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Halo 3 Criticized In Murder Conviction
oldwindways writes "An Ohio teen was found guilty of murdering his mother and shooting his father in the head after they took away his copy of Halo 3. One has to wonder if this is going to have any effect on the games industry. Clearly, the AP thought they could stir up something controversial by asking the IP owner for a statement: 'Microsoft, which owns the intellectual property for the game, declined to comment beyond a statement saying: "We are aware of the situation and it is a tragic case."' I suppose the good news is they did not accept his insanity plea, so no one can claim that Halo 3 drove him insane. Even so, I don't think anything good can come out of this for gamers."
Unfortunately, it seems somebody can claim that the game was a contributing factor; the judge who presided over this case said he believes that the 17-year-old defendant "had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents, they would be dead forever." GamePolitics has further details from the judge's statement. It doesn't help that the boy's lawyers used video game addiction as a defense.
"I firmly believe that Daniel Petric had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents, they would be dead forever."
The Spawn Point defence should be filed along with the Chewbacca defence in the big book of crazy law.
I can see why playing Halo (or, indeed, most games, with the notable exception of NetHack) might make you believe that. If only he had watched anime instead, he would have been taught the cruel reality of murder.
You know it's flamebaiting to speak about people respawning millenia ago.
he believes that the 17-year-old defendant "had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents, they would be dead forever."
If someone as old as 17 doesn't understand this basic fact of life, then there's obviously something wrong that has nothing to do with the video game.
Clearly Halo 3 is at fault. If they had some non-respawning game types this would never have happened...
PWNED
:P
Mod me down, it was worth it
This game is so awesome, you'll kill anybody who takes it away from you!
(It's that good).
I record my sleeptalking
we can transform The Darwin Awards in The Darwin Olympics.
Doesn't mean it can't be true, though. 17-year olds SHOULD know that death is permanent (and that even if it wasn't, you still wouldn't just kill people), but that doesn't mean they all DO.
By then the parents or the school should have explained that already. Hm, wait, bad parenting + child killing the parents... I believe we got us some natural selection!
One has to wonder how it's a difference for you ;D
somebody is watching a little too much Dexter. :)
Balderdash!
If I said "All you people on slashdot are a wsate of oxygen and should go kill yourself" there won't be mass suicides, but someone already suicidal really sitting on the fence just might.
O rly?
All you people on slashdot are a wsate of oxygen and should go kill yourself.
I'm so fucking upset about this matter, the situation among youths of today is absurd!
I mean, come one, how the fuck can you fail murdering your own dad?! How hard can it be? Learn to finish something damnit, lazy ass kids of today!
Hmmm, lets ask Lizzy Borden.
This shall be the last post you hear from me, you insensitive clod!
I hate printers.
I mean, it's not like he didn't have Halo 3 to practise his headshots :)
Microsoft... declined to comment beyond a statement saying: "We are aware of the situation and it is a tragic case."
Wow, déjà vu. That's the same thing they said when Vista was released.
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
>> "had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents, they would be dead forever."
Maybe the problem is not the game but his Ubuntu box: he thought "kill parent" is harmless, since the real kill is with "kill -9 parent".
Really? I killed my roommate after he accidentally wiped out a year's progress in my game of Nethack.
...but he'll always miss his parents.
If they're dead, he obviously didn't miss.
Yeah, "kill parent" just makes them tie up their affairs, kill any children then throw themselves off a cliff...
Oh come on, it was only 9mm. He must be one of the nonviolent priests or he'd have a fully automatic:-)
93rd rule of Slashdot: No matter how obvious my sarcasm is, my comment will be taken seriously by someone.
I mean, come one, how the fuck can you fail murdering your own dad?! How hard can it be? Learn to finish something damnit, lazy ass kids of today!
Well, he was using the wussy ass 9mm. If he had done it right then he might have finished the job ;)
Yeah, I'm going to hell.......
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Why, will his text-to-speech clonk out soon?
That's justifiable homicide, as far as I am concerned.
Of course, no rational person believes that "people came from lightning and mud".
Exactly! Everyone knows it was dust and breath! /retard
I wonder if we can apply this to anything where you'd have to be fucking retarded not to realise the limitations?
"I'm sorry your honour, I figured you could just issue a judgement that my parents were no longer dead. You guys rule on the laws of man, so why not the laws of physics?"
It's been a long time.
What kind of music was they listening to? Or what kind of movies was they watching? Who gives a fuck what they was watching?
Whatever happened to crazy?
What happened to crazy? What, you can't be crazy no more? Did we eliminate ''crazy''
from the dictionary?
Fuck the records. Fuck the movies. Crazy!
If someone had just camped the Garden Tomb 2000 years ago, we wouldn't have to worry about it.
Either God went through a pretty radical transformation at some point
Well, the God of the New Testament is markedly different -- I suppose if you're going to try to make your new religion stick, you have to make some concessions to the old way of thinking, but to my mind it's the same mistake as Stroustrup made by making functions non-virtual by default in C++...
(Two religious debates in a single sentence, not bad eh?!)
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" - Plato
It was Lot not moses. A mistake anyone could make. There are a lot of names in that book :p
Reincarnation is a Shaman ability requiring a reagent, allowing the Shaman to bring him or her self back to life after death
Ressurection is an ability shared by Shaman, Priests, Paladins and Druids, allowing a dead party or raid member to be brought back to life.
I will also say that "What is it about the anti-religionists that retards their ability for rational thinking?" is possibly the most hilarious statement to level at someone who doesn't believe in God.
Let's not have the "believing in God is perfectly rational, but believing in evolution is not! God put dinosaur bones on the earth to test our faith!" debate. You will lose.