Halo 3 Criticized In Murder Conviction

Post by **Roman Totale** » January 14th, 2009, 18:22

Bearing in mind that Halo 3 is just over a year old, he must have pretty shitty parents/teachers/peers not to have realised that in-game death and IRL death are completely different by the time he was 16. Has Jack Thomson crawled out of his pit yet?

Also in unrelated news, don't know if it's been mentioned here yet but lol @ 4chan being the featured article on Wikipedia. I just imagine them now...

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 14th, 2009, 18:32

The Shutting Downs wrote:If, at 17 years old,...

Age has little to do with anything in the completely fucking insane.

Post by **Joose** » January 14th, 2009, 18:50

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:Age has little to do with anything in the completely fucking insane.

Roman Totale wrote:Bearing in mind that Halo 3 is just over a year old, he must have pretty shitty parents/teachers/peers not to have realised that in-game death and IRL death are completely different by the time he was 16.

If he's not learnt that dying is permanent by age 16, a game is not going to make him significantly worse. So arguing that he didn't know they would stay dead because of Halo 3 is patently ridiculous.

The Shutting Downs · Post by **The Shutting Downs** » January 14th, 2009, 18:52

I have no problem with that, the guy doesn't look all there.

I'm arguing this bit:

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."

See my previous point.

tehspork · Post by **tehspork** » January 16th, 2009, 3:07

This was posted on the internets a while ago. I think that original article stated that the boy didn't even get to play the game, as his father confiscated it after he found out that he bought it. How can a game he hasn't played cause this? If that defense stands, I'm go off and say that Duke Nukem Forever made me violent.

edit: found teh links
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2007/10 ... iller.html

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/12 ... ad_ov.html

excerpt: Also on Monday, a tearful Mark Petric testified that his son came up behind him as he sat on the couch and said, "Would you guys close your eyes? I have a surprise for you."
Petric, 45, said he "expected a pleasant surprise" and closed his eyes. Then his head went numb. As the blood poured from a bullet wound in his head, he realized his wife, Susan Petric, 43, was lying dead on a nearby loveseat, shot in the head, arms and chest.

Fred Woogle · Post by **Fred Woogle** » January 16th, 2009, 4:02

This bit does it for me

"Daniel fled after his sister and her husband arrived at the house, taking the Halo 3 game with him."

Post by **FatherJack** » January 16th, 2009, 13:34

His father (a Pastor) forbade the games (the Halo series), saying that were too violent and sexually explicit.

He then locked it in a strongbox with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun.

I must have missed the sex scenes when I was playing them.

Post by **Dog Pants** » January 16th, 2009, 16:19

Good call Dad, worked a treat.

centerededgedesign · Post by **centerededgedesign** » January 17th, 2009, 11:24

Well, I'd have to say we're all aware that this single episode of stupidity and violence that just happened to involve a videogame, and the courts (I say court because both the judge and the defense made comments about games and their affects) tried to explain away the stupidity of a MINOR with the effects of a video game.

They FAIL terribly to notice that video games have come a helluva long way since pong. They've risen to an art form, are taught as courses in college, create thousands of jobs, and enrich people's lives. Would it be a fair argument to say that this site might not have existed if it weren't for games and the passionate following of it's players? Has this site not provided a service to many of it's occupants? I know for one I never would have run into it had it not been for meeting somebody IN A GAME! This site, (and countless others that wish it could be this cool) connect people from the brick/mortar world and expose them to people tha they normally wouldn't have met, thus enriching their lives.

Video games remain just that though, games. For those that take it beyond their place in the world, (the mentally imbalanced) there does need to be some control in place, like maybe a combination lock on the box with the boomstick in it, and a key lock on the trigger. Hell, one could make the argument that the father/pastor was the one at fault for keeping a gun in the home of an insane person, regardless of what the cause of insanity was. Hell, it's probably peer pressure from kids at school that had played the game and chided him for being so backwards. I truly doubt we'll ever know the full truth of the matter, now that the media is involved.

Edit: I would also point out that it's likely a case of poor parenting as well! Denying a child what they want most, and failing to realize how it affected them, and then failing to realize that you're not properly securing a DEADLY WEAPON, and storing the game with said weapon?

So, back to the point I was making. Games are GAMES! Just like hockey/football/airplane racing, life as we know it would exist without them, they add to our lives in numerous and indirect ways, and all have their dramas and deaths, because they all involve PEOPLE!

So, in closing, I suggest we ban PEOPLE, not video games. We're the ones that cock up everything, not those lovely pixels!