link : http://games.ign.com/articles/118/1186734p1.html

"The recent riots in London over the weekend are being linked video games. 

An unnamed police constable was quoted in the London Evening Standard today saying, "Go home, get a takeaway and watch anything that happens on TV. These are bad people who did this. Kids out of control. When I was young it was all Pacman and board games. Now they're playing Grand Theft Auto and want to live it for themselves." 

Riots began in Tottenham, north London, on Saturday night after a local man, reportedly armed with a replica gun, was shot and killed by police on Thursday. 

So far, police have arrested over 160 people and charged 16 of them with crimes for burglary and possession of weapons. "

lol once again gaming is the scapegoat for bad parenting and delinquency... the thing that really confuses me about this is how other media like movies and music hardly ever get the same kind of blame

Blame it on idiocy not Grand Theft Auto.

@OP, the reason why the other entertainment mediums don't get blamed anymore is because video games are the newest entertainment medium. TV, radio, movies, etc... used to get blamed back when they were new. Now that video games are the newest form of entertainment people can easily put blame on them while the other entertainment mediums contain the same/worse violence, sex, etc... I made a thread about a documentary that everyone should watch. It was about Super Columbine Massacre RPG!! and the controversy of video games (being blamed for tragic events). I advise any gamer/non gamer to view that documentary.

Maybe if the Met get some of their officers playing GTA, they'll know how to deal with a riot.

Protip: You don't run away from the rioters.

i dont think he was actually blaming it on GTA. it seems to me he was just using it as a symbol of how things are different for youth now (and all of it caused this).

i dont agree with the point either way however.

most of the movies that do well are action oriented ones with shooting, violence etc ( the dark night was the highest grossing movie ever i believe )

furthermore wii sports is the highest selling game this gen by a wide margin

Meh....what else is new

why blame video games? why not blame people's own stupidity? we're living in a society that blames everything on the media( TV, movies, videogames).

"There are plenty of popular movies each year that contain little to no violence, for example comedy movies."

true, but regardless what are the more popular ones? or the ones that gross more? inevitably you will always find it to be action oriented movies with shooting, violence etc 

"When it comes to non-violent games I can think of barely anything that is going to be big this holiday season and if it weren't for Nintendo, then the situation would look even worse."

that would only be the case for someone who refused to aknowledge games like forza 4, dance central 2, sports central 2, journey, team ico collection, rachet and clank all 4 one, etc and thats just barely scraping the surface of games that nintendo has nothing to do with that aren't overly violent and as far as i'm concerned those games are also going to be big... but most likely CoD will indeed be the biggest game now that i think on it but thats no different to films like fast and the the furious 5, final destination 5 etc being more popular films 

btw isn't nintendos biggest game of the holidays zelda ss which allows people to slash their enemies with swords?

"It doesn't matter what grosses the most. The important thing is the actual breakdown of popular movies." "If there's two popular non-violent movies for every The Dark Knight"

you still don't really have a point here for all the movies that have come out over the summer and maybe in general for this year, last year etc in terms of genre distribution action movies, horror movies... violent movies in general... all together dominate the movie industry period... 

"Sports Central 2 isn't even a game."

my mistake i actually mean't kinect sports

" Journey, the Team Ico Collection and Ratchet & Clank certainly won't be big"

i agree for certain that they won't outsell games like CoD or battlefield and i never said they would i was simply making the point that they are games with a lower level of violence that will be available

funny enough now that i think on it when you count in xbl and psn releases the proportion of violent games to non-violent games isn't as bad as people make it out to be its just that games like CoD and battlefield tend to garner more attention and those games are over shadowed, that however, doesn't mean that they are unavailable just that people tend disregard them

" if it weren't for Nintendo, then the situation would look even worse."

aside from zelda ss which allows people to slash at monsters with a sword what else is nintendo releasing on its home console over the holidays that will be "big"?