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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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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."
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.
Your friend is an idiot. Period. That's like saying, "My friend likes to target shoot his fifty caliber in his suburban backyard, but he's really careful." There is no such thing as a "careful" race done on public streets, and there sure as hell isn't anything legal about it. Beyond safety concerns, there's a whole host of interesting criminal charges (with upward departures) and civil exposures for participating in such activities even if you yourself don't race -- and God forbid there should be any injuries, fatalities, or property damage in the course of such an "event."
There are other venues for racing which are not only legal but specifically designed for amateur stock vehicle racing. At the very least, find an abandoned airstrip.
"Carefully." Oy gevalt.
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.