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Need for Speed Unconnected to Fatal Crash
BStorm writes "There was a horrific crash in Toronto yesterday. It involved two 18 year olds, each racing their parent's Mercedes. One of racers hit a taxi turning left killing the taxi driver. The other left the scene. EA's Need for Speed was found on the passenger seat of one of the racers. Police are investigating the possibility that the racing and subsequent crash was connected with the game." Update: 01/26 20:53 GMT by Z : GamePolitics points out a more thorough article on the subject which quotes the officers involved as being against the jist of the Globe and Mail article. From that article: "Det. Lobsinger was careful not to blame the video game for Tuesday's accident. 'There is a small percentage who have difficulty separating reality and simulation, fantasy. It's a very, very small percentage,' he said. 'This was not the game's fault. There are millions who play this game and don't go out and do this.' The way to prevent these tragedies is to teach young drivers to have respect for the road, he said." Title changed to reflect more accurate article.
What if they found a copy of the fast and the furious in one of the cars? i guess it'd be the movies fault then right? oh wait... movies aren't a pariah subject like gaming, my bad.
The game has nothing to do with it. This was caused by a couple of people acting like idiots. Illegal street racing has been around since... well, since cars were invented.
That won't stop people from holding this up as more evidence that games are evil, though. I should take bets on how long it takes Jack Thompson to chime in.
psmylie's dictionary: Godzillion (noun) Any number large enough to destroy Tokyo
If so then the police should also give equal attention to investigating the possibility that the fatal crash was connected with cows. It's about as relevant.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Almost a flamebait-worthy article...
Anyway, who should we blame? The game for, well, you know? The Parents for allowing kids to drive their overpowered cars?
I blame the kids for being dicks, personally.
Argh.
Investigators found a copy of the video game Need For Speed in one of the cars. The game involves street racing, drag racing and pursuit racing, where players attempt to evade police.
w s/20060125/street_race_060125/20060125/
The discovery prompted police to point out the difference between the digital world, and reality.
"A game is a game," Toronto Police's Det. Paul Lobsinger told CTV Toronto. "And when you get behind the wheel of a car it's not a game anymore. And when something tragic happens in a huge crash with a lot of smoke, there is no reset button. You can't start over with a new car and a new life."
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNe
Its pretty silly to blame a video game; if they had a copy of Spyro the Dragon or Grand Theft Auto and the news hit the media this hard I'm sure they would have blamed those games as well..
"Correlation does not imply causality"
May I present another scenario? The kids were already attracted to racing because its hella cool, and that caused both the interest in Need For Speed as well as the accident
People who cannot disconnect fake things (games, books, movies) from reality, or indeed people who haven't got an ounce of common sense in their heads, shouldn't be allowed access to the things that might set them off.
This game didn't cause them to crash. Their speeding and racing on a public road did.
A game is just that, a game. Reading a book about murder doesn't cause people to kill.
18 year olds should be old enough to discern the differences. If they aren't, then they shouldn't be given adult status - no cars, no cigarettes, no guns, no alcohol.
It's actually really ironic
No it's not. It's a coincidence. If he's not smart enough to know the definition of ironic how smart will his investigation be?
Developers: We can use your help.
reminds me of high school where my parents spent hours trying to convince me that if i played d&d boardgames with my friends that i would automatically end up killing actual people with a sword in a 'more realistic' version of the game (or be killed myself).
Wave upon wave of demented avengers March cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream
We need more non-violent games like Stacker -- a first-person vertical-crate-arranger guaranteed not to influence young people's behavior in any way. Check out the screen shots. Awesome graphics.
Software Wars
Games about illegal street racing started in the late 70's (as far as I know) with a game called "Datsun 280 ZZaapp!". Games like that have been around for nearly 30 years, but people with both of the characteristics foolish and irresponsible have been around far longer. A better way to place blame here is on the individuals responsible first, parents next in line.
I have a few Need for Speed games and I drive a car with a V8 that's (supposedly) capable of going 150 mph. Do I race my car? Hell no! I'm not going to risk my vehicle and my life for a cheap thrill I could get by either playing a video game or going on a roller coaster.
I also play Animal Crossing, but I can't remember the last time I went out catching bugs or fishing, and I don't really have any plans to do either. Games are a diversion from real life, not a mirror of it.
Throw the kids in jail.
If the parents make a peep about suing EA under the pretense that "they are just kids and didn't know what they were doing", charge them with child negligence -- first, with providing them access to such a dangerous video game, and second by providing them access to their cars.
Those who are unable to understand the difference between a game and the reality are doomed to die.
:(
It's called natural selection.
Too bad these idiots do not kill themselves. they kill other people.
-- "If A equals success, then the formula is A=X+Y+Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keep your mouth shut." - Einstein
When can we blame Bush's war in Iraq on Call of Duty or SOCOM?
Considering that drag racing has probably been around as long as teenagers have had cars... I doubt there's a connection.
Let's see. If two 18 year olds are allowed to be driving their parent's Mercedes around, chances are the parents are too busy working long hours to pay for those nice cars instead of being around to raise their kids and teach them not to be such fucking dumbasses.
We must ban parent's mercedes!
-EvilMagnus
It's actually really ironic
That sound you just heard was a million pedants' heads exploding in unison.
My beef with attempting to link videogames and crime is all correllation vs. causation. Certainly it may be possible to show that people who commit certain types of crimes may also own/play video games on the same topic. People like Mr. Thompson from florida (who as far as I know hasn't weighed in on this one yet) will claim that the playing of the game was a cause of the crime. However, the data only provides a corellation. It is equally likely (or if you ask me, more likely) that people inclined to commit certain crimes happen to enjoy and therefore choose to play games on that topic. As one earlier posted noted, street and drag racing has been around as long as young people have had cars... How many of the early racers would/do enjoy racing games?
In any case, I will say for the record that the fact I enjoy playing MarioKart DS does not mean that I take turtle shells and squids with me to the go-kart track.
More Caffeine. NOW
Just last week my girlfriend watched both Bullitt and The French Connection, and wouldn't you know it, the very next day she had a car accident!
I guess it's back to Tele-Tubbies and Woody Allen movies for her!
Three Squirrels
Any attempt by anti-gaming groups to use this sad incident as ammunition will be completely bogus. As far as anyone should be concerned, University Students, no matter what their age aught to be held fully accountable for their actions, without any stupid 'outside influence' factors.
Introducing one of the more intelligent detectives, damn than Canada:
Det. Lobsinger said. 'You have this game that's all about fast cars and racing through city streets. It's actually really ironic,'
It is ironic. I'm glad to see he didn't jump the gun, at least in the article, and say it was the cause.
Kids have been racing for years. Long before need for speed was impossible. Hell, back in the days before NES kids raced. In the 50's kids raced. There's no connection other than it was in there. It may have given them the idea, but it wouldn't be hard to get to that idea anyways, it's what kids do. Sounds like the parents should have given them some more life lessons about driving and racing and being stupid, but they sound like they're a bit spoiled already. Such a tragedy.
Could it be that this moron possesses a copy of Need for Speed because... He's a crazy street racer and likes that kind of shit?
I think it's far more likely that kids interested in street racing would go buy a copy of NFS, than it is that kids would buy a copy of NFS and THEN become interested in racing. The article's implied causality is backwards.
How sad is it that we have all these video games, portraying violent and reckless behavior in a realistic setting, and people are going out repeating the acts they see in the games? I'm confident that, were we to remove all video games which could possibly influence people's actions in any way, we could eliminate things like crime, insane recklessness, and war. I am certain there are statistics that show a causal relationship between an increase in car accidents and the release of 'Need for Speed'.
If you consider what else goes on in video games besides just shooting police officers, driving like an epileptic having a grand mal seizure with the gas pedal glued down, or all this rock music playing in the background of said games, the picture becomes a lot more frightening. Consider Tetris, where you stack boxes only to make them go away. The artificial reduction in inventory so graphically displayed and used as a form of amusement has to be terrifying to warehouse owners worldwide. Imagine the impressions left on young people playing that game who will someday grow up to be forklift operators. There is no greater threat to a country's GNP than a game that glorifies stacking things with the intention of destroying them.
For a better example, consider the game Doom. You are put in a world where all the lights are turned off, given a wide array of guns, and told to shoot anything that does not look like you. It is only a matter of time before kids across America start turning the lights off in their homes to conserve electricity, which directly impacts the number of kilowatt hours sold by utility companies. Not to mention the fact that shooting things that don't look like you with massive weapons is a poor way for people to socialize. It's games like this that lead to the rise in rampant xenophobia in the midwest, and prevent people from different backgrounds from achieving common goals and working towards a better world.
The game that most frightens me, with it's emersive environments, realistic use of weaponry, and insanely graphic fight sequences is one we have all learned to fear. Gauntlet. As soon as I hear 'Red Warrior needs food badly', I know that my 12 year old is headed to the nearest refrigerator to eat a massive plate of ham. The fact that he is 4 foot 2 and weighs 340 lbs is a direct consequence of playing this game filled with subliminal references to consuming massive amounts of nourishment in the pursuit of endlessly regenerating imps, trolls, things with gas masks and ghosts. When I hear 'That was a heroic effort', the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as I know this means the kid is not going to leave the front of that television for at least another 2 hours. There is no force on Earth capable of preventing kids from playing these games endlessly, and someone needs to stand up and do something about it.
M
Maybe if they had their own little shitboxen they wouldn't have been racing mom's mercedes.
When something is forbidden, it becomes desirable...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This stuff really irks me! It shows the accuser's lack of intelligence to blame a game that was sitting on the front seat. Honestly! I agree with the comment that if they found a F&F DVD, they wouldn't be blaming it. But, since it's a GAME it gets the pointy end of the stick! Rediculous. Now my day is ruined. If they found: A baseball bat - would they blame Major League Baseball? A ferret - would they ban all ferrets? A sock - would they think there is some sort of sock fetish going on that made them crash? ...ya, stupid examples... but stupid examples for stupid people
All is prevelant in the world...
It's actually the car companies that don't allow their branded cars to have accurate damage modeling.
You play NFS and think that running into something at 100mph sorta dents your car, so you don't understand that crashing does all sorts of nasty things. Had these kids known that street racing and crashing were bad things, then they would have made the responsible choice and driven the speed limit; and the only way they could have learned that was through demnostration in NFS. Obviously then, the blame must rest on the car companies, and legislation must be past to make them put accurate damage modeling in racing games.
You're thinking small. Why miniaturize the laser, when we could instead enlarge the sharks? -John Searle
Being British, I too am starting to doubt evolution.2 6/1346255
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/
Why couldn't Darwin have taken care of those twats...
Guys... lets just not do the "but... how can you blame X" comments. They don't work. We can see that... guess I better break my own advice.
There is nothing linking the game to the accident, besides the theme of the game, and the kids being idiots. So what, it's about racing. So's a bunch of movies, and a big American past-time (NASCAR). If that were a NASCAR DVD, would it be blamed? Well, I suppose it's not in an "urban" setting. Ok, what about "Fast and the Furious", or it's sequel? "Gone in 60 Seconds"? I suppose they weren't specifically stealing the cars...
NEWS FLASH: TEENAGERS DO STUPID THINGS.
As a teen myself (for another month) I can say yes, that's a very fitting description. Now, these parents have some nice money (they were racing "luxary cars"), sent them to an exclusive high school (at 35 grand a year, more then I pay for out of state tuition!), and were OUT OF TOWN.
Now come on... you leave the kids at home, nice luxary car, and they go do crazy things like drive 130 kilometers per hour... oh, yea, that's only 80 miles per hour. Having played Need For Speed, I can tell you it is VERY easy to exceed that speed VERY quickly, in fact, 80 mph wouldn't win you even the first race. Hell, When I drive home, I average 85 mph, though the speed limit's only 75, and I get passed. Why? Because that's not such an unsafe speed, surely NOT racing. This is a little bit of joyriding, and the idiot driver didn't see a taxi. Now, someone is dead, and it's time to play the Blame Game.
Can we blame the boys? No, "They're very nice kids. Very quiet, soft-spoken. They both did well academically. Certainly not the kind of kids you would expect at all to be racing down a highway." If they wouldn't be expected to, something must have made them, right?
The parents then? nope, it's never the parent's fault in this day and age. Even though they were out of town. "Defence lawyer Edward Prutschi, who represents Mr. Ryazanov, said his client's parents were out of town at the time of the accident and are heading home to Toronto."
Perhaps the car then? "...Mr. Shrimpton said, adding that neither had a car at school." Damn, no history of driving a car at school, guess they weren't reckless.
Or.. wait... idea. These kids finally get out of school, feel like normal teenagers, unable to be hurt, and go joyriding. Just this once, right, since our parents are out of town. Not racing, just speeding. BAM...uh-oh... we've got a problem. Cops show up, and have to have a motive (everything has a motive). In the end, the game gets blamed.
Interesting thing to note here, no one ever says that they've played the game. No one said it was out of the package. They might've just bought it have no clue about game-play, yet that doesn't matter. Some lawyer will jump on this, make a big outcry about the horror of video games (of any genre) and politicians will all conspire and pass condolances. In the end, it'll be like every other suit, these "boys" will get sentenced, and life will go on.
Except for the man they killed. negligence, manslaughter, call it what you will, he's not coming back. That is the real travisty here, not that a game is being blamed, that's natural today, but a man died, due to stupidity. Let this be a lesson, not to game manufacturors, designers, or players. Not to lawyers, or politicians, but to parents, adults, and kids. When you do something stupid, someone might get hurt. Someone might get killed, and you have to live with it. These "boys" (legal adults, mind you) will forever have to live with the fact that they killed a man trying to earn a living, something they won't have to due to their parent's money. I hope they're happy, and I hope ya'll have fun fighting out how stupid it is to blame the game, missing the real point once again.
Rest in Peace, Mr. Khan.
Want to find other gamers to play board and role playing game
was the game in the car with him? the three reasons I can think of are: (1) the kid just bought it; (2) He wanted to borrow it and just got it; or (3) The friend had borrowed it and was returning it. In two of those three he wouldn't have even played the game yet, and in the third he hadn't been playing it recently. Seems to me that the anti-video-game people are trying to shove guilt by association on us.
"The video game police"
Wow... isn't the U.S. going a bit far with their whole anti-game thing now?
"That won't stop people from holding this up as more evidence that games are evil, though. I should take bets on how long it takes Jack Thompson to chime in."
Well of course they're evil
Give me a break. This is just people not wanting to take responsibilty for thier actions. The kids were acting the fool, plain and simple.
The previous generation saw American Graffiti on theaters, and despite the fiery crash in the movie, went on to even more hot-rodding, street racing action. Perhaps the problem is hmmm... NOT VIDEO GAMES?
stuff |
Whenever a young punk borrows a parent's car and causes an accident, the insurance company should not pay a cent in compensation; it's the parents that should be sued directly. Unfortunately, though, Canada does not permit punitive damages (and in such a case, insurance companies shall be prohibited from paying punitive damages, and they shall also be excluded from bankrupcy).
Another option is to use modern technology ("Please insert your driver's license - thank you. You have 3 points left on your license, mister Dallas") to mandate that cars driven by less than 30 year olds have a speed limited to less than 80 kilometers per hour.
I won't deny that the game may have influenced this particular behavior. But kids are clearly impressionable idiots. If it wasn't Need for Speed it might have been Grand Theft Auto or hell even Mario Kart.
Wang-Piao Dumani Ross, a Ryerson University student, has been charged with criminal negligence causing death and failing to stop after the accident.
Failing to stop after the accident (which did not directly involve him) breaks the law?
So hypothetical situation - If, driving down a Canadian highway during a snowstorm I see someone go off the road but keep driving, will they come after me for failing to stop? Sure, you might call such a non-stopper an asshole, but a criminal?
I would also have to question the "leading to death" part (he didn't hit the taxi), but I can see that as a bit more a matter of interpretation. But not an accident... Either the collision includes your vehicle, or it doesn't.
The linked article merely comments that the game was found in the front seat. This is a game about racing cars in the street. They were racing cars in the street. They should at least look into whether there's some sort of connection. The kids are being charged with criminal negligence, as they should be.
The slant of the article is more what a terrible tragedy this is. And I think we can all agree on this.
We should also probably look at Mercedes, since they clearly designed this car with the intention of allowing him to ram a Taxi and survive, thus ENCOURAGING him to kill with it without fear of injury to himself. It's pretty clear from the design of the car that they intend people to kill with it.
On top of that, the city itself paved flat streets and routinely keeps them free of obstructions as if to encourage fast driving. Clearly the city has a hand in the death of this taxi driver as well.
Game companies should just start including disclaimers. DO not do anything that is illeagal or even naughty that you see in this game...infact call the police before you recreate any action from this game that could be even thought of as wrong. Including Jaywalking......we're serious...jaywalking
Mr. T carries a postage stamp in his wallet at all times on the back is a list of all the fools he doesn't pity
Legal drinking age is 19 in Ontario. 18 is considered age of majority for all other things.
As for the video game, I don't think that it's really the problem here. Yes, the kids probably did play it, and it probably put stupid ideas in their heads. But the real problem is that they were not yet mature enough to have the good judgement not to race their cars on public streets.
Rather than blame video games, we should simply prohibit kids from driving. Sixteen is simply way too young. Twenty-one would be more like it, though maybe yet still too young...
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
or "bean counter extreme" or "Nada III".
A friend of mine is an amateur street racer. He likes racing movies, racing games, racing comics, etc.
However, the races he participates in are done carefully, at specific hours at night, and the friends of the competitors block the streets to prevent innocent drivers from getting hurt in those races.
I wonder if Need for Speed has accidents like this one happen in the game, or the requirement that you'll need to organize your team to block the streets so you won't lose the race, get your car trashed, die or kill someone and go to jail because of an unexpected car.
You know, I'd really like games like this to have pictures of the guys going to jail because of car crashes, or a car wreck shown (just as cigarrette warnings), and the police taking the corpses to the morgue. A banner would be superimposed on the screenshots, saying: "Real people get KILLED in street races. Life is NOT a game."
I was driving down the highway listening to "I can't drive 55" by Sammy Hagar. I looked at the speedo and indeed, I was not driving 55.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
What was the game doing on the car seat? All my games are on a shelf somewhere... it's really odd.
The whole debate centers around the question, and it's follow-up. How much does the environment affect the individual? And how does that translate back to the environment? It's that simple, because we all know that the answer isn't "nothing".
Darwin award winners here.
Think of it as evolution in action.
This has prompted four powerful changes to the roads and rules for driving in Canada. Part one of the solution... Toronto inventor comes to the rescue with his version of severe tire damage spikes. These spikes are specially tuned to allow vehicles to travel at only the approved speed (+- 5%). When a vehicle exceeds this speed limit the tires are shredded and the racing driver is brought to a halt. Part two of the solution ... Toronto inventor comes to the rescue with his version of severe tire damage spikes. These spikes are specially tuned to allow vehicles to travel at only the approved speed (+- 5%). When a vehicle is detected traveling at less than the approved speed limit the tires are shredded and the dumbass driver is brought to a halt.
Part three of the solution ... in conjunction with the Toronto inventor coming to the rescue with his version of severe tire damage spikes is the scary video game legislation that requires an RFID tag to be embedded in both the packaging and media for all "Dangerous to the general public good" games. When these games are detected in a vehicle traveling over the road the tires are shredded and the potentially dangerous game playing driver is brought to a halt.
A powerful group of Canadian Senators have taken time off from their research and deliberations on legalizing recreational substances to point out that this system must also have a detector that looks for vehicles traveling with their right turn signal left on. When a vehicle is detected traveling with the blinker on the tires are shredded and the dozy driver is brought to a halt.
In order to bring the police and municipal governments on side a tax of 100% will be added to the price of new tires and shared between the police and all levels of government.
In other news a Toronto inventor invents a run shredded tire made of titanium...
Other Places they could have been influenced by racing
Point being, the game didn't take control of their lil weak minds and force them to do this, actually EA's product recommends against behaviour like this and gives kids a place to race off the streets. This is more a combination of faults, from outside influence and self choice, which led to this event happening. Was NFS a part of this? yes, but only a tiny fraction of the overall problem with the kids today.
Street racing has been around since before cars. My Grandfather used to tell stories of racing the streets on horseback. Never heard of any buggies getting totalled, though...
So now he has fodder for an arguement against racing games - great, just when we almost get rid of the guy, people give him more reason to try a lawsuit...
What if they purchased the game BECAUSE they already liked driving fast in real life? Why was the game on the seat... was it just purchased?
Bury me in mashed potatoes.
It seems strange for the game to be in the car during that incident? Maybe just bought it? Opened already and taking it to somewhere?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
A few weeks ago, I was making a left turn on densely-packed snow. I could feel the car slipping sideways, and I was in danger of embedding a mailbox in my passenger door. With barely a thought, I spun the steering wheel all the way to the right. The car regained traction and both car and mailbox emerged from the non-incident unscathed. Where had I honed that reflex? Playing games in the Need for Speed franchise, of course!
when I had left a copy of Katamari Damancy on the passenger seat!
Why doesn't anyone ever mention that these kids might have bought Need for Speed because they were already into car racing - why is it always the other way around?
Sometimes my arms bend back.
Almost everyone here comments that there is no connection it is just coincedence nothing more and that the media would have blamed loud music just 10 years ago.
Blah blah blah. We have a game that is about street racing apparently having been played by a couple of real street races YET THERE IS NO CONNECTION. That is whacked up logic worthy of Jack Thompson.
Could it possibly be that people who enjoy speeding enjoy games that involve a lot of speed? Nah, of course not. That would be silly.
There probably is a link, if these kids like racing they could have applied to a racing school and played "proper" racing games. If they were raiding in mercs they probably had the money.
But no, they were attracted to illegal street racing and a game about illegal street racing. Is there a link? Yes.
BUT what kind of link? I think it is very simple and direct. These guys like speed and illegal street racing and need for speed are about speed. ne didn't lead to the other. They just both satisfied the same interrest.
Think of it like this. I was eating dinner. If you interrupted me halfway through you would have seen some fried rice and a cup of tea. AH!!! So tea leads to the eating of fried rice!!!
Eh no. Being hungry leads me to drink tea and eat fried rice.
The linking of games with undesirable behaviour often reminds me of the logic error: all fish swim in water so everything in water is a fish. Or I carry an umbrella when it rains so if I carry an umbrella it rains.
So don't I agree with all the other people who claim there is no link? No, there is a link, it is just not as direct as the media likes to pretend it is. This is going to be hard to put in html text but I think it is like this.
Media view: Need for speed Illegal street racing.
The real work:
Desire to drive fast -> Need for speed
---------------------> Illegal street racing.
What needs to be determind if there is a reinforcement going on between the two end actions. Does Need for Speed reinforce the speeders need to speed? Perhaps tells them that it is okay?
Perhaps, I don't know, that is an answer for a psychiatrist to answer. What is for us as society to answer is what we are willing to put up with. Do we want to ban everyone from buying gametype X OR do we want to put up with X amount of people that can't handle it.
If "we" gamers are going to win this argument we need better arguments then Jack Thompson and friends.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Just the other day my girlfriend caught me cheating on her. Luckily I had a copy of leisure suit larry nearby, so I was able to blame it on the game. She took this in stride, and we're happier than ever! //see how stupid it sounds?
It's worth noting that the summary (didn't read TFA) mentions the game was found "on the seat". Er. High speed chase -> crash -> death; and the game is still on the seat? not the floor?
I understand they also found a banana peel carelessly tossed on the roadway. IANAConspiracy theorist, but it's just chilling.
Wouldn't it be ironic if he had a 'street safety video game'? Well, I gues that's why he's a police officer and I'm on slashdot. Now... If that police officer looks like a pig, that'd be ironic.
And on a more serious note, clearly those two guys have a need for speed.
That includes drinking. An 18 year old knows what they are doing and are responsible for their own actions. They have no excuse for their blatant disregard to others safety and should be punished accordingly.
Yes i am posting this from work like you.
The investigation won't be involved around nuances in the English language, and will instead incorporate the investigative techniques he's probably been trained for. Just a hunch, though. I wasn't trained on that sort of thing. Ironic, no?
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
EA's Need for Speed was found on the passenger seat of one of the racers. Police are investigating the possibility that the racing and subsequent crash was connected with the game.
WTF other game are kids into street racing going to be playing? Bible Adventures?
That's like being amazed when people who want to go on shooing rampages play FPS games or when hunters play Deer Hunter. People who like to do something for fun.. often enjoy simulations of the same thing. Duh!
People who experience street racing through a game are much less likely to be dumb enough to try it in real life. I suggest Need For Speed has stopped tons of street racing and saved lots of lives and if these dolts had played that game a little more they may not have been so stupid as to think it was safe to try in real life.
set softtabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 expandtab nocp worlddomination
Ok, this pisses me off without a doubt. A game is a thing, it has no moral compass, no intent, no thought process. The people who make the game are depicting fictional event. It's not real. If depicting crime is motive to cause crime than frickin' outlaw the Godfather series.
Everyone should take the time to tell their goverments for the need to crack down on people who break the law and stop trying to redirect blame away from the individual.
And if anyone thinks that EA should be to blame somehow. Then blame the automotive industry FIRST. After all they made it so you could speed in the car in the first place.
Oops, how did this get here?
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
While I agree that this article is pretty silly, I personally can't drive on the street after driving in a racing game for at least 15 minutes.
I have actual steering hardware with force feedback and overall a fairly realistic environment. It's pretty much the only way for me to stay in control on the freeway at a boring 65mph because I know I can drive much faster in a game without any risk.
However, I think that the brain is not as easily switched from driving something like Crazy Taxi (not a realistic sim, but hey it's fun!) to driving a car through suburban streets. I find 15 minutes to be sufficient to drive with less intensity.
A couple of times that I drove right after playing a high intensity driving game I had to snap out of it when I realized I hit 80+ mph. I have a freeway onramp about 3/4 miles away from my house, so it takes some effort to take the foot off the accelerator and to set cruise on 65mph.
I normally drive 65mph on cruise, in the second lane from the right.
Leonid S. Knyshov
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Worried in West Springfield writes "There was a horrific crash in Toronto yesterday. ... Dole's Pineapples were found in the grocery bag on the back seat. Police are investigating the possibility that the racing and subsequent crash was connected with the exotic fruits." From the article: "The pineapples police found in the car are delicous, but contain a large amount of fruit sugar (fructose), Det. Lobsinger said. 'You have these fruits that are all juicy and healthy. It's actually really ironic,' he said, nonsensically. Alexander Ryazanov, a York University student, has been charged with criminal negligence causing death and desertion of fruit, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison on conviction. Wang-Piao Dumani Ross, a Ryerson University student, has been charged with criminal negligence causing death and failing to stop after the accident."
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reminds me of high school where...
And you and the story reminds me of a story from my high school. Two students played chicken on a dirt road one night. One of them got killed, the other had to have some vertebrae fused. No movies or games were blamed for that.
Then the school held an open-casket funeral for the dead student in the gymnasium, placed the casket just inside the entrance where everyone had to walk by it, and marched the entire student body in to attend it! No preparation, no informing us that that was what was going on, you found out when you saw the casket. Worse, the first in decided to hug his parents, so there was this chain of obligatory hugging or hand-shaking going on. Thankfully I was able to avoid doing that.
I would have marched right through that gym and out the door leaving the building, but they had posted a teacher at every exit to deter escape. I learned later that they could not force attendance, but they also didn't have to tell anyone that not attending was an option.
And they put folding chairs for the students on their precious new basketball court on which no one was permitted to walk wearing street shoes lest it get marked, save this special occasion apparently. Oh, the hypocracy!
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Could it be that the type of people who like to enjoy street racing enjoy video games about the same thing?
Could it be that people can be influenced by something as trivial as a video game because they don't always think rationally about the impact of their actions in real life.
Could it be that even though the prior proposition is most likely true(in some form) that statistically it's irrelevant because the vast majority of people who play "Need for Speed" don't go out and street race because of the inherent dangers involved?
Or could be that almost anything in the human experience can influence a person to do something that might lead to a tragic accident, and just because that's true, it says nothing about whether that influence is a good or bad thing?
I leave it to you to decide.
-Shawn "If the Name Don't Rhyme It Ain't Mine" Conn
That is the most positive statement I've ever heard any authority figure say when a video game (or music or D&D) was remotely linked to an accident.
When the parents sue (and I fully expect they will), I want to hear the judge state "There is a small percentage, a very small percentage, of parents who cannot tell the difference between responsibility for their children and blaming the world for their lack of parenting skill."
Rather interesting a few articles back was about 35% of parents game. I'm guessing the detective is a gamer. Ironic, too, that I mentioned Need for Speed in my reply to that post just before I read this one.
I'm creeped out now. Back to work.
The sequel to The Fast and the Furious was 2 Fast 2 Furious.
I'll wage that those kids had all consumed bread within 24 hours of that accident, same as Columbine, same as the 9/11 pilots, same as lee harvey the list goes on.. Think of any serious faital crime and I'll wage that bread was consumed less than 24 hours befor the act.
This is conclusive proof of the damaging effect bread has on our children and I want it banned! Every year the bread manufacturers give billions of $/£ to the government, when questioned the IRS called it taxes but I have a far more disturbing name GOVERNMENT BRIBE
In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
I blame the kind of idiot ricer culture depicted in movies like the trash 2fast 2furious and to a lesser extent games like NFS Underground. Although, I wouldn't put it past some kids to be so stupid to try to live what they've experienced in games.
These kids are getting their hands on driver's licenses too easily and parents are far too irresponsible letting them get their hands on cars. The ricer culture encourages this whole bad-ass attitude. You pull ahead of one of these kids and they take it as a cue to race, regardless of how heavy traffic is, the weather or what neighborhood they're driving through.
Barely a few weeks go by without a story being on the news about some kid smashing into someone or something. Around where I live the city planted small trees down several avenues to beautify the city. Week after week I drive past tree stumps left behind by the imbecels who couldn't handle crappy 89 Accord with cut springs and an obnoxious exhaust.
The other serious problem I've is a complete and utter lack of understanding on the part of so many people regarding what a car can or cant do. I've seen kids smash up their parent's cars and they blame the car for the accident. The car had bad brakes, poor tires or some other such nonsense instead of realizing that its their child's driving inexperience and poor decision making which caused the accident. So they go out and buy the kid a new, more expensive vehicle. Quite a nice way to teach a lesson.
Idiot parents are going to expect the government to raise their kids for them yet again. I think what the government needs to do is make it much, much harder to get a driver's license.
A driver should be required to have a basic understanding of how a vehicle operates, and what to expect in hazardous conditions or during emergency maneuvers. Larger vehicles, like SUVs, should require special licenses with additional training.
The prospective driver should be expected to ay for all this out of their own pocket so that they better understand the value of a driver's license. Of course that raises a few concerns, but anything that makes it harder for the average idiot to get in the driver's seat is a good thing.
You didn't happen to vote for Bush twice, did you?
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."