Murder Simulators: Difference between revisions

* In 1982, a man murdered an elderly couple with the media claiming the film ''[[Halloween (Film)|Halloween]] II'' inspired the killing. The guy did watch the movie, but the reason he committed the murder probably had more to do with the fact that he was shitfaced from a combination of booze, weed and PCP at the time of the killings.

* The British papers blamed the shocking murder of Jamie Bulger on ''[[Childs Play (Film)|Childs Play]] 3''. It was later established neither of the boys responsible had ever watched it.

* John Hinkley, the guy who shot [[Ronald Reagan]], was obsessed with ''[[Taxi Driver]]'' (specifically [[Jodie Foster]]) and the assassination attempt was a re-enactment of a scene in the movie. It should be noted that Hinkley was completely batshit insane, and the scene in question didn't involve {{spoiler|Travis Bickle}} actually shooting his target.

** There's also blame placed on Darwin for ''[[The Social Darwinist|Social Darwinism]]'' even though his theories [[Did Not Do the Research|explicitly dealt with physical evolution]] ''[[Did Not Do the Research|only]]''.

* Japan isn't immune from such things either. While the assumptions have lightened up, otaku ("obsessive" fans of various things; geeks or nerds) have been denoted as perverted men who [[Hikikomori|hole themselves up in their homes]] and do nothing but chat online. They apparently will attack young girls or stalk them. This stereotype/assumption was because of a [[Serial Killer]]/rapist was shown to have many horror films as well as various anime of questionable content. The media, of course, led to the conclusion all "otaku" are dangerous.

** Another anti-manga scare ensued in 1995, when the Aum Shinrikyo cult launched a terror attack on the Tokyo subway; they used manga as a promotional tool, their leader directly lifted some of his theology from '70s anime, and many of their recruits were disaffected [[Otaku]].

*** [http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-9802/msg00101.html Reportedly], the Aum Shinrikyo incident had eerie similarities to plot elements in the first draft of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', forcing rewrites to avoid controversy. Of course, ''Evangelion'' attracted plenty of controversial anyway...

** Ah yes, "Modest Video Game Proposal". He promised to donate to charity if it would actually be made. When it WAS made, by different people (most famous would be "I'm O.K: Murder Simulation"), he said it was a joke and he would not donate. So what happens? [[Penny Arcade]] donates the sum he said he would donate, with Jack Thompson's name and text [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|"From Jack Thompson, because Jack Thompson won't".]] Cue to Thompson trying to have the creators [[You Fail Law Forever|arrested ''for extortion and criminal harassment'']].

* As of ''American Amusement Machine Association v. Kendrick'' in 2001, the American judiciary does not consider there to be enough evidence to argue that video game violence leads to real violence. A work that deliberately incited violence would be subject to ban under the 1942 case of ''Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire'', and the ''Kendrick'' case noted that a photorealistic, plot-free, grotesquely violent game might be ban-worthy, but neither applies to, say, ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'', the game that was to be banned in the ''Kendrick'' case. (The judge also noted that ''Mortal Kombat'' has positive themes as well as negative ones--for instance, the female fighters are [[Action Girl|just as powerful as the male ones]].)

* Shortly after [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10513994 Raoul Moat] went on a killing spree after murdering his ex-girlfriend's lover as well as injuring her, the ''[[British Newspapers|Daily Star]]'' ran an article claiming that the Scotland-based Rockstar North was planning on making him the star of the next ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' game, even [[Kick the Dog|bothering a griving victim for a quote]]. In the backlash that followed, the journalist in question began criticising gamers for calling him out on his bull (trying to frame it as him being criticised for reporting it, rather than for outright lying in his blog). Luckily, in this case sanity prevailed and the ''Daily Star'' was [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-11467287 successfully sued for libel].

* In Britain, the gutter press, in their quest to prove that you can blame absolutely anything on violent video games, blamed riots on ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]''. Not the shooting of a man who pulled a gun on police being morphed into claims of [[Police Brutality]]. Not the simmering class and ethnic tensions in the UK. Not the poor economy. Not the fact that police funding had been cut in the name of austerity. Not mob mentality, where if one person acts out the rest landslides. No, they blamed ''GTA''. For people ''rioting''. ''Years after any entries in the series were released''. The only GTA game to feature rioting as anything beyond an easter egg code is ''San Andreas'' which was based on the Rodney King riots... which were caused by claims of [[Police Brutality]], racial tensions and high unemployment.

[[Category:Videogame Culture]]

[[Category:Murder Simulators]]