Grand Theft Auto pulled from shops after murder

Some disturbing video game-related news comes to us today from Thailand. New Era Interactive Media, the distributor of the Grand Theft Auto games in Thailand, has opted to pull GTA from store shelves after a teenager confessed to robbing and killing a taxi driver while trying to recreate a scene from the game series.

Said New Era Interactive Media sales and marketing director Sakchai Chotikachinda,

We are sending out requests today to outlets and shops to pull the games off their shelves and we will replace them with other games. We are also urging video game arcades to pull the games from service.

We'll take this next bit straight from the Reuters report, seeing as it really caught our attention:

"He said he wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game," chief police investigator Veeravit Pipattanasak told Reuters.

Newspapers are reporting that the teen wasn't planning to stab the driver, but did so when the taxi driver tried to retaliate. He was arrested on late Saturday when he was found trying to drive the car backwards out of a Bangkok street. The wounded driver was in the back seat.

According to the report, the police said the youth showed no sign of mental problems during questioning and confessed to committing the crime because of the game. The youth in question faces possible death by lethal injection should he be found guilty of the crime.

from QJ.NET: http://pspupdates.qj.net/Thailand-pulls-Grand-Theft-Auto-from-shops-after-murder/pg/49/aid/122896

It seems the murder of a taxi cab driver in Thailand has taken an even stranger turn, besides the whole "It's linked to Grand Theft Auto" business. It seems the Thai government has released a list of games that have been deemed as violent games to avoid.

The only thing about it? It seems to have been taken from somewhere else.

Here's the list, as translated by CNET's Jesada Chandraprasert:

1. GTA
2. Man Hunt
3. Scarface
4. 50 Cent - Bullet Proof
5. 300
6. The Godfather
7. Killer 7
8. Resident Evil 4
9. God of War
10. Hitman

GamePolitics compared this to an outdated list of violent games to avoid made by Detroit Prosecutor Kym Worthy, which you can see below:

1. Grand Theft Auto
2. Manhunt
3. Scarface
4. 50 Cent Bulletproof
5. 300
6. The Godfather
7. Killer-7
8. Resident Evil 4
9. God of War
10. Hitman Blood Money

If you look at the two lists closely, they're basically the exact same list, only with Hitman: Blood Money turned into Hitman and Grand Theft Auto turned into GTA. Even if the translation from Chandraprasert is imprecise, the fact remains that the two lists are near-identical.

GamePolitics posits the possibility that "Thai bureaucrats are simply grabbing material from the Web in order to support a video game crackdown by the government." Of course, it could just be a lazy bureaucrat filching stuff to look good. Either way, the effect is the same: dark times for video games in Thailand.

from QJ.net: http://pspupdates.qj.net/Thailand-s-list-of-10-violent-games-to-avoid-filched-from-Detroit-list/pg/49/aid/123009

I find it stupid that the authorities believe these guys

They shouldn't get any less of a sentence because they blame it on a game

Its stupid, if they did it, either plea insanity or just admit...

straight forward imprisonment or locking away in an institution for the mentally unfit.