I think that is a CONSPIRATION by namco or whatever the compony name is .. that one that is the owner ot tekken-suck game.

Yeah...

Mortal "Combat" definately teaches you to beat up your friends, kill them, and then throw their body in a fuckin river.
BULL SHIT.

Wow. Just... wow. The parents are definitely more to blame than a video game. The parents should realize that the games being played are intended for an older audience that 15-year-olds. As said previously, parents, guardiants, adults, or whatnot should watch what their kids do. If they suspect anything violent is going due to their actions outside of a game, then there are institutions they can go to to help! This is utter bullshit that they blame a video game on what I see as a parent's lack of attention. Most, if not all, violence due to media comes from someone who does not meet the age requirements to see the movie or play the game. I realize that most people here probably played Mortal Kombat before they were 17 (the age ESRB reccomends the players be), but I'd suggest at least a parent see what the violent game contains before letting their child play it, and possibly become corrupted. Parents need to learn to monitor their children until they move out of their home!

ROFL!


Ok, I just played Painkiller, i'm gonna go kill myself so I can go to limbo and be an assassin for God.

Oh wait, that's gonna be after I rip my friend's head off, like I saw in Mortal Kombat. I'm such an impressionable 22 year old.

Once again stupid fucking kids try to use video-games as a scapegoat instead of taking responsibility for their own actions. Perhaps more attention should be paid to the lack of parental guidance, and how the teens were able to access alcohol. What's even more ridiculous, is that two of the boys involved in this heinous act get to walk away scotch-free because they're 13; nevermind the fact they took part in the murder of a human-being, a child no less. Also in reading the article, it's apparent the local law enforcement and/or media don't know much about games as they spelled it Mortal "Combat"

As sad as this whole thing is, I'm also ashamed of the ignorant and careless remarks made by MKO users in this thread, either because they are attempting to be funny or because they legitimately don't know it's wrong, and are idiots.

I have played Mortal Kombat since I was 10, and have never tried to decapitate my friend or spear them or throw them into freezing lake... just stupid

Holy balls. If I hear another story like this, I'll choke myself. (Hmm, must have seen that in a movie or videogame once...better find out who and sue them before I do it.)

You can die by:
Trying to imitate professional wresting moves.
Trying to imitate fights in movies.
Trying to imitate scenes in books.
Trying to imitate stupid human tricks. (No! David Letterman, King of Darkness?? How could you do this to us?!!)

*Duuuh, I put lil' bobby jo in tha dryer cuz I seen that man on tee-vee do it on tha late show, duuuh...*

Today's equation for the masses:
Highly inadequate parenting + stupid teens with bad influences + Latvia x MK:D = Something very, very bad.

Sh*t... I'm 27 and I haven't had a kid yet simply BECAUSE I'm afraid I'd raise them wrong.

Seriously.... they are only trying to get off the hook... they where drunk and murdered that kid by beating him up... the only thing is they beat him up with a videogame "style"... They would have killed him anyway without any videgames...

Is like blaming a murder with any house utensil to Tom and Jerry... bullshit... it's really ieasy to blame Kombat for using "martial arts" to kill someone... PLUS... I havn't seen a videogame in which u brake someone's neck w/ ur legs... that was the MK movie... ad unless the kid whears makeup and wants to marry Sampras... I don't buy it

Their countries laws (when it comes to prosecuting people under 14) is stupid anyway. It's like saying, "Hey 14 and under crowd! You can do whatever you want, and not have to face any consequences EVER! We'll leave you alone to do your own thing."

On a side note, it's nice to see that Latvia's gun control laws are so useful. Really saving lives there.

125%!? fuck Latvia man

13 to 16 year old should not be playing these games! its the parents fault for letting them play the games that are aged 18! so how dare they complain about the games! Stupid kids that imatate things from games shouldn't be aloud to play them!

These are the kind of things that make people believe that video game events will automatically command everybody to mimmick what happened. It's not the video game, it's your sanity. You must be absolutely frigging crazy to try to do any of the special moves. I have been playing Mortal Kombat for years, and I have I killed anybody while mimmicking any special moves? No. Have I tried to split people in half? No. Have I tried to rip anyone's spine out of thier head? No. It's because I actually have a brain to tell me whether or not it's not right to decapitate someone like you saw in a game.

.........Still waiting for some morons to accidentally crucify their "friend" because they read it in a bible.........

Its all bull shit they need to blame the parents and put their asses in jail for child neglection...

Before getting all emotional, why doesn't anyone read what the article actually says first?

First of all, the article does not place the blame entirely on MK. Everyone knows that these things happen often as a result of many factors, including video games. In fact, the main purpose of the article seems to be to report the murder, and mention that the "moves" used were borrowed from MK. No blame-placing. Secondly, consider that it's possible that these boys don't even have parents for you to prejudicially blame.

You know what? I just played San Andreas. I'm going to murder hookers and take drugs then kill the cops who try to arrest me and hijack a plane and fly it into the Luxor because I can on SA.

You know, a similar incident occured a little over ten years back. A little boy & his friend, a girl (both not even in their teens) were play fighting. The boy got out of hand and superkicked the girl, sending her sprawling to the ground & causing her bust her head open (literally).

The boy was of course taken & questioned to court as to why he was playing so roughly. His excuse was "I saw it off of Power Rangers."


The show (Power Rangers) was then forced to place those "Please don't try this at home, these are fictional events trained by professionals" notices after the show sessions, introduced by the Power Ranger stars themselves.


Hm? So I suppose if a child sneaks into an R-rated movie booth & mimmicks what they see in the film, does that mean that the developers/producers of the film should be sued? Where were the parents?

This is disgraceful. The kids are 16 years old. They responsible teenagers and no the difference between right and killing your friend. Wrong. What the hell drove these kids to do that because however violent the videogame is these kids already had issues!

"People are stupid". Logical answer.

People shouldn't waste their time trying to find out why this stuff happens. It's going to happen regardless of television programming, video games, and the like.

Some people are just "messed up" as our society would put it, and there will never be any solid information on why these things happen. And even if we did know why this happens, how are we going to change it?

3 words. WHAT... THE... FUCK...

I'm their age and have been more than obsessed with Mortal Kombat since it came the fuck out! I mastered Rayden (fatalities and all) when I was 2!!! but do I go around uppercutting peoples' heads off !!?? NO! besides, how are you going to get traumatized after watching MK1 for an hour, no matter how young you are? the hand-drawn graphics are nowhere NEAR life like! they probably killed they're pal and blamed "their poor wittle emotianally fucked up minds and too many days playing Mootal Combat"!!!! and you know they didn't plan on getting caught because the leg-neck snap fatality only exists in the movie! if the kid was SO obsessed with Mortal Kombat, then why did he say the games influence him, when it was the movie!? and the movie was one of the most non-violent pieces of turd in existence!!! the most violent part was when Scorpion's snake lost a microscopic amount of purple blood to a freakin tree! oh I guess thats a subliminal message to mutilate hippies and leave their entestines by every mile marker until Philadelphia! And half of the 'realisticly violent moves' are so freakin rediculous, that they could not physically be done, and the ones that could require weapons that don't exist! does anyone want to come over to my house saturday night? I've got a retracting metal fan, a lizard man named Bob, an iron frizby, the ability to fly, and Jimmy across the street is pissing me off. those politically correct pansies have me so angry that I could find where they live, hang a piano string in their doorway, wait till they slit their throat on it, bash their nutsack with a hammer, take a knife (a butter knife), scalp them with it, tie a chain around their ankle, drop them off a building, beat them with their newly severed leg, put them and their leg in a body bag, then throw them in a river with nothing but their leg to eat!.....that last sentence was just a joke btw

PS- freakin retards

Watch out for the fire now. It's hot. >=(

If these kids truly were incited to do these "moves" from a game or movie, then the only problem they have is their perception of reality and fiction. Which is a problem in the mind, not in the media they were neccesarily viewing.

15 and 16 years of age is more than enough for these two to be able to view this type of material and behave in an appropriate mannner. 15 and 16 for a relative normal teenager that is. I think it's more than likley that they simply were "messing" with the other kid, and something happend, and they made up the story about blaming a video game. Because you could relate almost any injury to some type of move in mortal kombat. Dismemberment, mutilation, and many others. Im leaning towards the fact that they had no intention of using the videogames as a scapegoat till the other teenager was incapacitated, then they KNEW they were in deep shit, and tried to think of a lie.. they did think of a lie, a bad one.. and still most of the media and probbly the judicial system will take them seirously, instead of holding acountability where it belongs, in the eyes of the teens themselves.

"Video games don't affect kids, I mean if Pac Man affected us as kids, we'd all run around in a darkened room munching pills and listening to repetitive music."

-Kristian Wilson, CEO, Nintendo

Q: "Where were the parents?"
A: Who gives a shit? What do they have to do with anything?

Here's a question: How are the people that are instantly blaming the parents, any different than the people that instantly blame Mortal Kombat?
You're doing exactly the same thing.

Why is it the parents fault that the kids screwed up or did something wrong? When you're a teen, you know the difference between right and wrong, regardless of how little emphasis your parents placed on teaching you what 'right' and 'wrong' are.

Oh yup, let's blame the parents. It's clearly the parents fault that their kids have a mind of their own, those lousy, lousy parents.
Let's not even consider that their parents might be saints, and their kids just decided to deliberately be rebellious, as teens do.

There's no need to blame anybody but the perpetrator. These stupid kids did it, they can take responsibility for it. Everybody knows killing fits society's concept of what 'wrong' is, even if they disagree that it's wrong. Everybody also knows that killing results in severe punishment, even if they personally think killing is fine.
They knew it was wrong, they did it, they can take full responibility for it.

But whatever, lets just run to our scapegoats; the parents (just like the media runs to theirs; Mortal Kombat).


As for this: "they used techniques borrowed from the video game 'Mortal Combat' in dealing with their victim", well, what's so unbelievable about that? Why are some of you so adamant that's "bullshit"? It isn't possible that they saw a character perform a two finger strike at the face of an opponent, and decided to mimic that? Few of those would certainly cause some serious damage. Of course, any of this could be seen in any cheesy kung-fu flick, and they could have got the ideas there, but they didn't, they saw it in MK. I don't see how that's "bullshit" - it's the truth.

Ah, it's tough shit. Ignorant and idiotic teens.

Those kids ought to get a fatality......no, a BRUTALITY themselves.

Parents have a lot to do with the situation. They're the ones to whom have to be monitoring their children in order to prevent this type of event from occurring. However, instead (a majority not all) have the audacity of pining the blame on a videogame to which has a ranking of mature (as a leeway scapegoat). If a child got ahold or a gun & went out into public & shot & killed an innocent, the first question would be how did the child get ahold of the gun, & the second would be where were the parents in the picture. Why would they allow a firearm to get into the hands of a child? The parents aren't fully to blame (as they cannot control the every actions of their children), but they do have some relevant responsibility in the case.

If anything the parents are the ones to be at fault (not the game's developers) for allowing the game to get into the hands of their children. Just to answer your argument. So they're in no condition to sue a game developer for a situation to which they could have easily prevented. Neither the industry.