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.

Comments

Re:Did the cars have leather seats?

[HugePedlar]

No, I think you're being a bit silly there.

The game has relevance - Det. Lobsinger said. 'You have this game that's all about fast cars and racing through city streets. It's actually really ironic,' he said.

Leather seats mean nothing, whereas the least you can say about the game is it's an amusing coincidence, given its theme.

I think you need to be aware that there's a difference between two utterly unrelated facts and two fact that could be related but are not necessarily causally related.

In the game's defence, it could be perfectly plausible that the kids were already into REAL street racing, which caused them to be more likely to play a similar-themed GAME; just as likely, if not more so, than the converse causality.

Re:d&d

[voice_of_all_reason]

Reminds me of this from the Official Doom FAQ:

FOREWORD: This messages was posted from gills@qucdn.queensu.ca on Usenet in the group comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Monday, November 15, 1993. He has a new idea: playing DOOM in REAL LIFE!

----------
Howdy,
Yes, like all you DOOM fans I have been eagerly awaiting the release date for this landmark game. Although I was very disappointed in the release date being bumped up from 3rd quarter '93 to Dec 10, I limited my anger and frustration to strangling my neighbour's cat (didn't like it much anyways.... ;) ).

But, NOW I'm forced to read all the great stuff about the Beta release that some people have been lucky enough to get their hands on. ....well, not FORCED to read it, but I can't help absorbing every bit of information I can possibly locate. :)

I can't handle the fact that some people have tried the game now, and I haven't, so I thought I might pull out my brass knuckles and 12 gauge pump shotgun and start up a *REAL* DOOM game. I figured that I, and 3 other frustrated DOOM awaiters, could meet up at an abandoned warehouse or something and have a rip snortin' Death Match of our own. We could throw some shotgun shells and ammo boxes randomly around the place, along with some first-aid kits (fine for light grazes from perhaps a .22 calibre round but not much good for a 12 gauge belly wound :) ) - then we go at it !!!

Granted, there won't be any monsters in this place, like there are in DOOM, but I do have a pretty ugly cousin I could trick into coming; and with a quick dunk in some gray paint I'm convinced he could bear a passable resemblance to a gargoyle .

So ....any takers? Heh, heh, heh.

Note: This a JOKE, only a joke....that's J-O-K-E..as in, I'm not serious. If you are a certified nut-bar who would like to really try this out don't bother calling me up....I get faint from tension just playing Paintball :)