Rockstar game blamed for hammer murder

neXus9

Yeah the show was bits. It was crappy but I miss the girls.

The quiet girl was gorgeous!!

monument

neXus9 wrote:

Yeah the show was bits. It was crappy but I miss the girls.

The quiet girl was gorgeous!!

One of them now writes for the Guardian's Gamesblog...

http://gamire.com/gamire/newsitem?id=606

monument

pekelly wrote:

From mcv ....

Not sure how true this is...

p

apprently it is, plus a bit about drugs...

http://gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=pub&aid=3918

[CrimsonGhost]

Being a big fan of Rockstars other games, as soon as I heard about manhunt I determined to purchase it, without knowing anything else about the game. Between one thing and another I never got around to it, so when the game was being pulled from store shelves recently I nipped around to Xtra-vision and purchased a copy there. I wasn't going to go with out a game from one of my favourite game making houses.

So I bring it home and fire it up.

First things first, when I got the first kill in the game, I did it as viciously as possible, I was shocked, I just sat and stared at the screen for a minute or two trying to take in what I had just witnessed. It was vicious, violent, brutal, premeditated murder.

Anyway, I continued on through the game. I actually quite enjoy the stealthy game play. I'm still working my way through it.

Now, from the past Rockstar know that their games, when they get into the hands of minors can be detrimental. Case of boys in the US using a sniper rifle to shoot at cars on a highway, citing GTA as an influence. Rockstar, therefore, in my view, were extremely irresponsible in releasing this game. Knowing that while many people who play it will be unaffected to the detriment of others (you can't play this game and not be affected on some level by it's violence), there will be those who will play the game, most likely minors, and will take influence from it's contents.

If it weren't for my great love of the GTA series and my anticipation at the release of GTA:San Andreas, I think I would boycott Rockstar games.

And before you all start posting more about how you've played so many violent games and wouldn't hurt a fly, I don't want to know. That is fine, but there are always a few who can and will be influenced by violent content. And as such I feel Rockstar were very irresponsible in releasing a video game with such disturbed, violent content knowing full well that in all likelyhood it would makes its way into the hands of minors.
</end_rant>

Dont be at yourself

Why were Rockstar irresponsible?

Was it Rockstar who gave the game its 18 rating, allowing it be sold?
Was it Rockstar who sold the game to kids?
Was it Rockstar who allowed their kids to play such an unsuitable videogame?
Was it Rockstar who created an environment were sniper-rifles are finding their way into the hands of children?

The only thing Rockstar are guilty of, it seems to me, is developing adult games and marketing them to adults.

It's the government who allow these games on the shelves, it's the retailers who place them in the front of the shop beside the latest Harry Potter title, it's the parents who buy the games for their little darling, it's the parents who take no interest in finding out what their kids are consuming, it's the parents who leave guns, hammers, swords within the reach of children.

Rockstar can't, and shouldn't, be doing the jobs of the government, the retailers and the parents for them.

Cabaal

Properly already posted here, taken from slashdot

Thanks to Blue's News for covering the latest developments in a UK videogame violence story, in which the Rockstar North-created game Manhunt was very allegedly implicated in "a grisly murder" - it's revealed: "The game was present in the victim’s home, not the killer's...

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/04/0114206&tid=127&tid=123&tid=17

lee_baby_simms

its obvious that the game alone is not responsible for this,
poor parenting, disaffected youth, unchecked anger blah blah are inevitably the root of the problem BUT,

its easy to get rid of a game, not as easy to get rid of the parents. Although, a sniper rifle could...

Anyways, my real concern. Will this affect the release of San Andreas?

(new screenshot)
http://www.gtagaming.com/images/sanandreas/screenshots/roof.jpg

monument

Just making this clear...

- the police have said the game was found in the victim's room, not the murderer's room.

"The video game was not found in Warren LeBlanc's room, it was found in Stefan Pakeerah's room" spokesperson for Leicestershire Constabulary.

- police have said motive was ROBBERY

"Leicestershire Constabulary stands by its response that police investigations did not uncover any connections to the video game, the motive for the incident was robbery" spokesperson for Leicestershire Constabulary.

- DRUG 'angle' not showen in most of the media

"The tabloid press, in particular the extremist right-wing Daily Mail newspaper, have already been heavily criticised for ignoring the police reports and prosecution statements which gave the motive for the murder as robbery, with LeBlanc killing his younger friend in order to pay back a drugs-related debt. Few tabloid stories made any mention of the drugs angle."

http://gamesindustry.biz/

Deadwing

[CrimsonGhost] wrote:

Now, from the past Rockstar know that their games, when they get into the hands of minors can be detrimental. Case of boys in the US using a sniper rifle to shoot at cars on a highway, citing GTA as an influence. Rockstar, therefore, in my view, were extremely irresponsible in releasing this game. Knowing that while many people who play it will be unaffected to the detriment of others (you can't play this game and not be affected on some level by it's violence), there will be those who will play the game, most likely minors, and will take influence from it's contents.

So was quentin tarantino extremely irresponsible for releasing pulp fiction? knowing full well people would then try to ass rape other people while thier leather clad gimp looks on in amusement in a copy cay ass rape scene?
Ditto Stanley kubrick for filming the shining, because im sure hundreds of people then got jobs as caretakers in winter hotels and slaughtered thier families at the behest of supernatural ghosties in imitation.
Of course wasnt the parents fault tho, they werent highly irresponsible for letting an underage boy play an 18's game.
These parents fail to realise as budgets for games go up and up, the more the lines of movies and games are being blurred, and a game can have just as much emotional impact as any scene from a movie. But these daily mail reading tools still think games are all like pac man and mario, all happy crappy bullsh!t. Maybe if theyd done a decent job of parenting they wouldnt have raised such an obviously unbalanced child, because lets face it, any normal person who played manhunt (i did) might have been a little shocked at the level of violence, but it certainly didnt turn me or anyone i know into a homicidal maniac. These people have problems to begin with, and its only a matter of time before some moron kills someone and blames something else for his actions (ie john lennons killer blaming the catcher in the rye, charles manson blaming the beatles album helter skelter).
They all need a scapegoat, this time it happens to be videogames. But never ever point the finger at yourself and say 'hey, maybe it was MY fault i raised such a sh!t of a child'.

Retr0gamer

Read in a paper to day that washington snipers are now playing the blame videogames game. According to them they learned their sniping skills from the, eh, xbox 'sniping game' Ghost Recon.

Now maybe you could learn something from silent scope but using a joypad is a whole different ball game to using a rifle. Only the superhuman XXX was able to learn amazing shooting skills and 'heat seeking missile teleportation at just the right moment' skills from first person shooter games but i doubt anyone else can.

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

lee_baby_simms

This is slightly worrying for any GTA fans out there.

Heres an excerpt of the article:

GD: You are going to target Rockstar North?
Thompson: Not just Rockstar, another target will be Sony. The tie-in between Rockstar and Sony is rather firmly established.


GD: What is the ultimate goal here?
Thompson: To destroy Rockstar.


GD: What does that mean in terms of…
Thompson: (cutting in) So they don't exist anymore.


GD: How are you going to seek to do that?
Thompson: By taking all their money. It's very simple. You wipe someone out economically, they don't have any assets and therefore they cease to exist.


Full article:

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

RuggieBear

You see, this is the idiocy of Rockstar and many within the videogame industry. I warned them almost two years ago that if they didn't do more to keep these games out of the hands of minors, then there would be a push to ban the games all together

I particularly liked this quote by Thompson...How the hell can Rockstar keep the game from getting into the hands of kids??? Suprised they haven't gone ater drinks companies for their product being used by kiddies too...

evad_lhorg

What a crock of poop.

grumpytrousers

Another oxegen thieving lawyer out to make his name and grab a quick 15 mins of fame. RockStars raison d'etre has been to make almost a virtue of only putting out 'mature themed' games, and seems to actively seek the aul 18's badge on their product.

There's parallels with the Childs play movies ten years ago. James Bolger, aged 2 murdered in liverpool by two kids who'd seen the film.

Well - it was f***ing obvious that it was the movie what was to blame, screamed the usual suspects. Nothing about sound parenting, discipline etc. Nope - BLAME THE MOVIE. It's easier that way.

Further irony, of course, is that the young man who died in the 'Manhunt' episode was beaten and stabbed, yet I don't notice this lawyer doing much to, for instance, make sure that hammers and knives (not to mention the manufacturers of same) aren't driven out of business so as such products don't fall into the wrong hands...

Stephen

what a cum-guzzling stain on the arse of humanity that guy is.

Winters

It is once again the sad case where people immediatly blame it on other factors insted of their own stupididy and ignorance. It is obviously harder for people to see and agree that it is their fault if things like this happen. The refuse to acknoledge that it was their own stupididy in buying a mature rated game for a minor that was at fault and not the game itself.

You frequently see parents doing this, getting their children adult/mature rated videos/dvd's believeing that it cannot harm them. Then, when it does infact affect their childs behavour they blame the easy targets; the entertainment industry. They themselves refuse to accecpt any responsibility and that is the problem.

Once people outside of the entertainment industry recognise the fact that ratings are placed upon products for reasons and that they should be followed we wouldnt have as many problems.

Eitherway, America is usually to blame for this sort of crap.

grumpytrousers

Eitherway, America is usually to blame for this sort of crap.

Well - maybe that's a little bit OTT...I see where you're coming from, but to be honest, over this side of the pond, we're almost getting to that point as well. It would boil down to on the one hand peoples failure to take any responsibility for their own actions, such that when things go wrong, they look for somebody to sue. And then we complain about a nanny state, where the idea is to take some of the responsibility away, in that a lot of us, it would seem, can't be trusted!

This argument was had elsewhere about judges making ridiculous payouts, and I made the point that the 'blame' comes from people on the street who want to sue at the drop of a hat. I mean - to an extent the solicitor should tell such people to piss off, but he won't, cos if he doesn't take the gig, the bloke down the road will - i.e. the case will go ahead, but he won't get paid for it. Until people take responsibility - and not just our friends in Americay - for their actions, this kind of 'quick - blame the easiest target' will be prevalent

briano

Of course, it wasn't Warren LeBlanc who had "Manhunt" at all, it was the victim who played it. Might be a bit of a spanner in the works for Thompson.

Placebo

3 words that sum this up = F F S !!!!!!!!!!

its bloody 18's, kids are not supposed to have it. Hell lets rap them with air bags and ban Yougio (cant spell?) incase they get paper cuts by throwing cards at each other.

BKtje

Can you really see him winning?
I can't. Judges in general aint stupid.

There was no law preventing them from what they did and they did nothign illegal. Worst case scenario, is that Rockstar's current games are banned. Even thats being far fetched.

LegacyUser

I would not worry about it. It is not gonna happen. I am sure they have tried before...

Syth

briano wrote:

Of course, it wasn't Warren LeBlanc who had "Manhunt" at all, it was the victim who played it. Might be a bit of a spanner in the works for Thompson.

Really?! Any links?

B-K-DzR wrote:

Can you really see him winning?
I can't. Judges in general aint stupid.

It depends on the judge. I could see an old fashioned conservative judge who doesn't game leaning towards banning it.

grumpytrousers

I could see an old fashioned conservative judge who doesn't game...

Honestly - can you think of one old fashioned conservative judge who DOES game?

Dont be at yourself

Ridiculous. He's looking for a quick buck, and he's not going to find it.

lee_baby_simms

My main concern is the effect all this might have on the release of GTA San Andreas.

TheWolf

Syth wrote:

Really?! Any links?

Right here

briano

briano wrote:

Of course, it wasn't Warren LeBlanc who had "Manhunt" at all, it was the victim who played it. Might be a bit of a spanner in the works for Thompson.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3538066.stm

i'll need to be a little quicker in future!

TwoShedsJackson

lee_baby_simms wrote:

This is slightly worrying for any GTA fans out there.

No it isn't. It's another moron trying to make a name for himself, with no chance of success. Reminds me of the woman suing for $2 billion dollars for 'mental distress' after she saw Janet Jackson's nipple at the SuperBowl :rolleyes:

j0e9o

NekkidBibleMan wrote:

Ridiculous. He's looking for a quick buck, and he's not going to find it.

he might not find any money but if this case goes to court it will mean serious money on defense for rockstar taking money away from the games