We've railed against the anti-games lobbyists helping to make the "videogames" excuse a valid one for criminals, and today an attorney has admitted how good a defense it is, and which judges are the best marks for such a defense. Terry Boesky pretty much admits why videogames are so readily blamed in court for violent crimes, and suggests that "old rural" judges are often receptive:
The goal of the 'video games' defense is to both shift blame and to explain to a judge and jury why this good kid is suddenly acting like a terrorist. Portraying your client as the victim of outside forces... humanizes the client and shifts the culpability... my job is to present ANY theory to a jury that would explain why my client did the things he did...
[The games made me do it defense works on] an unsophisticated, typically older, somewhat more rural jury pool or judge. To an extent, the defendant is playing on the prejudices that these members of society already have towards video games...
The manufacturers do everything they can to make sure that [the games] are a household name... Restricting supply to create buzz, sensationalizing their own violence to the media, doing idiotic things like leaving the "Hot Coffee" code in the game…the jury knows that a lot of kids today are playing this Grand Theft Auto game and that it’s very violent or adult before we even walk into the courtroom.
It's quite amusing how Boek blames the videogame companies themselves for this issue -- now that's the mark of a good attorney. Not only will he blame games for murder, he'll blame games for being blamed for murder. If I ever kill somebody, I want this guy on my side!
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Contest:
4:19 PM on 08.27.2008
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To err is nature, to blame someone (or somethign else) is human.
Something along these lines explains how I hate stuck up, snobby old people that think if one person does it, everyone is going to do it.
If everyone jumped off a bridge would you follow? Hells yeah there would be so many dead boies in a pile that you could surf down them.
Surf down a pile of dead bodies...
I got side tracked.
Well, he's right isn't he? Part of the reason these judges are so quick to jump on the "games are evil" bandwagon is because of all the negative publicity the video games generate, either by accident or on purpose from the parent company. By being seen as a "rockstar" like company might help their image when selling games, it works against them when Elmer McOldfart is the judge in a court case.
As much as I want to hate the guy, I sure would want him on my side too.
I have a feeling in another generation or two, this defense won't be as effective. Jurors and Jurists will be more savvy, and the "videogames made me do it" defense could actually backfire on a defendant. I hope so anyway.
Hah, see what I did there?
Actually; people have been blaming asinine things in courtrooms for decades. See The Twinkie Defense
I think Video games are code for Twinkies. Games don't kill people, games with guns kill people?
i know you want to always portray video games as the victim, jim, but why cant you accept things like the fact that grand theft auto, despite being a good game, is sensationalist bullshit on purpose? its a marketing tactic, and though there are lots of things you could say in its defense otherwise, don't fucking lash out at someone for pointing that out; and, by the way, he was just pointing out why it is a good defense in certain situation, and not that he uses - or for that matter, even condones - the defense itself or the implications of using it
youre like the big bulldog on the short leash here, barking at shit for the sake of barking
Not one person who slaved over GTA 4 was thinking "I can't wait to make a kid murder someone because of this game" and it must break their hearts to hear people demanding the games ban when they know how much they have put in to it. I can't even begin to imagine the hard work that built that masterpiece. Some people need to realise the violence in the game is just a means to an end, a narrative tool. It wasn't shoe-horned in to corrupt the youth!
As wrong as that is...........
I lol'd
Just for the heck of it.
Rap stars go out of their way to sensationalise themselves as criminals and thugs - way more than the tongue in cheek crime stories of GTA.
Those of you that are trying to convince us that the games companies bring it upon themselves are just as bad as the moronic hick judges that knee jerk to this bullshit.
Comic books sensationalise vigilantism, but you don't see me out in the street with a sack of doorknobs looking for the closest stickup, do you?
He never said, not once, that videogames are to blame for violence. What he actually said was why the "Video games made me do it," defense works. Then he said, essentially, that game companies are doing precious little to alleviate that bias.
On that, I agree. As Mudd stated, most game companies wouldn't know good PR if it bit them in the ass (or, more appropriately, gave them a massage and a cookie). I just don't think that's all there is. I think the panicked feedback loops quite a few reactionary 'moral guardians' generate might be a large part of it as well.
Ergo, I should shoot you all and let god sought it out!!!!
(Puts down controller and quietly leaves the room).
Take TurboSpaz's comments for example - "Well, he's right isn't he? Part of the reason these judges are so quick to jump on the "games are evil" bandwagon is because of all the negative publicity the video games generate, either by accident or on purpose from the parent company."
All I am saying is that yeah, they might sensationalise the violence, but so do other forms of media, so the argument that gaming gives fodder for these guys to make assumptions on the industry is dubious, because other industries give these guys MORE fodder.
Chewbacca is a wookiee from the plante Kashyyyk, but he lives on Endor. Now think about it: That does not make sense...