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THIS story highlights how dangerous this so-called 'game' really is! It has turned this 18 year old child, who's parents describe him as 'polite' and 'diligent' into a homocidal maniac!!!
This game needs BANNED, and FAST!!
"He said he wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game," said chief police investigator Veeravit Pipattanasak... that just about says it all. 
This game needs BANNED, and FAST!!
Computer game linked to murder of taxi driver
Grand Theft Auto IV, the violent fantasy computer game, has run into fresh controversy after being linked to the murder of a Thai taxi driver whose alleged killer was said to be attempting to recreate a scene from the game.
Its distributor in Thailand, New Era Interactive Media, announced yesterday that it was halting sales of the best-seller after weekend reports that an 18-year-old high school pupil told police he had robbed and stabbed the 54-year-old driver to death after playing the game obsessively.
The teenager, described by his parents as polite and diligent, was arrested late on Saturday after he was found trying to steer a cab backwards out of a Bangkok street with the severely-wounded driver in the back seat, newspapers reported. He faces death by lethal injection if found guilty.
The incident is the latest in a string of controversies that Grand Theft Auto, created by Edinburgh-based games company Rockstar North, has courted. Tougher guidelines have been proposed in the UK to regulate games such as the GTA and Manhunt series - another Rockstar North production - while in America, Hillary Clinton has dubbed GTA a "major threat" to morality.
The fourth edition of the game, which sold 3.6 million copies on its first day of release, is based in a virtual city resembling New York in which players can take part in a range of gangland activities including beatings, carjackings, drive-by shootings, drunk driving and prostitution.
A senior official at Thailand's Culture Ministry said the murder was a wake-up call for authorities to tackle the issue of violent video games and urged parents to pay closer attention to what their children played.
Ladda Thangsupachai, director of the ministry's Cultural Surveillance Centre, told Reuters news agency: "This timebomb has already exploded and the situation could get worse. Today it is a cab driver but tomorrow it could be a video game shop owner."
Police said the youth showed no sign of mental problems during questioning and had confessed to committing the crime because of the game. "He said he wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game," said chief police investigator Veeravit Pipattanasak.
The suspect told police he did not mean to kill the driver, whom he had chosen as a possible victim because of his age, but that he stabbed him to death when he fought back, newspapers reported.
A multi-million dollar lawsuit was filed in the American state of Alabama against the makers and marketers of Grand Theft Auto in 2005, claiming that months of playing the game led a teenager to kill two police officers and an emergency services worker.
Attacks have also been levelled at Manhunt 2, which was subjected to a long-running feud between Take-Two, the New York-based parent company which owns Rockstar, and the British Board of Film Classification, which banned the game in 2005. The ban was overturned in the courts, meaning it can be sold with an 18 rating.
Ministers are considering moves to make classification of video games compulsory. At present, only about 10% - those which feature gross violence or offensive sexual images - are covered by an age-rating system. Other games come under a voluntary Europe-wide scheme, meaning that fewer than 3% carry an 18 certificate.
Grand Theft Auto IV, the violent fantasy computer game, has run into fresh controversy after being linked to the murder of a Thai taxi driver whose alleged killer was said to be attempting to recreate a scene from the game.
Its distributor in Thailand, New Era Interactive Media, announced yesterday that it was halting sales of the best-seller after weekend reports that an 18-year-old high school pupil told police he had robbed and stabbed the 54-year-old driver to death after playing the game obsessively.
The teenager, described by his parents as polite and diligent, was arrested late on Saturday after he was found trying to steer a cab backwards out of a Bangkok street with the severely-wounded driver in the back seat, newspapers reported. He faces death by lethal injection if found guilty.
The incident is the latest in a string of controversies that Grand Theft Auto, created by Edinburgh-based games company Rockstar North, has courted. Tougher guidelines have been proposed in the UK to regulate games such as the GTA and Manhunt series - another Rockstar North production - while in America, Hillary Clinton has dubbed GTA a "major threat" to morality.
The fourth edition of the game, which sold 3.6 million copies on its first day of release, is based in a virtual city resembling New York in which players can take part in a range of gangland activities including beatings, carjackings, drive-by shootings, drunk driving and prostitution.
A senior official at Thailand's Culture Ministry said the murder was a wake-up call for authorities to tackle the issue of violent video games and urged parents to pay closer attention to what their children played.
Ladda Thangsupachai, director of the ministry's Cultural Surveillance Centre, told Reuters news agency: "This timebomb has already exploded and the situation could get worse. Today it is a cab driver but tomorrow it could be a video game shop owner."
Police said the youth showed no sign of mental problems during questioning and had confessed to committing the crime because of the game. "He said he wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game," said chief police investigator Veeravit Pipattanasak.
The suspect told police he did not mean to kill the driver, whom he had chosen as a possible victim because of his age, but that he stabbed him to death when he fought back, newspapers reported.
A multi-million dollar lawsuit was filed in the American state of Alabama against the makers and marketers of Grand Theft Auto in 2005, claiming that months of playing the game led a teenager to kill two police officers and an emergency services worker.
Attacks have also been levelled at Manhunt 2, which was subjected to a long-running feud between Take-Two, the New York-based parent company which owns Rockstar, and the British Board of Film Classification, which banned the game in 2005. The ban was overturned in the courts, meaning it can be sold with an 18 rating.
Ministers are considering moves to make classification of video games compulsory. At present, only about 10% - those which feature gross violence or offensive sexual images - are covered by an age-rating system. Other games come under a voluntary Europe-wide scheme, meaning that fewer than 3% carry an 18 certificate.
Good point!
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