A sick and highly disturbed Thai gamer and a fanatic of the Grand Auto Theft video game series has emulated the same pattern of killings seen in the game and killed a Thai taxi driver in real life.
Police officers watch as Polwat Chino (second from right) re-enacts his attack on a Taxi driver in Bangkok
Polwat Chino, 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.
He had paid to play the game at a local shop in Bangkok, and said he had needed more cash to continue playing it and that the taxi driver looked like an easy target.
Neighbours in the Bang Phlad district in central Bangkok called police after Mr Chino was heard pressing the car's horn while reversing down a dead end street. He had been trying to drive away - apparently in an attempt to recreate a scene from the game in which a criminal steals a car to evade police - but was unable to control a real car, police said.
The victim, a 54-year-old man from the poor northern province of Maha Sarakham, had been stabbed ten times.
A police spokesman said Mr Chino, an obsessive player of Grand Theft Auto, showed no sign of mental problems during questioning and had confessed to committing the crime because of the game.
In a statement, Mr Chino told police: "I needed money to play the game every day. My parents give me only 100 baht a day, which is not enough. I am also fed up with them fighting. They are civil servants and do not make good money."
"My mother gave me 500 baht, so in the evening I went to the Tesco Lotus superstore and bought two knives." Police have charged Mr Chino with robbery, causing death and possessing offensive weapons. If gound guilty, he faces death by lethal injection.
A senior official at Thailand's Culture Ministry, which has been pursuing tougher regulation of violent games such as Grand Theft Auto, said the murder was a wake-up call for authorities, and urged parents to take note of what their children were playing.
"This time-bomb has already exploded and the situation could get worse," the official was quoted as saying. "Today it is a cab driver but tomorrow it could be a video game shop owner." Thai authorities have been pushing for a rating system on video games, as well as restrictions on how long youths can spend playing games in video arcades.
Grand Theft Auto, which is published by the Scottish company Rockstar and has raised more than $1 billion (£500 million) this year, has been criticised for depicting violent scenes such as beatings, car-jackings, and drive-by shootings.
DCRJ's say on this: Grand Theft Auto deals with a theme of stealing cars, killing innocent bystanders, killing taxi cab drivers and prostitution to earn some points in the game, that's how sick the game is. There will always come a time when someone who is highly disturbed will want to replicate or emulate such 'fun' elements in real life. I have played the GTA game itself and saw a female giving a blowjob in all its pixelated glory inside the game sequences. Did you know that Grand Theft Auto pirated discs are selling like hot cakes in the Philippines ? Go to Greenhills, San Juan you'll be able to buy a bootleg/pirated copy of the whole Grand Theft Auto series. A time bomb is just waiting to explode in the Philippines. Lawmakers in the Philippines aren't that serious yet when it comes to video games, it's always too late as in the case of almost all other cases here in the Philippines.
article source : http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/
7 comments:
Oh look, someone else who thinks you get points in GTA. Let me guess, you've never played it and are going entirely on what you've read about it?
Thought so.
But hey, why deal with things like poverty and unemployment when such an easy scapegoat is available?
Apparently, the blogger has played the game (according to the blogger).
If so, I wonder about this:
"I have played the GTA game itself and saw a female giving a blowjob in all its pixelated glory inside the game sequences."
Which suggests very strongly that the blogger HASN'T played the game, since there are no graphic oral-sex scenes in the games, there's a lot of implied action, but no 'scene' of the act.
But as the first poster says, when stuff like this makes more people read your site, why bother with accuracy?
"A sick and highly disturbed Thai gamer and a fanatic of the Grand Auto Theft video game series has emulated the same pattern of killings seen in the game and killed a Thai taxi driver in real life. "
-No he wasn't emulating a pattern of killing. He only stabbed the taxi driver after the taxi driver fought back. This was a robbery gone wrong, plain and simple.
"He had been trying to drive away - apparently in an attempt to recreate a scene from the game in which a criminal steals a car to evade police - but was unable to control a real car, police said."
-Where did police say that he was recreating a car-theft scene? Guess what, they DIDN'T. He was stealing the car to get away. Keep your facts straight, please.
"If gound guilty, he faces death by lethal injection. "
-I was under the impression that since he confessed to the crime without resistance, he avoided the death penalty. I may be wrong though.
"Grand Theft Auto, which is published by the Scottish company Rockstar ..."
-Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but R* is a California based company, which last I checked was in the U.S. Not really a big deal here, except that it exemplifies the complete and reckless disregard for the truth exhibited by this blogger. The points that I've brought to light, coupled with the points brought up in the previous comments, should give any future readers a good idea as to the integrity and journalistic skills of DCRJ. But then, this is just a blog, and shouldn't really be taken seriously by anyone I suppose.
Rockstar North the maker of the GTA series is based in Scotland.
Anyhoo-this blogger has evidently got very little real understanding of either the game OR the robbery.
GTA doesn't have points or graphic sex, you are no rewarded for murdering civilians, in fact you are penalized for it as the police pursue you.
There are no 'scenes' of someone killing a taxi driver, least of all by stabbing (which you cannot do to them in the car) in the GTA series.
Killing anyone in the game is an act performed by the player of their own volition.
The FACT of the matter rather than the hysterical utter nonsense reported as 'fact' in this blog is that an ADULT who knew EXACTLY what he was doing, tried to rob a taxi driver for money, and then killed him when he fought back.
Blaming this crime on a SOFTWARE DISC is lamentably pathetic.
I am sorry but a 'videogames made me do it!' argument isn't going to stand up in any real courtroom as it is a completely false argument.
GTA has sold millions of copies worldwide, by the ridiculous reasoning of this blog GTA players such as myself and millions of other people all over the world should have gone on a killing rampage by now as the GTA series has been out for many many YEARS.
Guess the fact that this hasn't happened shows that this blogger needs to get his FACTS checked before coming out with rubbish such as he posted in this blog.
I am sorry but to read such ignorance about games and gamers makes me feel truly insulted.
"I have played the GTA game itself and saw a female giving a blowjob in all its pixelated glory inside the game sequences"
Are we even talking about the same game? Grand Theft Auto is a game series, not a single title that you've assumed it to be.
That, and the fact that you've pointed out a Blow Job - which does not happen in any of the games as far as I can, and my gamer friends can remember - verifies that your argument is erroneously inaccurate.
You can probably pull off that said scene with the Hot Coffee mod, but that would require you to edit the game's program codes, implying you'd have to be tehnically proficient to pull it off.
Do little more fact-checking before you jump to conclusions: At least two Thai bloggers have criticized the police's actions, citing that murders like this have been happening before, making this game ban smell like a scapegoat.
Take your fear-mongering elsewhere please.
I would recommend Grand Theft Childhood if you're looking for more information on this matter.
I think it's silly that people are getting up in arms. In america we have a saying, guns don't kill, people do. This person was a legal adult that took things into his own hands and killed a man. It's tragic, but it's a tragic because a man chose to do something horrible. The game didn't sit over his should and say "go into the world and kill a dude", the person decided ahead of time that he should.
Maybe if his parents had paid him more attention, a human would still be alive.
But don't blame the game. Or the music. Or the video. Or the book. These are all scapegoats for the uneducated.
You know, I'd like to list the number of violent games I've played and the number of violent TV shows I watched:
Voltes V
Daimos
Bioman
Maskman
Shaider
Mask Rider Black
G.I. Joe
Robocop
Doom
Heretic
Duke Nukem 3D
Quake
Quake II
Half-Life
Counterstrike
Grand Theft Auto Vice City
Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
I might have forgotten a few more but,
I wonder, while I grew up with violent media why I am NOT a murderer nor am I predisposed to violence of any form.
And I am NOT alone. A bunch of other people in my generation has grown up with this kind of blood, gore and immorality.
Am I abnormal? Is my generation abnormal? Or, maybe, that Thai kid IS the abnormal one?
What do you think?
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