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You can read about it here.

Not wanting to turn a news post into an article, I’m probably going to…

While I find it very sad that people have died, I do not understand what basis there is for blaming the actions of this young man on GTA. You can guarantee that if GTA had never existed, someone who obviously suffers from some form of mental illness (please note – mental illness is not a derogatory term, go read about it) such as this would have found something else that would have had consequence to either himself or others. The fact that this particular youngster found himself doing these things is nothing to do with GTA, it is to do with his mind and it’s own problems.

Additionally while I’m on a roll, let’s bring up a discussion about the JFK Reloaded game and the ‘disaster game’ (which I cannot remember the name of) which simulated an escape from the Twin Towers…

I am a logically minded person on things like this, one which thinks that the death of one person (JFK) or the deaths (or in this case, survival) of a person, is no more ‘sick’ than a 1st person shooter such as Medal of Honor, where you run around shooting hundreds or thousands of German soldiers in order to re-live an event of mission during a war in which not one, not a few thousand – but millions of soldiers and innocent people died in whatever circumstances.

I remember how I felt watching the news on 9/11, I consider myself fairly in-tune with the American psyche on that event, but I have a broad enough mind to accept that if I was to play a game where I shot JFK – it’s no worse than playing any other game where I shoot any other innocent, or indeed any ‘Nazi’ soldier. A life is a life.

Additionally, I’d be interested to hear debate on whether driving a Goodwrench #3 at Daytona with a 2001 carset (ie; simulating the 2001 season) is considered to be good taste? You are in effect re-enacting the event in which Dale Earnhardt died. How is this worse than playing the part of someone who escapes from the Twin Towers?

The gaming industry is a gaming industry. Time does not heal certain wounds. While it has been a long time since JFK was shot, why are people less inclined to accept a game where you shoot him, than accept a game based on events 300 years ago where you do much the same kind of thing with a primitive gun. Is it because the event was in our lifetime? Surely that can’t be right, how can we force views right now which our children will probably not care less about? Why are we blaming the gaming industry for things like this? Because it’s the easy answer? I think so…