Latest game blamed for Connecticut shooting

[Scrubiii]

As you may or may not know, Mass Effect's Facebook page was inundated with hatred after Ryan Lanza, the brother of Connecticut shooter Adam Lanza, who was falsely accused of the shooting, listed it as an interest on Facebook. Well, it turned out the shooting had nothing to do with him and so people no longer had a game to blame for the shooting.

The media wasn't prepared to just let a mass shooting go without being linked to games in some ridiculous way though, and so just such a way was found.



Yup, Adam Lanza played Starcraft in a tech club in school. That's their damning case against video games. He wasn't an Call of Duty addict. He didn't play Counterstrike for 10 hours a day. He played a futuristic strategy game where 2/3 of the units aren't even human and War Of The Worlds-esque alien tripods fry giant insects with lasers, in a school club. Nice one CNN, you've really got us now.

To make things even better, an 'expert' is brought in a via some program called 'Skpye' to confirm that "every major scientific society" agrees that video games cause violence. "Every major scientific society" never agree on anything, especially not an issue as complex as this.

All I can really say is this makes me glad I don't live in the US, because your news companies seem painfully incompetent at the best of times.

On a brighter note, I find the similarity between Dr Craig Anderson and a certain character from Starcraft somewhat amusing.

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[aguspal]

This is so random. I actually love the randomness, I hope to find more stuff like this in the future.


If I had to play Mass Effect I would also go in a shooting spree because of the massive boredoom lol

Starcraft thougt... Meh. Never played that game so I cant say anything about it. I let it live.


This all seems like a big trolling media or something. And I love trolls its an hiden art.

 

[Rawne1980]

Sorry, don't have time to talk.

I've just been playing Rome: Total War and must now don my armour and invade France.

Don't blame me, the game is making me do it.

 

[pilouuuu]

I have been playing Plant Vs Zombies lately. Wait, I'll go water the garden now. Oh no! Zombies! Zombies are eating my freaking plants! Noooooooo! And I always thought that fantasy was not the same as reality!

 

[Ignatz_Zwakh]

Well, I've been playing Arkham City, and I can`t help but feel a powerful urge to don a bat-outfit and proceed to mete out vigilante justice. Society beware!

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Usually it's First Person Shooters or games with a highly prominent guy with gun casually causing mass murder throughout the idea of the game, but Starcraft?!?

Lol

Also I googled the sciency looking bloke, he's an expert in the field of videogame violence alright:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_A._Anderson
The "controversies" section is as large as the "Published Research" bit.

I like this bit:
""The 14-year-old boy arguing that he has played violent video games for years and has not ever killed anybody is absolutely correct in rejecting the extreme "necessary and sufficient" position, as is the 45-year-old two-pack-a-day cigarette smoker who notes that he still does not have lung cancer. But both are wrong in inferring that their exposure to their respective risk factors (violent media, cigarettes) has not causally increased the likelihood that they and people around them will one day suffer the consequences of that risky behaviour.""

Yes indeed, but no smoker burning through 2 packs a day will be able to deny their horrible cough and decreased stamina: There are clearly visible signs for that because it is a physical manifestation, the extent of their actions has a very noticable physical manifestation. I know plenty of what many would call "hardcore" gamers who love playing violent games, and have done for years, yet show no signs of short temper, increased likelihood of violence, mood swings or any other mental 'tells' that would indicate they have been influenced to be more competitive and violent than they were in their youth.

 

[Epona]

Well, I have been playing Harvest Moon so I obviously want to go milk a cow. Watch out world!

 

[TheCommanders]

I love how the "expert" uses a technicality to link video games to violence. He lists it actually as an acknowledged "risk factor". I did some reading, and do you know what other things are listed as "risk factors", on the same level as violent media? Some of my favorites are:

Regular Coffee Drinking, Stress, Work, Living in an Urban area, Taking Public Transport, and Keeping a Journal.

So basically, being alive in the 21st century is a "risk factor". Utter tripe.

 

[Trivun]

Sorry, don't have time to talk.

I've just been playing Rome: Total War and must now don my armour and invade France.

Don't blame me, the game is making me do it.

You're British, that urge should be driving you anyway. Unless you're not a true Englishman...

On that note, I haven't read any papers today (nor do I usually), but I work in a supermarket and when leaving today saw the headlines of The Sun (incidentally, I support boycotting it, I just wish my parents also did...). Apparently the shooter was a 'Call of Duty addict' - their words, not mine. My only response was to sigh and say to myself "typical..."

 

[Dead Seerius]

Sorry, don't have time to talk.

I've just been playing Rome: Total War and must now don my armour and invade France.

Don't blame me, the game is making me do it.

You want France?? Damn, these games truly are forcing people to do things against their will!

OT: This is just getting ridiculous. It's actually more depressing than it is angering. How exactly do these people make such a connection? (Rhetorical) Now if the guy shoots up a school dressed as a space marine with a Starcraft logo emblazoned on his guns (God forbid), THEN you can start drawing connections.

Until then, we might as well blame his 'inspiration' on gun-show billboards.

 

[Myndnix]

I'd comment, but I've just finished a marathon of Metal Slug, and now I'm being inexplicably compelled to take down a forty foot tall war machine with a pistol.
I also have infinite ammo. The game says so.

 

[ASan83]

I have a well thought out response to this, but as I've been playing EarthBound recently, I have to go out and hit piles of puke with a baseball bat. Priorities. Heaven forbid we focus on the real issues like guns and mental health whenever a fucking whackadoo shoots something up and focus on the video games they played years ago. That's sure to solve the problem.

 

[lRookiel]

Sorry, don't have time to talk.

I've just been playing Rome: Total War and must now don my armour and invade France.

Don't blame me, the game is making me do it.

I've been playing too much skyrim.

Time to go and mass murder the komodo dragons

 

[srm79]

British tabloid press were running front page headlines on the 18th about "KILLERS CALL OF DUTY OBSESSION". I'm frankly amazed the guy found time to learn to shoot with the number of games he "obsessed" over. Oh wait, I forgot - you can learn how to do that from a game... /facepalm

 

[Smolderin]

....Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Ooo...ok..I am done. Ya this is pretty silly. I went and killed a whole bunch of guys cause that annoying voice told me to "build additional pylons". Seriously CNN...what the hell?

 

[sir neillios]

Okay, the bullshit is actually ridiculous at this point. A quick search to a couple of news websites, Daily Mail and Fox News turns up this...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2249854/Sandy-Hook-school-shooting-Adam-Lanza-spent-hours-playing-Call-Duty.html

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2012/12/18/ct-killings-reignite-debate-about-violence-in-video-games/

 

[shadyh8er]

I am now a mustachioed plumber. Kneel before my turtle-killing boots! Mwahahahahahaha!

 

[upgrayedd]

God told me to blow up my local government building, can we ban religion?

 

[Kiyeri]

Well, I've been playing Minecraft recently. Time to go punch some trees because the game made me do it. Not at all my own free will deciding to go punch a tree or else some mental disorder saying that punching trees is good. Nope, Minecraft infested my brain and made me.

 

[Easton Dark]

Starcraft?

How can you want to kill anyone with music as mellow as this


The media's really reaching I think. It's a strategy game.