That Darned Video Games!

[Booldawg]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2473095/Model-pupil-15-shown-CCTV-robbing-Liverpool-bank-gunpoint.html

Gotta love the DMs style of journalism that can be bent and twisted to fit any kind of stance they wish to adopt!

[emmie]

so he didn't rob the place, looks quite convincing if not.

[Kromovaracun]

So basically we have no evidence whatsoever that this kid has ever played GTA -we just have the opinion of a judge who it's highly unlikely has ever played any form of modern videogame, and the fact that he happened to do it a few days after GTA came out. It's just the same as the sensationalist idiots who claimed that Doom had caused the Columbine shootings.

If the DM is so convinced that the media has such a dramatic impact on our children, then I wonder what impact exposure to the Daily Mail might have on our children? Maybe it would cause paranoia! I certainly remember being absolutely terrified of going outside after my mum showed me a DM article about paedophiles when I was 8. But maybe it would make them paedophiles too! Remember all those shots of young Princess Beatrice in a swimming cozzy with the Mail commenting on how she was 'developing' into a young woman?Just imagine our CHILDREN being exposed to THAT. Oooooooh and hasn't the Daily Mail been criticised by a judge once? I bet it's really bad if a judge has criticised it! OH MY GOD. DANGER SURROUNDS US. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH

I don't have any evidence of this, of course. I'm just making balls-to-the-wall assertions, just like the Daily Mail does.

(note for DM readers: I do not actually believe anything in the above paragraph about the DM. I am using the same kind of argument and tone that the DM uses to show how silly and invalid it is.)

[FredPuli43]

Emmie, the Mail has seized on a chance remark in the youth court, where the District Judge said it looked like a real life video game. They've thrown in the fact that a new edition of Grand Theft Auto had come out that week.

Do you suspect that the Mail has an agenda to show that video games turn young people into robbers, or make them violent?

That there is absolutely no evidence to support that contention here, nor that the evidence we have shows it of no relevance in this case , doesn't stop the Mail from pretending the opposite, but,then it rarely does with the Mail

[jim360]

This kid clearly wasn't playing GTA. If he had he'd surely have got away in a violent gun chase and driven over at least two passers-by on the way to his safe-house.

[LazyGun]

@jim "This kid clearly wasn't playing GTA. If he had he'd surely have got away in a violent gun chase and driven over at least two passers-by on the way to his safe-house"

There speaks the voice of experience :)

[jim360]

I haven't actually played GTA but I've heard a few things about it. Closest I've come to it, I think, is a game based on the Godfather. It's a great place to engage in virtual mass murder and gun down helpless screaming citizens of New York with my Dillinger and then evade the police by driving the wrong way down Broadway. But it doesn't make me violent. I've only been involved in two mass shootings since then and they both would have probably happened anyway.

[Kromovaracun]

I've played GTA. A lot.

(Not 5 though - only the first 4).

[Kromovaracun]

Actually wait, there's considerably more than 4 games before 5. I've played 2, 3, Vice City, San Andreas, and 4.

Not that it matters.

[emmie]

sorry i am not into video games.

[jim360]

Hardly a problem that, there's plenty else to be into. Mind, there's such a variety of video games that "I'm not into video games" seems almost as bizarre a statement as "I don't like music" or something.

[Kromovaracun]

If anyone hasn't played GTA/similar, you can view this delightful video of an old lady using GTA 5 to vent her frustrations about British Gas:

WARNING: She swears a lot.

[jno]

The court heard that the boy wanted cash because he envied the material possessions of his friends but also to reduce the financial burden on his family, who were having to pay for private tuition for him as his school grades were declining

See, this is really a story about government education policies

[LazyGun]

@Kromo LoL at Granny GTA V :)

[jim360]

I think that video surely summarises what these games can be about -- a surprisingly good way to vent your anger or rage effectively while also not actually harming anyone. It's surprisingly satisfying to unload a gun into some screaming helpless man's chest. And it's all just pixels so it's also victim-free.

[pixie373]

It was the judge who said it wasn't to do with video games. The story has just been completely skewed.