It happens so often, one could make a recurring series about it. “It” happens to the mainstream media completely mucking up a story about how violent video games caused a crime. The latest is a 13-year old French kid who decided it would be a good idea to set some cars on fire. The story’s first paragraph is correct, stating that yes, a kid did set a car on fire and maybe (just maybe) he was inspired by Grand Theft Auto IV.
It only takes one line before this things spirals out of control, as picked up by GamePolitics:
“The 13-year-old schoolboy used petrol to set light to three vehicles after playing on the violent GTA 4: Liberty City game on his home PC.”
*sigh* Not only is the game not called Liberty City, it’s not even out on the PC in France. If you want to get even pickier (and why not?), the game uses a Roman numeral in its title. Hey, syntax is important too. Oh, and think it can’t get worse, let’s follow to the next line, shall we?
“The game awards points creating as much as crime and destruction as possible in a city.”
Maybe they could have gotten away with it on the 360 version (achievement points), but on the PC? No dice. Oh, and is it just me, or does that screen shot they used (seen above) look suspiciously altered? There just happen to be three cars (like the kid set on fire) and the smoke effects look far too good for GTA.
Teenager torches cars after watching Grand Theft Auto video game - [Daily Mail]
Tags: grand theft auto, gta 4, GTA IV, playstation 3, video game violence, xbox 360
