NEWS: Blame Video Games

POLITICS: Blame Video Games

Guns don’t kill people –- video games do. Or at least Jack Thompson and Dr. Phil would have you believe so.

Yesterday’s Virginia Tech massacre, where 23-year-old Virginia Tech student Cho Seung-Hui killed 33 people and injured at least 15 others, is a tragedy with depressingly petty motivations. Seung-Hui’s first target was his ex-girlfriend, 18-year-old Emily Jane Hilscher. According to Virginia Tech students, Hilscher cheated on Seung-Hui, who was on medication for depression.

Most of this information came to light today. The 24-hour news cycle being what it is, experts were trotted out last night to explain what happened before pesky details like “facts” came into play. Christian conservative attorney Jack Thompson was featured on the O’Reilly Factorlast night, and speculated that video games were probably to blame for the tragedy. Saying most of the rage murders prior to Columbine were committed by people immersed in “incredibly violent entertainment, most notably video games."

He rattled off a bunch of examples of rage killings allegedly caused by video games, which are debunked on the gaming Website Kotaku. Dr. Phil made a slightly more nuanced version of the same argument on Larry King Live.

At least Dr. Phil acknowledged that mental disturbances could have factored into the equation. Love how he supports his argument by citing “common sense,” -- a sure sign of a shitty argument. Also, he uses the phrase “fiber of our society” to make his argument impossible to argue with –- he’s not saying video games are directly responsible, he’s saying they’re indirectly responsible in a way that’s impossible to prove or disprove.

I understand why there’s a rush to speculate and judge larger societal factors for horrible instances like this –- people need to make sense out of them. However, exploiting a horrible event to forward a socially conservative agenda is deplorable; there was no evidence, and still is no evidence that Seung-Hui was a video game player or a lover of violent films or anything other than a depressed, jilted, hostile loner and terrible playwright.

On the bright side, at least nobody tried to implicate Marilyn Manson.

Yet.

Bad Parenting/family life, Mental Illness. not video games.

Wow, it took them that long to come up with that. Let the witch burning begin.

I think the best prevention of such massacres would be to STOP GIVING THEM SO MUCH MEDIA COVERAGE. I do not give any school shooters enough credit to believe that they had thought it up themselves. They are copycats; the media glamourises the perverse.

I have a television that used to be in a hotel room, so the default channel when turned on is always CNN Headline News. Yesterday I switched it on and, before the screen could materialise, someone said (roughly) "I'm sure everyone feels as I do in this situation - that there must be something we could do." Not once did I believe that they were talking about Darfur, but I sincerely wish they would address atrocities that occur on a much larger scale and are essentially remediable. School shootings are done by random lunatics; even if we took away the weapons and the video games which purportedly promote such actions, there is always a way to inflict harm if one has the will. A fork driven far enough into the socket is just one novel means.

I just said something about that a few minutes ago.

I'll say the same thing here... People always want to find something to blame because they don't want to be looked at as the cause.

I blame the gangster raps.

I stopped playing video games because I was becoming enraged with society, if unchecked, my psychotic tendencies would have got the better of me and I might have gone on a rampage too. Despite the fact that I still have psychotic tendencies, society is now safe from me now that I avoid playing video games... This is basically what Dr. Phil, et al. are saying of a potential killer. That somehow violent games and movies (what about wars?) are to blame is besides the point (hell, we might as well include "society" in the blame game since were going there). A person's mental health is to blame, pure and simple. Perhaps a better understanding of why the killer did what he did, why he snapped, will provide some insight. They could allow an effective response to prevent future instances of such killings (the response to the Columbine killings changed policies nationwide regarding the way schools deal with bullying for instance). Who knows for sure, people will always suffer mental breakdowns, psychopathic episodes, or may be pure sociopaths. Now as far as violent games and movies go, there may be something to say about desensitizing those who view and play them to violence, but to go so far as pushing someone to kill? I don't buy it.

Yep. I think someone should make a tragedy BINGO game with all the popular explanations for the downfall of society. The first person who hears them all on TV wins. Anyone care to add...? So far, I've got:

- Bad music
- Video games
- Role-playing games
- Lack of religion
(in school, in the home, whichever)
- Too much masturbation
- Zoloft
- Violent movies
- Porn

Anything's valid in this game except the idea that a disturbed, violent, troubled individual manages to merge the motive, the means and the moment to do a fucking awful, tragic, stupid thing.

Video games. Right. He's oriental, we all know how mad orientals are for those games. In comparison, the fact that his cheating girlfriend was the first victim is completely irrelevant.

At most, I reckon enjoying violent slaughter in computer games is a symptom, not a cause. When they can zap games directly into your brain and everything looks real, then I'll start worrying.

In the meantime, Cho is just the first guy to do the school killing spree so well.

It's not just about those who died, but those who survived...

Was that necessary? While I appreciate the humour in sarcasm and hope that you do not hold these myths as truths, the simple act of invoking such a statement is a means of perpetuating the stereotype. Please be more considerate.

I'm sure you just said that as a way to patronize anyone who actually believes in freedom of the press, so I'll pass on that bait. Still, the screwballs who do these things don't do them for media attention, they do these thing because they're crazy, defective people:

Weird, do they have a theory about the other 40+ people murdered yesterday in the US? Or did their murderers not have enough news coverage to get them on TV?

And, since the per capita murder rate peaked in 1980 and ours is currently half that amount (the same as it was in 1960, even though there are over 70 million more people than there were in 1980), maybe they should investigate Donkey Kong players. Or shut the fuck up.

Jack Thompson is one of the most vile human beings in and out of the spotlight today. Opportunistic, hateful, and, above all, a compulsive liar that manipulates people with "facts" to promote his hypocritical agenda of censorship.

What a sad fucking person.

you guys are crazy... i play video games. and kill people all the time.. i mean.. video games are real life right? i mean.. who actually seperates what they do with a controler in their hand and waht they do with their actual lives?

it's obsured to think that anyone who plays violent video games doesn't go on a killing spree every now and again.. that's why we have MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS OF MASS MURDERS EVERY DAY!

christ this is fucking rediculous.

Has anyone seen the movie Elephant It's written and directed by Gus Van Sant. Based on what happened at Columbine. It's incredible. Great story telling and incredible cinematography.

Anyways, about this topic, reason I bring the film up is because even though the film shows the two kids Idolizing Hitler and playing violent video games. I don't feel like it suggested those were the reasons or the warning signs. So much media does that.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Posh the leader of the Gears of War team? I doubt this girl is going to be going on any rampages any time soon.

No there are other factors and as long as the stigma of "you're a loner or a loser if you play video games" goes away its going to continue. When in truth. 3/4 Homes in the US that a male live in own a video game system and more than 70% of male 18 - 34 year olds are gamers. They also spend about 12.5 hours a week playing video games. Thats more than watching TV and movies combined. I doubt all these men have psychotic tendencies as a result.

What pissed me off the most was the fact that they called the guy a loner. Like its such a bad thing. Seriously, I heard the second person the guy killed was the girlfriends RA (Resident Assistant) I'm one of those. I help people. I'm a loner, and I'm not psychotic. Damn.

-Dusten

But these were going to be future George W. Bushes. Those are just Crackheads, they're not important.

Marilyn Manson DID just release a new single for an upcoming album.......

Coincidence?






(It's sarcasm people, don't really reply)

AOL has rushed out plays written by the shooter, which is the worst atrocity of this entire thing. This guy's going to get his life dissected in front of millions of people by talking heads who probably can't tie their own shoes. Plus he's Asian, so get ready for the racism.

On another note, why hasn't FearTheReaper caught hold of Tommy Thompson's Jew Joke? Come on political editors, get on the BALL.

Jack Thompson is, and always will be, a giant fucking retard.

That guy had a girlfriend? The mug shots of him that I've seen would seem to indicate that he was loveless animal.

You know, before video games people didnt go on crazy gun rampages. I wish I can kick both Phil and Jack in the face.

from Kotaku