GTA on 60 minutes

[Bob The Mercenary]

No matter how realistic a FPS you play, you will never be able to aim and fire a gun properly without actual experience with a firearm. First-person shooters supply you with a joystick and a targeting reticle. At firing ranges you use your hands and one or two sites on the gun. Plus, you can alter the sensitivity of your turns on the x-axis in some games, something completely unrealistic.

[Viktor Von Russia]

Originally Posted by Sandrock

I would feel that video games such as GTA "could" effect some kids. Mostly like really heavy LD ones and the dummys you can trick [such as Fighter.]

It might be able to affect some people, sure. But you can't say the people who made the game are responsible for the actions of the players. To put this into perspective, imagine if someone sued MLB after some kid killed someone with a baseball bat. After all, baseball taught him how to swing the bat, right?

[h4x.m4g3]

Or for another example, how bout we sue the WWE everytime someone gets injured when attempting to imitate a wrestling maneuver, or even a more realistic law suit ow bout we sue a dojo everytime one of its pupils injures or kills someone else using the techniques taught to him.

I really wish I had seen this episode if anyone could give me a synopsis it would be appreciated. But I have a few questions.

1. How did he get his gun, assuming he was originally armed here.
2. I know its been said before, but how do you disarm two police officers AND escape in their car? This leaves me to two possible conclusions.
a. The cops are REALLY REALLLY badly trained or
b. This kid had more than just a video game teaching him. Video games don't teach you how to aim, load, reload, turn off the safety, or disarm a gun. Real weapons don't have a reaload button, and a joy stick to target with.

[Patrat]

1. Grabbed it from the policeman's holster.
2 Shoot them and anyone around in the <bleep> HEAD!
3. You dont need trianing on how to aim at point blank range.
4. The game was EXACTLY replicated on the show. They didn't even have to shoot a reinactement, they just took it from game play. And i haven't even touched a gun, yet EVEN i know how to reload one! The kid spent hours each day playing this waste of a game. Your attitude towards this offends me most most likley others.Don't to blame police triaing on a stupid <bleep> HEAD'S idiocracy. There is no way that they could have known or had time to think that the kid had reinacted this with a game.
However. The part i find is equally Agravating is that the people are suiing, wal-mart, sony, gamestores that sold it, and many many more. Does anyone know hy exactly they are suing them? Becuase how much money can people get from this kid and his family? Chances are not much. SO LETS SUE THE PEOPLE WITH MONEY, BECUEASE WE'RE ALL GREEDY <bleep> HEADS! In all i think that this Whole thing is one more reason i find that society in general are just pricks. *checks off another reason*

[Viktor Von Russia]

Originally Posted by h4x.m4g3

Or for another example, how bout we sue the WWE everytime someone gets injured when attempting to imitate a wrestling maneuver

If Mick Foley's books are any indication, people love doing just that.

And Patrat, man, calm down. I'm sure he didn't mean to imply that the officers deserved to die or anything. You have to keep in mind that he didn't see that particular episode (neither did I for that matter). So not everyone knows the facts, and someone's bound to say something that seems ignorant in context of the report. Try to bear with us. And if you could, please don't second guess people by saying that what they have to say is "pointless and idiotic."

[death raven]

only a retard whould do a murder they did on a vid game and thoes are people that need constant supervision and shouldn't be playing thoes type of games in the first place

[h4x.m4g3]

As Viktor said Patrat, i hadn't seen the episode so I was wondering how the kid actually did it. I mean aren't police officers suppose to keep their guns saftied in the hip holster. What I was trying to point out was that the kid had some kind of experience with a gun this obvious wasn't some random spur of the moment thing, he had planned and probably trained for it.

Under the circumstances I can't blame the officers, but considering their blaming it on GTA:3 I was thinking that the kid ACTUALLY DID SOMETHING FROM THE GAME. You know just walk up with a pistol and start shooting these two armed officers. I mean even after playing and beating GTA:3 several times I never found the button that takes the gun out of an officer's holster. Only way I found to get a gun was buy it, or punch someone in the face till he dies and take it off his corpse.

Viktor what I was trying to point out is that there are alot of different entertainment medias that show how to injure and kill people. We can't just blame every show/game/movie etc when someone imitates them. I mean I didn't go off shooting people after seeing Rambo, or try to box everyone I meta after seeing Rocky 1-1 billion.

[Kuja]

CLEARING UP A MISCONCEPTION:

It was three officers. The kid was getting booked, and wasn't handcuffed. With the cop off guard, he swiped the officer's pistol, plugged him, plugged the other two cops, and then made his getaway.

Originally Posted by Bob the Mercenary

No matter how realistic a FPS you play, you will never be able to aim and fire a gun properly without actual experience with a firearm. First-person shooters supply you with a joystick and a targeting reticle. At firing ranges you use your hands and one or two sites on the gun. Plus, you can alter the sensitivity of your turns on the x-axis in some games, something completely unrealistic.

Very true. Real guns are at the very least, not light. Most people can't work a gun properly their first time around one. They'll close their eyes and look away when they fire, even drop the gun. There's no way somebody plugs someone else, even a cop at point black range unless they've already had some experience, or they're just that twisted and morbid.

We actually discussed this topic at another forum I attend, but it wasn't about the 60 minutes bit, it was about an article about how this lawyer, in response to this incident, was going to sue Take Two, Rockstar, Wal-Mart, Gamestop, and SCEA.

Originally Posted by Tor Thorsen -- GameSpot

Grand Theft Auto sparks another lawsuit

Rockstar parent Take-Two Interactive, Sony, Wal-Mart, and GameStop are blamed for the murder of three policemen by a teenage car thief.
Just when the furor over Grand Theft Auto: Vice City's "Kill all the Haitians!" level had finally died down, the game sparked another lawsuit. Along with its predecessor Grand Theft Auto III, the crime-action game is being blamed for inspiring the triple murder of three Fayette, Alabama, police officers.

Devin Thompson, 18, is accused of the slayings, which occurred after he was arrested in 2003 for suspicion of the crime of grand theft auto. According to the Associated Press, when he was caught, Thompson said, "Life is a video game. You've got to die sometime." While being booked at the station, he allegedly grabbed a police officer's pistol and then shot its owner and two other officers in the head--all three died. Thompson is then said to have driven off in a stolen police car, but was later apprehended. He is currently being charged with three counts of first-degree murder, and is set to go to trial on July 11.

Two of the victims' next-of-kin have filed a lawsuit accusing the two GTA games as having "trained and motivated" Thompson to commit his crimes. Besides Take-Two, the other defendants named in the near-60-page, $600 million suit are Wal-Mart and GameStop, where Thompson is said to have bought both M-rated games while under the ESRB-mandated 17-year-old purchase age. Sony Computer Entertainment America, makers of Thompson's PlayStation 2 console, is also named in the legal filing.

"I don't want another family to go through what our family has been through the past few years. It's about saving lives," said plaintiff Steve Strickland, a brother of one of the victims. The plaintiffs' attorney is none other than Jack Thompson, the Miami-based lawyer who has waged a one-man crusade "over the past twelve years in a national effort to hold accountable the entertainment industry for the harm it does to our children," according to his Web site, Stopkill.com.

After targeting gangsta rap's violent lyrics in the early 1990s, Thompson has spent the last half-decade railing against the perils of violent video games, which he refers to as "murder simulators." While speaking to the local NBC affiliate, Thompson said "[the game] industry has targeted, with the most popular and violent game in history, every police officer in America and put a bull's eye on their back." To back up his claims, Thompson cites studies at Harvard University and the University of Indiana that he asserts "prove that adolescents' brain functions are damaged by a steady diet of violent images."

For its part, Take-Two was conciliatory to the victims' relations, saying, "We would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the families of the officers killed." However, it gave no ground to the plaintiffs' attorney. "With regard to Mr. [Jack] Thompson, unfortunately he has a habit of doing this kind of thing often. No court has yet to take his legal claims seriously. The suggestion that there is a link between the use and sales of Grand Theft Auto and this tragic incident is utter nonsense. Anyone suggesting that such a link does exist is either misguided, misrepresenting the facts, or both."

I've got an idea. Why don't we sue Hollywood for inventing violent movies like Scarface and then sue the crap out of the government for inciting violence around the globe?

Hell, if this thing wins, it's got a pretty strong precedent.

[Sandrock]

Originally Posted by Viktor Von Russia

It might be able to affect some people, sure. But you can't say the people who made the game are responsible for the actions of the players. To put this into perspective, imagine if someone sued MLB after some kid killed someone with a baseball bat. After all, baseball taught him how to swing the bat, right?

Nope you cant like the little kids thinking "Woot Im super man" is the faimly of the writer of super man gonna get sued or who owns him now? Ya know its not fair that way.

[shiney]

THis is no different from any case of people trying to shift the blame. It could be said that it gave him the idea, but there have been countless cases of people getting murder ideas from other sources.

It's not about that he killed the guys, they don't care. They just want to push their propaganda on everyone. Shift the blame. The kid used an obvious line to shift the focus off himself, I bet he knew what he was doing when he said that. There isno easier way to slide out of the limelight than to shift the focus to something volatile like the idiotic crusade against video games.