Violence at GTA IV Launch day

[Nitrof1]

A man was stabbed in front of a queue of people waiting to buy the latest edition of a computer game.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7373348.stm

some people have no brain. 👎

 

[TheCracker]

some people have no brain. 👎

I know, what kind of moron would bother sitting outside a shop at midnight to buy a game they could pick up the next morning

 

[Scaff]

Particularly as it appears to actually have had little to do with GTA IV

The so-called 'GTA stabbing' reported to have taken place outside a GameStation store in Croydon, East London, had absolutely nothing to do with Grand Theft Auto, a GamesStation source has confirmed to GamesRadar.

Our source revealed that the account of a witness appeared to contradict the knee-jerk news published yesterday, which claimed the man stabbed was a member of the queue waiting for the store's midnight launch of GTA IV.

"The victim had categorically not pre-ordered the game," our source told us, "and GameStation is confident that he was not a GameStation customer, neither was he a part of the queue outside the Croydon store".


(Source: Metro, Wednesday April 30, 2008)

Our source suggests that the incident was triggered by a number of beer-addled pub-goers, who poured out onto the street opposite the store where punters were queuing. The crowd of drinkers were hurling light-hearted jibes at the gamers, when drinkers leaving a nearby pub also joined in with the shouting. Our source believes that police will find the stabbing resulted from a member of the pub crowd or someone walking past the GameStation queue assuming the insults were directed at them.

Yesterday many news websites ran stories claiming that "a man was stabbed repeatedly in a queue of fans waiting to buy [GTA IV]" (Source: DailyMail.co.uk), and the incident is covered again in this morning's Metro newspaper, under the headline "GTA violence kicks off ...in queue for the game". This, according to our source, is most certainly not the case.


(Source: The Sun, Wednesday April 30, 2008)

In fact, according to our source, it seems that the stabbing incident itself did not even take place near the GameStation store, as reported by many news outlets, but nearly a quarter of a mile away in the area of East Croydon Station.

Source - http://www.gamesradar.com/ps3/grand...a-20080430102550859040/g-20060313153735796095

Don't you just love great reporting.


Scaff

 

[Touring Mars]

Well, one thing is for sure - they can't blame the gratuitous violence in GTA:IV, since this crime occurred before the game was even released! The link between this single violent incident and the nature of the game is, I'd wager, entirely coincidental...

If there is a connection between game content and consumer behaviour, however, then just imagine what the queue for Gran Turismo 5 is going to be like... Most people who really take the game seriously will be near the front of the queue, well-mannered and minding their own business, and then some thugs come along and push infront of you... After some skillful maneuvering, you briefly regain your place infront of them, only to be deliberately barged out of the way, knocking you in to some nearby shrubbery. You quit that queue in disgust and join another one. This time, you recognise a few more people, but alas there are still some people who seem hell-bent on trying to force their way to the front. Determined not to sink to their level, you decide to hold your position as best you can without lashing out in retaliation, but alas a few cretins still don't seem to understand that it is not getting to the front of the queue that is important, but how you get there!

 

[LaBounti]

The media is the root of all evil. Thats been well known for about 50 years now lol.

 

[H3rmaN]

*yawn* Yet more violence and more propoganda blaming games for it!