'Miami' Draws Gamers' Criticism For 'Urban Hellraisers'

See Also: 'Urban Hellraisers' Episode Guide

Last Monday's episode of CSI: Miami, "Urban Hellraisers," has drawn a lot of ire from the gaming community for its extreme representation of video game players.

In this episode, college students decide to play a Grand Theft Auto-like video game in real life, encouraged by not only the game's violence, but the gaming industry as well, to rob banks, murder and rape innocent people, and even infiltrate into the lab to steal the evidence that ties them to their crimes.

Gaming communities all over the web instantly took offense to the way gamers were depicted in the episode. "In conjunction with the venom and disgust that effuses the word 'gamer' when it's spoken by star David Caruso, it is made clear that people who play games are but one step removed from pedophiles or suicide bombers in the social hierarchy of evil," said Andrew Leonard from Salon.com.

Leonard's criticism not only stems from the extreme crimes the gamers committed, but also from the suggestion that perhaps the writers of Miami failed to read what recent studies regarding teen violence have suggested. "Never mind that in the real world, teen violence has steadily declined, almost in parallel with the rise in sales of video games," he added.

The episode even has female gamers up in arms. In "Urban Hellraisers's" last revelation, the team discovers the most elusive of these video game crazed college students is actually a girl, who confesses to Calleigh Duquesne she never liked video games per se, but began to play them so boys would pay more attention to her. Dilandau, from the CSI: Miami thread at TWoP, was at first delighted to see a female gamer on the show.

"Unfortunately my happiness didn't last long," she said. "It faded when the girl started telling some sob story about how boys didn't notice her so she playing the games which eventually led to her crimes. I'm a girl... I play games, and it's not just to get the attention of some boy. The misconception that girls don't play video games drives me up a wall!"

"Normally I like every CSI: Miami, but this show just rubbed me the wrong way," said poster saskboy from the gaming section at Slashdot.org. "Maybe I'd feel about any CSI where I'm familiar with the subject matter, but this one seemed 'forced' or preachy. It's almost as if it Jumped the Shark, if they keep going with this lame social consequences route."

Head over to Salon.com to read the rest of Leonard's article, and to read or take part of a discussion regarding gamers depiction in this episode, visit Slashdot.org.

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