10 Video Games Accused Of Having Hidden Agendas

3. Grand Theft Auto Makes You Want To Murder People

Back in the early 2000s, €˜activist€™ Jack Thompson began an infamous crusade against the video games industry, accusing gaming of brainwashing children into committing acts of violence and murder. In 2003, during the trial of JoLynn Mishne, a Grand Theft Auto obsessed murderer who stood accused of murdering his own daughter, Thompson passed a message to the judge in which he argued that the game itself was responsible for the girl€™s death. Specifically, the note read:

€œhe attorneys had better tell the jury about the violent game that trained this kid showed him how to kill our daughter, JoLynn. If they don€™t, I will."

Thompson suggested that Grand Theft Auto III had brainwashed Mishne into committing the murder, and that the game was actively teaching susceptible individuals how to successfully commit crime. Thompson later attempted to sue Take-Two Interactive for over $240 million for releasing the game in the first place, going with the idea that they knew it would incite acts of violence. The case was later thrown out, but the idea that video games actively make people violent by default has persevered in various forms ever since.