[ChrisJones]

Originally Posted by The Register

Lawyer vows to prove link between video games and murder
By Tony Smith
Published Friday 12th August 2005 11:08 GMT
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Outspoken attorney Jack Thompson has said he will win the civil case brought against the publisher of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and others by the families of policemen shot dead in Fayette, Alabama in 2003, allegedly by a youth obsessed with the video game.

A jury this week declared Devin Moore, 20, guilty of the murder of police officers Arnold Strickland and James Crump, and civilian police worker Leslie Mealer. Moore had pleaded not guilty by reason of mental defect.

Thompson represents the familes of the victims, who launched a civil action against GTA:VC publishser Take-Two Interactive, game retailers GameStop and Wal-mart, and PlayStation producer Sony in February this year.

After being arrested for the triple homicide, Moore was alleged to have said: "Life is a videogame. Everybody has to die some time."

Moore is known to have spent many hours playing GTA:VC, dubbed a "murder simulator" by Thompson.

"Moore rehearsed, hour after hour, the cop-killing scenarios in that hyper-violent video game," Thompson said. "The makers, distributors, and retailers of that murder simulator equipped Moore to kill as surely as if they had handed him the gun to do it.

"Blood is on the hands of men in certain corporate board rooms from Japan to New York."

In an email sent to The Register Thomspon said: "The video game defense was not used in [Moore's trial], as the defense counsel decided not to retain any expert witnesses on the issue.

"We have the experts, and we shall win our civil case on the issue."

Moore's prosecution, in part, relied on the failure of the defense to produce expert witnesses to back up their claim of diminished responsibility. "Did you hear any expert tell you anything about a video game contributing to these crimes?" Prosecutor Chris McCool asked the jury during his closing comments.

"Not a single one of the surviving family members is saying that Devin Moore is not responsible, in every sense, for what he did," said Thompson. "They would be the last ones to say that. What they are saying is that there is plenty of blame to go around, and some of it falls on Sony, Take-Two/Rockstar, Wal-Mart, and GameStop."

Miami-based Thompson has long been a vocal critic of video games that portray sex and violence. Most recently, he dubbed EA's Sim 2 game a "paedophile's paradise" because some characters take showers in the nude. While their privates are discreetly out of focus, Thompson claimed it was possible to hack the game to ensure the pixellated pudenda are clearly visible, and this it was possible to do so with child characters.

EA denied the allegation, stating the genitals are invisible, even if the blur is removed. LINK

I read this article this morning and it set me thinking (a dangerous prospect I know! ). I own the game this article mentions and it's equally controversial successor Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I've played both these games quite a lot and quite regularly and so far haven't felt the urge to go out and kill someone. Are video games the cause of real life violence? Or are people who blame video games just looking for an easy excuse for their actions?

[iltos]

Originally Posted by ChrisJones

I read this article this morning and it set me thinking (a dangerous prospect I know! ). I own the game this article mentions and it's equally controversial successor Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I've played both these games quite a lot and quite regularly and so far haven't felt the urge to go out and kill someone. Are video games the cause of real life violence? Or are people who blame video games just looking for an easy excuse for their actions?

looks like all of today's posts were lost in the crash

[Ghosts]

No its not all the video games fault but you get someone playing it who is/was raised in a bad environment or has a genetic disposition to violence or is just downright psycho and the video game can set them off

This is a short explanation of many

[Sarge]

If we begin blaming video games for murders than we must also take into account television, movies, music and the news.

[Guyzer]

Originally Posted by Sarge

If we begin blaming video games for murders than we must also take into account television, movies, music and the news.

And of course for us babyboomers we can't forget to blame all the "war" games and cowboys and indians we used to play as a kid. You knew you were somebody when you owned one of those spring loaded machine guns.

[N E Key]

If it wasn't video games, it would be the voices from the picture hanging on the wall. We live in a blameless society, where no one takes responsibility for their own actions.

[teengeekgrrl]

Crap, I lost my post here? Oh well. I don't quite remember what it was anyway...

[Alan18]

How about making this a poll?

[Ciberblade]

Originally Posted by Alan18

How about making this a poll?

So we can all see our position on the pole?

[Ghosts]

Yea your right though society as a whole is responsible in a respect

[Alan18]

Originally Posted by Ciberblade

So we can all see our position on the pole?

You an I both know there are people waaay to lazy to post an opinion, so, when they see a poll they just go 'click' done.....

[Ciberblade]

Originally Posted by Alan18

You an I both know there are people waaay to lazy to post an opinion, so, when they see a poll they just go 'click' done.....

Ohh come on!

[Alan18]

You KNOW it's true.
Admit it.

[Big-K]

Never believe ANYTHING Jack Thompson says, he's a well known idiot.

http://vgcats.com/jack.php
http://gr.bolt.com/articles/jack/jack.htm

Read both all the way through.

[Ciberblade]

Originally Posted by Ciberblade

So we can all see our position on the pole?

Pole Position...videogames...goodness!