Scratch

Here you will find older scratches, musings and other detritus that once were located on the front pages, but have now faded.

Filed away here to collect dust and cobwwwebs in perpetuity, links may break, facts may change and data may corrupt.

On occasion I may come down here to tidy, but for the most, I prefer to leave the past where it lies.

 

GTA IV Influences Violence. And Queuing

After reading the BBC News article entitled 'Stab attack at Grand Theft Queue' I was left with a curious thought. If a man is passionate enough about his gaming and obviously British enough to queue up in an orderly fashion for several hours to buy a game at midnight, I cannot understand what could possibly make him voluntarily leave his place to stab someone seemingly at random. Even bearing in mind that the Police might not turn up and arrest him before the shop still opens, he is still going to have to rejoin at the back of the queue or face a unending barrage of hushed 'tsk-ing' muttered in his general direction until he leaves like a social pariah.

The British public may turn a blind eye to a stabbing less than a few yards from them, but pushing back into a queue you have clearly left is just not happening, not without serious social consequences. Perhaps slap someone with a glove and make arrangements for a later date, but leave a queue?

Seriously though, the Johnny Cash song 'Don't Take Your Guns To Town' seems pretty apt. With respect to the game, I suspect there would be less uproar if it had been for release of a new My Little Pony. I can see the news headline now, Man beaten with saddle recovers in hospital...

Edit 30 Apr 2007 13:47:According to The Register however

A hooded male stabbed another man in the head and neck yesterday as they both queued to buy copies of Grand Theft Auto IV from a Croydon Gamestation store... it’s thought that the two men were just rude to one another.

Perhaps more notable is

The victim managed to survive the ordeal - and stumbled home to grab a knife for a revenge attack. However, he collapsed in the street on his way back to the store.

British queuing jokes aside, perhaps its just me but I cannot imagine what words could've been said, let alone what the guy thought he would achieve by heading for revenge rather than medical attention.

Perhaps its the people who play the game that are to blame rather than the game itself. If you can't differentiate between pixels and real life...

30 Apr 2008 12:44 | (0) comments | London | Technology | Thoughts

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