British Media Stops Claiming GTA Caused Riots (Sorta)

[Quietus Legion]

Whether or not the police-man is made up doesn't really matter, whoever thought up the words attributed to him is just stupid.
"When I was young it was all Pacman and board games. Now they're playing Grand Theft Auto and want to live it for themselves."
This 'policeman' played pacman when he was young, at yet he did not become a pill eating ghost hunter, he became a police officer, yet he seems to assume kids these days will be very different to him.

There is a small flaw in that statement: you can not seriously compare Packman and GTA. It is an entirely different thing for a teenager to be playing Packman than GTA. The main problem is that teenagers ARE playing GTA when they should not be.

With that said, it's still silly to blame video games directly. I can believe that games cause at least some sort of problems in children if they play games that they are NOT supposed to play (I'm referring to age restrictions). However this does not merit for blaming activities such as these to games, the blame falls in my opinion mainly on parents and partly on society.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

*Facepalm* Some people never learn...

 

[Vunts]

When I was young, I played Grand Theft Auto and multiple other fighting and killing games. Oddly enough, I haven't started or joined in any riot. Go figure.

Besides, Pacman is a damn violent game as well. Without any deeper meaning as to why he is eating the...things chasing him, after getting hopped up on some psychedelic substance that gives him more power, he just kills them. And they always come back as well. I think the "police officer" should be quite unstable mentally if he has been through this type of an experience.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Mark Twain was not Australian. :\

Nah, but Chopper Reed is. Yeah he wasn't the original quoter, but considering the circumstances of the topic, I'd say its a wee bit more relevant.

Whats amusing to me is that people still think that Fox subsidiaries (still) have any credibility. What with the phone hacking scandals they are going through.

 

[Macgyvercas]

I wonder if the Daily Fail knows that Rockstar has said "If you buy our games for your kids, you're a horrible parent"? Then again, it's not like they would care anyway...

 

[Nami nom noms]

What a shock! The Daily not-good-enough-to-be-used-to-wipe-my-arse-with blames videogames.

This is the, what... 8 millionth time?

 

[Regiment]

Why do people in news articles only want to live out their experiences playing GTA? You never hear about hordes of people taking up live-action roleplaying in the hopes of living out their Dragon Age experiences, or a sudden influx of new taxi drivers because of Crazy Taxi.

 

[Darmort]

Wait, the Daily Mail showed restraint?

Impressive.

Maybe next time they can tell the truth.

I mean I knew any children involved in the riots came down to shit parenting (Although there's no problem with buying a teenager GTA if you've done your job right) I never expected the Daily Mail to agree!

You're more likely to find the parents of the teenagers in the riots are helping in the riots themselves...

 

[qwagor]

Of course GTA get blamed... After all it was Take-Two Interactive who hired Max Clifford way back in '97 for specific purpose of creating controversy around first GTA... Why gamers feel the need to defend games, while publishers remain happily silent as bad media provides some free publicity (there's no such thing as bad publicity), is beyond me.

 

[Sovvolf]

Of course GTA get blamed... After all it was Take-Two Interactive who hired Max Clifford way back in '97 for specific purpose of creating controversy around first GTA... Why gamers feel the need to defend games, while publishers remain happily silent as bad media provides some free publicity (there's no such thing as bad publicity), is beyond me.

Its not really gamers defending games but gamers defending gamers. When the media starts pointing fingers towards video games and blaming them for the current violence, its pointing them square at gamers too, telling them that they are violent thugs.

 

[James Crook]

Okay it's clear in my mind that the only way videogames will ever stop being the scapegoat is the same way that rock n' roll, metal, rap music and horror movies did it - pass the blame to something new. With that in mind, I have a plan that will stop this once and for all.
Tomorrow, I will write an article entitled "The X Factor Caused London Riots" and if we all do the same, we'll have a new go-to source of pure unadulterated "youth corrupter".

I'd rather swap it with either "Glee" or "American Idol"...

 

[Heliosin]

Didn't anyone stop to think when they accused 'children' of being inspired by a decade old game? At least say GTA 4 or something! Geez!

 

[Suicidejim]

I was mildly concerned up until the point I saw that it was the Daily Mail, at which point everything made perfect sense.
Incidentally, whenever I've committed a crime on GTA and end up in a police chase, I usually do fine for a while, drive into a piece of scenery, catapult out the windshield, do about 4 mid-air flips, almost break my legs, get hit by a police car that was moving too fast to stop, do another aerial fandango, stumble to my feet, and then get gunned down by about 20 police officers with a mix of handguns, shotguns, etc. At no point has this ever made me think "I'm sure this would be AWESOME if I went out and did it in real life."

 

[Saelune]

Humanity can sink pretty low, but people prefer to be vile in their own ways. Some loot, some slander.

 

[Spoon E11]

This article is almost pointless. They are owned by the same company and both are conservative papers. One is free one is not. They are practically the same paper.

 

[Raithnor]

You'd think one of the best reasons to eliminate poverty might be: "Poor people dumped on enough tend to riot."

But I guess "Out of sight. Out of mind." and "I've got mine, EFFF everyone else."

Video games keep people in the house playing them, you morons.

If I ran the world Video games, Pot, and Booze would be cheap as hell to get.

 

[Danallighieri]

oh the daily fail, you never cease to shame yourself further

 

[Alon Shechter]

I actually think it's the fountain pens that caused it.
Look at them, just sitting there, all shiny and nibby...

 

[Mister Benoit]

I want to live Pac Man for realz.