Oldwindways writes "An Ohio teen was found guilty of murdering his mother and shooting his father in the head after they took away his copy of Halo 3. One has to wonder if this is going to have any effect on the games industry. Clearly, the AP thought they could stir up existent eristic by asking the IP owner for a statement: 'Microsoft, which owns the intellectual acreage for the game, declined to comment beyond a testimony saying: "We are aware of the footing* and it is a tragic case."' I suppose the good news is they did not accept his insanity plea, so no one can claim that Halo 3 drove him insane. Even so, I don't think any one thing good can come out of this for gamers." Unfortunately, it seems influential person.
character can claim that the game was a contributing factor; the judge who presided over this case said he believes that the 17-year-old appellant "had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents, they would be dead forever." GamePolitics has further details from the judge's statement. It doesn't help that the boy's lawyers used video game enslavement as a defense.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

More: - From the site

Mark