Thailand pulls Grand Theft Auto from shops after murder |
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Some disturbing video game-related news comes to us today from Thailand. New Era Interactive Media, the distributor of the Grand Theft Auto games in Thailand, has opted to pull GTA from store shelves after a teenager confessed to robbing and killing a taxi driver while trying to recreate a scene from the game series.Said New Era Interactive Media sales and marketing director Sakchai Chotikachinda,
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. We are also urging video game arcades to pull the games from service.
We'll take this next bit straight from the Reuters report, seeing as it really caught our attention:
"He said he wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game," chief police investigator Veeravit Pipattanasak told Reuters.
Newspapers are reporting that the teen wasn't planning to stab the driver, but did so when the taxi driver tried to retaliate. He was arrested on late Saturday when he was found trying to drive the car backwards out of a Bangkok street. The wounded driver was in the back seat.
According to the report, the police said the youth showed no sign of mental problems during questioning and confessed to committing the crime because of the game. The youth in question faces possible death by lethal injection should he be found guilty of the crime.
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Via Reuters
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Comments [refresh]
and im at 95%.
Thank god they took that awful murder simulator off the streets!
I love simulating murders.
GG Thailand. Jack Thompson has to be getting the biggest boner in his entire life from this.
"According to the report, the police said the youth showed no sign of mental problems during questioning and confessed to committing the crime because of the game."
Really? Now this is just my personal and highly un-professional opinion since I am neither a police officer or a psychologist, but the very fact that someone claims they committed a crime because they saw it on TV or saw it in a video game would be a clear indication of mental problems. Wanting to do something just to know what it is like without any regard for the well being of other people I believe is one of the textbook signs of a sociopath.
Glad I live in a democratic society called Canada. We'd put a foot in our governments ass if they tried to ban a game over a psycho's mental issues.
I honestly do feel bad for that Cab driver and the family that he was supporting though. There are some seriousley mashed up people out there.
this guy was probably just using the game as an excuse. he probably thought that by saying the game made him do it, they would focus their attention to how 'bad' the game is instead of the fact that he stabbed some guy and stole his car.
This is a flag that is waved to us all. Gamers and lawmakers alike.
There we have it! A murder influenced by a game. We now have to ask ourselves this.... Are games for everyone?
We have heard of movies influencing murders (such as Natural Born Killers) and those who "copycat" murderers.
It can lead to one of two outcomes. We see a strict censorship code passed (as with the Comics Code Authority). Or we see the final push to Adults Only distributed games...... say hello to the adult book stores guys.
Jack Thompson is hardly an issue any longer.... He has a big battle ahead to pursue ANY cases. Even then he has taken all his credibility and flushed it down the toilet.
But the question remains...... Grand Theft Auto has never once had a part nor option to rob a cab driver.
GTA has been under fire for many things. Drinking and driving, soliciting prostitution, robbing stores and murdering people. What people fail to mention or come to terms with is one thing...... even in the games, there are consequences to said actions. the only difference is that life doesn't respawn .
It's not a mater of what games are making people do. It's a mater of determining what is right and wrong. As well as what is real and what is clearly meant to be kept on the screen.
I agree with you. Seriously, think of how many people have blamed Grand Theft Auto for whatever crimes they've committed. I mean, for using a video game as an excuse, it seems to happen fairly often compared to other reasons for such acts.
your forgetting this
"the youth showed no sign of mental problems during"
the teen went ***** i better make up some craic ass story so ill be seen as mental, and getaway with it
the teen played the get out of lethal injection free card, by mentioning gta
Very nicely said. It's stuff like what you typed that should be shown to those who are trying to get rid of videogames such as GTA. It's a great game, but there are many people that must realize, as you said, "what is clearly meant to be kept on the screen."
Thank you.
I usually try to maintain a neutral lane of thought when it comes to "a battle of positions". With gaming it has come very close to home.
I come from a very competitive family and gaming has been a great utility to bring my brothers, mother and father closer together. not out of competition but out of cooperative gaming as well. I even have my old coleco vision.
We had a big fiasco when mortal had hit and we almost became divided .... over a game.... when it comes down to comprehension and reasoning. These are 2 things that we are supposed to use in every day life.
I just hate seeing such a great creative medium go through such a (dare I say it) witch hunt. But this also happened with comic books when a 9 year old boy died ... trying to fly like superman.
I can completely understand the position that people are in .... with having too much a life to converse with children and properly bring them up....
but it all come down to the fact that many people slap kids in front of a screen and use that as a babysitter.... as opposed to using that time to create a moral foundation.
You cannot use someone's imagination to raise a child. Right and wrong is something that has a gray area when it comes to entertainment.
I dont blame media for anything except following this as if it was the game that made someone decide to pull the trigger.
He knew what he was doing and I think the "game theory" was pulled out his ass as an excuse to get a good lawyer and media attention.
Well said. I thought I was the only one that had this theory.
I was playing Grand Theft Auto and I wanted to know if the way the people's head's explode was accurate to really blowing someones head off. I think i'll just go do that and not worry about consequences.
I mean.. a pixelated polygon did it and was just fine.
Yeah, he could be playing the violence in video games card for just that reason, but the whole thing is sociopathic. Normal sane individuals don't go around murdering real people except possibly in self defense.
The fine line, at least as far as I understand of the US legal system, is whether the defendant is competent to stand trial and is aware that the crimes allegedly committed are bad.
I watch too much Law and Order...
It was not the government that pulled the game, it was the game's local distributor.
I feel bad for Take 2 and everyone associated with Grand Theft Auto. It's turned from being an interesting new view on gaming into the scapegoat of every single psychotic moron who decides to shoot up (insert location here). People need to give this company a break. If a kid shoots up someplace and is dumb enough to blame it on grand theft auto in all seriousness, then that person obviously wasn't MATURE enough to buy the game. Seriously the little subtitle to the letter for video game warnings which usually indicates age (M=17+), should be changed to the likes of like E(anyone),T(not offended by swearing or characters with boobs),M(not a retard, or someone mentally instable or offended by strong language or nudity). We need to get more intelligent judges if they're actually believing kids about this. And the parents are the worse because they believe this trash and prevent perfectly fine kids who would play the game for enjoyment from being able to get a hold of it. Fact is, if a parent is dumb enough to buy a game like GTA for a child that is obviously immature and this sort of thing happens, the parent should be punished as well.
Thailand IS a democracy dumbass
Best damn comment!
It's kind of a half a55ed version of democracy if you ask me. It's still men over women and routine over society. It's semi-democratic.
he should've just pulled out his cell phone and done the cheat to get the cops off him.. duh
this boy is so clever...he knew what to say to make him self look innocent ..after seeing (ow i killed because of a video game) thing..and that people really believe that ..he knew that this was his last resort ...
um...not really. have you ever been there? I have and I've never seen anything different about it than a normal democracy.
This shouldn't matter much, RockStar just has to find a new distributer for Thailand.
I could care less about GTA, I mean as an old gamer (not old but like gaming since the SNES) I can say GTA4 was very dissappointing, it felt inferior to GTA SA in many aspects. For me this game should be pulled off, not only becuz of this, but becuz the game is full of AIDS.
"I could care less about GTA,"
Sooo you like it, or is that the american way of saying you couldn't care less??