November 15, 2007
British Labour MP Keith Vaz, long a critic of violent video games, yesterday posed a question in Parliament to Secretary of State for the Home Department Jacqui Smith.Vaz (left) asked:
How many (a) violent attacks and (b) murders that were judged to be linked in some way to violent video games occurred in the last 10 years...
Responding on Smith's behalf, Parliamentary Under-Secretary Vernon Coaker said:
The Home Office does not collect information on how many violent attacks and murders are judged to be linked to violent video games.
GP: While violent game play has been linked to increases in aggression, there has never been any research which linked gaming to actual violence. Vaz knows this, of course. In typical political fashion, his question is carefully phrased. "Linked in some way" could have a wide variety of meanings, including speculative linkage.
Comments
Re: Britain's Vaz Asks Government for Video Game-related Murder
The input device normally used to manipulate video games is called a game controller, which varies across platforms.
Actually there was no video games that was proven to have caused violence.
The system knows that video games are not the cause of violence, so they throw out the case that video games caused violence.
These people can never find anything that proves that games are at fault.
Well,we got your statistics right here Vaz.
0. A video game has hardly, if ever been the direct cause of a violent crime. If it was a factor, well, then the individual was messed up in the head to begin with.
If he's looking ot over turn their possible decision to lift the ban on Manhunt 2, I doubt he'll succeed.
or how many violent incidents that were judged to be linked in some way to violent violent films
or how many violent incidents that were judged to be linked in some way to violent violent television
or how many violent incidents that were judged to be linked in some way to violent violent comics
or how many violent incidents that were judged to be linked in some way to violent violent blogs
or how many violent incidents that were judged to be linked in some way to violent violent webcomics
or how many violent incidents that were judged to be linked in some way to violent violent dances (the watlz! How shocking!)
Hah. And of course, the link couldn't simply be that the murderer liked playing games. It has to be a cause of some sort.
Have all these public figures got nothing better to do than blow smoke about video game violence?
I mean, seriously, aren't there more pressing matters?
Sure signs of bias, eh?
Heres his answer - 0.
"How many (a) violent attacks and (b) murders that were judged to be linked in some way to violent video games occurred in the last 10 years…"
If a person is mugged and their DS or PSP stolen, does that count?
The worst thing is that he does not say who is doing this judging of the link between the violent acts/murders and video games. If you ask a normal, informed person, they will probably tell you the truth, that there is no link between games and real life crime. If you ask a person who knows nothing of video games, they might say there are some links, but only because they are going off what they heard on Fox or read in tabloid newspapers. If you ask a very biased individual like Jack Thompson or a CCFC member, they would tell you that there are countless violent acts linked to games, and might go as far as fabricating links to push an agenda.
The question, (if it were to have any little scrape of merit at all) should have been phrased like this.
"How many (a) violent attacks and (b) murders that were found by the police or law enforcement authorities to be linked in some way to violent video games occurred in the last 10 years…"
Not only would the question be clearer and avoid the problem of bringing biased opinion into the equation, it would also make it very easy to answer.
None.
"There hve been no murders directly resulting from playing with video-games.. Have a nice day."
Stupid old gas bag.
Home OFFICE!
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
Random Tower: Game News and Commentary
The Manhunt situation should not even count because the authority threw out the possibility that Manhunt played a role in the killing.
Jack Thompson teamed up with the victim's mother and that situation ended very fast when no one would fall for their nonsense.
It seems to me like these political figures need to do their job rather than slack off from the hard work and concentrate on messing with people's rights over little things like video games.
Hopefully Vaz will be replaced soon with someone that would do their job rather than slack off from the very major issues.
Just my two cents.
No, no, Keith, don't thank me. It really is my pleasure.
@ Video Game time
Vaz has been in office since 1987. I wish he would leave too, but the people of Leicester seem to like him so its up to them to kick him out.
What, you don't have any numbers? Fine, make some up. Nobody who freaks out about this stuff checks to see if the 'facts' are real. We'll just lie to push our agenda.
No, it's not 'wrong'. We're being 'political'. No one expects us to be honest anyway."
Think that's about the way it goes when these people are hatching these stupid ideas? I do.
Sounds like you are talking about Jack Thompson.
He is the perfect candidate for making up lies to mess with video games.
I remember Jack was saying that Halo 3 was incredibly violent when being talked to on television.
I would say that Halo 3 is one of the least violent M rated games out there.
This is more worthless Vaz nonsense. Brits, prepare to have your rights raped some more by this guy.
The Manhunt "connection" with the Stefan Pakeerah case would not be counted. The police investigated the supposed link to game, but announced
"Police investigations did not uncover any connections to the computer game."
"The motive for the incident was robbery."
Also, the fact that the game was owned by the VICTIM and found in his bedroom kind of knocks this silly theory on the head from the get go.
However, as Vaz does not say who the judge of links will be, it could be decided by experts with evidence like this: (From and IGN interview with our favorite liewyer)
"Thompson: By the way, the reports that the game belonged to the victim are false. Somebody in a gaming magazine in Scotland or England put that out. That's false. The game belonged to the murderer.
IGN: To the kid that killed him?
Thompson: Yeah, he left it at the house of the victim. It wasn't the victim's, it was the killer's. There's corroboration of that from other sources.
IGN: How did the killer get the game in the first place?
Thompson: I don't know, but he had it."
There you go, don't listen to the police who investigated the murder, it' obvious that this man with a proven personal agenda against a company who lives thousands of miles away and was in no way involved with the investigation!
That was what I was trying to point out. It's linked to a violent crim however some idiot (like maybe Vaz) may include it, as it's still linked to a violent crime.
In theory, 90% of violent crimes can be linked can be linked one way or another to violent games, but they shouldn't be counted as 100% of them won't relate to the crime as the link will be someone will have onwned atleast one violent game, should it be victim, suspect or relitive\friend. Vaz may still use it to his advantage which scares me a bit as I feel their is less protection for games in the UK.
Plus I thought it was concluded to be a drug related murder in the Pakeerah case.
I also propose an inquiry to deal with political corruption, kinda like when Vaz was accepting payments from wealthy friends in India in exchange for UK passports. It really pisses me off when I hear about political corruption like this, almost makes you want to go on a violent killing spree, ya know?
why on earth would the UK need to look for correlation into Neo - nazism?
Please explain.
I wonmder what his real problem is? He clearly has little or no understaunging of gaming as a medium. I'm almost certain that a little education/explanation would help him see sense, or at least expose his viewpoint as being far removed from rationality.
"Video games are fake."
*gets run over by a truck*
"Want a health pack?"
OK, I know that’s not exactly how the ad goes, but cut me some slack. Please?
why does this guy need to be asking questions? isnt he the type that has answers for everything?
Clearly Vaz is onto something. Something BIG.
WTF does he mean "judged to be linked"? If he means "judged" like in court, then I'm sure the answer is zero. If he means "judged" by the hysterical public, then the answer is probably "every murder ever committed by a male 25 or younger."
I guess it will be high...because linked in someway can include found in murder victims house, found in house of person who held up store to steal money for drugs. etc
Ask yourselves this: Why would the UK's major anti-game MP not already have this number to hand?
I'm willing to bet that even if the statistics say "1,000,000", it won't be enough for him unless it equals the number of violent video game SALES.
Naturally, "linked in some way" can be attiributed to ANYTHING. But I'm willing to bet 'ole "video games killed society" Vaz wouldn't want to travel down that road, now would he? He might be found to be to blame (by association) for some kid hanging themselves.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Zero.
Next question.
Somewhere around 10, probably less. . . oh wait this is the past year, then probably around 5.
In either case this should actually benfit our side
People who have played violent games vs. # of crimes "linked" to violent crimes vs. total # of violent crimes.
if two people are locked in a room with nothing but a video game controller...
and one kills the other...would that be video-game related?
Saw XVII anyone?
Clearly, we can look at stats and know that 73% of all serial killers vote Republican. Let us externalize such logic and censor/ban Republicanism, seriously.