Friday, 30th of July 2004
Friday rant time.
This really gets to me. As tragic as 2 kids murdering one another is, the way the media grab hold of it and turn it into something ridiculous mystifies me.
The Sun today had a 2 page article citing a whole heap of “violent” games, some of which I’ve completed and they didn’t make me want to go stab someone or hit them with a baseball bat.
Maybe certain types of people are unstable, mentally, and they just need a trigger to set them off. This is a possibility, but in that case, surely movies and television are more to blame.
Manhunt, the game that allegedly inspired this murder, involves a fictional character, being thrust into a fictional environment where he is being hunted by violent thugs. He must kill these guys in order to escape and survive.
However, a couple of weeks ago, I saw Farenheight 911, which is rated 15, so this kid could easily have gone to see that instead. It showed REAL violence, people shooting and killing each other, someone being beheaded, and crying families picking up dead children and limbs of their loved ones.
How can a pixelated fictional character in a GAME be considered more violent and mentally disturbing than that? Why isn’t entertainment that’s socially acceptable for ADULTS ever subjected to the same criticism that computer games are??
Kids might not be grown-ups. But they probably don’t want to be, because WE’RE ALL A BUNCH OF HYPOCRITICAL ******.
