Author: Matt Lambourne

15th July 2005, a night that will be remembered evermore for me. I have just experienced a true assault on the senses, never have I been more blown away by a gig than I just have been. Rammstein whilst I have enjoyed many of their songs are not up there on my big list of favourite bands but they have always managed to strike a cord within me, the epic style of their musical range, the image they portray and how a band can from out and out aggressive Industrial Metal to some of the most mellow and beautiful music I’ve ever heard.

Tonight however was all about the former, this was Hardcore Rammstein, promoting their latest album Reise, Reise.

The build up was long, there was no support act for this gig, I’m sure anyone would have a task living up to Rammstein as I’d later find out. A camera crew were set up in the middle of the arena and the place went dark for around 10 minutes with some very sinister dark guitar play to entice the crowd. Soon a light beamed onto the stage and the silhouettes of the band members could be seen through the curtain and the crowd went insane! Still they kept us in suspense and did not appear for a few minutes longer until the lights went into strobe and the curtain dropped to reveal the most unbelievable stage I’d ever seen. If anyone has seen recent Star Trek shows and knows of the Borg that is what this looked like!

The main stage floor was overshadowed by an enormous mechanical structure with flashing neon lights rippling through it, the drummer and the guitar players stood atop of this and finally the lead singer Till Lindemann appeared through an opening in the center of this mechanical behemoth and the gig was under way as they powered onto stage with the song Reise, Reise. The entire spectacle of what I was viewing was getting to me by this point and I had to be quite careful not to show my friends that I was nearly crying, it was such an overwhelming entrance!

I hoped that the welling up would pass quickly but sadly for me it didn’t. Till Lindemann began to clap his hands above his head and the crowd duely followed as the opening marching sound to Links 2, 3, 4 was played through the sound system. I was nearly blubbing there and then but soon got into the swing of things and began to enjoy the spectacle.

A couple of songs later I was really into it and my eyes had well and truly dried up but this point, and if they hadn’t they soon would have anyway….

That’s when Feuer Frei was unleashed! One of the lead songs from the movie xXx and a badass track regardless, but the show with it was incredible. To accompany the chorus the band donned Flame Thrower masks, pretty amazing stuff! As well as the flame throwers on their faces, the pyro from the stage floor was pretty immense; makes the start of WWE Raw look weak! Similar action followed for the song Mein Teil with Till attempting to cook the keyboard player in a giant cauldron with his flamethrower. When he escaped the cauldron they attempted to bomb him with fireworks from the arena ceiling.

More tracks followed but it was when they began to performance one of my favourite Rammstein songs that things really picked up again. Du Riechst So Gut, one of their very first singles and one that I did not expect to be performed was next up and I was really pleased the stage show matched the quality of the song. Till this time donned cybernetic arms which again contained flame throwers and also got his hands on a bow & arrow that fired some impressive fireworks!

Other worthy notes go to classics Du Hast, Sehnsucht and recent single Amerika! The crowd was really pumped for Amerika, I couldn’t make up my mind if they were singing the song with Angst or joy but it was an awesome atmosphere nonetheless, which resulted in three streams of confetti being jetted out of the stage floor and into the crowd, and into the arena air, Red, White and Blue.

They said their thanks to the crowd and then left, but were soon back for the encore performing familiar hits such as the beautiful Sonne, Ich Will and the Depeche Mode cover ‘Stripped’ to make a fitting end to a mind-blowing night.
An visually and audible gargantuan, I would highly recommend seeing

Rammstein Live to anyone who was remotely likes their music, you’ll fall in love with it. Despite singing all the songs (except Stripped) in German, their music transcends the language barrier and I think takes something truly special.

Rammstein, we salute you!

9/10

I’ve not been listening to Rock/Metal Music for as long as most on these forums, nor do I probably know as much about the genre as most either. But since I discovered one particular band I’ve never looked back in terms of my preferred choice of music.

Pre 1998 I listened to alot of Britpop, guitar bands like Blur, Oasis and the Stone Roses, and sometimes dabbled in hip hop with groups like the Wu-Tang Clan and the Beastie Boys. Metal music was a whole other world as far as I was concerned at the time. But mainly thanks to the Internet (old Napster we miss thee) I was able to broaden my horizons considerably, and best of all at no cost to myself! So I began listening to alot of music some of my friends had been talking about for so long that I simply didn’t touch because of my sheltered choice of music. That meant branching into Metal music.

Of course Metal is nothing new to the music industry and certainly wasn’t back in 1998. The great original Metal bands such as Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden has brought it to the fore, and a much more aggressive style had become more popular at this time also, bands such as Pantera, Slayer and Metallica (much earlier) had perhaps over-shadowed the old-guard into the latter years of the 90’s.

But out of the post-grunge era of the early 90’s, a new form of Metal Music was gaining momentum, later to be known as ‘Nu-Metal’. Nu-Metal perhaps forms the core of the majority of current Metal bands, if not straying from the root of the genre itself, but none do it better than the original Nu-Metal band, the grand-daddies of the Nu-Metal movement. I have 3 words for you…..

ARE YOU READY!

Much more of a declaration of war against the slower paced Grunge movement that threatened to kill Metal music, than a question in itself. 5 men with dreams to change the face of Rock music as we knew it broke out of Bakersfield, California with a message that defied you not to take notice. Brian, James, Fieldy, David and Jon formed the irrepressible KoRn.

I personally owe my taste in music to this band. No band did I feel a greater sentiment to in my teenage years than KoRn. “I Can see, I Can see, I’m going Blind”, it was so appropriate to what had happened to me musically, I was listening to the “in” choice of music but when I began listening to KoRn and other such bands I turned a blind eye to everything I knew regarding music. The song ‘Blind’ ironically opened my eyes up to everything that I had missed.

We all listen to our preferred Metal bands today but do we give any thought to how they came about? How there is even still an Industry for them to be part of? I’m not saying that KoRn are responsible for every Metal-touting band on the planet today but I’m sure there are alot, and KoRn certainly played there part in ensuring there is still an audience for these bands to reach out to. When I got to see KoRn live in 2001 in the Untouchables tour it vindicated everything I’d ever believed about this band. The whole ‘Fuck you’ attitude, the aggression in those Ibanez 7 strings and the tortured growl of Jon Davis’ vocals, everything was right, a real live performance.

Sadly with the recent departure of Brian ‘Head’ Welch leaves the band’s future in the balance and I only hope to god they will continue to innovate the industry for years to come. But if not, thank you KoRn for opening my eyes to so many more possibilities. Let’s just say I’m no longer a “Freak on A Leash”

The Great American Card Game

We are currently in the midst of a gaming phenomenon, a craze that is taking the world by storm. Strangely this particular activity has been with us for decades, but has been stereotyped perhaps as a past time for those with serious gambling related illnesses or criminal association. Well no longer is this game confined to smokie back alley pool halls or even the glitz of Vegas. Ladies and Gentleman, Poker has been brought to the masses.

Remarkably in the last 2 years the popularity of Poker has boomed across the globe. More and more people are seeking to play Poker as a profession, or in the mainstream as a great hobby and past time. I for one have been roped into Poker in recent weeks, a friend of mine joined a local club and invited me along for the ride, and I was quite frankly horrified by how enjoyable it was! For those who have never played the game you may be forgiven for thinking it is like any other gambling activity and alot of luck is involved. Well they say it is better to be lucky than to be good, but luck alone will not win a game of Poker and that is the beauty of it. There is so much strategy to the game, mathematics and logic are involved in every decision to be made and as they say “it takes 5 minutes to learn but a lifetime to master” and once you have the basics covered, mastering the game is so very rewarding!

There are a number of reasons for the takeoff of Poker. ESPN have been doing some terrific coverage of the World Series Of Poker in Vegas, in previous years it was a very gray and dull production, but now there is so much vibrancy and character in the presentation of the show that it will appeal to a much more mainstream audience and they even take time out to teach you the basics of the game throughout each episode. Also the Internet has played an integral part, the simple ease to get online and play means that Joe-Average can learn the game in minutes, either playing for “play money” or putting your cash where your mouth is.

There are huge amounts of money to be made playing Poker, with any of the big tournaments offering over $1,000,000 to the winner and the best part is anyone can do it! But I must also point out that money is there to be lost also, and Media Rebellion would like to take this opportunity to encourage responsible gambling within your means, thank you! But people will very quickly fall in love with the game once you’ve played it a few times and maybe dream of being the next Doyle Brunson or Phil Hellmuth (former world champions), many people already have. The winner of the World Series of Poker in 2003 Chris Moneymaker (the name is so appropriate!) entered the competition via an online qualifier or what is known in the Poker world as a ‘satellite’ tournament. This means instead of fronting the $5000 required to enter the WSOP you pay something like $50 to play a series of smaller tournaments and the winners of the smaller tournaments will enough to buy into the WSOP main event. Chris Moneymaker being an account by trade saw good value for money and invested his $50 and turned it into a $3,000,000 jackpot.

It doesn’t matter though weather your playing with the pro’s in Vegas or with your friends in a home game, Poker is fun, challenging and very exciting and looks like it is here to stay. So as they say in the game “shuffle up and deal”.

The cost of being alive.

For those of you who don’t already know, I’m a 22 year old professional, finding my way in the working world in England. From the second I completed my exams at High School I was into my first job instantly, no way would my proud mother allow her youngest to wallow after completing 5 gruelling years of High School education, nope I was off to fend for myself.

Before I get to my point, please allow me to give you a little background information on my life. I grew up with primarily one parent. My mother and father separated when I was very young, and my father sadly passed away when I was 10 years old. My mother did a great job raising 3 kids (me being the youngest) and put her life on hold to give us everything we needed and wanted. I always wanted to take the pressure off my mother and provide for myself when I left school so going to work was never a problem, infact it has taught me the value of money, something that I think alot of my friends who still leech money from their parents may never understand, so I’ve learnt important lessons early in life. However I have also learnt just how hard it is to live these days.

Back to the present, I’ve now been working for 6 years full time but I have little to show for it. I “rent” a home, I have no car and cannot drive, I do not have the disposable income to live an active social life and have therefore drifted away from many of the friends I hold dear to me. In England you are taxed for pretty much everything apart from the air you breathe, and it’s becoming intolerable. So in this financial blight I now find myself immersed in, I took it upon myself to find a better paid job. I left my job as Web Operations Co-ordinator at Odeon Cinemas to work for a locally based Computer Hardware retailer, one of the biggest in the UK. They offered me good money and the prospects looked good so I jumped at the chance, but sadly things don’t always work out as you intend them to. The company I began to work for were extremely ill managed and highly unprofessional and terrible under-belly of racial and sexiest hatred was apparent and I simply couldn’t work in that atmosphere and resigned after 3 weeks.

That now leaves me out of work, with shit loads of bills to pay and no one to support me. Fortunately I am reasonably experienced enough to find another job but for the moment I am in the abyss! My point is that it seems we are born to provide the fatcats of our governments with more money. Despite the fact that I’ve worked my ass off for 6 years I have fuck all to show for it, and now I have to break into my savings to survive my hopefully temporary unemployment. The cost of living just went up folks, if you want to live these days you have to pay for it. They say it’s for law enforcement (that you never fucking see), health services (that you’ll never fucking use) but really it’s to line the pockets of those that govern our lives and to fund their wars across the globe.

I want to live, but I’m not sure I can afford to anymore.

I just want my country back…

Today we live in a society that is more generous than it’s ever been in history. How many world leaders pre 20th Century would give millions in aid to developing and impoverished states? I doubt many would have given a damn. Today’s world leaders are about peace and equality (well, most of the time) rather than looking for a country with it’s pants down to invade.

However, are our own countries themselves suffering greatly for our own generosity? Alot of people in Britain believe so. Since the decadent era of the pre 1970’s British society perhaps looked down upon helping others, especially of other race or creed. Yes, even the land of hope and glory can hang it’s head in shame for how it looked upon the black and Asian community during this time. Now it would seem that things are heading to the other extreme. Taxes are higher than ever and the British Government whilst spending money on peacekeeping in Iraq for instance, we also spend billions on benefits for people who have entered the country either by Asylum or illegal means.

The Labour party who are currently in control of the British government under Tony Blair are keen to enter the European Union constitution (EU). This would mean Britain having tax rates, human rights and other legislation dictated by other European politicians. Our country would not be our own. That is the general consensus in Britain at the moment, that our Government welcome people from other shores with open arms, spend tax payers money to sustain them and leave Britons short-changed.

I’m sure this scenario is played out in other nations such as the USA and everyone is affected by it. Yes, we should support other nations in poverty, yes we should protect those being persecuted across the world by inhumane dictatorships, but at what cost?

Personally I would like to see our leaders get it right at home before trying to play fairy god-mother for other nations, and it hurts to see foreigners who contribute nothing to my nation enter our lands at a whim, who leech upon the resources available to immigrants and bad-mouth Britain behind closed doors. Certain groups of Islamics even managed to have Christmas carols/trees banned in some towns as they felt it offended their religion! GET THE FUCK OUT! Britain is a Christian nation, you are welcome to your religion but for fucks sake I’ll be damned if any believer of Islam puts a stop to our religion on our own shores!

I’m not naive enough to believe that all foreigners are bad and shouldn’t be here. If you have skills that we are short of you are welcome, if you are willing to live under and embrace a British way of live you are welcome. If you are here just because you married some desperate housewife, GET THE FUCK OUT, if you are here because we give too much money to immigrants GET THE FUCK OUT.

I just want my country back

The world we live is a very dangerous place sometimes – fact. The saddest fact of all is that our children may never leave our shores for fear of what may happen to them.

In my recent artictle I discussed my objections to the western world playing god to the Arab lands, but in more recent thoughts I have come to think the tide is turning and it will be the other way around… to a certain degree anyhow.

Today it was revealed that Kenneth Bigley, the Briton held hostage in Iraq had been executed by his the rebel group lead by Iraq’s most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. After a torturous few weeks for the Bigley family the incident today concluded with his family confirming on national news that Ken had been murdered.

The power of Terrorism becomes more and more strong with each act of violence they endure upon the innocent. They kill, the public become scared, President cannot do anything to stop it, public lose faith and Terrorists score a victory over the Democracies attempting to eradicate them.

Three incidents in recent years come to mind,

1. Madrid Bombings
2. Beslan school massacre (Russia)
3. The recent hostage scenario in Iraq

What do all 3 of these have in common? They are attacks against countries whose leadership is in the balance! Spain have already changed leader, believed strongly to be down to their support of the US & UK in the Iraq war, the Madrid bombing further solidified the public’s demand for a change in power. The same in Russia, where President Putin’s reign looks to be in danger in a forth-coming election. The Chechan rebels are inflicting as much damage to his credibility as possible to ensure that the Russian public demand a withdrawl of Russian troops from Chechnya. Then we have Iraq, both George W Bush and Tony Blair have come under massive criticism for the Iraq war and their inability to secure the freedom of the 3 hostages add further fuel to the fire that could proverbially burn them out of office.

So to me appears that the Terrorists have taken a more sophisticated method of converting people to their cause. Rather than bomb countries into submission, they are now using politics to aid their cause. They are doing their utmost to significantly affect the outcome of elections in the world’s most powerful nations to ensure the next era of leadership do not stand in their way.

As a democratic world we must not allow these people to influence our decisions when we vote, if you want Bush or Blair out make sure it’s for the right reasons. But this again may change our lives forever.

Slipknot/Slayer European Tour review

Yes my friends, I was called up my good hard rocking buddy at 13:15 yesterday afternoon and he asks me a really stupid question. ” How’d you fancy going to see a Slipknot/Slayer gig tonight?” My as normally casual response was “sure”.

In truth I was fucking hopping around like a one legged chicken on viagra (you see, I’d have 2 legs then, so it’s correct). So it comes to 17:30, five hours earlier I was prepared for a night of BPing and some possible Battlefield Vietnam perhaps, but I was now on my way to the Birmingham National Indoor Arena to see 2 of the greatest bands in metal. Oh how I gleefully rubbed my hands together with delight.

We get to the venue (great building) and sadly we missed the first supporting act due to traffic, they went by the name of ‘Mastadon’ and from what we heard went down pretty well. However I was yet again pleasantly surprised to see the next support band were none other than the awesome ‘Hatebreed’. By that stage I was stoked, beer in each hand and rocking away to great tracks like ‘I will be heard’ and their new single ‘Live for this’.

So after Hatebreed left the stage it was a case of hanging loose for around 30mins while the crew set up for Slayer. But when they came on they did not disappoint! I’ve never been quite so impressed with a band’s energy as I was with Slayer, they were relentless! They pumped out a few classics like ‘Bombs away’, ‘Mandatory Suicide’, ‘Angel of Death’ and my personal favourite ‘Seasons In The Abyss’. I was impressed with Slayer although the best was yet to come.

After what seemed like forever Slipknot finally came on stage and I was at this point mesmerised! As much as I like Slipknot I’ve always admittedly been one to criticise them for being a gimmick (the masks etc) and should act like Taylor’s other band Stone Sour but when you see it for yourself it has so much fucking visual impact it’s out of this world. I’ve never been so convinced by a band in my life by the music and the image.

Sadly I was wasn’t familiar with a few of the early songs played as they were from the new album: The subliminal verses, which I yet to purchase but I still rocked my socks off.

A few songs in Corey Taylor was quick to point out that band member Craig Jones was missing due to vital surgery but the band were determined not to let the Euro fans down and continue the tour….. quality!!

Corey Taylor is one scary mother-fucker close up but my god he knows how to play a crowd, they were eating out of his hand! Highlights of the night were hearing a great track from the new album called ‘Three-Nil’, ‘Duality’ and the beautifully performed ‘Vermilion’.

A few classics were thrown in for good measure such as the Heretic Anthem (amazing track live), People = Shit, Wait & Bleed, Spit It Out and my personal favourite Slipknot track ‘Surfacing’ to finish off.

Amazing gig, a few more tour dates are left for any Brits reading this so get yourselves to them,

A much deserved 8/10

Before I even get into the nitty gritty I’d just like to point out something about what you are going to read. It envolves Religion and religious beliefs. I know alot of people take their beliefs to the utmost degree and would like to say I am not attempting to make any judgment or mockery of your faith(s).

A few days ago I stumbled across an intriguing piece of television. It discussed The Bible and how it has affected the lives of those who read and attempt to live by it. But what if this ‘devine literature’ were able to tell us of events that might shape the future as we know it? This particular programme discussed at length the work of a Mr Michael Drosnin, author of the bestseller ‘The Bible Code’. Michael Drosnin’s work consists of taking sequences of letters in the bible text and using them to predict the fufure.

Just a little bit strange I’m sure your thinking! Well let me go into slightly more detail about how he uses the bible to do this. Many individuals have taken it upon themselves to try and ‘de-bunk’ the bible, most even dedicating their lives to it. One example of this is Sir Isaac Newton who of course went on to discover the theory of gravity whilst staring at an apple tree, he himself spent many years attempting to find hidden codes in the bible and whilst not completely fruitless (no pun intended) his efforts did not come to any firm scientific conclusion.

However an Israeli Mathetician named Dr Eliyahu Rips too has dedicated his work to unlocking the mysteries of the bible. He uses a technique called ELS (Equidistant Letter Sequencing) to find hidden passages in the Torah (Hebrew Bible). This technique consists of taking a single letter as a starting point and then counting a set number of letters ahead (say 50) and using that as the next letter of the sequence. So he counts 50 letters and uses each Fiftieth letter to form a grid, similar to a word search puzzle and begins to search for words attributed to world events, such as 9/11 etc etc,

Using this technique Rips & Drosnin have found many startling ‘coincidences’. Within a small margain of pages they were able to such words grouped together as “Kennedy” – “Dallas” and “Assasination”. They also found “Twin Towers” – “New York” and “September 2001” extremely close together. These events obviously could not have been known by the writers of the bible over 2000 years ago! Now these discoveries have many people doubting the relevance of finding old events so Drosnin used his technique to predict something in the future…. and it worked!

He predicted that former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin would be assasinated precisely one year before it happened. Naturally he warned Rabin of this but to no avail and he was shot during a peace rally in 1995.

Surely this is the biggest discovery of all time? Well maybe not quite.

Whilst many scientists have attributed to Drosnin’s discovery claiming that the words found such as for instance “Kennedy, Dallas & Assasination” are too close together in the text to be coincedence, many are still very sceptical to this technique.

They liken his methods to that of a tarot card or palm reader who will take small pieces of personal information and attempt to tell you a story. Your mind will fill whatever blanks are left by what they are telling you and will make it relevant to yourself. Many claim that Drosnin is doing the same as the discoveries are not conclusive enough (enough detail such as exact dates etc). Another who was famous for this is Nostradmous who predicted many modern events such as the rise of Hitler and possibly 9/11 but again was this luck or a mind trick?

One sceptic even went as far as using Drosnin’s own technique against him by decoding Moby Dick. He found similar coincedences as Drosnin did in the Bible.

So is it possible that God left us clues in the Bible to help us survive worldly catastrophy? Or is it a case of scientists forever more attempting to be bigger than the holy faith? Personally I cannot decide, I want to believe Drosnin so very much it’s scary! But logic tells me this surely cannot be!

Whichever we choose to believe it just goes to so even in the modern world how much of an impact the bible still has on us all. We should also perhaps take heed of Drosnin’s most shocking discovery…. the end of the world by Nuclear Holocaust in 2006. Live each day as if it’s your last I say!

The Bible Code by Michael Drosnin can be purchased from Amazon by clicking here.

I apologize in advance for releasing this latest column so close after my last, however I wanted to share my thoughts on this particular subject with you whilst the situation is still at hand. I wish to discuss the abduction of 3 men in Iraq, in particular one Englishman by the name of Kenneth Bigley.

The news is currently rife with the story of Jack Hensley, Eugene Armstrong from the USA and Kenneth Bigley from Liverpool, England who were kidnapped by an Al-Qaeda splinter group a few days ago. The group is headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq. The group has stated that the 3 men would be released if the countries involved with the liberation of Iraq released all female prisoners.

Sadly for these 3 men it is the policy of the USA andUK not to negociate with terrorists and Jack Hensleyand Eugene Armstrong lives ended in the most horrific of circumstances, however Kenneth Bigley is still alive…. for now. Video footage has been released from the kidnappers to Arab media featuring Kenneth begging Prime Minister Tony Blair to help save his life. Kenneth’s family has also appeared on Television in the UK urging the Prime Minister to act now to save his life.

By now I’m sure we are all familiar with the circumstances surrounding this terrible situation but what I wish to discuss is should our leaders do more to save the lives of the innocent who are helping to rebuild Iraq? Or should we leave our countrymen to undertake the risks they were surely aware of before seeking their fortune in a war-torn country?

Personally as much as I feel sorry for the families of all 3 men, I feel most sorry for George W Bush and Tony Blair. Can you possibly imagination having the lives of 3 innocent men in your hands and not being able to do anything to save them? I imagine that the guilt is unbearable for either man but surely the security of the country must be put before these 3 men alone?

It is of no surprise to me that the American prisoners never appeared on TV to plea for their lives as I imagine that the US take a much harder line of approach to situation than that of the UK whom I cannot recall this happening to in recent history. In which case it would seem that the kidnappers already knew that the US would do nothing to save the lives of Jack and Eugene, and executed them purely to signal the validity of their intent to kill for their cause.

The only bargaining tool they really had the life of Kenneth Bigley. He is their only pawn and they hope that Tony Blair perhaps is more perceptible to this kind of action.

Unfortunately for the family of Kenneth Bigley I’m sure this is not the case. For all the criticisms made towards Bush & Blair I believe they are doing the right thing and should not blackmailed into Terrorist demands like this, even if it does mean the death of our own countrymen. If our nations were to give in to these bandits now, what would stop them kidnapping people everyday in order to achieve their political goals?

It is a no win situation for all concerned in my opinion, but maybe this is the biggest signal yet to the Western world to stop trying to play god to Eastern culture.

It’s been a while but I’m back and ready to stir it up with the Media Rebellion guys yet again. I want to discuss something that I’m sure we all will have some opinion of, something that I’m positive everyone on these forums will have some memory or experience of which to speak of and that is VIDEO GAMES!

Ahhh, the countless hours, days and even weeks of my life I’ve lost to my digitized heros right from the days of Super Mario, to the present day of driving around Vice City as Tommy Vercetti popping a righteous cap in some random Haitian gangster!

How innocent it used to be when a 10-year-old could unboxed his/her SNES and be left to happily button bash over Street Fighter 2 for hours on end **SIGH!** however those days are seemingly all behind us. I hope by now you’ve not already concluded that I’m going to start ranting away about how much I love
Video Games because that is not what I’m attempting to discuss with Ye’ Faithful. I wish to discuss the impact that Video Games have on society, more
specifically games with violent content.

This is a debate that reveals it’s ugly face every few years, it has happened many times. Recently in the UK a teenager killed a schoolmate. It was vicious and unprovoked murder at it’s coldest, the victim was beaten to death with a baseball bat! Now I’m sure your thinking the same as I did when I first learnt
of this terrible incident, that the killer is surely deranged and is quite clearly a
complete psychopath for doing that to another human being.

If only we all thought that logically.

It was revealed not a day later that the killer had informed investigating officers
that he was simply re-inacting his favorite video game and that he had no realization that his actions were wrong. The Video Game in question was ‘Manhunt’. For those who have not played this (what I think is a superb game you star as the role of a convict sentenced to death by the Gas Chamber. However your execution is staged and you are abducted by a sick ‘snuff movie’ director who has elaborately set up a series of zones guarded by serial killers for you to avoid, or more to the point…. kill! All whilst on tape of course.

Yes, it’s kill or be killed but the director encourages you to kill in the most violently original ways possible, including beating people’s brains out with a baseball bat. Now whilst I can admit that the violent content of this game is totally overkill that does not make me want to go out onto the streets with glass shards and baseball bats and kill everyone in sight! However the UK media (oh how we love them!) were all over this like a fly on shit. Within days the game ‘Manhunt’ had been banned from most reputable UK game stores, the game’s creators ‘Rockstar Games’ were heavily blamed for influencing a generation of serial killers and the whole ugly debate that games are bad for you was back and bigger than ever before!

I’m doubtful that this story got outside of the UK simply for it’s impetual nonsense style of journalism however I am sure this kind of debate has occurred in the USA because people who don’t play games can never understand that playing a game does not become an obsession for most people. The only people who can be possibly influenced in this way by a video game are those who are mentally defective already, and the trigger for the killing spree could be anything from TV, a novel or just an argument with a pushy assistant at your local Wall-Mart.

The point of this debate is to determine 2 things. Are Video Games the
root of all evil? And are we letting the most criminally unintelligent
people write the news that our parents get up in the morning and digest along
with their fruit juice and cereal?

I leave the debate for you.