Is there anything you can’t blame video games for? A recent trial saw a 19 year old sentenced for multiple sex attacks against women. The teenager from Ashford, Kent reportedly took to the streets drunk and stoned looking for women. In one case he broke the arm of a woman in her 40s by dragging her down a hill before sexually assaulting her. In a search of his home, police found a video game that they evidently thought was significant enough to note.
It was, of course, one of the Grand Theft Auto series of games. Remembering that the teenager was reportedly drunk and high at the times of the two attacks that he admitted, the Prosecutor, Eleanor Laws (yes, the Prosecutor!) noted that the amount of time the defendant spent playing the game “may go some way to explaining his attitude towards women.”
Perhaps the prosecutor should consider another line of work where her opinion is professional and not intended to make an excuse for a sex offender as she did, in fact, weigh in on a debate that is unresolved by experts who actually study it. He is also 19 years old, this is not a case of a minor being exposed to a game rated for an adult. He is an adult. Or maybe I am wrong, and the Prosecutor only intended it as personal opinion.
Judge Philip Statman noted in his judgment, though “it is not for this court to enter into this controversy as to whether such conduct is encouraged by pornographic material and video games such as Grand Theft Auto which seems, in my judgment and from what I have heard and read, does show scant respect for women.”
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Result for: prostitutes
GTA IV producer Leslie Benzies has said during an interview with the The Times Online that he believes the blockbuster game has cost Rockstar almost 100 million USD to create and produce, making it by far the most expensive game ever made.
During the interview Benzies also added that over 1000 people worked on the game for 3 and a half years, a huge production by any stretch.
If his estimate is correct than the game’s development costs would make it the most expensive game in the history of consoles, topping Sega’s Shenmue for the Dreamcast which had a 75 million USD development budget.
If retailer estimates are correct however, than the game has already made back its budget worldwide. In the UK, over 600,000 copies were sold on the first day, and analysts have predicted that the game will gross 400 million USD in its first 7 days.
Benzies also took time to talk about the media bashing of Rockstar, claiming that all those in the government and media that bashed the games had never played them.
Why do people object to the game? “You kill prostitutes,” he told the Times Online. “That’s usually the objection.”
“There is a big fear factor here. It’s the coming of the railways. It’s Elvis shaking his hips. It’s cars going over 25 miles an hour and making people explode.”
