Mortal Kombat proves it is still an influential classic.
March 6, 2005 9:16 PM   Subscribe

Boys performs ultimate Mortal Kombat fatality on friend. In related news, some would like videogame creators to be accountable for influencing the tender young minds of our children.
posted by Kleptophoria! (44 comments total)
 
I'm retarded. Second link is this. Quotation marks got in there somehow.
posted by Kleptophoria! at 9:18 PM on March 6, 2005


Mortal Kombat had its fair share of controversy about 10 years ago (I think, been a long time), and it has always had minor amounts of parental protest over the violence.
posted by angry modem at 9:25 PM on March 6, 2005


I don't want to see video game makers, or TV producers or filmmakers or musicians for that matter, censored. On the other hand, it's just not possible to believe that children -- or adults, for that matter -- can engage in brutal, sadistic fantasies for hundreds and thousands of hours without having something in their minds tweaked.
posted by Coherence Panda at 9:28 PM on March 6, 2005


When I was a kid, I accidently poked out my sister's eye with the ol' two-prong technique. Damn you, Curly! Or Moe. Or Larry. Whatever.

I really should sue those bastards.
posted by graventy at 9:30 PM on March 6, 2005


Just wait 'til Latvia gets automobiles and GTA. It'll be a massacre.
posted by AlexReynolds at 9:33 PM on March 6, 2005


(finish him!!!)

when I first saw this post, I had visions of some kid pulling his friend's spine out through his mouth. now that would be amazing.

(/finish him)
posted by lsd4all at 9:34 PM on March 6, 2005


Mortal Morons?! How can you protect humanity from idiots? I would rather sue the parents for neglect.
posted by homodigitalis at 9:35 PM on March 6, 2005


lsd4all, I had a similar thought.
How long will it be before the children of the world master the forbidden art of Haduken?
posted by dougunderscorenelso at 9:39 PM on March 6, 2005


See also penny arcade.
posted by mek at 9:42 PM on March 6, 2005


GET OVER HERE!
posted by shmegegge at 9:42 PM on March 6, 2005


A year ago a pupil, addicted to videogames, killed a video saloon attendant in downtown Riga to get a few lats (dollars) to continue the game, which ended in tragedy.

Not wanting to make light of a tragedy, but that sentence from the linked report is rather odd.

It's saying that his videogame ended in tragedy. That's nice of HTTabloid.com to tell us because that's what I really wanted to know: how his game ended up.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 9:47 PM on March 6, 2005


Both the event and report thereof are bad, especially this poor excuse for a sentence.

A year ago a pupil, addicted to videogames, killed a video saloon attendant in downtown Riga to get a few lats (dollars) to continue the game, which ended in tragedy.

Is exposing chiildren to the internet going to make them think it's okay to abuse language like they abuse their video game–addled friends?

On preview: Jinx!
posted by dame at 9:50 PM on March 6, 2005


Blame the parents, not the pixels.
posted by crunchland at 9:51 PM on March 6, 2005


Stephen King said once that if it weren't for horror fiction, insane people would just kill people in less creative ways. Same chapter, different page. (Although, truth be told, I've heard that Vlad Tepes didn't have many videogames at his disposal, and that Ed Gein was similarly underprivileged.)
posted by Tuwa at 9:57 PM on March 6, 2005


Get Over Here!

oops that's not a fatality
posted by antron at 10:14 PM on March 6, 2005


I accidently poked out my sister's eye

Dude, really? You poked out your sister's eye?
posted by NickDouglas at 10:44 PM on March 6, 2005


Maybe they didn't play enough vids to get it out of their system.
posted by lightweight at 10:46 PM on March 6, 2005


I got a playstation 2- or should I say- a license to kill
posted by jessicool at 11:13 PM on March 6, 2005


Oddly, I was totally expecting a photo of the incident.
posted by armoured-ant at 11:24 PM on March 6, 2005


They could have just as well performed one of the many "Friendship" fatalities in Mortal Kombat. I totally dare the video game industry to use that defense in a court of law.

...and spin it into a 12 hit combo.
posted by Stan Chin at 11:28 PM on March 6, 2005


ULTRA COMBOOO!

damnit again. wrong game.
posted by antron at 11:45 PM on March 6, 2005


And isn't it odd how the article refers to the victim as their "friend"? They brutally killed the guy by breaking his neck with some weird scissor-like leg move, but they still call him their "friend." I guess with friends like that, you really don't need ...

In any case, even if they were only 13-16, the kids are stupid assholes and I hope that they lock them up for a long time.
posted by sour cream at 1:17 AM on March 7, 2005


antron writes " oops that's not a fatality"


No no no. I was playing the part of the boy who LOST.

[/tastelessjoke]
posted by shmegegge at 1:29 AM on March 7, 2005


Someone should bring large black and white cuttouts of people's heads and pop them up during the court trial on occasion, yelling "Oopsie!" as they do so.
posted by shmegegge at 1:31 AM on March 7, 2005


There seems to a symbiotic relationship of sorts going on here. The kids know they should blame something, and the parents don't want to believe this could happen without outside influence. You guys are comedy gold, BTW.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 4:27 AM on March 7, 2005


Look to la luna!

Oh yeah, almost nothing that they did to the kind in that article jumps out and screams "MORTAL KOMBAT" to me, other than the kids saying it was what inspired them. Makes me wonder if someone didn't ask them directed questions and they latched onto it.

Either that, or they couldn't find a pit of spikes to impale the kid on.
posted by pemdasi at 4:48 AM on March 7, 2005


Tuwa wrote: Stephen King said once that if it weren't for horror fiction, insane people would just kill people in less creative ways. Same chapter, different page.

Bad, but popular author defends his livelihood with creative prediction of human behavior. Many unswayed.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:53 AM on March 7, 2005


"Movies don't create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative." --Scream
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:15 AM on March 7, 2005


"some would like videogame creators to be accountable for influencing the tender young minds of our children."

Why would we do that? We rarely hold the parents accountable and few would deny that they have some influence as well.
posted by aubin at 5:17 AM on March 7, 2005


lsd4all and armoured-ant - or a video of it happening. Dam the internet, it is rubbish after all.
posted by 13twelve at 5:36 AM on March 7, 2005


You know, the thing is, many of the moves in Mortal Kombat are just variations of standard martial arts techniques. Not the fatalities and special fireballs and shit, but the punches, kicks, throws, etc. So, should we ban martial arts?
posted by papakwanz at 7:59 AM on March 7, 2005


Definitely Ban the special fireballs.
posted by exlotuseater at 8:56 AM on March 7, 2005


I think it's essential that we put razor wire fences around the children, so that they can't jump off garages or execute Moral Kombat moves on one another.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:58 AM on March 7, 2005


If I was a 13-year-old Latvian, I would totally be running around on a legendary crime spree.
posted by gottabefunky at 9:05 AM on March 7, 2005


1) Sue the parents as someone has said.
2) certainly media isn't the basis for all homicides, but saying it isn't the basis for any homicides?
posted by edgeways at 9:29 AM on March 7, 2005


The detained could not say whether the victim was dead when he was thrown in the river. Rescuers had not yet found the body.
First they need to find a body, it's all "hear say."

Think holding the software maker accountable will never happen. Because it will never end, the parents are accountable first; being that children are not adults. My chi8ld saw a movie, read a book, played cowboys & Indianans,… being that my child copied another’s creation, blame "TheCreatorButMe." Children are aware of their surroundings which set their boundaries in living life. It seems these boundaries where never set from watching the adults in their lives as examples rather game media.
posted by thomcatspike at 9:33 AM on March 7, 2005


certainly media isn't the basis for all homicides, but saying it isn't the basis for any homicides?
em>
Usually uncontrolled anger that is not properly acted upon and is can be controlled through proper guidance.

posted by thomcatspike at 9:37 AM on March 7, 2005


(broken tag)
Usually uncontrolled anger that is not properly acted upon and is controlled through proper guidance.
posted by thomcatspike at 9:38 AM on March 7, 2005


I got it! It's not the garage owner's fault, it's those damned 2-D side-scrollers!

Better get rid of Mario quick before kids start trying to flush themselves down the toilet. How many plumbing-related fatalities must our children suffer before the madness ends?
posted by Anonymous at 10:26 AM on March 7, 2005


Well, they don't even know if he was killed by one of these Mortal Kombat moves, it was the cold water. In that respect, I suppose we can point the blame on Frogger.
posted by eurasian at 12:38 PM on March 7, 2005


You guys all totally made my day. Very funny comments. I'm being sincere here.

Also, uh, RIP Fatality Victim. But aside from that downer, pure hilarity.
posted by Kleptophoria! at 2:17 PM on March 7, 2005


Meyers: I did a little research and I discovered a startling thing...
There was violence in the past, long before cartoons were invented.
Kent: I see. Fascinating.
Meyers: Yeah, and know something, Karl? The Crusades, for instance.
Tremendous violence, many people killed, the darned thing went on for thirty years.
Kent: And this was before cartoons were invented?
Meyers: That's right, Kent.
-- `Smartline', ``Itchy and Scratchy and Marge'
posted by Bort at 3:57 PM on March 7, 2005


Oh, no! What happens when the Latvian youth start playing Grand Theft Auto?

Or Dance Dance Revolution?!?!
posted by Dante5Inferno at 4:55 PM on March 8, 2005



If I was a 13-year-old Latvian, I would totally be running around on a legendary crime spree.


That is exactly what I thought after reading the article.
posted by Penks at 7:19 PM on March 9, 2005


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