The Never-Ending Story: Cooper Clarifies

Cooper Lawrence has talked to MTV, now, and she sort of backs down but is still really irritating ("Expert Backs Down..." shouldn't be the title of an article about the fact that she wasn't an expert, but anyway). She stands by the University of Maryland research she cited that no one had ever heard of. You can't actually read the research without being someone or paying, though, so I still can't ascertain whether she was fair about it or not. Gamepolitics.com now has a poll asking if gamers should forgive Cooper now, and I'm still torn in a way. There's not a whole lot of material given in the MTV News report, but it doesn't sound as apologetic as I'd like it to be. I wouldn't keep "reviewing" her books or anything, but I seriously doubt, if it were actually possible, that a gamer apology would be appropriate as of yet.

GTA Blamed Again for Violence

Grand Theft Auto is clawing its way back into the news with the new installment due out April 29th, and old people are coming out of nowhere to bring up all the same old points.

Here's another example, Dan Dougherty, some neighborhood-level anti-crime (who isn't?) "Gang Resistance and EXILE director" said some very familiar things about GTA, as well as rap music. "In Grand Theft Auto, you score points by killing cops, stealing cars and beating prostitutes," he said, which mirrors some other old and incorrect claims I've heard before. There aren't even "points" in Grand Theft Auto, but yes, there is a good bit of potential car-stealing and cop-killing. Anyway, there's a gang problem in his county, which the article attributes at least a bit to the prison population there, but as I'm proving, that's not what makes it into the headlines.