***Thailand Halts Grand Theft Auto Sales After Murder***

Luke · 08-07-2008, 09:59 AM

Thailand Halts Grand Theft Auto Sales After Murder

Quote:

By NOPPORN WONG-ANAN
August 5, 2008

A Thai video game distributor halted sales of "Grand Theft Auto" on Monday after a teenager confessed to robbing and murdering a taxi driver while trying to recreate a scene from the controversial game. "We are sending out requests today to outlets and shops to pull the games off their shelves and we will replace them with other games," Sakchai Chotikachinda, sales and marketing director of New Era Interactive Media, told Reuters. "We are also urging video game arcades to pull the games from service," Sakchai said. An 18-year-old high school student, now in custody pending further investigations and a trial, faces death by lethal injdeo games, and urged parents to pay closer attention to what their children played. "This time-bomb has already exploded and the situation could get worse," Ladda Thangsupachai, director of the ministry's Cultural Surveillance Centre, told Reuters. "Today it is a cab driver, but tomorrow it could be a video game shop owner." The ministry has been pushing for tougher regulation of video games such as Grand Theft Auto, including the imposition of a rating system on sales and restriction on hours that youngsters can play the games in public arcades. A multi-million dollar lawsuit was filed in the U.S. state of Alabama against the makers and marketers of Grand Theft Auto in 2005, claiming that months of playing the game led a teenager to kill two police officers and a 911 dispatcher. The blockbuster Grand Theft Auto games are published by Nasdaq-listed Take-Two Interactive Software.

source : google news.

Ahh ****, it's happening all over again.

vernong1992 · 08-07-2008, 10:33 AM

Not again...

Luke · 08-07-2008, 10:42 AM

idiots like this who are to mentally unstable to play games like gta ruin gaming for the rest of us.

Akubane · 08-07-2008, 03:45 PM

bleh this is gonna cause some trouble. I hate the human race.

Luke · 08-07-2008, 03:56 PM

^yeah, like why the **** would someone do that because they played a game, it's completely ridicules.

But i guess it isn't as bad as the first murders that happended because of gta (he killed 2 police men a a dispatch)

Saxon · 08-07-2008, 04:23 PM

I dont game much any more an there is only two games I play regularly but I feel sorry for the people who game ALOT! this is the type of crap that effects the 99.99999% of the gamers that play a game an know its a game. There is a small percentile of people out there with mental health issues who can't see the differance, it's people in the media who catch wind of this an blows it out of proportion. Then we end up with over zellous censorship that leads to piracy to get hold of a game (I will site this will happen with Fallout 3 in austrailia), looking at the way that the media today will go for the blood an guts story will blow this up to "Teen kills after game told him to" when the real title should be "Mentaly ill teen kills man"

There has always been violent crime there will always be violent crime, dare i say son of sam any one? Can i say Zodiac killer, Moores murderers any one? all happend before computer games it's just that now the relegious right an the parronoid perants now have a easy target that comes in a nice digital form. I can rember when there was a news story (an i use the term stoy very loosely as you would use the word book lightly for somthing like the Davinchi code) saying that the internet will lead to more sexual violence an more murders because of the ease of access to information, has that happend? nope it's just the two groups i have used in this paragraph are mostly of a age where technology is all around them but they have no idea how to use it let alone understand it & the media is more an more going to shock value for your daily news fix.

There it might have offended some (not my intention) an i am sorry if i have, an I hope i made my point. It's lack of education an lack of understanding an good and acurate news reporting that will lead us into a new age of censorship.

Luke · 08-07-2008, 04:28 PM

^exactly

Jorsoft · 08-07-2008, 04:51 PM

Ah Good post, Saxon Says it all.

atomic tofu · 08-07-2008, 05:48 PM

I agree to blocking the game...why? Cuz only real losers like that type of game...who hates me? hehe

seriously, no game or movie in fact, needs to have any of that type of stuff content.

Even if it did have that content, which would be ok, don't glorify it.

In the end, I think I just disagree 100% to any media format that glorifies delinquent behaviour.

Not sure where who here believes in what...etc etc...but I hope you guys could see there is a difference. There will always be negative people in the world, and we can let the news report them, the jails keep records of them, and the counties provide us with access to those reports. We may hear of heinous things...but when a game, movie, or reading medium glorifies beating people, stealing, murder, rape, etc etc...it just doesn't have any place, and we should ALL stand up to shut it down.

I am not too sure, but I think all those high school shootings we have in the US developed after all these violent video games came about, and it was just because it was conveying to the weakminded, that performing such acts is manly and cool.

People are swayed, some easily swayed, others not so, that is why advertising works...everyone has to work together to make it a better world, and we shouldn't pardon some entertainment company and give them some free pass in the name of "freedom of speech".

I know I don't have any definitive answers...but just my thoughts

Keyboard Cowboy · 08-07-2008, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atomic tofu

I agree to blocking the game...why? Cuz only real losers like that type of game...who hates me? hehe

seriously, no game or movie in fact, needs to have any of that type of stuff content.

Even if it did have that content, which would be ok, don't glorify it.

In the end, I think I just disagree 100% to any media format that glorifies delinquent behaviour.

MY GOD! Finally some one that feels the same way about GTA the Series that I do. What you highlighted up there is the same reason why I don't play GTA too.

Mind you, I am not going to blame rockstar the murder. If some one can not tell the difference between a game and reality, than that if your own fault, and not of the dev.

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