What a way to tag out. Why does everyone jump to conclusions when it comes to blame, except to cash in on the death of their child? It's sad when something like this happens, but even sadder when the parents spin it to their advantage. Even though the WWE are merely trying to cover their own asses, they are the voice of reason in this matter when it should be the media and police.

I stopped ever wanting to do this when I saw that old video on Youtube of some guy who built a really shitty parachute/cape and jumped off the Eiffel Tower.

So I imagine it would have looked like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BepyTSzueno

i played morrowind for a week straight and went on hike, i found some plant growing, i pulled it outta the ground and used my morter and made some strange concoction i then applied to a piece of printer paper, i then asked my roommate at the time to eat it, he threw it away and my dream of being the neverine was thrown out with it. fucking video games.

and i blame the mother for not supervising and trying to blame video games instead of her. and the fuct up thing is the media will blame the game as well instead of her. society is looking for an outlet to blame anything on except themselves. when i was young i had turtles and never tried jumping on them or smashing my head into a stack of bricks hoping a magic mushroom would pop out and i have smashed my head into bricks at one time but that was a bike jump that went horrible wrong when i landed and lost control of the handlebars, i blamed myself for that though.

I wish videogames did invent wrestling. It's the most ridiculously stupid thing ever. Existing in a solely digital media would really take nothing away from it.

I don't really have anything to say about the actual story.

So, okay...

- Kid is a special-needs child.
- He was left home alone.
- The rooftop access door's alarm was broken.
- He jumped off the roof with a homemade parachute.

Why isn't this story about a mother who left her special-needs child home alone? Or the one about how the building owner failed to maintain his property? Or how he was possibly imitating a person he saw parachuting on TV?

Because that would require actual journalism.

Nowhere in the WWE video game, or in the WWE broadcasts, are parachutes used. If he were imitating "Jeff Harding", he'd be doing it off the top of his bed, like the rest of us did when we were 9.

The article I read quoted one of his friends saying that he thinks he would have been imitating the wrestler. So...the media decided that this other kid is a reliable source?

Gah. This is why I avoid major news outlets.

Someone made a crucial mistake. and it wasn't videogames or the wwe.

While we're at it lets blame the parachute men toy manufacturers. Plastic men with plastic parachutes = receipe for disaster.



This couldn't get more ridiculous, unless Jack Thompson chimed in which should be pretty soon I'd say.

"Why isn't this story about a mother who left her special-needs child home alone? Or the one about how the building owner failed to maintain his property? Or how he was possibly imitating a person he saw parachuting on TV?"

Because then people wouldn't get all the hits on their website allowing Destructoid to have yet another article like this to post, leading up to all us being able to rant about how dumb people can be,...just like always. Sounds exactly like journalism to me, "writing designed to appeal to current popular taste or public interest".

See below...

"Boy jumps off roof and dies" = boring
"Video games cause boy to die in horrible parachute accident" = win!

"Rescued ship captain back on dry land in Kenya"
"Ship captain back on dry land after being kinapped by pirates inspired from video games"

"NY state governor introduces gay marriage bill"
"Gay marriages in the video game Sims cause NY state governor to introduce new marriage bill"

"Deaths of 2 Michigan Children Blamed on Flu"
"Deaths of 2 Michigan Children Blamed on Flu and Video Games"

"Blind Amputee Has to Fight AIG for New Plastic Leg, Wheelchair"
"Video Game Trains Blind Amputee To Fight AIG for New Plastic Leg, Wheelchair"

"Simply an amazing story all round, and a testament to American media spin. It's the best in the world." I read that last part "in the world" Jeremy Clarkson style in my head, it made the end of this article epic. This story is ridiculous, people always wanna point fingers...

I grew up watching wrestling. Back when I was a kid, the big story was that some kid was paralyzed because he let his friend give him a Tombstone Piledriver onto a concrete sidewalk. For anyone who doesn't know, a piledriver is where you basically pick someone up and hold them upside down, and then drop them on their head. Everyone was blaming WWE and saying how it was their fault that this poor kid was paralyzed.

I remember not being able to believe that anyone could blame this on wrestling. I had to have that talk that parents have with their kids when they see some stupid bullshit like this on the news. I remember my parents telling me that it was important that I never try to do what those kids did and imitate the WWE wrestlers. All I could think of was "Do they think I'm an idiot?"

I mean come on... How does anyone not know that it isn't a good idea to let your friend drop you head first onto concrete? If I was a big Superman fan, and a died trying to jump off of a building and fly like Superman, everyone would just think I was an idiot. No one would try to blame Superman, or Superman video games, for my moronic actions.

So why is it that when it's wrestling or video game related, it's always the WWE's or the game's fault? Video games probably get wrongfully blamed the most for acts of stupidity, but I'd say wrestling is a close second.

Why can't people just accept the fact that some kids are stupid? If you let your friend piledrive you onto concrete, you deserve to be paralyzed. And if you jump off of your roof with a home made parachute trying to do a Swanton Bomb, then maybe the world isn't going to miss you too much. I'm guessing the kid who jumped off of his roof with a parachute he made himself wasn't going to grow up to be president or cure cancer. It's probably better that he died now before he grew up and had kids himself. I'm tired of stupid people reproducing. That's how evolution works. Some people are supposed to die off.

"He forgot to turn of falling damage in the options. " - Nawara_Ven

lol, classic :)

Reminds me somewhat of the Simpsons episode with Krusty playing a batman villain..

It truly says something about the state of media today when the WWE steps up to take on the part of the voice of reason.

http://buttersafe.com/comics/2009-04-16-ThePrincessAndTheTower.jpg
bad influence?

lmao, I could tell this was a Jim Sterling article as soon as I read the title, not that I could figure out what it was about before I read it though.