Clearly GTA IV isn't causing your violent crime spree, being as it only came out yesterday in the US while your crime spree came out some time ago, presumably. Seriously, I think you can do a better job than this in terms of stemming your violent crime rates.

One more WHITE HAIRED OLD MAN jumping on the bandwagon. These people need to hurry up and croak so the world can move on.

Double the violence as the USA is murders and such in the thousands. THOUSANDS.

It's about time they do something about it.

And they decide to put that initiative towards.. banning a video game.

Fucking brilliant. Just fucking brilliant.

Two guesses why New Zealand has gone to shit with politicians like this.

*facepalm*

[...] wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptA member of New Zealand’s Parliament has called for a ban on Grand Theft Auto IV. As reported by Scoop, Independent MP Gordon Copeland wants GTA IV to be unavailable to New Zealanders. Copeland told Scoop: Sadly New Zealand has become a violent society. Our criminal courts are almost log jammed with cases involving murder, manslaughter, rape, and other heinous crimes. Our jails are overflowing. A recent study has indicated that, on a per capita basis, New Zealand is now twice as violent as the USA… [...]

I put the question this way:

Does anyone honestly believe that if every single game was banned, collected and burned, violence would cease to exist?

Not necessarily a bad idea, but not one that makes sense.

@ Justin:

You don't think censorship and limited rights are bad ideas?

Because right now, New Zealand is heavily censored and their citizens rights are very limited.

How's that been working out for them?

Oh, right. It hasn't.

I think the fact that gamers in New Zealand have to deal with censored games like GTA4, and the fact that they come out months after the US is what's spurring violent crime rates.

After we succeed at banning the relatively tamer (in comparison) GTA IV, are we going to start hitting other media; like books, movies, art, comics, music, religious texts, theatre, poems, history texts, human thought?

I'm really eager to start the cleaning of all this filth from our world so that we may finally create a politician's utopia.

Sincerely LujanD, the futuristic and politically correct version.

It's like the march of a herd of dinosaurs, all of them are bellowing in impotent despair as they plod slowly along toward extinction, while younger and more evolved life waits patiently until the noise stops and they can get on with what they were doing.

"As David Rossman, one of the world's foremost experts in the field of violent crime, has said "These (video games) are actually killing simulators and they teach... to kill in much the same way the astronauts on Apollo 11 learned how to fly to the moon.""

I'm sure someone quoted this guys before. Never mind the fact that the astronaut metaphor is completely and hoplessly inaccurate, who is this David Rossman? He doesn't seem like much of an expert if this bull is what he comes up with.

"Simply stated, it is time to reverse the tide of violence in New Zealand."

The tide that started on April 29th 2008? lol

"We have to have the courage somewhere, sometime, to say "no" and I agree with kiwi parents and the police, that this is not a bad place to start.""

If only they had the courage somewhere, sometime to go after the real causes of crime, instead of calling for a ban on a video game that has been available for less than a week and blaming it for all of their societies problems.

"A recent study has indicated that, on a per capita basis, New Zealand is now twice as violent as the USA…"

Sir that sounds like a challenge to me. :D

Is it possible that a video game, even if violent, may keep kids attention longer and indoors, off the streets?

I think the very first step to making New Zealand a nicer place is to get rid of a politician like this that aims at getting rid of a video game rather then deal with all these more serious situations.

With a politician like this no wonder why New Zealand has an uprise in violence.

How more honest can I be?

Banning GTA4 won't lower there violence and crime rates.

@Talouin:

IIRC, BBFC said that the lack of interactivity in movies made them *WORSE* than video games.

I had finally found the word I was looking for in a related article about GTAIV.

catharsis

Look it up. Maybe NZ has a bigger problem. Maybe it should import more games like this. What you have is a bunch of ticked off bored people. If GTAIV isn't there yet and you have this crime wave, maybe it isn't the problem?

Am I the only one to have noticed the mispelling of David Grossman (called "David Rossman") ?

Not only do they recycle the same old sources article after article, but they can't even do it accurately.

But they get the neutered Aussie version? Why ban the game after the bigger island gimped it?

"and I agree with kiwi parents and the police, that this is not a bad place to start."

too bad it's a meaningless place to start.

Don't they think these violent SOBs' could channel their violent impulses into GTAIV?I mean sh*t,I channel all of my violent impulses into every game I play,and it really helps blow off steam.Oh well.

I think you'll agree that we need to turn the tide of violence. And folks, are you in for a wild night. We have perhaps THE most amazing idea ever. This is a million times better than the atkins diet - you won't see this one coming. We will NOT tackle the causes of crime. We will NOT crack down on crime in the streets. We will NOT take down corruption in New Zealand.

Oh no.

We're going to ban a game!

I'd just like to point out that virtually no one in New Zealand takes Gordon Copeland seriously, and there isn't a hope in hell of him still being an MP after the next election.

He was a member of the Christian oriented United Future party but left after a falling out over a particular bill going through Parliament, a bill he then failed to turn up to vote against, which should tell you how well he follows through on things.

That guy looks like the emperor without his hood...

"We have been expecting you..."

People in the middle ages were violent coz of videogames as well then?

Okay, 1st off

@ Demontestament: Bring it on :D

@ Kajex: Actually, that was Aussie, Melbourne I think...

As for Gordon Copeland; he recently managed to sink his own new Christian Conservative party (or whatever the hell they called it) with Destiny Church (a pryamid scheme to pay for "Bishop" Tamaki's mansions).

Secondly his party should concentrate on the effect of paedophiles on the crime rates in New Zealand (take that!).

Thirdly, new statistics show that the criminal population in NZ is aging, with less teens and young adults commiting crime and the recent reports on crime levels overall show that violent crime has fallen in recent years.

But nevermind facts, GTAIV kills prostitutes. I mean just wait; clearly because there have been millions of copies sold we should now be beginning to see a flood of dead prostitutes and cops.

Or not...

@ RKfromDownunder

Shhh, your stats are making Gordon look bad :D

[...] Source: Gamepolitics,  Scoop Permalink [...]

@AM

Didn't you hear that they cancelled WifeBeater for Windows because of the controls being crap? Apparently they're going to re-do it for the Wii so you can use the remote to teach that bitch to not burn the pie, to iron faster, or not to have an opinion of her own. And they say the Wii has no adult themed games...

This politician sounds like many we have in Australia, the fringe interest group kind who holds some minor back bench seat but make more noise than an entire political party. The media lap it up because they like nothing better than a "Society gone to the dogs" story, it gives their vapid moron current affairs host a chance to nod sagely at the end of the story and say with a sigh "Certainly makes you think, doesn't it?"

[...] Imagine if this was actual gameplay dialogue. Good thing it isn’t. I just hope the government doesn’t get their minds wrapped around a game and try banning this title like this New Zealand Politician. Then again there have been 3 other successful GTA titles released in the past so I’m sure there should be nothing to worry about… right? [...]