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When Video Games Go Terribly Wrong!

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Two teens have been charged with killing the 7-year-old sister of one of them by beating her with imitations of moves from the "Mortal Kombat" video game, prosecutors said.

Lamar Roberts, 17, and Heather Trujillo, 16, were charged as adults on one count each of felony child abuse causing death, state prosecutor Robert Miller said in court documents released Wednesday and filed a day earlier.
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23 responses // When Video Games Go Terribly Wrong!

  • Such a shame,

    Check this link for the sad story of Jamie Bulger and the tragic incidents that led to his heartless killing.

    http://www.crimelibrary.com/classics3/bulger/
    mattbrawn
  • It's difficult to fathom the kind of distorted reality, that is so desensitized to violence and it's consequences that these teens have been living in to actually kill a 7 year old child. Truly disturbing and sad.
    Chique
  • such bull!! people need to learn to control what their kids play and watch thats why we have established ratings and warnings along with movies and games. Do not accuse that of software ad entertainment. Its an easy excuse.
    unthought89
  • I agree with unthought89. The video game industry has been a scapegoat for far too long. Why doesn't ANYONE blame the parents for letting their kids have these "wrestling" matches so often?
    Scott_Bromley
  • Oh man... that Jamie Bulger story made me sick. Just what I don't need in the morning. I'm yet another person asking the age old question: What makes some kids so fucking psychotic? We can go back and forth and say the parents should do more or that it's the media but what can possible occur to a 10 year old that would make him brutally murder a toddler? Some people are just fucked in the head but no one knows until it's to late. Horrible.
    devo64
  • Okay, first of all, the 17 year old, when asked why he didn't tell the one girl to stop he said, "I don't know, I was drunk."
    Um, wut?
    I don't understand why parents don't get off thier high horses thinking that thier offspring are angels and would never do anything--LOCK YOUR POTENTIALLY HARMFUL OBJECTS/SUBSTANCES UP!
    Now, he could have got it from somewhere else, maybe that's the case, but hearing things like this make me so sad. A girl's life could have been saved, but he was drinking when he should have been responsible.
    And second of all, I didn't even know Mortal Kombat was even relevant anymore.
    anidee
  • hey, i was one of these weird disturbed children and it wasn't video games that did it. as a youngster i lived on a farm and when left to my own devices, i would do terrible things to the innocent far animals. i tried to kill my baby sister for stealing all of my attention after she was born by throwing her in the pool while trapped in a sleeping bag. my dad saw the whole thing and beat the living daylights out of me. but in the end i turned out to be quite the normal guy. i am a functioning and contributing member of society and am under complete control of my actions, unless i'm provoked into a fight, then all bets are off. but at this age that doesn't happen much. at a certain point in your life you will have to make the choice: will i be normal or will i continue to listen to the voices?
    razer
  • see razer, that's the problem, parents don't "beat the living daylights" out of thier kids anymore :( You came out fine. I think if parents would stop that 'counting to ten' bull, kids wouldn't be going all batshit.
    anidee
  • interesting p.o.v. razer, but i think you may need help. this is a sad story and a very hard lesson to learn at such a young age.
    dickdaly
  • Well, this can't really be blamed on video games that's idiotic. They were drunk teenagers with a mean streak, simple as that. I'm sure they didn't mean to kill her but they obviously meant to hurt her unless they have the mental capacity of a 3 year old and can't understand what causes pain. And no, beating kids isn't the answer. Rasing your kids to not be complete morons is what helps. But that's hard to do when the parents have also been raised as complete morons. Then you just have morons running around everywhere. Like Lamar Roberts and Heather Trujillo.
    Dylan_James
  • raser, what is normal to you and normal to the others may be totally different. I think you might need some help too, before "you're provoked into a fight." and then what, you might go postal?

    Someone that would allow themselves to be provoked into a fight is not normal. Violence is not the answer. Do you think I made it to 39 years of age without being in a fight by chance? Where I grew up people fight for entertainment and because they drank alcohol and abused drugs. Was I cold cocked a few times, yeah. Did I ever hit back? Hell no, what would that have accomplished? Can I run fast? Yes and it definitely helped me out of many fights. At your age, whatever it might be, you're not to old to choose a peaceful path. You're not a dog and you're not too old to learn new tricks. We all have voices in our head, sometimes telling us to do stupid things, most of us listen to the the other voice, the voice of reason that says "be cool fool," or whatever.

    I'm sorry anidee, but parents not "beating the living daylights" out of their children is not the problem. Do parents need to provide discipline to kids? Yes, but not violence.

    The fact that America loves violence so much is part of the problem. It shouldn't be acceptable to broadcast the amount of violence American TV and movies show. Where's the love? Where's the balance. God forbid anyone ever see a breast on television, but brains blasted against a wall with a sawed off, no problem.

    These video games aren't very productive, but to blame America's love of violence and murder on it is not helpful either. Watch "Bowling for Columbine" if you haven't yet. Movies and video games are not responsible for this kind of behavior. Michael Moore raises more questions than answers, but before we can arrive at the answers, we need the right questions.

    Alcohol's not helping, especially with kids. Do you think this guy would have kicked a kid to death on pot? If you think so, maybe you're part of the problem too!?

    Sorry to rant, but this shit is messed up! What about the fact that we're bombing and killing people every day in our "War on Terror?" Isn't it just as likely that kids see that we regard others as less worthy of life than us? Or more likely, since most kids know the difference between video games and reality. Am I wrong? Is Iraq the ultimate video game? Isn't it really a fine line between an American and an Iraqi? Aren't we really one? One world? One people? One?
    covelogibbs
  • The last bit kind of made you sound like you might go off at any minute but anyway.....
    So, pot over alcohol is what I'm getting from you here is it not? Except that while alcohol may make some people more violent, pot makes some people more prone to never dealing with their problems because they're too stoned and lazy. I agree that we broadcast a lot of violence and then we freak out over boobs, but that's what you get from a nation that is mostly run by what some like to call "the human race" which is an imperfect selfish race consisting mostly of jackasses. And here's something else, you talk about the "war on terror." How exactly do kids see us disregard other peoples lives by this? Littel kids don't realize it or watch the news and I'm damn sure that most teens that don't already need therapy can tell the difference between right and wrong. You make the youth of America sound like bunch of idiots. Fact is, you can't blame anything really. Not video games, tv, war, parents. All you can do is accept that there are stupid people out there who do stupid things and there are people out there who are psychotic.
    Dylan_James
  • http://popuplace.com/mkportal/modules/gallery/album/a_1...
    "pot over alcohol" is one of the messages I meant to convey, but I didn't mean for that to be the dominant message. I also meant to convey that you can't beat your children to prevent them from being violent. I think kids pick up on a lot more than we give them credit for. I mentioned the whole alcohol and pot thing because so many violent crimes are committed while on alcohol and not just the ones you hear about. Is being too stoned and lazy a problem? Yes, but which is the bigger problem?

    I agree that we have to accept that there are "stupid people out there who do stupid things and there are people out there who are psychotic." I don't think that means that we shouldn't try to figure out why these types of things happen so often or how they might be decreased. We can always strive to be better.
    covelogibbs
  • I wish we didn't have to choose between the two evils and in my opinion pot is worse than alcohol. We should definitely do all we can to figure it out. But we don't really do that do we? We blame other things for it and put you on medication.
    Dylan_James
  • lol, it seems that we are on a completely different topic now
    anidee
  • i was just about to say that. where has this topic gone?
    razer
  • It's just that after a bit you wear a topic out and it goes on to other things.As far as I can tell, everyone here generally agrees that video games and tv aren't thing that cause children to go on killing sprees. Not much to really talk about then.
    Dylan_James
  • http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/12/drunk-teens-kil.htm...
    This is no laughing matter folks and we need to figure this out. Not talking about "it" is not going to make "it" go away.

    These two were the babysitters!

    "According to the police, Trujillo admitted that she punched Zoe "in the stomach, karate chopped her lower arms, punched and pinched the victim's thighs, kicked her in the shins, slapped her stomach and buttocks and poked at the victim's chest." Roberts told police that Zoe asked the pair to stop hurting her, but that he didn't because he was drunk."

    Maybe you're thinking, how bad could Mortal Kombat moves be? Let's just say you don't want anyone practicing them on your three year old!

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=874450126928780...

    Hey Dylan, maybe those meds you're talking about are part of the problem?

    and anidee, do you really feel like this? ("see razer, that's the problem, parents don't "beat the living daylights" out of thier kids anymore :( You came out fine. I think if parents would stop that 'counting to ten' bull, kids wouldn't be going all batshit.") I don't think I'm changing the topic, are you?


    I don't think you can beat stupidity and psychosis out of someone, and if you could, wouldn't you still want to find another way? My child's only two, but, when he's old enough to be "spanked" I won't do it, I'll try to find a better way to instill discipline and respect . Just as I never had to deal with the violence of corporal punishment as a child, neither will my children.

    I don't think we can chock all this up to human nature. Am I being naive thinking that mankind is basically good? My instincts tell me this is much more nurture than nature. When I look into the eyes of my 2yr old son, I know what was given to me was a miracle and that it's up to me not to fuck it up. He didn't come with the ability or desire to kill. As a parent it's up to me to do my absolute best to not expose him to an "Apperceptive Mass" that would permit this type of behavior. I think most parents would agree with me, that, kicking and punching someone to death Mortal Kombat style should make someone so repulsed and sick that there is no way they could phycsically go through with the act. I'm sorry, but even in my sickest, most "Porcelain God" praying moments, I would never be able to carry out something like this, the very thought would make me even sicker.

    What allows children to fall through the cracks like this? Video games? Movies? Prescription drugs? Alcohol? Poverty? I don't have the answers, but to say the discussion is over is a cop out.
    covelogibbs
  • A cop out of what? Seriosuly, we went through it all. What are we supposed to do? Ban video games, ban tv, make IQ tests for parents to take before they can have kids? If you haven't noticed, nobody here ever said that humans are evil. But there are evil people out there and you can't go around blaming all sorts of things for it without any proof. It's all theories. What else can you do? And honestly, being drunk can make you do some of the craziest things. We also have no idea of the mental state of these 2 people. All we know is they killed somebody brutally and there is no real way to find out why. You can guess all you want, but the bottom line is all you can do is raise your kids the way you think is right and stay out of how others raise theirs unless it's causing them some sort of trauma. So please tell me, what is your answer? What do you propose we do? Nobody is laughing by the way. We just figured, what the hell people die every single day in even more brutal ways and at even younger ages. What the hell do you think abortion is? You can't have such a peccemistic vew on life that you worry constantly about these kind of things. And trust me, you'll never know why these kids did what they did for real because you're not a mind reader. Do all you can to figure out why, don't chastise others if they've got other things on their minds.
    Oh and by the way, jsut because you couldn't carry something out doesn't mean others couldn't.
    Dylan_James
  • Sorry if you felt I was chastising you, that was never my intent. I was trying to engage constructively to the conversation.

    I think abortion is a conscious choice and not the same at all.

    I don't have the answers. Using "a cop" out was not a great choice of words and I certainly have no desire to force someone someone to participate in a conversation they're not interested in.

    I respectfully disagree that we've worn out this topic. At a time when more and more people are going to be video gaming and living online earlier and earlier, with immediate access to virtually anything (or should I say anything virtual? Is there a difference?), I think we've maybe only discussed the tip of the iceberg.

    I consider myself an optimist, that's why I feel that this discussion is not a waste of time. Anyone else interested in this topic?

    Are you optimistic or pessimistic? Why? What gives you hope? What makes you go, "That's it, now we're done for. Game over!"?
    covelogibbs
  • It is the parent's fault. And it is the kid's fault. And it is the normalization of violence in our society. It's everything rolled up into one tragic reality. Another reality is that humans are aggressive, and enjoy acting out that aggression, hence the popularity of such games. I've seen my friends play GTA, and they'll stand up on a rooftop playing sniper for what seems like an eternity. I'm not going to say that video games are to blame for ANYTHING...I'm just saying that we do approach virtual violence as though it were innocent and harmless, when it really does have an effect on our reaction to seeing, and perhaps acting in, violence. That's not to say that video games should be censored, they shouldn't. It would just better if we, as a society, worked as hard at promoting peace as we do at marketing violence.
    AngelinaH
  • the games aren't responsible the parents are and because we leave on a society that things that their aren't at fault and blame it on too some one else. or let the government solve your problems. People need to star being responsible for their actions and if u a parent take responsibility for their actions. But know is easier to blame it on some one else. and the media plays on that
    escorpio
  • That is indeed a sad story. Many teens and adults for that matter bring these "fantasies" into reality and the consequences are disastrous. We often forget the power of visual and auditive media in shaping ones spirit, mind and character. We think, Oh, it is just a "movie" or it just a "sound" or it is just a "game." You can pickup the strongest character and start to feed him or her with music or films marked with deception and chaos and soon, very soon it will start to affect them in the real physical life in many negative ways that many times there is no reverse.

    -Should we teach the children, the youth and adults to differentiate fantasy from reality?
    stopnoise

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