South Africa's Independent Online reports on yet another attempt to link media violence to the real deal.

The IO reports that Cape Town-based watchdog group the Family Policy Institute has petitioned South Africa's government to recall all music containing violent lyrics and all video games with violent content.

FPI spokesman Errol Naidoo made the request, expressing the group's concerns over potential negative influences on young people. The move comes in the wake of the samurai sword killing of a 16-year-old by a schoolmate who allegedly dressed himself like Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison (left).

Prefering not to wait for any type of inquiry, Naidoo requested the recall of the games and CDs "pending the outcome of the investigation". From the Independent Online:

Naidoo cited the case of two US teens who were convicted of murder in 2003 after stabbing a friend 20 times and slitting his throat after listening to Slipknot's song Disasterpiece.

He also cited the case of Bangkok teenager Polwat Chinno who had killed a taxi driver by punching and stabbing him after playing the computer game Grand Theft Auto. "Police believe he was acting out a scene in the violent video game," Naidoo said.

He said there was no guarantee that removing violent music and games would prevent violent behaviour, but that it would "provide added peace of mind for families".

Given the pre-release backlash from media watchdogs over the level of violence depicted in Sega's upcoming Wii title Madworld, publisher Sega is said to be in touch with officials of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and Pan-European Gaming Information system (PEGI) in an effort to head off the type of outright ban imposed on Rockstar Games' controversial Manhunt 2 last year.

Nintendic reports on the dialogue between Sega and the ratings bodies. Of particular significance is the BBFC. The organization was behind the Manhunt 2 ban, which was later overturned by Britain's High Court. More recently government officials have indicated that their preference is to turn the U.K.'s game rating chores over to the BBFC. The British game industry, however, would prefer PEGI.

Nintendic quotes Sega exec  David Corless:

Yes, [Madworld's] violent. We don’t try to hide that, but as publishers, we see it as a fantasy game - it’s fantasy violence. It’s over the top. It’s cartoony. We also take the violence very seriously. We are working with the age rating boards, with PEGI and with BBFC. We’re not at the end of the game’s development, but we’re working with them now to make sure that we don’t go over the top. The game has been banned in Germany; there’s no getting around that unfortunately. But we are taking it seriously and we’re going to make sure that this game is rated for the appropriate audience.

A leading Thai newspaper takes the government of Thailand to task for basing a video game crackdown on the recent murder of a cabbie by an alleged Grand Theft Auto player.

An editorial in today's Bangkok Post is unsparing in its criticism of the official response to Polwat Chinno's claim that GTA prompting his stabbing of 54-year-old victim.

Far from showing concern, this [government] reaction [to the murder] emphasised the huge gap between the real technology revolution and what the country's leaders appear to know about it. 

 

First of all, it is most troubling that authorities and the media latched on so quickly and conveniently to the alibi of a confessed, vicious killer... He is an adult who told police he planned and carried out a reprehensible killing for a small amount of money. His claim that the video game Grand Theft Auto made him commit the crime sounds more like a novel legal defence than a credible motive. Tens of millions of people around the world play that game - tens of thousands in Bangkok...

The Post also outs the Thai government's laughable list of Top 10 Violent Games, a story broken here on GamePolitics (see: Thailand's 10 Violent Games to Avoid List Stolen From Detroit):

The Public Health Ministry quickly assembled a list of Top 10 Violent Games - not by research or reason, but by a quick Googling in which bureaucrats accepted the first hit, an obscure list from a local US politician trying successfully to get his name in the newspapers and his face on the TV news in an election cycle. 

 

Such a ban is also self-defeating, since new games come on the market regularly. In any case, a police ban is only another business hitch to the video pirates and shop owners involved in underground distribution...

 

The problem is most parents and few politicians have a clue about such things. Many are technologically illiterate...

Kotaku reports that PlayStation 2 favorite God of War 2, officially banned by Saudi authorities, is available for purchase on the black market.

In fact, a Saudi reader even describes the process to Kotaku in great detail. It seems that a local mall peddles GoW2 discs concealed inside shrinkwrapped boxes for other games. In the instance described, GoW2 was covered up by box art showing Winning Eleven 7, a several years-old soccer sim. (see pic)

GP: It's nice to see that Saudi gamers aren't totally limited in their choices. And we hope that the store clerk still has possession of his thumbs now that this info is public.

Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia reports that an association of taxi drivers has called for a ban on Grand Theft Auto.

We're working from an imprecise Google translation, but the basics of the story are that Josep Maria Goñi, secretary general of the Catalan Taxi Federation, has requested that the Spanish government pull GTA titles off the market.

Goñi makes it clear that the Taxi Federation's request is based on the Thailand murder case. The cabbie spokesman didn't stop at GTA, however, calling for a ban on all games with a high level of violence or which "celebrate" drug trafficking or prostitution.

GP: We've always found the GTA series to be fairly sympathetic to cabbies. After all, they get mega-tips if you warp to your destination. You can even play as a driver, racing fares around town to earn some in-game cash. And, as GameSpot points out:

There are no actual missions in GTAIV which require players to rob, stab, or kill a taxi driver...

Singapore may have banned Mass Effect last year (and later un-banned it), but gamers there do not want to see a Grand Theft Auto ban.

As reported by the Electric New Paper, gamers in Singapore are concerned that last week's cabdriver murder in Thailand may prompt a video game backlash:

'It's a game, it's just for fun,' said student Julius Wong, 20, who completed [GTA IV]... 'What makes the game popular is that you get to do things you don't normally get to do in real life.' Playing the game was 'stress relief'.

 

Student Poh Koon Kiat, 23, was also against a ban, saying it would be a knee-jerk reaction. 'I don't think games affect how I act in real life,' he said.

ENP reports that GTA IV was a huge seller in Singapore, with 20,000 copies sold during its first week at retail. Local distributor IAHGames said it was unaware of any move to ban the game.

The head of a Malaysian consumer rights organization has called for a ban on Grand Theft Auto and similarly violent video games.

The move comes following the murder of a Bangkok cabbie last Saturday. Thai government officials were quick to link that killing to what they said was the 19-year-old suspect's Grand Theft Auto play.

In an op-ed for the Star Online, Mohamed Idris, president of the Consumers Association of Penang, writes:

It was recently reported that the Thai authorities have banned a computer video game known as Grand Theft Auto... Violent video games and television programmes have previously been linked to expressions of violence and aggression in young viewers. It is time for the authorities to act.

If this particular video game is available in Malaysia, CAP calls on the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs to immediately halt its sales and ban this game. The Ministry should also warn the public and any stocks that have already been sold should be recalled.

CAP also calls on the Ministry to initiate immediate measures to weed out similar games and halt sales and also their use in video game arcades.

GP: It's very odd to see a consumer group demanding censorship. One might think that the CAP, which has the stated objective of giving a voice to the little people, would prefer that Malyasian consumers have choices in their entertainment.

You knew it was only a matter of time.

In the wake of reports that a 19-year-old Thai man murdered a cab driver after playing Grand Theft Auto, embattled Miami attorney Jack Thompson has written a menacing e-mail to the top executives of Take-Two Interactive, publisher of the controversial series.

In the e-mail to T2 chairman Strauss Zelnick and CEO Ben Feder (and copied to dozens of other people, including GamePolitics), Thompson writes:

I warned you both that copycat killings by teens would occur upon the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. Now my prediction has come true...

In addition to multiple written warnings, I told you of this coming mayhem in a face-to-face meeting with you, Mr. Zelnick, on Central Park West on May 15, 2007... I am working with authorities now...  as well as other remedies against Take-Two for its reckless worldwide distribution of its murder simulation training products...

 

This is just the latest killing incident prompted by your murder simulators. I aim to make it the last...

PS: The above latest copycat killing will help fuel federal legislation in the United States because of your company’s chronic marketing and sale of its mature-rated video games to minors. You are selling GTA IV, for example, to anyone of any age via the Internet.

AFP reports that Thai government officials have now banned the Grand Theft Auto series following the recent arrest of 19-year-old GTA player Polwat Chinno on murder charges.

"The police are empowered to immediately arrest shopkeepers if they find any GTA (Grand Theft Auto) games on sale," Ruangsak Jaritake, a police spokesman, told AFP.

 

"GTA is banned mainly because of its obscene content -- under the criminal law article 287 that prohibits reproduction, distribution or possession of such material," he said...

 

Any game seller found stocking the game could be sentenced to three years in prison and a fine up to 6,000 baht (180 dollars). Stricter penalties are in place for online sellers who could receive five years imprisonment and a 100,000 baht (3,000 dollars) fine.

It would appear that Chinno was playing an unspecified earlier version of Gran Theft Auto - not GTA IV, given the local Thai distributor's announcement that it will not import the recently-released game:

The New Era Interactive Media company, the only legal distributor of the games, said earlier Tuesday it would remove the game from sale in Thailand.

 

"We have stopped selling Grand Theft Auto and inform all legal vendors to withdraw the game from their shelves," the company said in an online statement.

 

"The company will not import GTA 4 (the next in the series) to distribute in Thailand," it added.

A few more details have emerged on the alleged killing of a Bangkok cab driver by 19-year-old Polwat Chinno (left), said by Thai authorities to be "obsessed" with Grand Theft Auto.

The Bangkok Post reports:

The Family Network yesterday called on the Culture Ministry to ban the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) video game franchise after incidences of copycat violence by players.

 

In its statement, the network blamed GTA for at least two violent incidents, including the fatal stabbing of taxi driver Kuan Phokang on Sunday by Polwat Chinno, a 19-year-old student known to be an obsessive player of the game.

GP: It's unclear at this point exactly what type of organization the Family Network is. The group is mentioned at this site.

According to the Family Network manager Wanchai Boonpracha, a shooting at Talad Thai wholesale market in Pathum Thani last year was also copied from one of the games.

 

He said the granting of a licence to the online version of the game by the Office of National Cultural Commission in August last year made it readily available at internet cafes and games arcades, increasing the likelihood of copycat crimes by teenagers.

 

"The Family Network demands the Culture Ministry revokes the licence of GTA and other games with inappropriate violent and sexual content" Mr Wanchai said in the statement.

 

He said that GTA was banned in several countries, including Australia and England.

GP: The GamePolitics coverage of the Pathum Thani market shooting is here. Wanchai Boonpracha is incorrect regarding Australia and England. The game was never banned in the U.K. (perhaps he is thinking of Manhunt 2) and the Australian market received GTA IV with the hooker animations removed.

Amporn Benjapolpitak of the Mental Health Department, doubted that the video game was entirely to blame for Mr Polwat's behaviour.Ms Amporn yesterday interviewed Mr Polwat's friends and teachers at school and found that he had suffered from heightened anxiety.

 

"I don't think excessive playing of the game is the sole cause. There must be other causes too," she said. "His friends told me that [his personality] had changed."

GP: So, perhaps initial reports of a totally together teen made homicidal by GTA were not totally accurate? A second Bangkok Post article contains additional misinformation under the headline Games of Subversion:

The Public Health Ministry, which has monitored the impact of thse games on the mental and physical health of young Thais, yesterday released a list of 10 online games which have been banned in the United States since last year because of their inappropriate content... 

 

They are: Manhunt; Scarface; 50 Cent: Bulletproof; 300: The Video Game; The Godfather; Killer; Resident Evil 4; God of War; Hitman: Blood Money; and Grand Theft Auto.

GP: There has never been a video game banned in the United States.

A story receiving widespread media play this morning details the arrest of a 19-year-old Thai man who allegedly robbed and murdered a Bangkok cab driver. According to police sources, Polwat Chino told investigators he was re-enacting a scene from Grand Theft Auto IV.

Reuters reports that GTA IV has been removed from retail shelves and arcades (we're assuming that in Thailand players can play console games for a fee). From the article:

Police in Bangkok said that the youth "had wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game."

 

...Chino, described by his parents as polite and diligent... had paid to play the game at a local shop in Bangkok, and said he had needed more cash to continue playing it and that the taxi driver looked like an easy target.

GP: So, was he re-enacting a scene from the game or just looking for someone to rob? Reuters continues:

A senior official at Thailand's Culture Ministry, which has been pursuing tougher regulation of violent games such as Grand Theft Auto, said the murder was a wake-up call for authorities, and urged parents to take note of what their children were playing.

 

"This time-bomb has already exploded and the situation could get worse," the official was quoted as saying. "Today it is a cab driver but tomorrow it could be a video game shop owner." Thai authorities have been pushing for a rating system on video games, as well as restrictions on how long youths can spend playing games in video arcades.

GP: Given the Thai government's history of censorship, this case will likely not receive the type of media scrutiny and follow-up that it deserves. Not to rush to judgment, but the situation as described in the news report (including the very convenient photo at left of the suspect re-enacting his crime for police) couldn't be more perfect for a government seeking a justification for a video game crackdown.

We also note that the suspect, who reportedly stabbed the victim 10 times, is wearing what appears to be a very clean white shirt (i.e., no blood). Stab someone ten times from arm's length and closer and you're going to get blood on your clothing. And yes, he could have changed clothes, but we don't really know.

GamerChip is reporting that the Australian government's ban on Fallout 3 has been lifted following edits to the game for the Australian market.

The site bases their story on information from a pair of game retailers:

...according to EB Games and GAME representatives, Australia will be receiving the game, albeit in a modified format. The new, friendlier version, will have the drug use removed that saw the game banned in the first place. Both EB Games and GAME are currently taking pre-orders for the title. One representative from GAME, contacted this Thursday night... said that he had read on their internal communications only an hour before that Fallout 3 would be released this year.
 

We note, however, that Australia's official censorship body, the Office of Film and Literature Classification, continues to list Fallout 3 as "refused classification" (i.e., banned).

Readers may recall that Australian gamers received a watered-down version of Grand Theft Auto IV after the game's hooker animations were removed to satisfy the OFLC.

In a terrific roundup, Winda Benedetti, MSNBC's Citizen Gamer, surveys some of the more controversial independent game offerings and asks whether such games are an appropriate medium for sensitive topics.

Among other titles, Benedetti looks at Danny Ledonne's Super Columbine Massacre RPG (left), The Torture Game 2, Wafaa Bilal's Virtual Jihadi, Operation Pedopriest, and Harpooned. There are, of course, critics:

"You don’t gain appreciation for the [Columbine] tragedy by repeating it and participating in a recreation yourself and taking the role of murderers,” says Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, in an interview for a documentary film Ledonne recently completed about his experiences making the game, and the aftermath.

“This is totally immoral and should be banned to everyone, especially younger teenagers,” wrote a reader calling herself Ms. Johnson in response to my recent column about “The Torture Game 2,”  a controversial Web game that allows players to torture a man-like person tied up with ropes.

David Kociemba, an art prof at Emerson College who appears in Ledonne's film, says:

The controversy should be that there aren’t more games like ‘Super Columbine Massacre RPG!’ that are as demanding and as artistically innovative... Why is it permitted for Michael Moore in 2002, to make ‘Bowling For Columbine’ — a film essay on this subject — and to use far more graphic footage than Danny Ledonne does three years later in a primitive low-res video game? Are we really going to say that video game designers are the one set of artists that do not have the right to engage in contemporary political issues?

The ESA, which represents North American video game publishers, has released its 2008 Annual Report.

Ben Kuchera of Ars Technica provides a nice summary of the business and legislative highlights.

In reading the ESA report, we were most struck by the sheer volume of legislative efforts directed at video games on both the state and federal level. Many of these we were aware of and reported on here at GamePolitics. A few others flew under the media radar. Here's the state list:

• Colorado: The ESA persuaded the Denver transit company not to ban M-rated game ads on buses
• Connecticut: tax incentives were approved for video game production
• Delaware: legislation directed at point-of-sale died in committee
• Florida: approved financial incentives for game development
• Indiana: game legislation died in committee
• Massachusetts: game legislation is stalled in committee
• Mississippi: game legislation died in committee
• Missouri: game legislation died in committee
• New Jersey: game legislation died in committee
• New York: 2007 bills passed Assembly & Senate, but a joint version was not finalized (in 2008, however, NY adopted a less restrictive video game law)
• New Mexico: "No Child Left Inside" act would have levied a 1% tax on games but failed to pass
• North Carolina: video game legislation carried over into 2008 session
• North Carolina: tax incentive bill introduced (but recently defeated)
• Oklahoma: bill requiring written notice to buyers that games contain violent content carried over to 2008 session
• Oregon: video game legislation stuck in committee
• Puerto Rico: video game legislation carried over into 2008 session
• Puerto Rico: tax on games to fund recreation programs stuck in committee
• Tennessee: legislation introduced to study effects of violent media
• Texas: tax incentives passed for game devs (although ESA report fails to mention content restrictions on such funding)
• Utah: video game legislation died in committee as did a resolution urging the state A.G. to file amicus briefs in other states where the game biz was challenging legislation
• Wisconsin: a 1% game tax is under consideration

On the federal level, the ESA cites four bills introduced in both the House and Senate. Also mentioned are the Annual Video Game Report Card issued in Washington, D.C. by the National Institute on Media and the Family as well as presidential candidate Mitt Romney's "ocean of filth" TV spot decrying mature content in games.

The ESA also recounts a number of parental awareness partnerships forged by the ESRB with state elected officials.

While some Australian politicians want to ban mature-themed games and others don't even seem to realize that their nation has a rating system, at least one would-be legislator Down Under not only understands games, but is a hardcore gamer himself.

As reported by Kotaku Australia, ACT Democrats candidate Greg Tannahill makes no bones about his gaming. A press release issued this week says:

Affordable housing, quality education and comprehensive public transport are the issues that Greg sees as key to Canberrans, but gaming remains close to his heart.

 

"Politicians don't understand videogaming and aren't interested in learning", says Greg. "There's good reason for people to be angry about the way games are treated by our parliaments, our media, and our classification board. I think gamers want to see leaders who have real respect for what they are passionate about, both as a pastime engaged in by millions of Australians from all walks of life, and as a multi-billion dollar industry which our governments should be attracting and nurturing".

While Tannahill has a campaign website, he also maintains a game blog, where he describes last week's Q&A program as "frankly terrifying":

Censorship is odious because it removes community choice. Censorship says that the thought is the action; that the common person can't distinguish between depiction and actuality... Censorship says, "Let me decide who talks."

And games are talking. They're talking very loudly, to a great many people, in strong and clear voices. They're speaking in places that have never read a newspaper and in houses which have never listened to politicians. It's okay to be worried by what games are saying. It's okay to disagree. But it's not okay to stifle those voices. It's not okay to kill the game.

Last week GamePolitics broke the news that Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) had introduced video game legislation.

The bill, S.3315, enjoys the support of watchdog group the Parents Television Council. If made law, it would:

...prohibit the distribution or sale of video games that do not have age-based content rating labels [and]  prohibit the sale or rental of video games with adult content ratings to minors...

Did we mention that Wicker is running for re-election?

In any case, we now have the full text of S.3315. It is the Senate version of a measure currently before the House. HB 5990, the Video Games Rating Enforcement Act, is a bipartisan bill introduced by Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) and Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT).

Did we mention that Terry and Matheson are also running for re-election?

On Friday GamePolitics reported on an incredibly clueless TV performance by a panel of Australian politicians and media types. 

For example, while bashing video games at length, the panel members did not even seem to realize that Australia has a rating system for games in place.

Their ill-informed rhetoric came in response to an audience question about game censorship and Australia's proposed R18 rating. As it turns out, the guy wearing the Fallout 3 t-shirt who asked the question (left) is an editor with Aussie site GameArena. "Joaby" describes the experience:

As you can see, what happened was far from a serious discussion on the merits of an R Rating for video games and government censorship. Instead, at large, the panelists were led into a discussion of violent video games and, due to archaic views of the average gamer, the discussion primarily devolved into the same "protect the children" commentary the public has heard for years.

Fortunately, what occurred on the show only served to highlight the exact issue at hand... Due to the format of the show it was nigh on impossible for me to refute even the more ludicrous and fantastic claims (Avatar: the rape game by Barnaby Joyce was particularly hard to keep quiet about) meaning the show simply continued to propagate the same antiquated idea already present in the general media about video games.
 

GP: Check out Friday's story if you missed the video. It's a classic. We've also created a helpful transcript to go along with the video...

A panel of Australian politicians and pundits made a sorry show of themselves on ABC's Q&A program last night.

The rampant cluelessness begins when an audience member (sporting a Fallout 3 t-shirt) raises the issue of banned video games due to Australia's lack of an R18+ rating. The announcer mentions the recent Fallout 3 ban, which was based on in-game drug use.

The panel's answers are astounding. Aside from their immediate willingness to censor games, they seem not to even be aware that Australia has a system for rating games. One member of the panel even raises the spurious "rape in games" issue - and almost seems to compare banned games to snuff films. Only Sen. Mark Arbib comes across as unbiased:

Announcer: Okay, so here's the question... Should there be censorship of these things, or should people over the age of 18 be able to buy these things with an R rating and play them, even though, as we've just heard, they're obviously extremely violent?

Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Group, Heather Ridout: Look, I mean if they're over 18, they'll find one way or another to get hold of it, Tony, and they do. But, as a mother of three kids, two of whom spend an awful lot of time playing these sorts of games, I mean I just find the whole thing appalling, the minds that come up with this stuff. Now Grand Theft Auto is one of the more famous games that seemed to turn everyone into a car thief, you know?. My Jordan thankfully didn't do that. But... I mean I'm not a censorship girl... But violent games, violence breeds violence. It's not nice.

Senator Nick Xenophon: I think we need to listen to the psychologists who've looked into this. And this is different in the sense it's interactive. People get immersed in these games and I think there's a real risk. I think as a society we can live without it.

Announcer: But does the risk warrant censorship?

Sen. Xenophon: Look, I think it does, when you look at some of the concerns of what it can trigger in some minds, then I think we need to be just a bit cautious about it.

Sen Mark Arbib: To actually ban them they must be terrible games. So, personally, I'm probably thinking R rating over the age of 18 is fine because as you said, if you wanna play to game, you're going to get it somehow. But I haven't seen the games so I really can't judge whether they should be banned or not.

Announcer: ...these things are being banned because there isn't a rating system on video games... that means anyone of any age can buy them...

Sen. Arbib: As I said, I think there's a strong argument to actually have a rating system, for all games, no doubt about it. And not just an R rating, but ratings just the same as ratings for the movies... so yeah...

Sen. Barnaby Joyce: You can't just say you can see it, therefore you should be allowed to see it, otherwise you legalize snuff movies and all sorts of profane things which I don't think take our society ahead... we had the thing with avatars, is that the right term, where people can actually go out and rape people. Now, this is not acceptable. You have to draw a line... you must take into account... those who are vulnerable to influence, how they would be affected by that. And if you don't, well you suffer what comes next. I, too have four kids... I want these kids to grow up in quiet, unaffected streets. And if there's someone playing a video game where they're raping someone, I'm not feeling good about the place, so, knock it out.

Christine Jackman, Journalist: I agree, we urgently need a rating system. I'm not a pro-censorship person, either... (to the audience member in the Fallout 3 t-shirt who asked the question) Can I throw it back on you... why would you want to play it...?

Audience member: I want to play the game because it's a story-driven experience that you could experience in a movie... however the Australian government won't let me.

Christine Jackman: And how many hours do you think you or your friends would be playing those games a day?

Audience member: It differs between everyone... the average gamer is anyone nowadays. The Queen has a Wii... it's not a question of who's playing them or how long they're playing them, it's a question of whether we're allowed to as adults...

Other audience member: ...I'm not a gamer, but in terms of restricting people's right to choose... how can you make that distinction between pokies [slot machines] and games which might be socially unacceptable when gambling itself, in our society in particular, has so many social problems than what might be caused by violent games? 

GP: Thanks to reader Michael 'sod' Pearse for the heads-up!