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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.
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.
... and then they built the supercollider.
"An Ohio teen was found guilty of murdering his mother and shooting his father in the head after they took away his [thing that he really liked]"
If he had a caffeine addiction and his parents took away his Coke would that mean that it was the fault of the Coke that he murdered them?
"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.
Hey, plenty of 17 year olds don't believe death is forever.
They're called "religious".
Okay, why hasn't anyone even mentioned the "9mm handgun"? To my simple, unAmerican mind, that seems far more like a murder weapon than the video game.
Talk about elephant in the room.
Anyway, I expect the usual 800-post NRA/2nd Amendment gun nuts vs rational people thread.
Only in America.
You know it's flamebaiting to speak about people respawning millenia ago.
FTA:
Another article notes...
So the son was trying to frame the father for murdering the mother. Seems to indicate that he knew death was permanent...
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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...
The problem here is clearly the teen which is a sociopath, not the fact he played halo 3. It was halo 3 his parent withdrew, but it could have been a red toy car, or whatever he was using at that time. Once you are in your teen you are supposed to be able to separate fantasy to reality, and to know that death is definitive. If you don't even know or realize that, then you clearly have a mental problem. The guy was 15 at the time he shot his parents.
Miscellaneous quotes : (http://news.aol.com/article/ohio-teen-killed-mom-over-video-game/302589)
Petric may have been addicted, but the evidence also showed he planned the crime for weeks, said Burge, who found the teenager guilty of aggravated murder, attempted aggravated murder and other charges.
Deputy prosecuting attorney Anthony Cillo argued during the trial that the teenager had planned to make it appear to be a murder-suicide by putting the gun in his father's hand.
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This game is so awesome, you'll kill anybody who takes it away from you!
(It's that good).
I record my sleeptalking
Unfortunately, there will always be idiotic trials. This reminds me of the infamous Judas Priest trial where "experts" tried to present evidence that an album by the heavy metal band Judas Priest contained subliminal messages that drove two youngmen to suicide.
It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
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.
Obviously. Nobody is arguing that completely normal people would go postal by playing Halo 3. 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. So here we got a borderline psychotic, serious trouble separating famtasy from reality and he's on the fence. Was Halo 3 the push? How much should you pad the world to make sure he doesn't get a push? Or is it him, if anyone had realized how serious his issues are, that should have been put in a padded room? There's a line somewhere there, but I think what 99%+ of the population handles well should never be outlawed. The rest is just triggering some secret freak-out button that can't really be helped. Or rather, those people should be helped if possible.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Well, it is harder to kill someone with a fork than with a gun.
It is still possible but it requires no hesitation, no emotion, and a minimal physical strength.
In case one of these criterion is missing, a gun can help. With a gun you can kill someone out of anger, while filled of contradictory emotions, while crying and without really wanting it. That is how must murders are made. As you pointed out, when carefully planned, a murder do not require a gun. Guns are too noisy and too easy to track down.
The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
Notably, the boy's father is a minister. The church has not updated the web site, obviously.
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Games aren't meant to be simulations, they're meant to be fun.
somebody is watching a little too much Dexter. :)
Balderdash!
Good question.
Probably because the legal definition of insanity in order for it to be a defence isn't "The person did something that nobody in their right mind would consider appropriate, they're therefore insane". It's "The person was not aware that what they were doing was wrong, they're therefore insane".
Were this not the case, most of the world's prisons would be significantly less crowded and most of the world's mental hospitals significantly more crowded.
Whether or not this is right and proper is something I leave to the peanut gallery.
"Hey, plenty of 17 year olds don't believe death is forever.
They're called "religious". "
Kinda hard to sell suicide bombing and similar sports any other way.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
About a third of murders don't involve firearms. Areas with widespread legal firearms ownership tend to have less crime than areas with severe gun restrictions. Finally, if someone is that nuts, operating an axe, shovel, hatchet or any number of other hand tools is no great obstacle.
Lizzie Borden was just a chick, but did a "hatchet job" quite smartly (and beat the rap too).
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
This shall be the last post you hear from me, you insensitive clod!
I hate printers.
True, but that would be a fun sort of game. Imagine you can have multiple characters - say, a hundred - and this is your own personal "team". Each one on the team has their own individual skills - some randomly given out at spawning, and some trained. Keep the "max skill" cap low and not all that difficult to obtain.
It could be an FPS played just like a sports sim. Some of your team could be on the injured list (things like missing limbs could be explained away by a futuristic setting), and some might outright die and enter "the graveyard", where they are immortalized with their scores, skills, appearance, etc.
This would make a game where Medics are useful - you don't want to lose that guy you spent 2 hours maxing out his skills (ideally, I think that's as long as it should take, tops). You'd sure as hell appreciate the doc when you get revived on the field instead of dying of heart failure. People would actually use COVER and tactics to protect their investments of time.
Lastly, think of the achievments - longest survivor, etc. I think something like this could be fun if it were designed properly.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
So yet me see:
- teenager plays Halo 3 for weeks/months/years: does not kill anyone.
- same teenager *stops* playing said game for 1 day: shoots both parents.
So does that mean that playing the game *stopped* him killing real people ?
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.
Really? I killed my roommate after he accidentally wiped out a year's progress in my game of Nethack.
The father, a minister, had a 9mm handgun that the son, who played video games, used as the tool for his action.
So lets see.
Religion.
Guns.
Video Games.
Which one is not enshrined in U.S. culture and will therefore be blamed.
Addiction: Not dealt with until far too late.
Child: Not able to tell that 'murder' is a bad idea.
How is it anything other than the parents fault? They're responsible for 17 years of this child's development, and he ended up sufficiently screwed up to murder them as they slept. There's no one else you get to pass that responsibility on to.
He killed his mother and shot his father in the head. the father survived.
Daniel's plan was originally to make it look like a murder-suicide, by leaving the gun in his father's hand. After the shooting, Mark Petric said his son put the gun in his hand while saying, "Hey Dad, here's your gun. Take it."
The outrage is from people who are pissed that a manipulative evil piece of shit is trying to avoid a harsher punishment by blaming a hobby which most people here enjoy.
His first plan to avoid getting punished didn't work out so well but a judge seems to have bought into the "it was the videogames fault!",partly at least.
No, they're called retarded. There isn't a religon that I'm aware of that doesn't ackowledge that you cease to be a human upon death, and all of them believe its likely to be a one way trip. Some believe in an afterlife, some beleive we go back into a pool of life force, some believe in reincarnation. All of them believe your human life is over.
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It's called nationalism.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
I'd warrant, then, that the kid's probably had as much exposure to the Old Testament as he has to Halo 3. Personally, I'm not in favour of banning either, but if anything...
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" - Plato
That's justifiable homicide, as far as I am concerned.
Funny how the same sentiment is never expressed against the strawman arguments that flow endlessly in the other direction regarding the belief in an "invisible sky fairy".
There's a word for that: hypocrisy.
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
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." I know it has been quoted already, but seriously? I mean come on. My 5 year old son understands the fact that death is forever. And he has been playing games since he was old enough to hold a controller. Hell, I taught him how to snipe the pilots out of helicopters in Mercenaries when he was two. Also, why did the parents take the game away from the kid? My guess would be some kind of violent activity and they were taking his games away as punishment. The kid most likely had violent tendencies anyway.
Damn you guys are worse then the people who knock on my door twice a month.
It is kinda sad for a group of people without a religion or a belief in God(s), that you are are so instantiate to bring up your views on religion even when it isn't part of the topic. Get over it religion will be with us for our lifetimes. I haven't heard anyone give a good enough reason to prove that the Atheist are right, conversely I haven't heard a good reason to prove that religious people are right.
Lets compromise God exists 1/2 of the time. There is a solution that no one likes so therefor it must be a good compromise.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
From this article:
"According to prosectors, Petric, 16 at the time of the shooting, was forbidden to buy Halo 3 by his parents, Mark and Susan Petric. The teen snuck out to purchase the game anyway, and was caught by his parents upon his return. The game was locked up in Mark's lockbox, along with a 9mm handgun."
So no, a history of violence wasn't mentioned in the articles I have seen so far. However, it also says he didn't have a copy of the game.
From the same article:
"Lawyers for the accused delivered a brief statement at the opening of the trial, explaining that their client had be under a large amount of stress after being homebound for a year due to a snowboarding accident with nothing to do but watch television and play video games."
So, presumably he hadn't been playing the game elsewhere.
But don't worry...
"Dad, I'm so sorry for what I did to Mom, to you and to the family," Daniel Petric said, according to his father. "I'm so glad you are alive."
"You're my son," Mark Petric responded. "You're my boy."
Dad forgives him...
Daniel's plan was originally to make it look like a murder-suicide, by leaving the gun in his father's hand. After the shooting, Mark Petric said his son put the gun in his hand while saying, "Hey Dad, here's your gun. Take it."
Well there go the theories about him not thinking his parents would be permanently dead. I mean what would happen to the murder-suicide plan once the parents respawned?
It's called fanaticism. If it wasn't countries or religions it'd just be something else.
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
From this article: "According to prosectors, Petric, 16 at the time of the shooting, was forbidden to buy Halo 3 by his parents, Mark and Susan Petric. The teen snuck out to purchase the game anyway, and was caught by his parents upon his return. The game was locked up in Mark's lockbox, along with a 9mm handgun." So no, a history of violence wasn't mentioned in the articles I have seen so far. However, it also says he didn't have a copy of the game. From the same article: "Lawyers for the accused delivered a brief statement at the opening of the trial, explaining that their client had be under a large amount of stress after being homebound for a year due to a snowboarding accident with nothing to do but watch television and play video games." So, presumably he hadn't been playing the game elsewhere. But don't worry... "Dad, I'm so sorry for what I did to Mom, to you and to the family," Daniel Petric said, according to his father. "I'm so glad you are alive." "You're my son," Mark Petric responded. "You're my boy." Dad forgives him...
This is quite revealing. I think it's safe to say there is at least some degree of a lack of rationality in that family that is not Halo 3 related
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Oh excuse me, you're right, that was Lot. You remember him don't you? He was the hero of the story most modern Christians commonly use to assert that God hates fags. He saved some angels from homosexual rape by offering his daughters for rape instead, then later he got drunk and knocked-up those daughters himself (making him both the father and grandfather of two new tribes). Truly another one of our great biblical heroes for the kids to look up to. I guess marriage is between one man, one woman, the man's two daughters, and anyone who wants to rape the two daughters--as long as no dude buggers another dude.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I hate doing this because I'm not a Christian, but there is a lot of FUD among atheists with regard to the Bible. They use bad translations and don't interpret the text with the proper context, they just pick and choose specific lines and say here, this is proof of contradiction (ironically this is not so dissimilar of the behavior which they accuse Christians of only picking and choosing which parts to follow). You have to remember that the style of writing was vastly different than the style of today, so using modern day context to interpret a nearly 2000 year old text is just plain stupid. Even beyond the context of the chapter/book/testament they ignore the differences between the Old and New Covenants.
So atheists, until you actually go and bother to read the Bible and are willing to understand it within context it is presented, please stop passing this FUD around. On the other hand, criticizing the belief in religion is just fine and dandy. Trying to use evidence from a specific religion when you can't even interpret it in the proper context is just plain stupid.
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