+- Tendo City (https://www.tendocity.net)
+-- Forum: Tendo City: Metropolitan District (https://www.tendocity.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=4)
+--- Forum: Den of the Philociraptor (https://www.tendocity.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=43)
+--- Thread: Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued (/showthread.php?tid=2286)
Pages:
1
2
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Geno - 13th October 2004
Source: http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2003/10/23/technology/6559659&sec=technology
Quote:Sony, Wal-Mart sued over game linked to shootings
KNOXVILLE (Tennessee): A US$246mil (RM934mil) lawsuit was filed against the designer, marketer and a retailer of the videogame series Grand Theft Auto by the families of two people shot by teenagers apparently inspired by the game.
The suit claims marketer Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc, designers Take-Two Interactive Software and Rockstar Games, and Wal-Mart, are liable for US$46mil (RM174mil) in compensatory damages and US$200mil (RM760mil) in punitive damages.
Aaron Hamel, 45, a registered nurse, was killed and Kimberly Bede, 19, of Moneta, Virginia, was seriously wounded when their cars were hit June 25 by .22-caliber bullets as they passed through the Great Smoky Mountains.
Stepbrothers William Buckner, 16, and Joshua Buckner, 14, of Newport, were sentenced in August to an indefinite term in state custody after pleading guilty in juvenile court to reckless homicide, endangerment and assault.
The boys told investigators they got the rifles from a locked room in their home and decided to randomly shoot at tractor-trailer rigs, just like in the videogame Grand Theft Auto III.
In a suit filed last Monday in Cocke County Circuit Court on behalf of the victims, Miami lawyer Jack Thompson and local lawyer Richard Talley alleged the game "inspires and trains players to shoot at vehicles and persons.”
"These kids simply decided to take the thrill of that game out to Interstate 40 and started pointing at cars,” Thompson said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
Thompson, who said he sent letters to Sony and Wal-Mart to drop the game before the shootings, said, "It's not like this is coming out of the blue, they chose to ignore this danger.”
Thompson said that since filing the suit he has been contacted by other victims of violent crimes interested in taking legal action over the game.
"We want to tell the videogame industry that if they're going to continue to market adult-rated games to children with these horrific consequences, then we're going to take their blood money," Thompson said in a statement.
"In the past few days I have been contacted by dozens of other people, and there may be hundreds more cases. This will send a message that they have to stop this practise, or there will be other suits on behalf of other people killed by these games."
San Mateo, California-based Sony and Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart did not return calls for comment Tuesday. The lawsuit alleges the retail giant sold the game to the Buckners about a year before the shootings.
Douglas Lowenstein, president of the industry Entertainment Software Association, called the shootings "an unspeakable tragedy” but said blaming a game played by millions for the boys' actions was "misguided and counterproductive.”
"There is no credible evidence that violent games lead to violent behaviour,” he said. "While videogames may provide a simple excuse for the teenagers involved in this incident, responsibility for violent acts belongs to those who commit them.”
Thompson has made similar claims in the past and lost, notably a US$33mil (RM125mil) lawsuit against videogame makers stemming from the 1997 school shooting near Paducah, Kentucky, by a 14-year-old boy.
The 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the case last year that it was "simply to far a leap from shooting characters on a video screen to shooting people in a classroom.” – AP/dpa
I'd put in my two cents, but I've been over the topic of "video game violence being the cause of all of the world's problems" so many times, it's nauseating. Anyway, discuss. Or don't, it's up to you; I'm going to assume that you all have wills of your own and can take responsibility for your own actions.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Dark Jaguar - 13th October 2004
You don't have to assume, we totally argued this stupidity into the ground.
In fact, if someone actually writes a frickin speech when we all totally already know what everyone thinks, it could only be for like, self serving popularity boosting purposes, ya know? That said...
Seriously, these people need to learn responsibilities. I mean, the very fact that the vast majority of people playing these are not killanaters, well, that shows it's simply statistically improbable that this could be anything other than, some other thing that isn't video games.
Man, strong bad comedy stylings is so freaking easy to learn and then also use!
Ya know, these guys are totally going to lose this stupid thing. I mean really, there is just no way that after every previous court case involving the exact same stuff, that a court would suddenly find a way to punish free speech in such an arbitrary way. And if they do, TROGDOR! He will BURNINATE them all into the NIIIIGHT!
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Geno - 13th October 2004
I'm not at all surprised that this has been discussed here before. Hell, I was hesitant to even post this here, but I finally decided, "What the hell?"
And I agree, no way in hell they're winning this case. Their case is neither original nor anymore convincing than the hundreds of similar cases before it.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Great Rumbler - 13th October 2004
If videogames were the only source of violence in society then they MIGHT have a point.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Dark Jaguar - 13th October 2004
Nope, because then they would still have the burden of showing that there is an actual factual correlation, proving the very thing they are claiming, which is "playing video games = violent behavior".
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Great Rumbler - 13th October 2004
I know that, which is why I stressed the word "might".
Quote:responsibility for violent acts belongs to those who commit them.
It's really sad how people want to throw blame on everyone BUT the person(s) that commited the crime. Oh yeah, their parents are never blamed either.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - EdenMaster - 13th October 2004
I love the way that article says "marketing adult-rated games to children".
Perhaps the ESRB rating that parents are supposed to be checking for their psychotic children is too vague. How are parents to know that the Mature rating on the game with the words <b>VIOLENCE, BLOOD, STRONG LANGUAGE</b> under it means that you shouldn't let your kids play it? Perhaps the pictures of the character being chased by a police helicopter and firing a flamethrower enticed the parents into thinking that this was a wholesome, perhaps even educational, game. The game is even named after a FELONY CRIME.
How many ways can I say this? Grand Theft Auto is not only NOT marketed to children, but Rockstar made what appears to be a concerted effort to make it OBVIOUS that it wasn't a game for children.
The way people jump to blame videogames and developers, completely bypassing the real culprits, disgusts and infuriates me.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Great Rumbler - 13th October 2004
It makes no sense to me how parents who take an active role in their kids lives and monitor at least a majority of the things they buy can possibly not know that something like Grand Theft Auto 3 is not for children. I just can't. Which leads me to the conclusion that they either aren't taking an active role in their kids lives and don't see what games they're playing or just don't care and in the later case they're suing to try to throw the blame on someone other than themselves. This is just great now I'm mad and I've allowed myself to go into a big rant about a subject I've go one about for years! Thanks a lot, Geno!
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Dark Jaguar - 13th October 2004
Well actually a lot of parents have no idea what the ratings mean, namely because they never see the expanded version on the back of the box, BECAUSE THEY NEVER LOOK ON THE BACK.
They see an "M", that's it. Really, as obvious as it really is, I still wonder why they didn't go with the same ratings that movies and shows go with, G through R and all. Are they copyrighted or what? Also, what's with that tilt? Is it trying to make the ratings look "cool" or something? Well, at least they got rid of that cheesy stylizing with the granualated look on the ratings. Just a perfectly boring looking, straightened out, G, PG, PG-13 (honestly, no one knows the diff between PG and PG-13, I mean, isn't PG-13 implied by PG anyway?), R, or the rest, that's all they need. I really don't think the people handing out those ratings would have an issue letting the ESRB use them. Sure the ESRB is a bunch of idiots, but they generally nail the mark. Well, except for one thing. After rating the first game they rate in a game series, you can pretty much be assured every single sequel will get the same rating, whether it is deserved or not. Look at Final Fantasy, really, look at it. There is no way FF1 deserves the same rating as FF7, there just isn't.
Anyway, there's a big rant. I TRIED uniting it all under one point, but failed.
Okay, so let's get it into a nice bullet point list, but since I don't know what the ascii for a bullet is, I'll just go with asterisks. ééé
* Too many parents are idiots for not at least trying to find out what their kids are into, at least enough to learn the rating system games have at least.
* ESRB is idiots for not using an already established rating system, and for going all stupid by trying to "stylize" the rating letters on the cover. What is with that anyway?
* ESRB is also idiots for being very inconsistant in their ratings. Really, so since Link's Awakening's DX remake got an E rating, every single Zelda game made since somehow deserves an E, despite what I've seen? (Honestly, I"m shocked Conker's Bad Fur Day didn't get the same rating as the first, apparently that's JUST enough of a change in content for them to take notice and not carry ratings through.) And also, what's with Chrono Trigger being rated E back on the SNES and T on the PS1? They didn't change ANYTHING you idiots! The cutscenes were added, but watch those! It's all the same content, only it looks better! And there's not a single scene they recreate that's more violent or intense when done that way, namely because of the scenes they picked! Okay, maybe if they animated Frog killing Magus with his sword you'd have something, but they didn't, they just animated Frog slicing the magic cave.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Undertow - 15th October 2004
This just in:
<img src="http://www.sighost.us/members/jay803/emotsiren.gif"> GTAIII and Wal*Mart have driven planes into the World Trade Center <img src="http://www.sighost.us/members/jay803/emotsiren.gif">
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Geno - 15th October 2004
The terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center and Pentagon were probably influenced by video games.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Great Rumbler - 15th October 2004
Yeah, they were just ordinary Muslim guys going about their lives, working from day-to-day, taking care of the family, then on day "BAM!" they play GTA3 and start blowing stuff up and killing people. True story.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - EdenMaster - 15th October 2004
Betcha didn't know that Osama Bin Laden is actually the president of Rockstar games.
:nodding:
Think about it.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Geno - 15th October 2004
He was a man of peace, living on a quiet farm in North Dakota... until one day, he played Vice City and had the sudden urge to pick up a hooker, have sex with her, kill her, and take her money.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - EdenMaster - 15th October 2004
We've all done it, Geno.
...
Right?
...
Um...
...
BO JACKSON! WOO!!!
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Geno - 16th October 2004
BOJACKSOME! W00T!
(Here's the part where the thread trails off topic and pretty much goes to hell until it stops being fun to post in.)
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - lazyfatbum - 16th October 2004
Fuck you, Geno.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Geno - 16th October 2004
lazyfatbum Wrote:Fuck you, Geno.
Man, it's been years since I've heard that phrase. Reminds me of when I was active and involved in flamewars.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Dark Jaguar - 16th October 2004
That's the most direct insult that's actually intended to be compliment I've ever rationalized as such!
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - EdenMaster - 16th October 2004
Geno Wrote:(Here's the part where the thread trails off topic and pretty much goes to hell until it stops being fun to post in.)
Yup. It's gotten out of hand now if we can pinpoint the exact post which kills a thread.
You're still rather new, comparatively, so you may not be aware that off-topicness is the cornerstone...nay, the foundation of TendoCity. Any thread which can stay on topic for more than one page is rare and ones that last two pages are nearly nonexistant.
Were you around to see the heralded "Virginity Thread"? The one sung of in songs and stories of TendoCity lore? Well, it began as a thread by UltraMarioMan as, obviously, a thread asking if Tendites had lost their virginity yet. Well, that's fine. The thread then grew. Festered may be a better word. During the long life of the Virginity Thread, we must have changed topics about 30 times, to completely random things. We didn't consciously do it, we just kind of flowed form one topic to another without even realizing just how off-topic we were. In a way, it became sort of symbolic of the way things go around here. Or it was just a bunch of us with nothing better to talk about.
Ahh...memories. I wonder if that old thing is still stored someplace on this domain...
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Undertow - 16th October 2004
EdenMaster Wrote:Yup. It's gotten out of hand now if we can pinpoint the exact post which kills a thread.
Was it me?
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - EdenMaster - 16th October 2004
Nope, I'm pretty sure it happened a few posts down from that. It may have been mine, where I yelled Bo Jackson.
Bo Jackson! WOO!!
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Geno - 17th October 2004
Yes, I think it was when EdenMaster yelled Bo Jackson.
I never heard about the Virginity thread, but I was around when the infamous Pledge of Allegience thread was active. That one stayed on topic for about 12 pages, which is a Guiness record. And it's not just Tendo City--pretty much every messageboard has threads that turn into off topic rambling before long. :)
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - EdenMaster - 17th October 2004
Yeah, all messageboards have those threads that trail off, but TC has the distinction of having that happen to MOST threads.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - alien space marine - 17th October 2004
I waisnt as big on GTA3 and GTA Vice City,but I played the original masterpiece GTA. The original 2d grand theift auto had all the obcenities and violence death and destruction as the new ones, But it didnt sell 200 million units and waisnt nearly as well known at the time it was just a decent hit game but didnt attract new players because of the 2D graphics.I never once heard a single time before the new 3D GTA's came out , That "This game caused this boy to commit a crime " ! Its just when it made huge publicity and money that it did.
This is rediculous , Only in a america will someone who had his weapons stolen by his children will be ignored from blaim when they kill someone with it.
I remeber a case a long time ago were man who was in the army brought a side arm to his home , His son found out about the gun and decided to take it and bring it to school , The Boy shot another kid who he had a arguement with.The authorities in canada put his father in Jail for involuntary Manslaughter and the boy went to Junvenile detention for 5 years.
Thats what should happen here put their parents in jail for 6 months, Put the boys in Jail or Junvenile detention for a number of years. The parents failed to keep those rifles out of the hands of their boys are just as responsible for the murders as they are.
I guess I am fortunate in canada we dont have whack jobs like the NRA that will scream bloody murder if the guns get blaimed for it.
If it waisnt for the fact those boys knew there was a weapons locker in their house and how to get it open I doubt they would have commited the crime unless they knew another source, It looked also like they knew how to use them must have been deer hunting before.I seriously doubt they will just walk down the street and buy guns with their allowance money from some gun/drug pusher.
If your gonna blaim the game entirely for it(which is stupid), Then the parents must be incriminated for allowing them to play it.
My Nefue who is 10 years old played GTA3, Now not by my influeince he played it at his freinds house, To some degree I felt guilty but its not my fault. Even so he isnt a little monster he has no hatred for no one besides being hyperactive ,He plays basketball very physically active also plays lego ect.. I dont believe he will ever grow up to kill anyone anymore then I have.
Kids can see violence and sex easily, TV especially you can see loads of carjackings and killing sprees on tv and video , If Video games didnt exist they would blaim tv and movies, If those didnt exist they would blaim music and books. Its rediculous that some like my own parents think that after hearing a song they will go out and start becoming a serial killer psycopath, If a person was so weak that a song made him do it then to me he would have done it regardless.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - A Black Falcon - 17th October 2004
Well for one thing a lot of forums try to keep threads on topic... with moderation and such things... so it's harder to have stuff go off topic as frequently and dramatically as it so often does here... :)
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Great Rumbler - 17th October 2004
Soo...
...
...
...
Has anyone seen those little paper cups that stores use to give our free samples? What's up with that?!
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Dark Jaguar - 17th October 2004
...what?
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - EdenMaster - 17th October 2004
A Black Falcon Wrote:Well for one thing a lot of forums try to keep threads on topic... with moderation and such things... so it's harder to have stuff go off topic as frequently and dramatically as it so often does here... :)
Well it's not like we have no moderation. Hell, most of the regulars here are Choujins or Sennins, it's just that none of us really give a crap what goes on in our forums. Hell, I'm the moderator of the Debate Forum here, and also an administrator, and I can't remember the last time I used my powers.
Forums with too many rules and too much moderation aren't any fun. I used to go to one that was absolutely despotic in the way they ran the place. They'd ban people for stupid reasons, CLOSE threads if they strayed off-topic, even slightly. Sure, rules are fine, but if you're forced to monitor what your posting for fear of being banned, it's no fun at all, and it makes oyu not want to go there.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Fittisize - 17th October 2004
One time I went to a message board and everytime I disagreed with somebody I'd go on a long-ass rant of why I disagreed and why he was wrong, and also go completely off topic. Then I got my ass chewed out by everybody for not staying on topic and for being a troll. I thought that everything I was doing was 100% normal. :crap:
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - alien space marine - 18th October 2004
You want to see a example of over moderation go to B.net forum , Sarcasm is a banible offense for godsake! Warbucket got baned because he tolled a idiot spammer to "please die" two words thats it, Why? The bum created a heated debate on a trivial issue like how they should have same sex marriage in WOW and calling blizzard homophobic for not supporting it he made two post a day on that issue protesting it ! But their isnt even a marriage system or option in WOW. So poor warbucket tired of hearing about this annoying pointless arguement posted two cute little words "please die"! Blizzard went so far as to threaten to remove WBuckets Beta acount just for those two little words.
To get baned on B.net its not a matter of "if" its when, Saying so much as "you are a moron,idiot,retard,stupid any kind of mean expressive language is bannible",Forget toilet humor or sex jokes thats a definent ban.
I got the new TFT cdkey so I could post again , Their was a rediculous thread on weither the NE should be removed from the game, I was ticked off as was many other posters a flame war ensued , I got baned from yet another warcraft related forum, When blizzard said we dont tolerate abusive launguage they never defined what abusive language was,By my experience Sarcasm seems to be conciderd abusive language.Being baned is only a matter of who is moderating some are so strict they scan each thread searching for any break in code and ban as soon as it happens no questions asked . They dont give a shit or even give long time active members who have post counts in the thousands any regard , People are imperfect while its true some restrictions are needed you dont pound people in the face for even the most minute minor indescretion,They should just Concenstrate on the biggest issues like spamming and racist refferences.
If Tc followed Blizzards B.net forum policies, 99% of us would be baned because all of us have sense of humors and are mature enough to handel poop jokes or bodily functions without crying to our mommies.
Tc doesnt need more "mods" since we rarely get new members and the few we do get rarely stay more then 3 posts,
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Dark Jaguar - 18th October 2004
ASM, it's a matter of what people have earned I guess.
Here, MOST people are decent human beings. The need for extreme rules is pretty much not needed.
At Battle.net, MOST people are pond scum. As such, since they won't act like decent human beings on their own, it has to be forced. You have just described stuff that proves how stupid most of them are. I'm all for the amount of rules they have there. I have been there for a long time and not once been banned, because I obey their pretty simple rules. Don't insult people, don't stray off topic, that's pretty much it. Considering it's a company web site, and the reason they made it is to get feedback on their games so they can improve them (everything else is secondary), plus considering the sheer amount of idiots likely to join, they kinda need those rules. If you got banned, well, sorry to say, you deserved it. Seriously, such a 'debate" is something you should obviously not get involved in, and abusive language is also something obvious. Common sense please, do you REALLY need these things spelled out for you? Just be polite.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - A Black Falcon - 18th October 2004
The B.Net forums were good... in 1997...
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - EdenMaster - 18th October 2004
We've only had to ban, what, two people in the last four years or so? We kind of moderate ourseves, somewhat, and tolerate those who don't ;)
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - OB1 - 18th October 2004
We banned someone?
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Dark Jaguar - 18th October 2004
Two people? I remember... Stealth... Oh wait, banning didn't really work that time... Oh yeah, that guy I just annoyed away :D. That was fun.
Who was the other person?
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Great Rumbler - 18th October 2004
TC is the best forum on the internet. *is NOT a hypnotized advertiser zombie*
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Dark Jaguar - 18th October 2004
Robot (is not a robot): Tendo City is the grreeeeeatest site on on on on on line. End statement.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - EdenMaster - 18th October 2004
Stealth and KirbyMorph...or were they the same person? It's been so long I've forgotten.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Geno - 18th October 2004
EdenMaster Wrote:Well it's not like we have no moderation. Hell, most of the regulars here are Choujins or Sennins, it's just that none of us really give a crap what goes on in our forums. Hell, I'm the moderator of the Debate Forum here, and also an administrator, and I can't remember the last time I used my powers.
Forums with too many rules and too much moderation aren't any fun. I used to go to one that was absolutely despotic in the way they ran the place. They'd ban people for stupid reasons, CLOSE threads if they strayed off-topic, even slightly. Sure, rules are fine, but if you're forced to monitor what your posting for fear of being banned, it's no fun at all, and it makes oyu not want to go there.
That's exactly what I like about this messageboard. Everywhere else, you'll get bitched at for having two or three words in your post (hell, easier to scroll through active topics that way) and people will chew you out for "trying to increase your post count." Personally, I don't give a rat's ass about my post count and wouldn't miss it if it wasn't displayed. Here, however, I can pretend that I do care about it and start putting one word in each post so that, when combined, they form a complete sentence. (You know which thread I'm talking about, right? No? I forgot which one it was too, but I do remember once doing that.)
But anyway, the reason I've left almost every other forum was because they started adding rules on a daily basis. They had limited the rules so much that I had nothing to post about anymore... so I didn't. It was every member's nightmare to be flamed to high hell and called an idiot among other things because they made a useless post... so they would let their cursor hover over the Send Message button for several minutes before deciding not to click it. The admins would also make new forums like "Games" just to keep all of the game threads out of the "important" forums, whereas here, we have a forum that we don't need and had a vote on what to change it to.
Anyway... yeah. TC rules. No waiting in line for sour milk. HUZZAH!
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Great Rumbler - 18th October 2004
Quote:people will chew you out for "trying to increase your post count."
At TC boosting your post count with random posts is encouraged. :)
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Geno - 18th October 2004
This
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Geno - 18th October 2004
messageboard
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Geno - 18th October 2004
rocks
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Geno - 18th October 2004
my
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Geno - 18th October 2004
socks
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Geno - 18th October 2004
.
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Great Rumbler - 19th October 2004
Yeah
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Great Rumbler - 19th October 2004
,
Rockstar, Sony, and Wal*Mart Sued - Great Rumbler - 19th October 2004
it