Hell no. Sorreh if you think Im being ignorant here, but I dont see how anyone can blame a game because of murder. If it did contribute enough to make them kill, then thats fair evidence the kid was severely messed up in the first place.

yes i agree with that... however, this is america ;)

I've played GTA (and all its subsequent sequals) many many times. I also play a ton of first person shooters for hours and hours, some of which are very gory and realistic. I have yet to kill anyone! Amazing eh?

I think you will find this ploy to blame the game is just a scape goat that the lawyer is using to try to prove his client "innocent". If you can blame the game, then the "kid" is "innocent", right? "The GAME MADE him do it". Its the biggest load of crap I have ever heard. What about all the people who kill and have never played a video game in their life? By the sheer volume of people who play video games, you are bound to get some "killers" in there. There is a reason those games are rated Mature. Children aren't supposed to be playing them because children are impressionable and have a less strong right and wrong "meter". Parents are just too lazy to keep their kids out of trouble and from watching movies and games that aren't age appropriate. And if people give easy access to a loaded gun to children or to people who are mentally unstable, then they are partly to blame, not some game.

I just see people blaming all their problems, issues, and actions on everyone and everything but themselves. As far as I know, we all still have personal CHOICE. No one is making anyone do anything. Start taking responsibily for your own actions!

Perfectly true. It wouldnt surprise me either if the parents of the kid tried to sue the makers of the game, then sell their story to the highest paying magazine. Is just the way of the world I guess..

^ Yeah, no doubt. "Lets take a terrible tragidy and make money off of it!!". That would be the first time anyone did that...

Hah, like with the poverty bracelts that people sell for their own profit? I should really stop bringing that up... Has nothing to do with this really. It just irritates me.

yeah, true. it's still kind of strange that they blame it on the game because the kid was 16 when he bought that game so he must have had some sense of what's reality and what's just a game! i don't even remember how young i was when i watched my first r-rated movie!
it's the victim's parents that are doing this and the guy might get the death penalty i heard, i don't know where they are since it's illegal in some places

whats illegal? killing people?

^ death penalty.....

in response to phoenix flames, i can see how you say that we have personal choice but the issue at hand i think is whether or not the boy was influenced to the degree until he killed someone..... just as listening to a certain band may influence you when creating your own music, playing a gamme may influence your actions.... im not saying the game caused it, but i think it needs to be looked at.... there are ratings for a reason.....

I agree, and to some extent we are influenced by everything we see. As I stated in my post, there is definatly a reason such things are rated mature. Studies say that children aren't able to distinguish reality from fantasy as well as adults, and as we all know, children are easily impressionable.

I'm not saying games don't influence people, but I think those that snap and kill others were probably going to do it at some point anyway, reguardless of the game. These games are made for adults and should only be played by adults (which I think we all agree on). If he started playing the game at 16, then appearently his parents wern't doing the job they should have, whether or not the game influenced him.

You are right that music you listen to can influence the music you create, but that is a far cry away from games influencing you to kill people. And as has been said before (just not here), millions of people play these games, and it is only a very small few who are "influenced" to kill people.