MAN ARRESTED FOR REAL LIFE MARIO KART INCIDENT

July 21 2009

New York, NY – From the earliest days of mass media the debate over how influential certain individuals can be over the more vulnerable amongst us has raged. From Elvis to r-rated movies every form of media has inspired some kind of criticism and concern over its content and how it may or may not influence the demise of society as a
whole. As one of the newest entrants into the modern media videogames have received the bulk of that attention and though no single games has yet caused the end of society, incidents continue to appear that indicate it may do just that someday.

Enter into that fray 19 year-old Jesse King who was arrested yesterday for reckless endangerment and disturbing the peace after a series of incidents on public streets in Brooklyn. Police responded to calls of a car swerving through residential neighbourhoods and the driver tossing various items onto the road behind him. Upon pulling over the driver, police found a car full of banana peels and oversized turtle shells that King had been
tossing on the road. After questioning, it was determined that King was acting out his favourite video game, the ever popular ‘Mario Kart’.

“We pulled him over and he had these crates sitting in the back seat full of banana peels and other things. He was throwing them out of the back of his car because he believed that other drivers were gaining on him. It appears that he believed that he was in the middle of a race and that by tossing these items he would be able to deter his opponents,” said one of the arresting officers. “We weren’t as concerned about the banana peels as we were the turtle shells because those could cause some serious damage. They were more of a nuisance than anything which drivers could ignore. Regardless though we can’t have people driving recklessly tossing things out of their cars. It’s just too dangerous.”

King will be facing a judge early next week to determine if he is fit to stand trial. It is believed that he had been playing the latest version of ‘Mario Kart’ for the Nintendo Wii just prior to his trip.

“I will say that this doesn’t do any good for the argument that videogames are harmless. After all ‘Mario Kart’ is a multimillion copy seller that is played by people of all ages with great enthusiasm. The argument of course is that if something seen as innocuous as ‘Mario Kart’ could cause reckless and dangerous behaviour in a person than something like ‘Grand Theft Auto’ is certain
to do so,” said Scrape TV Gaming analyst Graeme Hawthorne. “This is the first I have heard of an incident of this nature as the result of a Nintendo game but the Wii is the best selling game console on the market and in the homes of millions of people so it is likely that it will not be the last time we hear of someone trying to imitate one of their games.”

There have been isolated reports throughout New York of people randomly pulling plants out of stranger’s gardens and individuals trying to roll themselves up into tiny balls, indicating that the Nintendo influence may be more widespread than previously thought.

“The core issue here is whether or not these people are being inspired to commit
these acts because of Nintendo games or if they are using it as a framework for their behaviour. That is the core debate when it comes to incidents like these, at least on a behavioural level,” continued Hawthorne. “On a legal and moral level the argument is whether or not we should prohibit access in order to prevent incidents like this. Do we compromise the freedom of everyone because of a few individuals who choose to not behave by the rules of society or do we cast them as the martyrs for all our freedom? Do we put up with lightning bolts shrinking us to preserve all freedom or do we simply take away the motivation? That is the eternal question.”

Police have asked stores throughout the city to stop carrying items such as windup bombs and fake item boxes to help reduce the likelihood of copycat incidents.

Douglas Havermore, Games Correspondent

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