Time for another round of "Violent videogames create murderers"!

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excast

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#1  Edited By excast

Why does it seem like every time some whacko commits and atrocity, his video game habits immediately come under scrutiny?
 
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/19/world/europe/norway-breivik-trial/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
 
You may have heard of Anders Behring Breivik.  Last summer he set off a bomb in a major Norwegian city to act as a diversion while he visited a youth camp and went on a rampage.  He managed to kill a total of 77 people, 8 with the bomb and 69 (mostly children) during the shooting spree on the island.  He claims he did so to fight multiculturalism in his country.   By any measure, the guy is a xenophobic, right wing, racist freak.
 
But of course, the headline you will see today is not about  what he read, what movies he watched, what sort of paintings he liked, or what he liked to collect.  No, they are going to tell you that he liked to play video games.  A lot.  They are going to take his quote that he played   
" "Modern Warfare 2" for practice " and run with it.   They are going to prop up the fact that he played a lot of World of Warcraft. 
 
Because, you know, using a controller to run around a virtual warzone with weapons hardly any civilians even have access to is great training for committing mass murder.  Tossing a grenade is as easy as pressing L1!  Reloading your assault rifle is a simple push of the square button!  And you can get shot 20 times before you go down!  And then you respawn at your last checkpoint!  Exactly the same.
 
And don't be surprised if you start seeing politicians, especially Republicans, once again start their anti video game push.  Anyone remember the pushback against Doom after the Columbine massacre?  Maybe we can see a return of Jack Thompson.  I kind of miss that guy.
 
After all, it is for the children.

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Still_I_Cry

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#2  Edited By Still_I_Cry

Aw, someone doesn't like Republicans huh..

"And don't be surprised if you start seeing politicians, especially Republicans"

" By any measure, the guy is a xenophobic, right wing, racist freak"

Anyway, blaming a game is a desperate attempt to explain why he killed people and how he trained to do it.

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PCWV

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#3  Edited By PCWV

An English newspaper "The Sun" recently had an article about how fundamentalist muslims were using the MW3 in game lobby to discuss terrorist things and practice tactics for an attack.

Scaremongering is the oldest form of rallying the people against a thing.

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Still_I_Cry

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#4  Edited By Still_I_Cry

@PCWV said:

An English newspaper "The Sun" recently had an article about how fundamentalist muslims were using the MW3 in game lobby to discuss terrorist things and practice tactics for an attack.

Scaremongering is the oldest form of rallying the people against a thing.

Could just have easily used Skype. Dumbasses.

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veiasma

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#5  Edited By veiasma

@Still_I_Cry said:

@PCWV said:

An English newspaper "The Sun" recently had an article about how fundamentalist muslims were using the MW3 in game lobby to discuss terrorist things and practice tactics for an attack.

Scaremongering is the oldest form of rallying the people against a thing.

Could just have easily used Skype. Dumbasses.

But you can't get 360 noscope training in Skype.

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Still_I_Cry

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#6  Edited By Still_I_Cry

@Veiasma said:

@Still_I_Cry said:

@PCWV said:

An English newspaper "The Sun" recently had an article about how fundamentalist muslims were using the MW3 in game lobby to discuss terrorist things and practice tactics for an attack.

Scaremongering is the oldest form of rallying the people against a thing.

Could just have easily used Skype. Dumbasses.

But you can't get 360 noscope training in Skype.

Oh crap, forgot that.

:P

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AlexanderSheen

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#7  Edited By AlexanderSheen

@Still_I_Cry said:

@Veiasma said:

@Still_I_Cry said:

@PCWV said:

An English newspaper "The Sun" recently had an article about how fundamentalist muslims were using the MW3 in game lobby to discuss terrorist things and practice tactics for an attack.

Scaremongering is the oldest form of rallying the people against a thing.

Could just have easily used Skype. Dumbasses.

But you can't get 360 noscope training in Skype.

Oh crap, forgot that.

:P

I'd love to see someone try do that in real life.

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coakroach

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#8  Edited By coakroach

Funny, I had a media studies tutorial about moral panics this morning...

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TheDudeOfGaming

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#9  Edited By TheDudeOfGaming

The guy also said he had connections to some radical Serbs, it's been speculated to be Milorad Ulemek Legija. The guy's been in prison for 3-4 years now. Breivik will say so much stupid shit on his trial that i wish they'd just lock him up, throw away the key and never open the door again.

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LordAndrew

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#10  Edited By LordAndrew

@Excast said:

But of course, the headline you will see today is not about what he read, what movies he watched, what sort of paintings he liked, or what he liked to collect. No, they are going to tell you that he liked to play video games. A lot. They are going to take his quote that he played " "Modern Warfare 2" for practice " and run with it. They are going to prop up the fact that he played a lot of World of Warcraft.

Would that somehow be more acceptable? If they all focused on some movie that supposedly caused him/trained him/dared him to do it, would that be better?

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willin

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#11  Edited By willin

That's a nice read.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go shoot some police and eat babies.

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geirr

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#12  Edited By geirr

Well, they don't, so round ended.

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deactivated-63f899c29358e

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At least World of Warcraft is going free now, since he said that he only played that because he wanted to and let himself do it as a martyr-reward before carrying out his suicide-mission (which he then survived).

Also wouldn't it be better shooting practice to aim with the guns he was going to do the act with rather than playing a shooter?

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excast

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#14  Edited By excast
@LordAndrew said:

@Excast said:

But of course, the headline you will see today is not about what he read, what movies he watched, what sort of paintings he liked, or what he liked to collect. No, they are going to tell you that he liked to play video games. A lot. They are going to take his quote that he played " "Modern Warfare 2" for practice " and run with it. They are going to prop up the fact that he played a lot of World of Warcraft.

Would that somehow be more acceptable? If they all focused on some movie that supposedly caused him/trained him/dared him to do it, would that be better?

No, but the point is that they rarely, if ever, do.  Movies and books are an accepted medium to the old men and women that run the media and the government.  They don't understand games, so they make easy targets.
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Deathmachine117

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#15  Edited By Deathmachine117

I wonder if I went mad and committed atrocities like that dude if I said I read some violent books. Would people have such a reaction ?

Or is it just "Derp them vidya games are evil !"

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fox01313

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#16  Edited By fox01313

These idiotic lawyers/mainstream journalists need to look at the fact that there's never a cycle of widespread riots & murders every time someone puts out a Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Dynasty Warriors, Pokemon/Skylanders, Mortal Kombat or other game that might focus on some kind of fighting. Hard these days to find people in modern society not playing games but they're out there so finding someone who commits some crime & might play video games is rather easy.

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Phatmac

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#17  Edited By Phatmac

PERSONA 3 THOUGHT ME THAT SHOOTING MYSELF IN THE HEAD WILL CREATE A PERSONA!!!!!!! IT'S ALL TRUEE!! PERSONAAAAAAAAA!

..uhh.

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psylah

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#18  Edited By psylah

This reminds me of the knee-jerk reaction Jack Thompson had after the Virginia Tech massacre, claiming that he could guarantee they would find Cho's dorm stocked with violent video games. 
 
There were no video games in Cho's residence. I don't even think they found a TV.

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Chummy8

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#19  Edited By Chummy8

Video games are so popular these days that almost everyone has played them. The fact that he played games before he went out shooting is a coincidence and not proof of causality.

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Aronman789

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#20  Edited By Aronman789

This is like saying toast is evil because I happened to eat some before I killed those 30 hookers.

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BraveToaster

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#21  Edited By BraveToaster

That's the media being stupid like always.

Also, commits and atrocity.

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The_Nubster

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#22  Edited By The_Nubster

@Aronman789 said:

This is like saying toast is evil because I happened to eat some before I killed those 30 hookers.

Toast is Satan's work.

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Harkat

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#23  Edited By Harkat

Yeah, the videogame-blaming is so fucking tired and stupid. He claims he used MW2 to "train" for the massacre, which the press jumped right on, even though the notion of using a CoD game to prepare for real firefights in ridiculous. In real life, you don't have pinpoint accuracy and can't hide behind a wall for 5 sec until the 16 bullet wounds in your chest magically disappear.

Oh and Breivik is a despicable human being, but he is not racist, technically. Massively xenophobic, extremist and generally messed-up, sure, but I don't believe there's anything in his manifesto about superior races/inferior races.

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MoseSSesoM

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#24  Edited By MoseSSesoM

@AlexanderSheen said:

@Still_I_Cry said:

@Veiasma said:

@Still_I_Cry said:

@PCWV said:

An English newspaper "The Sun" recently had an article about how fundamentalist muslims were using the MW3 in game lobby to discuss terrorist things and practice tactics for an attack.

Scaremongering is the oldest form of rallying the people against a thing.

Could just have easily used Skype. Dumbasses.

But you can't get 360 noscope training in Skype.

Oh crap, forgot that.

:P

I'd love to see someone try do that in real life.

Here you go, though I can not find the original video anymore, just a bunch of edits.

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excast

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#25  Edited By excast

Every generation has their cultural scapegoat.  Back in the days of my father it was that evil Rock n' Roll corrupting the youth into swaying their hips.  Then it was more hardcore rock than supposedly brainwashed kids with subliminal messages.  Now it is the evil violent video games are desensitizing the kiddies and making them into killing machines,
 
When modern video game fans grow up and assume positions of power, you will see less of this kind of rhetoric.  Gamers are just a convenient group to trash because most of the folks in power grew up before gaming was as mainstream as it has become over the last 20+ years.

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Sgykah

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#26  Edited By Sgykah

@Deathmachine117 said:

I wonder if I went mad and committed atrocities like that dude if I said I read some violent books. Would people have such a reaction ?

Or is it just "Derp them vidya games are evil !"

It's been done.

Catcher in the Rye, Mein Kampf

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Justin258

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#27  Edited By Justin258

@TekZero said:

Video games are so popular these days that almost everyone has played them. The fact that he played games before he went out shooting is a coincidence and not proof of causality.

To be more specific, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 had the fastest-selling launch ever and is one of, if not the, highest selling game of all time. How the hell come all of our youth aren't trying to shoot, stab, or otherwise harm each other?

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MikkaQ

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#28  Edited By MikkaQ

Eh people are reacting to these kinds of stories less and less, especially since there probably aren't many Americans around who don't interact with a COD or Madden player on a regular or even daily basis. If they believed everything they heard, no one would leave their house for fear of getting killed by some psychogamer.

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aspaceinvader

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#29  Edited By aspaceinvader

Anything pop culture is gonna be made a scape goat, movies, tv, pop music etc all have been blamed in the past for these things, when really its the sick fuckwits we call humanity are the real cause.

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emprpngn

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#30  Edited By emprpngn

@Excast said:

Every generation has their cultural scapegoat. Back in the days of my father it was that evil Rock n' Roll corrupting the youth into swaying their hips. Then it was more hardcore rock than supposedly brainwashed kids with subliminal messages. Now it is the evil violent video games are desensitizing the kiddies and making them into killing machines, When modern video game fans grow up and assume positions of power, you will see less of this kind of rhetoric. Gamers are just a convenient group to trash because most of the folks in power grew up before gaming was as mainstream as it has become over the last 20+ years.

What's sad is modern video game fans are one day going to spew garbage about the new forms of media, just like the 50's rock and roll kids blame video games now. You'd think we'd have noticed the pattern by this point...

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TheHumanDove

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#31  Edited By TheHumanDove

It actually explains in his manifest that he was already on his path to crazyness long before getting into WoW. He used WoW as an excuse to go about doing his terrorist planning stuff that he enjoyed doing.

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spartanlolz92

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#32  Edited By spartanlolz92

"And don't be surprised if you start seeing politicians, especially Republicans, once again start their anti video game push"

you do knw that hilary clinton spearheaded a campaign against mortal kombat and many other violent video games. -__-

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Vinny_Says

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#33  Edited By Vinny_Says

YouTube to the rescue!

@AlexanderSheen said:

@Still_I_Cry said:

@Veiasma said:

@Still_I_Cry said:

@PCWV said:

An English newspaper "The Sun" recently had an article about how fundamentalist muslims were using the MW3 in game lobby to discuss terrorist things and practice tactics for an attack.

Scaremongering is the oldest form of rallying the people against a thing.

Could just have easily used Skype. Dumbasses.

But you can't get 360 noscope training in Skype.

Oh crap, forgot that.

:P

I'd love to see someone try do that in real life.

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spartanlolz92

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#34  Edited By spartanlolz92

@believer258 said:

@TekZero said:

Video games are so popular these days that almost everyone has played them. The fact that he played games before he went out shooting is a coincidence and not proof of causality.

To be more specific, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 had the fastest-selling launch ever and is one of, if not the, highest selling game of all time. How the hell come all of our youth aren't trying to shoot, stab, or otherwise harm each other?

highest grossing enterainment release in history acutally. lol

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ThePickle

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#35  Edited By ThePickle

@spartanlolz92 said:

"And don't be surprised if you start seeing politicians, especially Republicans, once again start their anti video game push"

you do knw that hilary clinton spearheaded a campaign against mortal kombat and many other violent video games. -__-

Republicans are more likely go to the "THINK ABOUT THE CHILDREN!" angle with social issues like gay marriage, drug legalization, and violent media. After all, it was a Republican candidate that wanted to ban internet porn. But we won't talk about him.

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digitaldemigod

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#36  Edited By digitaldemigod

Maybe we should ban televisions too because every murderer has watched tv at some point before killing someone.

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Lively

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#37  Edited By Lively

A while back you had democrats Hillary Clinton and Joseph Lieberman complaining about violent videogames, so it's not a strictly partisan issue. Seems like politicians have largely backed off of the games industry ever since it eclipsed Hollywood in revenue, and of course since Jack Thompson went down in flames.

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Grimluck343

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#38  Edited By Grimluck343

It amazes me that grown men and women say with a straight face that a mouse and keyboard can train you how to maintain and fire a weapon. By the same logic, anyone who has ever played solitaire is equipped to effectively use an automatic rifle, or anyone who has used a word processor can fire a pistol.

Edit: By "men and women" I'm not talking about sensationalist media looking for a headline or a politician looking for another cause to champion, I mean the people who actually believe this crap.

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Fozimuth

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#39  Edited By Fozimuth

Correlation isn't causation, there is no scientific evidence whatsoever to support anything, et cetera.  Nothing new here.  Just the same bullshit again, that hopefully won't be brought up again after a couple weeks.