Violent Videogames: Individual Presentation

Case study notes

17 year old Warren Leblanc repeatedly stabbed 14 year old Stefan Pakeerah with a claw hammer and a knife after luring him to a Leicester park in 27 February 2004. In the investigation that followed, it became evident that Warren was obsessed with at the time Rockstar Game's latest release, Manhunt. The game rewarded the player for killing people in the most horrific ways, and portrayed them in the most gory way as possible.

This fuelled an already heated debate which questions the morality of violent video games and bought the UK very much into the mix. On one side they promote anti-social behaviour and can be linked to what many consider a massive degenerative teenage culture. However on the other, it is questionable how these games can affect a user's behaviour in the 'real world' & more importantly money.

Rockstar Games has been in the media spotlight ever since it first released its first controversial game series, Grand Theft Auto. Rockstar have continued to raise the contorversy by releasing the Manhunt game mentioned above, and most recently Canis Canem Edit, with most of the game centred about bullying. Needless to say they have been taken to court several times and in some cases successfully sued however no unilateral action has been taken by the watchdog bodies who classify the games. This could be to do with the fact that Rockstar games made $12.5 billion in ONE YEAR in America alone! Rockstar games is part of a franchise and is owned by Take That Interactive, a company made a gross profit in 2006 of around $216 million.

When your making that much money, one you can afford to play the legal system however you like and two no one is going to argue.

And so the standoff continues....