"Grand Theft Auto" makers sued for 100million

[Cock Puncher]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world...sp?story=444500


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'Grand Theft Auto' makers sued over teenage killing
By Maxine Frith Social Affairs Correspondent
18 September 2003


The makers of the bestselling video game Grand Theft Auto are being sued for more than £60m after two teenagers said they were copying its violent scenes when they killed a man.

The court case could help to decide the debate over whether violent video and computer games cause aggression in children. Grand Theft Auto and its three sequels are designed in Britain and have topped the UK and US games charts, selling more than 20 million copies in the past five years. The player acts the role of a street thug with 40 different weapons.

Points, ammunition and more weapons are awarded for completing missions that include stealing cars, crashing them, shooting pedestrians and other motorists, drug dealing and beating up prostitutes. The fourth in the series, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, quickly became the bestselling video game in history when it was launched last year, with 250,000 copies sold in the first two days.

The $100m legal action involves Joshua Buckner, 14, and his stepbrother William, 16, from Newport, Tennessee, who shot dead Aaron Hamel, 45, and seriously injured Kimberly Bede, 19, on 25 June.

The two boys told police they shot at vehicles on a highway near their home with a .22 rifle in an attempt to recreate images from Grand Theft Auto. Mr Hamel, a nurse, was killed while driving home to Knoxville, Tennessee. Miss Bede, who was travelling in another car with her boyfriend, was seriously injured and has eight fragments of shrapnel in her pelvis.

The Buckner brothers had no criminal record or any history of trouble-making. In court last month, they pleaded guilty to reckless homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. They were sentenced to indefinite detention. District Attorney General Al Schmutzer told the court: "They said they got the idea from a video game called Grand Theft Auto and that they were bored, that they went out and began shooting."

In a letter to victims and their families, Joshua said: "I did not mean to hurt anyone. I hate that it happened. This will stick with me for the rest of my life."

Miss Bede and the family of Aaron Hamel plan to sue Take-Two Interactive Software, which publishes Grand Theft Auto, for liability in a wrongful death lawsuit. Take-Two owns Rockstar Games, which is based in Edinburgh and designed the first version of the game in 1997. Sony will also be named in the lawsuit, because Grand Theft Auto was made exclusively for its Play- Station consoles. Sony declined to comment on the case.

Jack Thompson, the lawyer representing the families, said the court case could be the first to rule on whether watching and playing violent video games caused excess aggression in children. He said: "We are going to show that this game did influence these boys and cause them to go out and shoot at these people.

"There has been a wealth of research to show that children's brains process these video games in a different way from adults'. They cannot differentiate between fantasy and reality, so they play these games and then think if they do the same thing in reality, it's OK, there will be no consequences."

Referring to The Manchurian Candidate, a 1962 film in which American soldiers are brainwashed into becoming fighting machines in the Korean war, Mr Thompson said: "We have got a nation of Manchurian Candidates who are training on these video games." Mr Thompson plans to call American defence ministry officials to give evidence on how they have employed video-game designers to help to train soldiers.

One company, Pandemic Games, is selling a game to the public that was designed to train infantry troops in urban combat. Players use "real weaponry and equipment currently in use by the US Army".

Mr Thompson claims that this shows video games "desensitise" people, particularly children, to violence. He will also point to the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado in 1999, when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot 13 people dead. Both boys were fans of the video game Doom, which has been used to train US soldiers in lethal combat.

Claims of a link between video games and real violence have always been highly controversial, with manufacturers pointing out that millions of people enjoy playing the games but do not show any aggression. There are also arguments over whether aggression is innate, or learnt, and whether people who are naturally more aggressive are more likely to play violent video games.

But recent research has tended to back the argument that games can increase the risk of some young men committing acts of aggression.

A study by Iowa State University showed last year that even brief exposure to violent video games could temporarily increase aggressive behaviour in all types of people. Another study found that people who had played violent video games were more likely to have aggressive attitudes.

Craig Anderson, who led the studies, said: "The active nature of the learning environment of the video game suggests this medium is potentially more dangerous than television and movie media. With the recent trend toward greater realism and more graphic violence in video games, consumers and parents of consumers should be aware of these potential risks."

Grand Theft Auto has an 18 certificate in Britain but is popular with much younger teenagers, especially boys.

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What ever happened to accepting personal responsibility for your actions?? this is just fucking sick...

[Leo]

Just to prove a point, I think I'm gonna fly an airplane into a sky scraper and blame CNN for broadcasting the 9/11 images over and over.

[Element4040]

Take Two Interactive should turn around and sue the parent's for wasting their time. The game is rated Mature which carries an over 17 label. The kids shouldn't have been playing the game in the first place, great parenting

[Clover]

This is the kind of crap that drives me nuts.

People don't know how to think for themselves anymore? What happened to critical thinking? Oh, thats right, they quit teaching that a long time ago, now its just do what everyone else it doing.

If anyone in this lawsuit should be sued, it should be the parents for not following the ratings and just buying the game for the 14 and 16 year old when they were clearly marked that it is not for people of that age.

Since the company was following the law, gave the game the rating that the children should not be playing that game, then they should not be held liable because the parents chose to ignore that. The parents should be held liable for what their children are doing.


people have gotten so damn stupid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Adam D]

Personally, I like Leo's idea.

*grabs old skool flight cap and heads to DFW Airport*

While I am certainly against this lawsuit, I do believe there should be a balance whereby people are held accountable for purposely promoting harmful items to especially sensitive individuals. I'm not suggesting this was done in this case specifically, but in the gamut of lawsuits going on these days, some involve businesses doing everything they can to encourage people to inflict damage on themselves. Do we have will power? Yes. Should companies be held accountable when they intentionally attempt to undermine that will power and seek to harm consumers? Yeppers.

Accountability and responsibility for all parties.

[Adam D]

Originally posted by hyoomen
While I am certainly against this lawsuit, I do believe there should be a balance whereby people are held accountable for purposely promoting harmful items to especially sensitive individuals. I'm not suggesting this was done in this case specifically, but in the gamut of lawsuits going on these days, some involve businesses doing everything they can to encourage people to inflict damage on themselves. Do we have will power? Yes. Should companies be held accountable when they intentionally attempt to undermine that will power and seek to harm consumers? Yeppers.

Accountability and responsibility for all parties.

I've played lots of those games before, and never once did they entice me to do anything stupid like this. Rather, I found them to be great outlets for frustration.

i wonder what video games Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Dr. Mengele, Kaiser Bill, Sadam Hussein, and Bin Laden played.

[knucklehead]

I play Vice City everyday and it has influenced me in a very bad way. Just this afternoon, I blew off two peoples heads, started getting chased by the cops so I made a tank drop out of the sky and ran around in that until the FBI started chasing me. Then I hopped out of the tank, blew all the FBI agents away with a chain gun and then stole their black suburban and drove it into the ocean and delighted in the fact that the wheels shifted sideways and I could just keep right on driving on that water. Yup, that Vice City is really making me do some crazy stuff.

Do the geniuses that blame these games for violence ever read any Edgar Allen Poe? Violence in entertainment is nothing new. I suppose if GTA hadn't been around those teenagers would be petting kitty-cats, handing out flowers, and dancing with butterflies. Now that's a purdy picture.

[Whiteboytrashy]

you get three stars in real life and your stolen sportster goes in to flames

By the same logic of blaming video games for the actions of people...... I guess the encapsulate designer drug trend was started by who else but Pac Man? Did the inventors of the star wars program play Galaga? Donkey Kong started Keg Parties?

[Cock Puncher]

makes me wonder is anyone will copy Postal 2 and stick a gun up a cat's ass to shoot through it using it as a scilencer

[Cock Puncher]

Originally posted by WarLord
That you know this is frightening.

That you're waiting to see if it happens is horrifying.

But, that you haven't DONE it yet is........surprising.

my car won't sit still long enough

[[aNNa]]

Originally posted by damn-it-2-hell
What ever happened to accepting personal responsibility for your actions?? this is just fucking sick...

exactly.
saying "the video game made me do it"
is weak.

the makers of the video game should not
be held responsible for the irresponisiblity
of two teenagers. they know the difference
between right and wrong. they SHOULD
at their age.

Originally posted by damn-it-2-hell
In a letter to victims and their families, Joshua said:"I did not mean to hurt anyone. [...]"

that's laughable.

ok. i need to amend my previous statement.
not ONLY are they irresponsible, but they are
also STUPID!
either way, the makers of the game should
not be held accountable for the actions of
two teenagers.

the two teenagers need to be held accountable
for THEIR OWN actions. the fact that they can't
draw the line between reality and unreality is
NOT a burden that the makers of the game
should be forced to bear.

[Infrared]

Originally posted by [aNNa]
exactly.
saying "the video game made me do it"
is weak.

the makers of the video game should not
be held responsible for the irresponisiblity
of two teenagers. they know the difference
between right and wrong. they SHOULD
at their age.



that's laughable.

ok. i need to amend my previous statement.
not ONLY are they irresponsible, but they are
also STUPID!
either way, the makers of the game should
not be held accountable for the actions of
two teenagers.

the two teenagers need to be held accountable
for THEIR OWN actions. the fact that they can't
draw the line between reality and unreality is
NOT a burden that the makers of the game
should be forced to bear.

I think the game made aNNa say that.