You wonder when all of this sort of carry on will stop. String of violent crimes.... what do we blame? Poverty? No. Easy access to guns? No. Cheap drugs on the streets? No. Corruption in the police force? No. No. No.

No, as always, its better to blame media and popular culture in some fashion. Where first we had a whole spate of attacks on so called "video nasties" in the 80's, resulting in a number of perfectly good and often well made and artistic movies being banned, so now its the turn of.... wait for it.... wait for it....

Computer games! Yes, computer games are the new enemy. Violent ones make you want to go and kill people you know. Don't laugh, its true. The next time I shoot that cybernetic troll with my trusty rocket launcher, I had better stop and remind myself that its "not real", before I go out and open fire in a shopping mall or something.... "Die Lady!" "Die Shopkeeper!" "Die innocent by-stander!" You have taken the lead! Yeah, right...

At least, this is what Honduras' government seem to believe. They've got a whole crime wave explained by the likes of Quake, Resident Evil, Shadowman, Street Fighter, Turok, Perfect Dark, Doom....

Of course, that means that its got absolutely nothing to do with poverty and other social problems, then. Yes, Quake III is to blame for gang related violence. Yes.

More here at theregister.co.uk

O M G .
This is stupidity to a new degree never before seen! The article states (and has proof) that the country has 53% of its population under the poverty line... Hmmm, i'm sure playing all the latest games (that cost at least 65 dollars US each, not including the price of a console or a PC) are to blame. No wonder that country is so poor (they say its one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere here), its run by a group of dumbasses!!!

Originally posted by Phantasm66
...and remind myself that its "not real", before I go out and open fire in a shopping mall or something.... "Die Lady!" "Die Shopkeeper!" "Die innocent by-stander!"


Ye - I can see it now, the bloke shouting over the tannoy in shopping malls :- "[SIZE=3]G O D L I K E[/SIZE]" & "[SIZE=3]R A M P A G E[/SIZE]"

rusty, that's exactly how stupid this is. just because i score a frag in quake III on-line I'm gonna go out killing people just in the game? its so silly.

essentially, though, i am sure that the people making these laws know that its rubbish. its just a scape-goat. the true is, these kinds of high crime waves are the fault of the government that's in power, ultimately.

Well, it's allways easier to blame someone else, than doing something about the problem yourself... Boy, did I ever learn that lesson after I got into politics...

But then again, there are no easy answers when it comes to powerty and crime... You can't just "cure" the problem overnight

But considering it comes so shortly after an election, it isn't really all that surprising... The government wants to be seen taking action against crime, and this is one way of showing it, which at least get press coverage... That it won't do diddely squat about the problem is another thing...

Hopefully they'll implement other programs which'll have an effect on the crime and powerty, though these'll take longer to implement.

Besides, does it really matter to the people in Honduras if they are allowed to play computergames or not? Since most are so poor, I guess it doesn't really affect them currently, and when it does, they'll probably get the ban lifted... [/RANT]

.02$

People don't take responsibility for their own problems - Just like Garabaldi said - And this is the result. There will still be just as much violent, only a bunch of kids popped up on drugs because they don't have any good games to play anymore.

It's always easier to blame a faceless entity... I lived in South America for quite some time (Venezuela), and while some countries down there are better than others, they all have one thing in common: Ignorance.

If that sorta thing happens here, you can just imagine how much worst it's down there where people's rights and liberties aren't as respected as in the US.

Lets just say I'm glad I live here. Anyway, if Honduras just found out about Quake, just wait 'till they get a hold of King Pin, Max Payne, Mafia and the rest... LOL

Blaming an unrealistic game in the first place (Quake) is ludicrous. I doubt the people who made this law have even played it! I notice they haven't banned games such as Max Payne, and a few WW2 FPS'...RtCW, MoH:AA, BF1942, DoD, etc.

Plus, I'm sure the only people that can even afford a gun in the first place is either a drug dealer or a radical terrorist, who, of course, probably aren't motivated by video games

Well even less poor countries have the same stupid reactions. It wasn't long ago that all games were banned in Greece. In their case, it was supposed to fight the gambling problem.

Seems to me, video games is an easy scape-goat for all social problems. Heck, people might start blaming video games for drunk drivers too.

IMO it is the parents problem as far as limiting a childs access to ANYTING goes. If the parents dont' care, then the child is probably going to do whatever they want, and even if the parent's care, they will do what they want anyway.
All it comes down to is the parents ability to monitor the child's activity, online or not.

That's the problem nowadays. People want everything. They want a career & at the same time they want a familly. It's impossible to devote the same attention to both. One of them will have to suffer so that the other one can blossom. It just happens that parents choose their career over their familly.

Kids these days have very little sense of morals or values, & that's mostly because their parents are too busy to spend time with them. They're left on their own with TV, video games, music with no one to tell them what's right from wrong.

There's a high school not too far from my house & I often walk in front of it on my way home. Sometimes I get shocked when I hear how kids talk to their parents. I would never say curse words in front of my mom or dad because I knew that if I did, I'd get my butt handed to me in 2 minutes.

So here's my word of advice to the parents out there : SPANK THEM & LET THEM KNOW WHO'S THEIR DADDY ( or mommy ) !!!

I know this is a reply to an old post but I can't help opening a can of worms:

I believe that alot of people who protest against stuff know only a basic idea of what they're protesting against. This is a good case: Someone who only saw someone playing Quake and blowing stuff up with guns, but never really played it are protesting against it. How do you know that someone will become violent playing such a game? If I played it, and felt like giong out and killing someone with a railgun, I'd let someone know so they can ban it.

Same thing applies to gm foods, nuclear power plants, stem cell research.... and the list goes on. If they don't understand it, expect them to protest it.

There isn't any one single cause. The Columbine perps were quite well-to-do, however they were into violent games. Was poverty the cause? Were the games?

It's easier for a country to fix one small part of the problem, then to fix their whole economy. And no one yet in the history of mankind has figured out how to fix a gang problem.

I doubt anyone anywhere believes games are solely the cause. But they are something that they can do something about.

Personally, I do think games can have an affect of a person's view of things. The human brain is programmable. The programming is the whole of the inputs you provide. People who play violent games during all their free time are putting some real crap programming into their head. I refuse to play any game that rewards killing/harming of innocents, like the Grand Theft type of game. If I'm going to kill, it's going to be some green-slime spewing, brain-sucking alien bent on the destruction of humanity.

The human brain is programmable, but there are still limits. Chimps can tell the difference between real and fake without being taught, what more can humans do?

Are you also saying that the generation who played Pac Man during all their free time will go around chomping on cookies in a maze, while chasing (or running away from) ghosts?

As a matter of principle, I also don't play Grand Theft Auto kind of games, but I must admit that I was a big fan of Dungeon Keeper (and DK2), but I think that doesn't count.


And don't you also think that it is a ready excuse for the problems in Columbia? "Hey, we've got a problem with people killing each other. Its either due to gangsterism but I think I'll blame video games since its much easier to do something about."

shoot I remember when parents were screaming in the 80s that D&D was satanic and it turned kids into devil worshipers. Of course there was always an element of that crowd that was also into D&D, but I found it a little extreme.

D&D turning people into Devil worshippers? I've not heard that one before :P

Seriously, I can't see anyone becoming a gun toting murderer because of a computer game. Besides, we're not talking about 4 year old here, where you get Sesame Street putting the cookie monster on cold turkey treatment. I mean, if we do whatever we interact with (watch, hear, listen, etc), why do smoking cessation programs keep failing? Heck, why are there even new smokers out there?

oh jeeze, don't get me started on that topic (no smoking). I am SICK of anti-smoking nazis.

I enjoy a good cigar every now and then and once in a blue moon even a cigarette, although I liken cigarettes to going to a strip club, it gets you hard but does nothing for you. At least a cigar has flavor, lasts a long time, and takes the edge off a rough day.

Smoking for me is a pleasure, not a habit. Just like people who like to drink, or go to clubs, or ride motorcycles.

Amen Ted. You forgot to add that they promote longevity (check out Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, George Burns, all avid cigar smokers, all living well into their 70s, 90s, even past 100). And XenaWP, who at 3-5/day, should make it to 80 or so

I just had a health physical and I'm doing fine except for my cholesterol and it's do to my eating habits plus genetics. In fact, my heart was rated so good, it read abnormal for HYPOtension. (not hyper!)

This anti-smoking garbage really gets on my nerves, you can hardly smoke in a restaurant anymore and so I rarely eat out now with my wife except at Indian casinos where it is still legal.