In Bangkok, a 19-year-old guy was (is) addicted to GTA 4 (the game, girls, where you steal cars, kill people, sleep with girls and go to strip clubs to complete missions). His parents got fed up with his addiction and resorted to take away his game. The kid got angry, went out and stabbed a taxi driver to death, and drove off with the taxi, thinking he was playing the game.

And this is not the only incident, there are many more.

No surprise, GTA 4 is banned in Bangkok now. It has already been banned in England and Australia (don’t quote me here. I read it in some news, but just got scolded by Ajjie for an apparently false statement hehe). This is really alarming, how easily influenced people are these days, when they resort to learning tactics, and imitating non-human characters from video games.

Even movies like Batman could trigger violence in this world. After watching it with a group of friends, they were so amazed by how great the movie was! Fine, it WAS good with its effects and movie twists (e.g. how Batman actually wanted to save the love of his life, but when he opened the door, he found Two-Faced instead). But I seemed to be the only one worrying about the message it was sending.

People might not see Batman as the hero, but could be stupid enough to think that Joker is so “cool”. He does really bad things, but he’s happy and he gets away with everything in his sick little games. People might resort to violence with the excuse; “Oh I had a bad childhood, I was suffering, and I should force others to feel how I feel”.  or “No one knows me, I get bullied in school, so should kill people.” Just like the idiot in Virginia Tech.

This really pisses me off. Doesn’t it bother you too? You might say I’m being too paranoid, or thinking too much into it. But would your opinion change if you were the family members of the students in Virginia Tech, or the taxi driver’s wife?

So, start watching romatic comedies and make the world a happier place, please. Here’s a suggestion.