Last night I caught most of an episode of CSI:Miami. The deeply inplausable plot was concerned with four or five college-age gamers replicating the events of a violent video game in real life. The video game was a clone of Grand Theft Auto. They knock over a bank, take a captive, raid the police department for evidence and so forth. IGN has a summary with plenty o’ screenshots.
CSI:Miami is a decent enough show. I even like David Caruso’s. Incredibly. Slow. Delivery. This show was utter bollocks, though, from start to finish. The plot had enormous holes, and the whole gamers-are-evil theme was paranoia, plain and simple. I thought it laid bare the film and television industries’ increasing fear of playing second (and third) fiddle to the game industry.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
Agreed. I like CSI, but this show (from the snippets I saw and the summary I read) was a bit heavy on the bullshit. I didn’t end up watching the end, but from what I’ve read it doesn’t end with any of the characters stressing personal and parental responsibility.
It’s nothing new. I remember TV shows and movies of the week being made that featured evil D+D gamers.
GAMERS ARE EVIL!
*runs home to play more Warcraft*
I’d like to act out Warcraft. Someone tell me where the trolls are? I need to do some killin’.
Ergh. It’s really tiring the lengths people will go to, just to try and relieve parents of any blame.
This kind of thing has happened with the introduction of every new form of media. The television, radio, why I bet even books got this kind of bad press when they were first introduced ( pun intended ).
The writers at CSI aren’t doing much to help people be more informed about this. Stuff like what you see in this episode of CSI happens when somebody who is already mentally imbalanced isn’t taken care of by those around him ( or her ).This kind of thing is ( in my mind ) mostly the result of bad parenting. We have things like the ERSB and thousands of gaming review sites, yet parents get all huffy and angry when they find out the game they bought for their kid has blood and gore in it.
At least Jack Thompson ( a lawyer from Florida ) was thrown out of an Alabama court bad ehavior. It’s people like him and episodes like the CSI one that really miss-inform the public about this whole debate.
Anyways. Sorry for the long comment. I’m a gamer, and this whole thing has just been something of a constant annoyance. So I’ll be quiet now =D.
Cheers!
Sean
David Caruso is the chewiest of scenery chewers. Every scene needn’t call for the Fierce!Intensity! After all, even Hamlet made a few jokes.
what about the CSI computer game? has anyone played it? i wonder just how violent it is. if it mimics the show, i can only imagine the number of bug-infested dead bodies involved.
what are you afraid of if its just a show
Personally, no matter how overdone the show may have been it seems a reasonable social topic to take up on a show that portrays the investigation of and motives for crime.
Also, poor parenting combined with the enactment found in law-breaking games (or t.v shows) seems like a bad combination. Hopefully good parenting negates the effects.
Nathan: Is fearmongering better than silence? I suppose, but not much.
The only reason I only watch the show to see how BAD it can be. Cheesy beyond belief (Hummers? What kind of freakin’ budget does Miami PD have?!?). That episode was laughable (As. Is. David. Caruso’s. Acting.) but a much funner watch than the other too.
I share your disappointment with this episode of CSI and recently blogged about it too actually.
The program displayed a very one sided approach to the issues surrounding video games. It would have been so much more interesting to see a more balanced representation of games and gaming, showing several ‘sides’ to the argument, the night before the release of the XBox 360. Stories like these perpetuate negative stereotypes and ideology surrounding the video game as a medium, forgetting that there are also problematic issues surrounding other forms of media, notably television and film! Great post.
I think we give too much credence to C.S.I’s ability to affect change. likely this episode was more insulting to gamers than anything else.
Television writes are always trying to desperatley contemporize their story lines knowing full well that any controversy is simple publicity to them.
I say ignore it and it will go away. I doubt if there will be any significance to it
Darren, I’m not sure what you mean by fearmongering in this context vs silence? I’m certainly not in favour of silence (see above) Perhaps (I didn’t catch the show) you mean the show instilled a fear of gamers? Even if tried, it seems most would be discerning enough to realize that everyone who own a game console isn’t dangerous but games like Grand Theft Auto (banned by some governments) can’t be all too supportive of a law abiding society.