GTA3 to blame for crime spree

Post by natslovR @ 12:08pm 20/02/02 | 35 Comments

I just love news items like this. Doug Gentile is reported in this article as linking Grand Theft Auto 3 and a one man crime spree that occurred last week as the crime spree bore 'striking similarities' to those that occur in the game.

"There are a number of striking similarities between what happened in New York and the game 'Grand Theft Auto III... First of all, shooting innocent civilians and robbing them, [then] taking a car and attempting to drive down pedestrians with the intent to injure them. ... Getting rid of the car once it's been damaged. ... Running away from the police on foot. Hijacking another car at gunpoint and then taking that car and continuing the cycle, running down more pedestrians. ... The similarities are very striking."

Doug's employer, The National Institute on Media and the Family, are responsible for wonderful documents like 6th Annual Video and Computer Game Report Card. It isn't mentioned on their site, but I believe the Doug and his pals are in desperate need of some cluepons - maybe we can help them out.

grand theft auto 3

Latest Comments

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shock
Posted 12:19pm 20/2/02

Pfft - nothing new here - just lazy journalism. Doug Gentile is glad for the publicity - sending him email simply confirms that he's doing the right thing, by contacting lazy journalists and beating his chest, he's getting his message out.

Don't give in to it - spend your quality email-typing minutes trying to convince someone who actually matters, or write a letter to the editor, or an article yourself.

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Zen Apathy
Posted 12:28pm 20/2/02

In other news, Jackhammer simulator linked to proper use of Jackhammer by someone who already used a Jackhammer properly.

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scuzzy
Posted 12:31pm 20/2/02

Hey cool, were the GTA3 devlopers the first people to invent crime!

THINK OF TEH CHILDRENS!

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Zen Apathy
Posted 12:34pm 20/2/02

There are no reports that Popadich played that game, or anything similar to it.

Yet they still write this crap! Last time I checked you needed proof to prove something, not conjecture.

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trog
Posted 12:35pm 20/2/02

Ahhh, the Internet - the haven for uninformed opinion.

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scene
Posted 12:42pm 20/2/02

What exactly are they proving again? The article is all about conjecture. They weren't stating anything unreasonable as fact.

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Locke
Posted 12:48pm 20/2/02

Sounds fair to me, I mean, I reckon Slobadam Milosevic was doing some things similar to the game Red Alert, so we should blame Red Alert and not the f***ed up people.

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Pharcyde
Posted 12:53pm 20/2/02

1 thing I wanna know... will this mean that GTA3 will be taken off the shelves again?

because, I just rented the game and I am in love with it, and Im gonna buy it when i get cash... maybe i should go into hock for it just in case its gonna get banned again :D

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Rodolphe
Posted 12:56pm 20/2/02

GTA3 to blame for crime spree

I could swear the person who did the crime is reponsible for their own actions.

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WarT
Posted 10:56am 21/2/02

* N U K E D *

By Saint

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thraxjor
Posted 01:26pm 20/2/02

Dame I should blame those people that made Counter-Strike for the WTC Bombing�

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Vash
Posted 01:54pm 20/2/02

right on

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Shotty
Posted 02:02pm 20/2/02

a = b
a�=ab
a�-b�=ab-b�
(a-b)(a+b)=b(a-b)
a+b=b
a+a=a
2a = a
or 2 = 1 if a = 1

I remember my maths teacher proving that wrong in high school. Don't remember how though.

1 thing I wanna know... will this mean that GTA3 will be taken off the shelves again?

The only thing they took out the first time they recalled it was the ability to pick up prostitutes. Or so the EB guy tells me.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 02:04pm 20/2/02

Actaully you cant aguee that it Didnt resemble GTA3.

However, it could also resemble GTA2 and GTA1...
Perhaps the game DID have an effect on this guy. This guy was probably on the edge of going baserk something pushed him over the edge so he went 'F*** It'

Then went about and did what he did. The game only gave him an idea of something to do. If it was left up to his imagineation, I'm sure he coulda done alot worse when he flipped...

Coulda been worse.He coulda stormed an office with many guns.. O wait thats been done (lucky no games resembled that one).

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asshat
Posted 02:14pm 20/2/02

its as stupid as the guy who got drunk crashed his car and killed 2 ppl and then blaimed on it on the beer company for makeing the beer taste so nice.

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Bah
Posted 02:20pm 20/2/02

(a-b) = 0

You can't divide by zero.

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Cailean
Posted 02:36pm 20/2/02

Check out the poll results on that article.

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Stokesy
Posted 02:40pm 20/2/02

i was seriosly waiting for violence to be blamed on gta3,
pfft, th media is preditable

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dais
Posted 02:50pm 20/2/02

Yeah like cailean said, at least the readers aren't retarded.

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Kaizen
Posted 03:36pm 20/2/02

hehe, go the poll. when i check it out 91% of 860 people voted "No, Not at All" to the question "Do you think video games like Grand Theft Auto encourage people to do violent acts?"

i am not surprised that all violence done by a young male isn't blamed on computer games, wait... most are arent they?

BLAME THE GOD DAMN PARENTS FFS!

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Phalanx
Posted 04:16pm 20/2/02

he probably was so pissed off that he couldn't rent "enemy at the gates" which i was a week ago when i couldn't get it, so he thought, why not get a game and relax, so he went a rented gta3, what he didn't know was that gta3 was very violent, and this angered him even more. Now with his stereotypical instinct road rage combined with his failure to get "enemy at the gates" and his increased anger at gta3, he thought he might run over some people and bust a cap

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Phalanx
Posted 04:20pm 20/2/02

i blame the media for all the violence it delivers to the people of the world

and i also blame Doug Gentile for having a gay last name and stop trying to get us to do your maths homework !

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[sico]
Posted 05:05pm 20/2/02

medal of honour: allied assult caused world war 2.

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Suhaib
Posted 05:10pm 20/2/02

thats just plain stupid. People like this need to be killed.

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Kane
Posted 06:03pm 20/2/02

Tollaz0r: no game with storming offices with guns? ahem, Max Payne anyone?

still, here we go again, gamers vs media... so sick of that s***...

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Moridin
Posted 03:55am 21/2/02

Am I the only one who finds that math sig unbearably pretentious? Damn. Oh well.

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Saint
Posted 10:56am 21/2/02

medal of honour: allied assult caused world war 2.

Haha good call :)

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PiR8
Posted 11:12am 21/2/02

God damn this games casue violence is a load of BS its the person who does it and i think everyone should be able to handle a comptuer game and not be influenced by it in that way.

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Tollaz0r!
Posted 11:35am 21/2/02

I rekon people are influenced by games. After all we are everything around us..

Now, This guy was probably going to go baserk anyway, he woulda done something else and gta probably influenced his thoughts a little. It probably didnt make him do it, just gave him an idea of something to do when he goes berserk. In which case there are farr more scarry things in movies that he coulda done (Hannible anyone?)

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BillyHardball
Posted 11:39am 21/2/02

put enough stupid ppl in the same country (eg USA) and on a really long time scale anything will happen. There are prolly people eating thai mixed with ice cream on the roof of their neighbours dog's house while their baby's are crying for some morphine they oh so dearly want. a man jumps from a moving bus only to land on a fire hydrant and sues the city council for not providing more safely 'rounded' hydrants like the ones you see in hannah babara cartoons. three trees attempt to sue their gardener after their kite got stuck in a tree, and in attempting to retrieve the kite the tree gets struck by lightning, rendering one of the boys blind and deaf. 'the gardener is responsible for keeping the trees cut at a safe height'.

boo hiss. conclusion. ppl r dumb and fish will inherit the earth.

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Vash
Posted 12:29pm 21/2/02

course gta3 is to blame
its the offical training program for criminals, keep up the good work rockstar or whoever makes it

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ScGamer
Posted 04:14pm 26/2/02

If it wasn't for GTA3, I would have done the following things in rela life:
"shooting innocent civilians and robbing them, [then] taking a car and attempting to drive down pedestrians with the intent to injure them. ... Getting rid of the car once it's been damaged. ... Running away from the police on foot. Hijacking another car at gunpoint and then taking that car and continuing the cycle, running down more pedestrians. ... ".

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maxe
Posted 04:42pm 26/2/02

Does that mean we can be completeley blameless for any crime we choose to commit as long as we have the appropriate game installed on our home computers?!

WOHOO!

*install lesiure suit larry and soldier of fortune*

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Pharcyde
Posted 04:47pm 26/2/02

hahahaha

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doober
Posted 12:48am 27/2/02

i think most people here agree that the author was a tosspot so lets skip the 1001 comments pointing that out and get to something original about this.

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