That tenuous connection between a violent sandbox crime spree of a video game and the very real violence happening throughout the city seems to have been derived from an unnamed London constable offering his opinion on the brouhaha, as quoted above. It was a connection juicy enough to make the London Evening Standard front page — at least for one printing — according to MCV.
The other culprit in the still-smoldering riots, which ignited in Tottenham, London: the Blackberry. Obviously, at least one of these technological wonders should be banned outright to quell this uprising, right?
Fear and a sense of loss amid high street’s smoking ruins [London Evening Standard]
Shadow
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 1:02 PMOf course it was fucking GTA that did this. They’ll blame “GTA: London” no doubt.
Scott
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 5:45 PMOn the internet, doing this kind of things is seen as trolling or being sensational to get hits and generate revenue. It’s universally despised for the cheap practice that it is.
In the world of print however, it’s called journalism.
Mic Steel
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 8:52 AMQuite specifically, in the world of journalism, this is called a moral panic. Its an all too common technique used to get people’s attention, and to make something seem more compelling (usually when the claim is being exaggerated or is misleading).
Ben Jones
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 1:03 PMYeah totally agree, it’s also the same reason why there were riots in the Middle East that absolved dictatorships to make way for Democracy… Damn GTAIV.
Repneiras
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 1:10 PMBrb, tweeting this to the ACL.
DENAz
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 1:13 PMCome on… really!?
scruffy
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 1:35 PMBecause there were no such thing as riots until GTA.
Ed
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:49 PMhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_riots
ThrashTitan
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 6:21 PMWoosh.
Kyall
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 7:52 PMIt was chess! It was chess I tell you! It taught them that a pawn could kill a king!
gman
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 3:27 PMLies! pawns can never be kings! (only queens)
Andrew
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 1:37 PMI’m pretty sure riots and general crime was emulated from GTA, and not the other way around. If the ‘educated’ checked their history they might find this has happened before, prior to electricity.
RufusLives
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 1:55 PMI don’t remember any rioting or looting in GTA IV…
Stevorooni
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 1:57 PMThat’s what I was thinking, there was the rioting in the final act of San Andreas (based on the LA riots, which game did those guys get inspired from?) but you weren’t an active participant.
Matthew K
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 1:58 PMFINALLY. Another real world event is blamed on videogames. I was worried games were going to get overlooked, but here we are.
Next year i’m going to audition for Master Chef and blame cooking mother for extending the show another year.
Aliasalpha
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 4:48 PMAudition dressed as Master Chief, that way you’re covered should it erupt into violence as well
ripperhugme
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:02 PMI’ll wager that the constable quoted is a BNP voter.
Supreme
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:10 PMTHIS JUST IN:
Flying spaghetti monsters attack LONDON
It was thought these spaghetti monsters had been avid and devote fans of the video game
DESTROY ALL HUMANS! on the xbox gaming system.
Caiphus
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:11 PMI’m pretty sure similar riots happened 30 years ago… a little before GTA.
Allan
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:16 PMA bunch of GTA fans would probably be too stoned playing COD too even get off the lounge chair, let alone realise their was even a riot happening.
Allan
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:19 PM*there
ba!
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:20 PMnice save
popcultured
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:41 PM*to
Allan
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:43 PMHaha! Thanks.
Sneaky
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 6:45 PMNo, he was right about that one.
too*
Allan
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 3:19 PMtoo stoned playing COD too even….
*too stoned playing COD to even….
It was the second too, I should learn to spell properly before I post again.
CC
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:30 PMof course…
Mick
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:32 PM…just like the Vancouver riots were inspired by NHL’94 :P
Reign
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:38 PMRiots in Europe are a new thing.
Ben Jones
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:51 PMWhat’s that got to do with riots in the UK?
alinos
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:19 PMUK has had a ton of riots all started by roughly the same thing.
Alot of them are reffered to as brixton riots
popcultured
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:41 PM“Computer games don’t affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we’d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.” (Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989.)
BroG
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 1:12 AMDamn, you beat me to the quote. It’s my desktop background, will never forget it.
pallids
Sunday, August 21, 2011 at 1:46 AMWelll… just look at the ravers ^_^
Mr Explody
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:42 PMOf course if they were only playing Pac-Man, there would just be a bunch of pill poppers roaming graveyards looking for cherries.
Michael Zupecki
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:44 PMYeah, umm, cause riots – even more serious – never happened before video games, right?
Guess Hitler had a time machine and snagged a copy of GTA IV, a HD TV and an Xbox 360 back in the 1930s and spent a good couple of years practicing his rage. And then he played Battlefield, learned to wage war. And finally he played Wolfenstein and that was the final nail in the proverbial coffin.
Makes perfect sense!
Cause basically, you know, society is so great and fair that ‘heaven forbid’ any group of people might lash out against it for real reasons. Amirite?
Ben Jones
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:54 PM“Cause basically, you know, society is so great and fair that ‘heaven forbid’ any group of people might lash out against it for real reasons. Amirite?”
^^^ THIS
It’d be great if just once, people would address the authentic cause of such things happening. Instead lets spin some shit that gets ratings because you know… authentic reasons are boring most the time.
LoneWolf
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:48 PMSports fans tear their town apart when their team wins…mob mentality
London torn apart by a riot triggered by police shooting a criminal…cop blames video games
Sigh
Reoh
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 2:59 PMEtymology of the word Riot
early 13c., “debauchery, extravagance, wanton living,” from O.Fr. riote (masc. riot) “dispute, quarrel,” perhaps from Prov. riota, of uncertain origin. Meaning “public disturbance” is first recorded late 14c. Meaning “something spectacularly successful” first recorded 1909 in theater slang. The verb is attested from late 14c. Run riot is first recorded 1520s, a metaphoric extension from M.E. meaning in ref. to hounds following the wrong scent. The Riot Act, part of which must be read to a mob before active measures can be taken, was passed 1714 (1 Geo. I, st.2, c.5). Riot girl and alternative form riot grrl first recorded 1992.
…
Nope, don’t see anything about video games there either.
Femto
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:14 PMSo a video game caused this to happen? what What is this a Southpark episode?!?
Braaains
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:15 PMFurther to all that, I’d like to find a game to blame the stock market crash on.
I was thinking of blaming Elite – clearly everybody was way too heavily invested in synthetic meat when they should have been putting some of that money into slaves and luxury items. And now it’s all just gone to hell in a handbasket.
Matthew K
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:56 PMI personally blame Theme Hospital for the US health care system, and the fact that my GP is an ex-janitor who smells faintly of cabbage.
GnomeFawkes
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 6:43 PMI find reference for a PC game title “Stock Market:The Game” on the Googles
I vaguely remember having it on Amiga at some point…. yeah I’ll blame that one
james
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:16 PMWhat i find funny is that the collar bomb incident had a note signed with a character in a book, though no one calls for banning of certain books, or no outbursts of protect the children from books. It seems its only games that cause thoughts of violence in twisted individuals..
Imagine if the note was signed by duke nukem.
alinos
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:18 PMWhat about Bloody Saturday
This guy is full off it.
And ironically most of the riots in london tend to be caused by a black man being shot or not helped by the police.
Not to mention there has been some talk that the police shot their own radio to make it look like they had been shot at first.
The Gremlin
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 3:31 PMWell of course.
I’m guessing Pacman is the reason this guy is overweight. He must be, given how videgames affect people. 100% proven and endorsed by the ACL.