Outrage! UK media up in arms over DS games

by Chris Greenhough { Sep 26th 2008 at 10:44AM }

It's rare to see DS titles being held responsible by the mainstream media for society's ills. Usually, such treatment is reserved for home console releases, but in the last 24 hours two DS games have triggered a bout of misguided bleatings, both from British papers that amazingly aren't the Daily Mail. That's right, readers: two titles. Welcome to a special, double edition "Outrage!" post. Double the horror! Double the controversy! Double the irrational fear!

We'll start with the obvious one, then. We sensed there'd be a backlash against Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars as soon as we saw these shots, but even we were impressed by the speediness of The Sun's error-strewn report. Next to an incorrectly captioned picture of Grand Theft Auto III, the paper reveals how a game about selling drugs will soon be playable on the "family-friendly" Nintendo DS, and remarks that, "Experts predict the final edition is unlikely to feature explicit criminality." They're in for a surprise, then.

Next up in the stocks is a far more surprising scapegoat: the rather innocent Advance Wars. According to the Daily Telegraph, police investigating the stabbing of a 20-year-old who was also a massive fan of the game (to the extent that he ran an Advance Wars fansite) are now investigating whether the killer was a fellow "internet gamer." Of course, that's just one of several potential links being examined by the authorities, but the newspaper still leads with the Advance Wars angle. Why? OUTRAGE!

Source: Grand Theft your child's INNOCENCE [Via Game Politics]
Source: Advance Wars: Murder Weapon [Via Game Politics]

Gallery: So you like Advance Wars: Days of Ruin...

Tags: action, advance-wars, controversy, grand-theft-auto, gta, gta-chinatown-wars, intelligent-systems, murder, rockstar, strategy

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Shortbread @ Sep 26th 2008 11:47AM

Ugh, Idiocy like this makes me want to stab a hippo. I can see that they may be worried about the use of drugs in games that children could play, despite this happening every time a game comes out with drug references. But seriously, I guy who GOT stabbed happened to play the game advance wars, how is that relevant at all, media just finds it too easy to use gaming as a scapegoat for everything on a slow news day.

Person for the Ethical Treatment of Waterhorses @ Sep 26th 2008 12:08PM

>stab a hippo.

Another young person's mind poisoned by violent video games. Won't someone think of the hippos?

pinkechidna @ Sep 26th 2008 11:56AM

Advance Wars?

*Price is Right fail noise*

Nigeria @ Sep 26th 2008 12:04PM

I wouldn't have said the Telegraph was too outlandish. There was certainly no unnecessary hyperbole that I could see. It's just a shame that a life was lost over, what seems to be, a trivial forum war.

As for the Sun: fuck them. With their sordid background they have no moral foundation to get all fussed up. They've documented Winehouse's druggy fall with intricate glee. To then complain about the same drugs seems a little like feigned rage, something we're all well too accustomed to in this country.

Let's hope this version of GTA allows the player to shoot up H with the stylus and snort charlie from the mic. Then we'd see some real rage.

Brendon @ Sep 26th 2008 12:07PM

Harumph! Harumph!

I didn't get a harumph outta that guy. Give the British Press a harumph.

You better watch your ass.

Jason8 @ Sep 26th 2008 12:12PM

We can be thankful that he used a knife and not a Neotank.

Phil @ Sep 26th 2008 12:19PM

Okay, I've avoided it up till now, but I have to say it: what is the big fuss about this drug-dealing aspect of GTA:CW? All they've done is blatantly ripped off the free and available-on-nearly-every-platform Dope Wars.

I was selling drugs on my PDA over a decade ago. GTA:CW's drug-dealing is not innovative.

Abscissa @ Sep 27th 2008 7:25PM

I was playing that on my calculator in high school during class ten years ago. (And I still have never even smoked.)

Peter @ Sep 26th 2008 12:55PM

I think "Outrage!" should be the name of a new weekly column for the Fanboy sites. You'd probably have enough source material to write at least a brief post about "Outrage!" against video games in popular news media.

Although with Jack Thompson's recent disbarment, you might have to make it a monthly column.

If nothing else, it could be a new category of posts across all Fanboy sites. Every time one of the readers sees an "Outrage!" prefix for a post title, we know we're in for yet more news about the mass media promoting righteous anger against those evil, evil video games (even though the games are clearly marked with ESRB descriptors in the US and equivalent descriptors in other countries).

My only recommendation is that you type "outrage" in all caps and throw four or five more exclamation points behind it.

Roto13 @ Sep 26th 2008 1:24PM

Well that murder does have a lot to do with an Advance Wars community.

Almadi @ Sep 26th 2008 1:32PM

Yeah, I live down the street from the Advance Wars guy. Police didn't bring the game connection except after examining all the other possibilites.

Josh @ Sep 26th 2008 1:51PM

Which Advance Wars fansite was this?

Goshogun @ Sep 26th 2008 4:11PM

I am honestly offended by the inclusion of the drug selling mini-game in GTADS. Specifically the hard ones. Adding something like that isn't mature, it's irresponsible and tasteless IMO. Especially on a "mostly" family friendly system like the nds. Although, if it had just a weed selling mini game, I would be all over that though.

bug frawg @ Sep 27th 2008 2:03AM

You do know that this game is not intended for minors right? like how there are family friendly movies and the ummmm..... not so family friendly ones.

SephFinale @ Sep 26th 2008 4:37PM

I wonder what The Sun will say about Mad World for the Wii. And they thought the DS was family friendly.

GSR @ Sep 26th 2008 4:58PM

Effin' a, I know the guy who got stabbed and it makes me sick to see them blame it on stuff like this.

Kieran74 @ Sep 26th 2008 7:32PM

Have to agree with Nigeria on both points.
You guys at DS Fanboy do seem to love to jump on any mention of the word Nintendo in the wider media. What's weird is that you don't see the irony - you've taken a shot at the Telegraph for supposedly "scapegoating" Advance Wars when the article clearly DOES NOT do this; it's you providing the sensationalism about this, not the Telegraph.

Kefka @ Sep 27th 2008 6:01AM

It doesn't matter how much an Advance Wars fansite/community was involved in a stabbing, that doesn't draw any kind of causation between the content of the game and the incident.

Almost every stabbing that isn't accidental or done by a loon is the result of "someone got angry or upset enough about something to stab another person" - The something is largely irrelevantly. I expect the large majority of stabbings are about relationships or work, but we don't view those things are evil corrupting forces...

(that wasn't in response to the article, just media scapegoating in general)

As for the GTA drug selling minigame... Knowing Rockstar and the media, it does seem like something they've put in mainly for the free press coverage - it would have been just as "fun" and "mature" from a player perspective to include something not as extreme, such as suggested by Goshogun.

I mean in the end, anyone who wants the game more just because of this minigame would strike me as immature, rather than mature.