Many people will be aware of the Daily Mail’s ‘Manhunt’ story by now. The paper ran with the first page headline of ‘Ban these evil games’, claiming that 17 year old Warren LeBlanc’s obsession with the ultra-violent Rockstar game ‘Manhunt’ drove him to beat his 14 year old friend, Stefan Pakeerah, over 50 times with both a claw hammer and knife. The tabloid then proceeded to assert “the hammer-and-knife killing mirrored scenes in the ultra-violent game”. The paper also ran a quote from the mother of the victim, saying that, despite the fact the game had an 18 certificate, “it’s no good saying this game is marketed at adults. Everyone knows that young children get their hands on them.”

But what was the real motive behind the murder, and the follow up story? It’s easy to see where the motive for the Daily Mail’s story came from. In the words of the panel of the IGDA (International Games Developers Association) “it was a slow news day”. And what better to liven it up than blood, violence and a convenient scapegoat?

There are two other important facts to remember zbet about this awful murder. Firstly, what do the police say? After the headline in the Daily Mail you may think that they came to the conclusion that it was the game that set Warren off on his murderous way. However the conclusion that the police arrived at is that the motive was robbery. It turns out that Warren Leblanc had, in actual fact, a £75 drugs fuelled debt to a local gang when he lured his erstwhile friend into the park that night, and originally intended merely to rob him. The police report makes no mention of ‘Manhunt’ whatsoever. This may be because the game was discovered in Stefan’s room, rather than that of the killer. Both of these pertinent facts were absent from the Mail’s front page the day this story ran.

And one must ask, how was it that Mrs. Pakeerah missed the fact her own 14 year old son owned this ultra-violent game, which he could only have acquired if an adult had purchased it for him.

“But is the game any good?” I hear you cry. Quite simply, no. ‘Manhunt’ is one of those games that are the key stumbling blocks in the path of truly adult games. Computer games are now reaching the point where mature themes, meaning detailed, involving stories that can deal with events in the real world, and portray realistic reactions to them, are becoming possible. Yet some developers insist on pouring out games that are aimed only at fuelling the testosterone driven adolescent fantasies of teenage sadists. When you consider tack like ‘Manhunt’ in the light of games like ‘Half-Life 2’, with its compelling narrative interwoven through beautiful, breathtaking scenery, you realise just how tawdry ‘Manhunt’ really is. The consensus at the IGDA meeting this year was that the game was merely “a rubbish game with a layer of crunchy ultra-violence slapped on top”. No doubt the loss of such a young child as Stefan Pakeerah was a tragedy in its own right, but the true tragedy here is twofold. Almost overnight the game, whose sales had been a mere trickle before, started flying off the shelves of those few shops who hadn’t banned it, the concept of censorship lending the game a certain cachet. Even worse, in the words of Rob Fahey of the IGDA, is the way in which “the games industry ‘close ranks’ to defend it [Manhunt] when its an aberration compared to most games – do you see Stephen Spielberg defending hardcore porn films?”