Milton police and the
federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
investigated the firebombings that occurred overnight July 24. Two
Mercedes and one Honda Accord were burned, three Molotov cocktails
missed their target and one was found unused.
"Grand Theft Auto" is a computer game series that has been blamed
for inciting juvenile crime sprees in the United States and globally,
including murder and carjacking, police said.
"This case is another strong example of the serious ramifications
that can come from letting impressionable teens play violent video
games like this one," Lagerbloom said. "We urge parents to pay
particular attention to their children's extracurricular activities and
to intervene before it's too late."
I went to Game Stop yesterday to preorder Warhammer Online & Too Human and I was standing next to a man and his son buying a used 360 and Grand Theft Auto 4. I was REALLY impressed with the cashier at the store, he literally went through a miranda-like schpeel about the violence, allusions to sex and partial nudity in the game. It sounded very practiced and almost tired, but I give him credit for letting the dad know he was buying a game like that and that the store needed the OK. The dad looked at his son and said OK (as if he felt a little guilty because I and a few other people were listening to them in line) but proceeded to buy the game. I am totally cool with this. I would not buy the game for my kid personally, but thats every parents decision and more power too them if they want to. THE RATINGS ARE THERE. I am a firm believer that a rating system is in place for parents to use (if they decided to) and it is the responsibility of the store to NOT SELL under age gamers these products. It really isn't all to confusing.
Thats why I find the quotes like the one in the article above pretty useless. I also do give the AJC props though for quoting Lawrence Kutner in the article.
The GTA series as a whole has never really been a blockbuster series imho, they are fun to play and I may rent GTA 4 some day, but I don't see myself camping out to get any of it's future versions by any mean, but I am a big believer that the game industry should be able to create any storyline they want, it is an artform of the same grace as books, movies, tv etc. I think thats probably why I am not a huge fan of the series, but I absolutely LOATHE it when I see quotes like this. What hurts even more is I was standing next to the father son yesterday at a Game Stop in the same city that the above firebombing incident happened.
AJC: 3 teens arrested in car bombing
