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"Well, the inevitable headlines are flooding in..."

Another year, another knee-jerk reaction from the media. "Evil Game", and "Murder By Playstation" are two of the headlines I've seen this morning, on TV and in a paper (can you guess which one?) - both have given inaccurate descriptions of the plot and manner of the game. For crying out loud, when are these people going to realise that violence in computer games is nothing in comparison to the realistic violence we see portrayed on TV? Whilst you're banning violent games, you'll have to ban films, books, the Internet, television, news, the Armed Forces, etc. The psychologist ITV interviewed even said it takes someone who is already mentally unstable to react to these images. In the same newspaper were images of a burnt-out car used to kill 70+ Iraqis - can I acuse the Daily Mail of inciting someone to use a car bomb the next time it happens?

Ironically, it sickens and outrages me that we have to defend the industry we love, and part our culture, for no reason other than there are a few parents ignorantly lashing out at something they don't understand, and allowing themselves to be stage-managed by elements of the media who can turn it into an attention-grabbing money-spinner. Maybe it's the parents that should be persecuted for allowing their child access to material unsuitable for his age range? I'm sure they wouldn't buy him hardcore Dutch porn, so how does that differ to a computer game? Of course he nearly 18, and may have looked old enough to buy the game from a shop, but stay up after 9 and you're exposed to the same level of violence and swearing on TV, so the rating system is practically useless in this case.

One of the examples of hypocrisy being touted around today is that New Zealand banned the game. The same New Zealand that happily promotes itself as a tourist destination on the back of the violent hack 'n' slash Lord of the Rings movies. Enjoyable films, no doubt, but the amount of gruesome death on screen was surprising and graphic for the ratings they received.

But the most worrying aspect of this whole debacle, is how much control the media do have over the public. Not once in the Daily Mail article were there any official Police statements - it was all quotes from the parents, who are understandably upset and feel the urge to find someone, or something to blame for the loss of their son. Now in the next few days we're going to experience the fallout from a lazy example of sensationalist journalism. The fact that it took two people to write an article that covered less than a page, once pieced together from an overlap and a huge picture, shows just how little effort went into it.

Expect to see more of the outraged parents, outraged Government representatives, and celebrity TV-psychcologists, giving a one-sided view of this isolated incident in the next few weeks, until David Beckham get a new haircut. Rockstar have already expressed sadness and offered their condolences to the family, but removal of the game (or games of this nature - there are far worse games out there) should never be considered. They say we live in a 'nanny state', but maybe it's just us being a 'pushover nation'?

monkey_man wrote:
> And still they keep coming...
>
> [URL]http://www.threecircles.co.uk/images/idiotic_response.gif[/URL]

*shakes head*

Morons.

Nice to see the Daily Mail doesn't quite have the blind support it was probably hoping for [URL]http://chat.dailymail.co.uk/dailymail/threadnonInd.jsp?forum=105&thread=9649451&message=10520947[/URL]

There are one or two comments made by people who obviously have no idea about gaming, but on the whole it seems that there are just as much people miffed that gaming is being blamed than those who would willing excopt that it is.

And still they keep coming...

[URL]http://www.threecircles.co.uk/images/idiotic_response.gif[/URL]

Its a joke, the way they take something like a game as the easy way out. Instead of looking at the guys life and the things that turned him into a killer they say "Oh he played a violent game which you kill people in, must be the game that made him do it"

Funny how the other 1000's+ folk who own it have never went out and mashed someone to death in a freakish mannor.

There was a program on BBC scotland a while back which went into detail about how Vice City was to blame for some deaths in America, it just highlighted just how stupid some folk are.

From what I've played, it's not what a game should be about. Utterly shallow in substance - slow, repetitive, etc - with only the gimmick of frequent, increasingly disgusting murders to change the monotony.

Quite right, to be honest, the game looks pretty reprehensible from what I've seen and heard, although I haven't played it (along with everyone else who's written about it in today's papers). Something like GTA I can handle when you're rarely required to kill people unless you want to, but with Manhunt, it requires you to kill and gives you more points the more gruesome the death. Something I wouldn't be particularly comfortable with.

Still, speaking generally, the game's centered around stealthy and sickening murders. And considering how loose the age restriction laws are, and the strength of the GTA license, the 18 certificate will mean practically nothing, if we're being realistic.

So when given to an impressionable, possibly mentally unstable teenager, who obsesses over it - it may well be the trigger to violence. Obviously Rockstar can't be held responsible; it's at people's discretion how much they play, but if you weigh everything up, it's certainly possible that the game had a part to play.

Of course, it was an emotional accusation with nothing rock solid to back it up and once again looks like a scapegoat, but it's worth bearing in mind that the idea of video game related violence isn't as preposterous as we like to think.

Mav wrote:
> I think it's pretty foolish to say that the game wasn't responsible -
> it was, partially.

The only thing so far that links the game to the murder is that fact that he owned it and that the mother of the kid who was killed 'thinks she heard [the killer's] friends saying he was obsessed with it'. That's really as far as it goes.

It wasn't mentioned in the trial at all, only on the steps outside by the parents. It's just the media blowing all things out of proportion once more (convinently ignoring an Iraqi car bomb that killed 100 in the process).

I think it's pretty foolish to say that the game wasn't responsible - it was, partially. But to level the blame entirely on it is ridiculous, yet also nothing more than a passionate outburst from the upset public.

Hopefully less games like Manhunt will be made now anyway...

Banner from last year: [URL]http://www.alistairgray.co.uk/images/banners/manhunt.jpg[/URL]

How prophetic.