UK tabloids point to Call of Duty, Dynasty Warriors in Sa...

[robometal cowboy]

UK tabloids point to Call of Duty, Dynasty Warriors in Sandy Hook school shooting
Click Here to View Story






I understand that people want answers for why this terrible event happened. I completely get that. Unfortunately, that's not the way the world works. You can't always sum up everything with a simple explanation. Answers don't always come in a neat, little package. Blaming games for this event and not considering the mental state of the shooter is a gross overreaction.

Link

[Light_Wolf]

People tend to mix the causes and consequences in things like this. Playing violent videogames doesn't necessarily make you a violent person, but it's very likely that a violent person plays violent videogames. Being related doesn't necessarily mean one is the cause of the other.

[Sammet]

The Sun is a despicable paper and this is the standard for them.

23 years ago the worst sporting tragedy in UK history occurred when 96 football fans were crushed to death and the Sun colluded with the police to blame the victims and the fans that were involved.

For 23 years they continued this lie untill an independent inquest from the government found that it was entirely the fault of the police and unsafe stadium.

It's not worth wasting your time on this rubbish.

[Nickius]

I don't ever care when media make connections between violence/ crime and videogames because it doesn't really matter, but the media is so unbelievably disrespectful on this shooting or any similar event, its disgusting.

[Sammet]

BTW This is a photo of the "journalist" Pete Samson, who wrote this article..

[TooManyToasters]

BTW This is a photo of the "journalist" Pete Samson, who wrote this article..

Lol, awesome.

Any rate, I'm sure if Jack Thompson were still holding his position in the matter this would be his "AHA! Gotcha!" moment.

[AnoukiAgentYellow]

Everyone uses these sorts of terrible events as a soap box for their political agendas, it's sad really.

[bobyoko]

ignoring, completely, that videogames play a role in our shared violent society is a gross underreaction (shame on you over and over Go Nintendo). consistently posting comments to undermine the completely rational (and scientifically backed) idea that violent media affects our society is irresponsible. you're all ignoring the obvious to justify your own personal actions (in this case, playing violent videogames). can you, RMC, not see your own personal role in this? to be clear, i'm talking about GN's consistent voice of how it's impossible that violent media (in this case games) can be in any way related to violence in society, when there's a mind boggling amount of scientifically collected data showing that media does POWERFULLY affect the minds of not only youth, but of adults as well. try googling "environmental effects on dna," and find out that the environment (ie ALL the stuff you interact with) plays a LARGE part in how your DNA evolves. but no, we'll dumb this conversation down to the cable news level, allowing us no chance to change and damning us to relive these same atrocities that continually repeat in our "society." just because we're unwilling to take a different look at what's going on. and you guys are on the side of continued violence for the sake of entertainment!??!?!?!!??! how unbelievably ignorant and short sighted, but wait, you guys don't really care about any of this stuff, you only care about whether or not you get to buy call of duty when it comes out again next year, right? don't worry, the game makes so much money that i'm sure that even if we had a school shooting every day for a month, and every student involved was found to have a call of duty addiction, they still wouldn't stop making the game, simply because of the cash. the sad thing is that you guys (i say "you guys" because i don't personally purchase said garbage, so it's factually acurate) are literally the ones supporting and holding this vile thing up. without your money being constantly shoveled into this system of violence, the games couldn't be made. so i guess, in reality, you're just passing the buck. nice job, guys, thanks for never growing up, and never considering the idea that your own personal choices effect others in ways that you don't really understand (gasp).

ignorance isn't bliss, it's just ignorance.

[bobyoko]

have you ever gotten sick, from eating s#!t? you say you didn't, but you did...

[Nickius]

Wow, we better listen to him, he obviously knows more than all of us because hes angry.

[godie11]

And what about the fact that the mother had guns at their house and the other fact that his mother took him to a shooting range to learn how to use them...

[bobyoko]

you (GN) could also simply stop posting such salacious content from the site. no one is asking for you to post nonsense from a tabloid. RMC is CHOOSING to post this stuff for the extra clicks on his site. no, that's not taking advantage of an atrocity for personal benefit, oh wait, yes, it actually is. and i'm not actually angry at all. i'm simply CHOOSING to voice an opinion that i've chosen not to voice at least a dozen times before. by dismissing my idea on the basis of whether or not you see passion in my words is simply ignoring the point in exactly the way that i was initially pointing out. the comment between mine is exactly the reason i made the initial post to begin with. thoughts that make you uncomfortable are not false simply because you don't like to think them. not thinking uncomfortable thoughts is actually the root cause (ignorance) of these violence issues. ignoring the child in need is what causes said child to become violent. when this violence is enacted on the public, it becomes a public problem. when the public ignores the cause of the problem, the solution is never found. that's the reason for my post, not anger or resentment or anything else but simply caring for someone other than myself. or you could dismiss my comments for some other inane reason, but don't allow yourself to look any further into this subject, no, no, no, whatever you do, don't do that. just think whatever the headline tells you to think. AND NEVER STOP BUYING CALL OF DUTY.

[Mirai]

This guy's post is the like the equivalent someone standing on a corner shouting at passersby. He may have something so to say, but nobody wants to listen because it's not presentable or civil.

[Jerome]

I'm not going to say that violent videogames, movies, TV shows, etc. make people go out and become mass murderers, because obviously a lot of people take in these kinds of content and don't do such things. Doesn't it concern anyone, however, that we keep seeing the same exact same pattern recurring in schools, malls, and other places of public gathering?

Namely:

- A young to middle-aged male goes into such a public place, armed to the teeth.

- That person then commences to shoot and/or kill several victims, after which they commit suicide.

- It is invariably found afterwards that they were something of a loner, and often shut themselves in, spending much of their time taking in violent and possibly subversive media.

Yes, these guys had unusual problems, but acting as if taking in lots of very violent content had nothing to do with their crimes is just being silly. At the very least it shows that these things can help push an already troubled person over the edge.

[chris_the_wing]

In world war 1 & 2 many soldier froze on the battlefield when forced to shoot the enemy at close range. The human repulsion to shooting another human was strong & foreign to the soldiers of the 40's (and prier). The military recognize this problem and over the years developed ways to habitualize shooting other humans and desensitize their soldiers to the idea of shooting someone.
Modern shooter video games are the ultimate in this desensitization that the military sought, to remove the repulsion to shooting another person. It is very likely that if this person didn't play Call of Duty regularly he would not have been mentally capable of doing what he did to the extent he did.
I'm not saying COD caused the shooting, but it's mental affect on the user allowed it to go to the extremes that it did.

[MrGameBoy]

How about having stronger gun control laws and a mental health care system that's not a joke?

[Chosenoneknuckles]

@AnoukiAgentYellow This.

@MrGameBoy And this. Shame TPTB over in the US won't take the time, effort and money to invest in either anytime soon [if ever - easier to just keep their heads in the sandpit].

Civilians shouldn't have access to firearms period, IMHO.

[hawthorneluke]

Like people have said, this isn't a newspaper that gives people a service of delivering them the news, but just something that write its own random crap on whatever it likes to get as many sales as possible, like many "news" outlets in the west. It's quite disgusting.

[midorigreen]

I for one find it ironic that when a person within the game industry like Warren Spector complains about the prevalence of violent video games everyone on this site can't help but agree with him, but when a tragedy like this happens and some of the media blames violent video games you all suddenly act like video games are the victims here.

[ecco6t9]

I'm sorry until people learn how to properly type and not rant on like a loon your opinion is invalid.

Go back to your soapbox on a corner and rant about how the world is ending this week.

[JumpmanFR]

Please, USA, remove the right to bear firearms. Like here in Europe. That will be much better.

[Zeldana]

Please, USA, remove the right to bear firearms. Like here in Europe. That will be much better.

It's a little too late for that, nobody's going to want to give up what they already have.

---

As for the articles... sad.

[AnoukiAgentYellow]

And what about the fact that the mother had guns at their house and the other fact that his mother took him to a shooting range to learn how to use them...

I have guns in my house, and my mother took me to shooting ranges since I was young... maybe you should mention that they had a freakin' armory and his mother was a mentally insane.

[Mirai]

I for one find it ironic that when a person within the game industry like Warren Spector complains about the prevalence of violent video games everyone on this site can't help but agree with him, but when a tragedy like this happens and some of the media blames violent video games you all suddenly act like video games are the victims here.

It's not ironic if you understand the difference between what Spector says and what the media is saying. People agree with Spector because his message is that there's more to video games than games that rely on violence, meanwhile people are disagree with the media because it's using video games as the scapegoat for the actions of a disturbed and dangerous individual.

[Wii_Jedi]

There was a shooting in the 90s where a kid killed 2 and injured about 7 then made his way to a junior high where he was met by an armed principal who stopped him from committing more casualties. So lets stop pointing fingers.