GTA Innacurately Linked To Crime

There are several certainties in this world. We will always have air to breath, Nintendo will always rule the NPD charts, and Grand Theft Auto will always, always, be blamed for violence. Ok, so the first two aren’t guaranteed, but the third one is assured. The best part is, we don’t even need Jack Thompson (who has been eerily quiet recently).

For example, look at this story in the Dailymail site about a 13 year old who set some cars on fire.

“A teenager who torched three cars in Lyon, France, told police he was wanted to imitate scenes from the Grand Theft Auto video game.

The 13-year-old schoolboy used petrol to set light to three vehicles after playing on the violent GTA 4: Liberty City game on his home PC.

The game awards points creating as much as crime and destruction as possible in a city.”

To get the obvious point out of the way first: Why was a 13 year old playing an M-rated game in the first place? Secondly, how did he get the PC version, which hasn’t even been completed, let alone shipped. Finally, the game does not award any points for causing destruction and crime. The only thing the game has ever awarded me was having my weapons confiscated, and that was only for shooting out someone’s tire.