transpires that the 17 year old murderer did not own a copy of the game, which should not be sold to those below the age of 18, but that 14 year old Stefan did.
Ironically it is primarily the victim’s family that blames the game for influencing the murderer and they have indicated that they are “saddened and disappointed” that the game has almost sold out across the UK, in the wake of the controversy.
Investigating police though are satisfied that the game has nothing to do with the murder, with a spokesman commenting that, “We haven’t connected the game with the murder and we’ve already made that statement, but some sections of the media chose to ignore it… the motive was robbery.” <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
So... the parents are up in arms blaming the game for this kid having it, and it turns out only their own child owned it. *shakes head* Let's see what Jack Thompson has to say <i>now</i>... oh, wait, he still wants all us bloodsucking baby-eating satanists to die. *rolls eyes*
New details have emerged concerning the murder of Briton Stefan Pakeerah, which the British tabloid press have blamed on the influence of Rockstar title Manhunt – leading to many chain stores removing the title from shop shelves and calls for all violent games to be banned.
It now transpires that the 17 year old murderer did not own a copy of the game, which should not be sold to those below the age of 18, but that 14 year old Stefan did.
Ironically it is primarily the victim’s family that blames the game for influencing the murderer and they have indicated that they are “saddened and disappointed” that the game has almost sold out across the UK, in the wake of the controversy.
Investigating police though are satisfied that the game has nothing to do with the murder, with a spokesman commenting that, “We haven’t connected the game with the murder and we’ve already made that statement, but some sections of the media chose to ignore it… the motive was robbery.” <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
So... the parents are up in arms blaming the game for this kid having it, and it turns out only their own child owned it. *shakes head* Let's see what Jack Thompson has to say <i>now</i>... oh, wait, he still wants all us bloodsucking baby-eating satanists to die. *rolls eyes*
Comments
More proof that the media are a bunch of f***tards
If it's a waste of time doing it daily it's a waste of time doing it whenever it pops up on the forums.
This week it was "Plaid."
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Letter from “The Retriever,” a UMBC newspaper:
(http://trw.umbc.edu/articles/3030?Newspaper_Session=819ebf20bcaa8a63042b527b6e46bace)
Point: Video Game Violence Means Psychotic Youths
Virginia Brown
Retriever Weekly Editorial Staff
The scene opens to a lean, muscular man crouching in the corner of an abandoned building. The man stands up and creeps forward towards a doorway. He slams it open and bursts through, drawing .45 Magnums from his sides. He opens fire on guards waiting just through the door. Blood splatters all over the walls, the brains explode on the impact of the bullet. Some of the guards vainly try to fire back, but are too slow for their young assailant. By the time the shooting is done, there are bloodied bodies lying all over the floor and the walls and floors are covered in blood, brains, and body parts.
No, this is not a movie. This scene is straight out of many video games now available on the market. Some of these violent games are Max Payne, Halo, and Half-life. These games, while advertised for teenage users only, have reached young children also. From the young ages of 3 or 4, children are exposed to violent scenes in video games, de-sensitizing them to the horror that is being depicted before their eyes. Worse yet, arcade games, such as Spy Scope and Deer Hunter use fake guns and scopes to help play these "harmless" games. What they are really doing is training these children that violence is fun.
Look at all of the crap that has been going on in America for the past five to ten years. Children, as young as 10, are walking into schools with guns and shooting up their classmates because they called them a name that they did not like. Or, children are entering the school doors with knives, ready to stab the next person that dares to stand up to them. Violence has become an epidemic in this country among our youth and no one seems to recognize a source in many of these cases.
How many of these young children were reported to be avid players of violent video games that taught focus and aim with guns and other weapons? Well, the answer is obviously the majority of them. And still, with this compelling evidence, how can people continue to deny the fact that violent video games and images can lead to violent children? The entertainment industry has lamely tried to put ratings on these games to stop young children from playing them. But, they don’t work. These rules are not enforced. It’s like the rated-R movie that young children and teens have people buy them tickets for so that they may watch them. It’s a **** way to placate the parent of American, a placebo effect. The parents are content with this half-assed effort by the gaming industry, while the sales are still made and the games are left in arcades for all ages to use.
Just wait though. If these games aren’t taken off the market or at least better guarded with the audience that they are getting, we will have a generation of mercenaries on our hands.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And this is my rebuttal:
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Dear Virginia Brown,
I recently read your editorial on the dangers of those evil video games that make children into bloodthirsty killers. If I were a reader totally uninformed on the subject, I would have found it moving and an excellent piece on why this new and still unfamiliar medium is a menace to society. Fortunately, I am not an uninformed reader. I am a video gamer of nearly thirteen years and find serious issue with many points of your editorial. I am not a psychologist, however, and am entirely uneducated on any of the affects of violent images on children. I do not contest one way or the other the result of such violent images, but I found sufficient error otherwise to warrant a critique on the points that I am knowledgeable. In your article you give a vivid description of extreme game violence, with spattered blood and brains. You liken the ratings systems of video games to that of movies, and you give examples of children who act out violently. I contest these points, however, and will prove that each is invalid and deceptive to the average reader to the extent of being unfit for even the limited college-wide publication which it received. I argue that violent video games are not the problem they are often made out to be, but rather simple steps can be taken to solve all problems in the system.
Firstly, you open your article with a description of a “lean, muscular man” who maims and destroys with “.45 Magnums,” covering the floors with “blood, brains, and body parts.” Well, since there is no indication that this paragraph is hypothetical, I must assume that it is pure fabrication. For starters, a “.45 Magnum” exists only in very limited production, as it is hugely unpopular. Furthermore, a game that replicates this obscure pistol cartridge is nonexistent. You describe heads that explode, and brains that splatter on walls upon impact of the assailants bullets. No game that I am aware of, even after the release of your editorial, has this level of detail. The best equivalent of the effect you describe is in Pulp Fiction, in which one of the men accidentally shoots another in the head, resulting in a solid-red shower of blood that covers the windows of the car and pieces of brain sticking into Samuel L. Jackson’s hilariously styled hair. This level of precision, splattering particles of brain, is simply not reached in today’s video games. Even the image of body parts littering the floor of the abandon warehouse is a stretch, as only one game that I have ever played, Soldier of Fortune, has had this effect. It was actually this level of violence that earned it several warnings. It cautioned strongly against juvenile players, both on the box and while the game was installing on a computer.
After this simple analysis, I am strongly in doubt of your powerful statement: “This scene is straight out of many video games now available on the market.” This analysis is actually forgiving, as you also state that, “some of these violent games are Max Payne, Halo, and Half-Life.” The problem is, however, that none of these games meet your description at all. It is too much of a stretch to write off your description as a generalization of most games. Your exaggeration evokes emotions which would otherwise be untouched. The inclusion of the most important of organs, the brain, being smashed to bits shocks the reader more than a factually accurate description of just blood. The specific games given, while violent, do not match the given scenario in any way. Max Payne has neither flying limbs nor brains, but is very violent and rated Mature by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Halo is a game that takes place in a distant planet and also has no flying limbs or brains. It too, bears the Mature rating. Half-Life does contain the described blood splatters, but it lacks the implied realism. Half-Life is a game that touts “realism” to the extent that a crowbar, after five stout swings, will burst a body into hundreds of tiny bacon-sized strips of flesh. This is grotesque, but hardly real. Similar to other games with this level of violence, Half-Life also carries the Mature rating on its box.
The question lies in how effective these ratings are. Every example of violent games you have supplied have the “Mature” label on the front of the box. This rating system is not a regulatory law, but most retail stores will not sell video games that display this rating to children under seventeen years of age. As you have said, these ratings can be gotten around, just like movie ratings. What you fail to address, however, is the fact that movies are violent as well, perhaps even more violent. Not only more violent in general, but more realistically violent and grotesque. You also state that children as young as ten years of age are committing violent acts in schools. Since your editorial is about the perils of video game violence, I assume you are implying that the two are related, which is a point I do not argue. The problem is, however, that video games are far more expensive than movies. At most, a movie could cost ten dollars at a theater or a few dollars less at a rental store. Video games cost much more, with new releases being fifty dollars and older games being thirty dollars or more. Ten year olds, for the most part, simply do not have that kind of capital. These games are not getting into children’s hands because of a faulty system, but because parents are ignoring these ratings and buying them for their children. This situation leads me to an important omission of yours.
This huge omission is the complete lack of any mention of parents. Just like violence on television, the most important way to prevent children from playing violent games is parental intervention. If a child is able to play a game obsessively enough to desensitize himself from real-world violence without a parent seeing what he is doing, then the problem lies not in the game, but with the observational skills of the parent. You say that the ratings system is a way to calm the parents of America, but you fail to realize that most of these sales to minors are actually in the presence of a parent who simply disregards the ratings system. I have heard many stories from store clerks who have a parent bring a copy of “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,” an extremely violent and mature game, to the store counter to buy for their child. Upon seeing the young child anxiously awaiting the parent to buy the game, the clerk informs the parent that the game is obviously too mature for the child. The clerk points out that it is rated “Mature 17+” on the corner of the box and that it contains blood, strong sexual content, etc. Upon hearing this, the mother will decline the sale and walk out of the store. So why do these games get into the hands of young children? It’s not because, as you state, the ratings system is a joke. It’s because parents give no thought to the ratings system that is already in place.
Your article has good intentions, but is simply riddled with inaccuracies that detract from your main argument when read by someone who is not video game illiterate. Contradictions within the editorial, the fabricated, yet emotion invoking example, and the disregard for the real fallacy of the ratings system all contribute to the overall ineffectiveness of the piece. I agree that violence is being shown to children far too early, but the solution is not to get rid of video games, but to encourage better parenting. Parents who leave children unsupervised and at the whim of society’s rating systems will wind up with children who have more problems than simply being violent.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, we had to write a rebuttal to an opinionated article.... I found that letter at around 4AM one night and decided to use it. thanks <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Both of those strips rule
Probably said, "Double You Tee Eff, Mate?"
educate parents
solution2:
ask children to educate parents
solution3:
remove safety labels / warnings / whatever from every item within grasp, allow problem to sort itself out.
Nah, it was just a writing exercise for class. I might try to send it to the author, but it probably wont' do much good. The article is kinda olld (2002). It was just something I had to do for my English course 1st semester (which I am now done <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo--> )
ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!
so every 1 out of 9999999999999999 kids kills someone and now violent games are making the youth of the world go on mass murder rampages or kill people with baseball bats.. it just really makes me mad...
i wanna suffocate the people who say games make kids violent with plastic bags like the guy does in manhunt
He said <!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->OWNED<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
since this was printed in the papers and online, when
we'll have Manhunt back in stock.
Some guy came in, I told there was one left on the X-Box.
He told me he didn't have an X-Box but to keep hold
of the game for him for 20 minutes.
So I did.... 20 minutes or so later, he comes back, buys
an X-Box <b>and</b> the last copy of Manhunt.
Make of that what you will, but to me it shows that not
as many people take the media as seriously as some
people would have you believe.
Are <i>any</i> of us?
No only certain stores took it off the shelves, remember, think of how many stupid people you meet every day, now think that most of the world are like that but probably worse <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif' /><!--endemo-->
thus proving theyre point. you shouldnt be playing them.
thus proving theyre point. you shouldnt be playing them. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I beleive he was going for something called humor via intentional irony.
And thanks KFS for posting this, I never saw it(being the news sucks).
since this was printed in the papers and online, when
we'll have Manhunt back in stock.
Some guy came in, I told there was one left on the X-Box.
He told me he didn't have an X-Box but to keep hold
of the game for him for 20 minutes.
So I did.... 20 minutes or so later, he comes back, buys
an X-Box <b>and</b> the last copy of Manhunt.
Make of that what you will, but to me it shows that not
as many people take the media as seriously as some
people would have you believe. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
He bought an X-Box for <i>Manhunt?</i>