|
 |
|
| EA Sports Cup |
| Gent, Belgium |
| 2008/11/15 |
Teams attending
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Murder, Mayhem and Games
 |
 |
| posted by: dfb on 2008-01-10, 14:18 |
| viewed: 727 times |
| comments: 26 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
page 1: Murder, Mayhem and Games
Guest article by Matthew 'Splatski' Carnaby
Warren Leblanc, 17, repeatedly stabbed a 14-year-old boy to death after luring him to a park in Leicester, England on the 29th of July 2004. Why did this happen? Why was the teenager carrying a knife? How can a child be so cold blooded? The answer to all of these questions, Man Hunt. The popular multi-platform, Rock star North development, the very developers of games Grand Theft Auto and Bully. The reason this killing was so shocking, and invoked such disgust was the way the murder was carried out. The 17 year armed himself with a Claw Hammer and Knife, then lured the boy to a local park where he plunged the knife into the boy several times, in fact so deep it caused serious damage to his kidney and liver.
The fact is that this sort of murder is on a sharp rise around the world, it seems limitless and now fingers are being pointed at video games as the culprit. The parents of the murdered boy labelled the game as ‘Cold blooded’ and ‘Brutal’. The games developers Rock star North defended their game, saying that they sympathised with the boys parents, but, argued that the boy should not have been in possession of a copy as it was rated 18. But, this is not the first time a game has been blamed, Counter-Strike was blamed for Robert Steinhaeuser shooting 13 teachers dead in Germany and Doom for the Columbine shootings.
Dumblane, Columbine, Erfurt and Jokela all trigger images of violence on a grotesque scale, but why are games being labelled as the cause? Well, in part, it seems like a cycle, first, it was TV programmes; the murder of James Bulger for example was blamed on violent videos the children had watched. Now it has moved onto Video Games, but games are also educational tools, just googling ‘educational games’ brings up 10 million results. Being a (training) teacher myself, I fully understand the importance of games. For two years I worked with children to ‘violent’ and badly behaved to be in main stream education, the only real way to engage these children is through games, whether that is a game of Tekken on the Ps2, or a board game.
So, can an answer be drawn from this raging debate? Do games affect behaviour patterns, I personally think they do, you do not have to look any further than Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. The worst cases seem to be when players take the game to far too seriously, or indulge in it to much (See Xtctje’s Blog, Gaming, Simulations and Society), Warren Leblanc for example was ‘obsessed’ with violent games, and was under the 18-age restriciton. But, this brings Xtcje’s debate back, where is the line? Who is to say how many hours a child should play a day?
|
|
|
|
|
|
| #1 |
 tek9.imp4ct |
2008-01-10 14:23:44 |
|
Very nice article! R.I.P. Warren. |
|
| #2 |
 infused vanner |
2008-01-10 14:29:20 |
|
Films are a hell of a lot worse than games yet not half as much fuss is made. Good article. |
|
| #3 |
 tek9.LINKAGE |
2008-01-10 14:32:17 |
|
it depends on who's playing the game and his personality. strong personalities play games for fun or trace some objectives and follow them, weak personalities tend to make games their life and live it according to the game.
the kid's death is no way related to Rockstar, they have made the game, put it on a store and rated "+18", from that moment on it's up to each kid's parents to look out for them and pick which game is appropriate or not to him.
video games are an easy target in nowadays, no one blames football for the massive wave of deaths while playing that have been part of our daily news, they prefer to blame the physical coach or the background of that player, his personal life, dig it until find something. they never blame "football" because it's way too big to go on a war against it.
video games are small, yet. |
|
| #4 |
tek9.dfb |
2008-01-10 14:37:02 |
|
I agree on the issue that some movies can be extremely violent and explicit (for instance the SAW series) but there is also the difference that a movie is "just watching" whereas in a game you control the action of the character and the game itself which is far more intensive psychologically. |
|
| #5 |
 tek9.con |
2008-01-10 14:46:51 |
|
I love the saw series and video games.. does that make me potential killer? omfg.. my family is doomed! |
|
| #6 |
 tek9.dmice |
2008-01-10 15:08:22 |
|
Ye games do affect behaviour patterns if you can't control your self... for all killers to know: a human body does NOT respawn! :) |
|
| #7 |
tek9.VulcanO |
2008-01-10 15:57:26 |
|
nice article !
and #5 con ... yes you are dangerous but seXy :p |
|
| #8 |
towers |
2008-01-10 16:08:49 |
|
Nice article Splat, always going to be an ongoing argument in the mordern society.
A small example which is, for those who know me will already know about, but I grew up playing racing games... speeding around, crashing out etc; I passed by driving test with ease, I put this soley down to playing realistic games as I grew up, and I blame it for the reason I lost my lisence 2 weeks later! :D
BUT, It was my choice to get caught speeding in an uninsured vehicle, as is the same for some child who goes out and plunges a knife into another child.
Again, nice article. |
|
| #9 |
richybee |
2008-01-10 16:16:15 |
|
gogo Splatski!!! good read |
|
| #10 |
 <3__<3kezM |
2008-01-10 16:25:08 |
|
I dont really see games making people violent, I see the games, movies, TV, everything around us, making already unstable people violent. Blaming a game for one boy being vulnerable, unstable and violent is nonsense. |
|
| #11 |
 Framp |
2008-01-10 17:29:00 |
|
good read |
|
| #12 |
xtophe |
2008-01-10 17:52:21 |
|
Authoraties and media just make too much fuss about it. The police searches some lunatic kid's house and they find videogames. They take that 1 hypothesis and blow it out of proportion, but I wonder if they'd realise that pretty much every kid or teenager has videogames nowadays.
Above all of that it's obviously easier to point towards games and neglect how the murderweapon got into the hands of some teenager, that would be pure blasphemy in e.g. the USA. |
|
| #13 |
team.MDjoefroobs |
2008-01-10 18:38:43 |
|
inspirational reading |
|
| #14 |
tek9.YRN |
2008-01-10 19:49:35 |
|
nice read!
about violent "gamers" "moviewatchers"; we all watch movies and some of us play violent games, but that doesn't make you a killer. Like kezM already said, only unstable people will grow this rage of murder in their head, not just anybody so it's kinda wrong to involve gaming, gamers, etc etc in this matter.
The mistake lies in stores where they sell violent games/movies to underaged people, often children just go by a shop and go home with a +18 rated item. It's not the developer's fault, the people who sell these things to children are to be blamed I think. |
|
| #15 |
tek9.sCARFACEEe |
2008-01-10 20:21:37 |
|
Very nice article, kinda goes along the lines with my blog about the upcoming film documentary, Moral Kombat.
True points and good writing. |
|
| #16 |
 tek9.KNALLER |
2008-01-10 20:46:44 |
|
#3 +kudo |
|
| #17 |
tek9.nano |
2008-01-10 20:59:30 |
|
nice read |
|
| #18 |
lennox |
2008-01-10 21:10:00 |
|
i play cod, i'm a potential killer. |
|
| #19 |
etc.Adzmc |
2008-01-10 22:15:36 |
|
LOL who ever goes violent over a video games needs a slap and some help because its not hard to just believe its a game a made up game..People getting killed over idiots and retards fuck ups id love to meet this guy who killed this 14 year old i would kill him stupid prik... |
|
| #20 |
haya |
2008-01-10 22:42:06 |
|
If you are a complete retard, you will do that kind of stuff. If you are not 100% in your head that is ofcourse. If you are just a normal person, then you would know it's a bad thing to do that is killing people ofcourse.
If people watch saw like con says, it's much worse then playing a video game. That is giving like thoughts about how to kill someone in what way.
Anyways, just making a point here. That this is a bit bullshit. But a nice article to read. |
|
| #21 |
evan |
2008-01-12 03:45:21 |
|
I wrote something myself some time ago, on this very subject, but took a different stance rather than starting a debate.
I think it's very apparent, that a lot of people don't have much self restraint. There are lots of reasons for that so generalizing, selectively choosing, or applying stigma's isn't the way to get rid of the issue.
www.sk-gaming.com/file/5861 |
|
| #22 |
infused revoltz |
2008-01-12 04:07:56 |
|
nice read |
|
| #23 |
justlee |
2008-01-12 12:34:26 |
|
As terrible as these incidents are the media just like to jump on the bandwagon and blame computer games for insighting violence into youth. However, religion, something that does not receive as much clear-cut bad press causes far more damage to peoples lives (and yes i do know that religion helps some people) but in my opinion the bad that religion causes heavily outweighs the good, especially in todays society. |
|
| #24 |
zNETrndom |
2008-01-12 12:57:03 |
|
nice article |
|
| #25 |
 MiB'qbarca |
2008-01-13 01:35:54 |
|
games are bad |
|
| #26 |
 wannabe |
2008-01-17 19:46:11 |
|
well done Splatski nice read. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
» You can only post comments when you are logged in.
» Login or register here!
|
|
|
|
|
|
| IRC Newsbot