Grand Theft Auto

It is not surprising that the GTA series is frequently mentioned when the subject of video game violence is discussed. After all, the GTA games are one of the few that let gamers play a criminal, although the games are great overall. The protagonists in the GTA games are always, for one reason or another, on the wrong side of the law. And this has led moral crusaders such as US lawyer Jack Thompson to call the GTA games “murder simulators”.

But the sad truth is that a deranged few have based their criminal acts on the GTA games. In 2003, for instance, Devin Moore shot 2 police officers and a radio dispatcher in the US state of Alabama and left the scene in a patrol car. He was an avid GTA player, and stated during the trial that “life is a video game, everybody has to die sometime”. And in 2008 six teenagers went on a crime spree in New York, mugging, robbing and smashing cars with a baseball bat. They claimed their actions were inspired by GTA, instead of their own moral stupidity…

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