Harlem Kid Killed While Playing Tony Hawk: Ride

[ShadowKirby]

Words...

And you tell us all that on the thread about a story where no one is blaming video game violence for what happened?

And seriously:

As I said before the last elections, as a gamer be careful who you vote for.

Do you really think that a politician's view on gaming is of the utmost importance? I mean shit, I'm a cinema studies student with an high interest in the ludic medium but damn, video games are pretty low on the list of things I want my politicians to care about.

 

[MurderousToaster]

Hooray, more ways to show that gamers are hellspawn and must be killed with fire.

If the grandfather thinks that people who play skateboarding games are violent, she probably also believes that people who actually skateboard (aside from being 11 years old and incredibly smug) are some sort of super murder machines.

 

[TxMxRonin]

How do they know he was killed because of the video game?

On a side note, I thought a kid was killed because of an incident like this:

 

[SextusMaximus]

That's awful. If you're going to kill someone, do it less close to Christmas - that's my motto.

 

[geldonyetich]

Man, that's a depressing picture. 9-year-old enjoying playing his Tony Hawk game, probably ecstatic his family even could even get it for him in this Harlem slum, and apparently gets into a fight over it with a 25-year-old family friend/cousin, a struggle ensues, and he's stabbed to death. Worse gaming session ever. I hope that guy gets life, not that it'll reverse the harm he's done.

 

[Lystic7]

"perhaps we have finally reached a point where the mainstream media resists the gratuitous potshot at our hobby."

EPIC FAIL!!!

Maybe the Mainstream media is over it, but apparently The Escapist Magazine has Zero problem "crafting" headlines to make us click on buttons.

Headlines says "Kid in Harlem killed while playing Tony Hawk: Ride"

But he wasn't, it just seems like a interesting headline to us gamers. And why mention he is from Harlem, it in no way matters to the story, except what? That Harlem is a bad place, or the surprise that minorities are playing skating game, no killing over skating games?

Whatever the writer was thinking, he twisted the horrific death of a 9 year old boy to get "ratings" a.k.a. web hits for his article.

Way to go

 

[Disaster Button]

Am I the only one who finds the irony in the fact a boy was killed by someone with the last name of morales? Anyone?

 

[Communist partisan]

Ohh god that's sick mabey beacose of that I think execution is the best way for murders and other criminals...

 

[Rickyvantof]

Tony Hawk always makes me want to kill people...

 

[wooty]

So its not just the violent games that turn people psycho, MW2 has been misjudged, killing people in an airport has nothing on pulling off the perfect kickflip to brainwash people.

 

[Branches]

Jsuemarie...This is insane. I mean, yeah I've wanted to smash my brother in another game for beating me in The Bigs, but come the hell on. you're gonna stab him because of it.

This is sad because the only way this could've happened is if the kid had been playing and the older brother asked to play like 100 times. There's not a damn defense in the world he could play to erase that fact.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Am I the only one who is vaguely disturbed by the general lack of empathy around here? I know this is the internet, but this is The Escapist, not 4 Chan, we used to be better than this.

 

[nathan-dts]

the Daily News declined to connect the game with the subsequent violent behavior.

Happy opposite day!

Well there isn't any connection at all between Ride and violence. Typically these stories are about GTA or Call of Duty and other violent games.

 

[nathan-dts]

Am I the only one who is vaguely disturbed by the general lack of empathy around here? I know this is the internet, but this is The Escapist, not 4 Chan, we used to be better than this.

Yeah but then the Yatzhee fans started registering and at the same time those people who post about 100 times a day showed up.

 

[ShadowKirby]

Hooray, more ways to show that gamers are hellspawn and must be killed with fire.

If the mother thinks that people who play skateboarding games are violent, she probably also believes that people who actually skateboard (aside from being 11 years old and incredibly smug) are some sort of super murder machines.

You didn't fucking read the article did you?
The mother said in the NYT article:

"Why would you kill my little boy?" she thundered in Spanish. "There is no reason."

and

"He was so popular in school," she said. "He was such a good boy. He didn't deserve this. He was too young."

Yes, she is obliviously blaming games on that one.

 

[microwaviblerabbit]

Okay, both Destructoid and Kotaku ran this story in the last 2 days and I rant about it there and you can be sure I will here.

Why the fuck is this posted here. A kid got killed over a stupid fight about a video game. Nobody here blamed the games. A grandfather that just lost his grandson who says "My grandson died over a video game" is no more blaming games than a guy saying "My bros. died over 20$" is blaming money.

Fox News or whoever else don't care! The only people with enough time to waste to talk about stuff like this and to go around screaming that the big bad media will talk against video games are the scared and self-victimizing gamers.

Do economic magazines or websites run a story each time someone is killed over money? No they don't. Guess what people? Not everyone is spending their days trying to link video games to violence. In fact, I bet gamers spend more time doing so than anyone else. Acting so defensive when no attack has been made just give the impression that there is something to hide.

I wait for the day every single gaming magazines stop chasing hits with that kind of story (or boobs, but that's not the Escapist's problem).

Amen Brother. I totally agree. The game really has nothing to do with the news story. In many ways stating that the media did not mention a link between video games and violence just continues the argument and legitimizes it as a debate.

However this knee jerk reaction seems weird from a magazine that ran excellent articles about inherent biases in games media. I feel this wasn't a piece of video game news at all.

 

[MurderousToaster]

Hooray, more ways to show that gamers are hellspawn and must be killed with fire.

If the mother thinks that people who play skateboarding games are violent, she probably also believes that people who actually skateboard (aside from being 11 years old and incredibly smug) are some sort of super murder machines.

You didn't fucking read the article did you?
The mother said in the NYT article:

"Why would you kill my little boy?" she thundered in Spanish. "There is no reason."

and

"He was so popular in school," she said. "He was such a good boy. He didn't deserve this. He was too young."

Yes, she is obliviously blaming games on that one.

Sorry, I made an error. I meant grandfather, not mother. You could have merely stated that I made an error rather than attempting to undermine my intelligence.

I shall change my post, if it bothers you so.

 

[ShadowKirby]

Sorry, I made an error. I meant grandfather, not mother. You could have merely stated that I made an error rather than attempting to undermine my intelligence.

I shall change my post, if it bothers you so.

Sorry if you thought that I was trying to undermine your intelligence. I was just assuming the worst; that you didn't read the article and just had an horrible knee jerk reaction.

That being said, the grandfather didn't put blame on the game either.

"Anthony was playing ... on PlayStation when his friend came and stabbed him," said the boy's distraught grandfather, Antonio Juela, 59. "My grandson died over a video game."

How is that blaming the game? He is just putting things in context. They were playing a game, got into an argument over it, and a bastard knifed an innocent kid. He is just pointing out how silly it is to get killed over a game.

To see this as some kind of a subtle way to attack games is just putting words in someone's mouth.