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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.
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
When can we blame Bush's war in Iraq on Call of Duty or SOCOM?
Hey, he's canadian.
Must have been listening to too much Alanis Morissette.
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
Sharon: Should we blame the government?
Liane: Or blame society?
Dads: Or should we blame the images on TV?
Sheila: No, blame Canada!
Everyone: Blame Canada!
Sheila: With all their beady little eyes And flappin' heads so full of lies
Everyone: Blame Canada!
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