Prosecutors Blame "Violent" World of Warcraft for Breivik's Shooting Spree

[TheSteeleStrap]

So a game without guns made him want to pick up a gun and shoot people? sure

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

If playing WoW for ~7hrs per day for a few months results in that, I wonder what that makes me in their eyes. I played it for probably ~10hrs per day on average for like seven years.

And yet here I am, with not even a speeding or parking ticket to my name. Though I suppose that's not saying much, since I would have had to go outside once in a while during that time to get one of those. /shrug

 

[Pandaman1911]

Personally, I wouldn't mind WoW being the fall guy for all this... were it not for shit like "setting precedents" and shit, anyway.

 

[MiriaJiyuu]

And what if someone who went on a violent killing spree watched Thomas the Tank Engine seven hours a day for several consecutive months? Blame it on Tommy man, he's at fault!

Seriously, some people just need to accept some god damned responsibility.

If I could like a post on this site, I would have done it to your post.

OT: Again with people saying that video games cause people to be violent, last I checked Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy, Henry Lee Lucas and Paul Bernardo did not play video games, (sorry went a little extreme there). I will continue to disagree with the notion video games cause violence only because I find them to be great stress relievers.

 

[ElPatron]

A virtual 'simulation' as a trainer even? I know COD tries to do the whole 'realism' thing, but a video game cannot teach anyone how to handle a firearm.

Call of Duty never went for realistic. That's what the marketing told us, but we all know that Call of Duty is to modern combat what Halo is to modern combat.

Video games like Counter Strike have retarded animations, but my brother learned how to operate firearms from recent videogames. Jesus, firearms were made simple enough so that even the lowest common denominator in society can be drafted to the army and still be able to hit the enemy while not shooting his own dick off.

This is a moot point. Norway's gun laws made sure Breivik knew how to handle a firearm before alloing him to buy one. It's much easier to blame a videogame in America because you can buy a firearm without any experience with it.

That itself is delusional if he thinks a shooter can in any ways teach him how to properly handle a fire arm. He probably mentions it to make him feel a sense of importance or accomplishment.

A videogame showcases multiple animations related to the loading, cocking and reloading of a firearm.

Some games even show how to clear jams (although anyone with half a brain can find that by himself).

See those stories of kids that find their parents' guns and are able to load and fire them? Monkey-see, monkey-do.

 

[Pinkamena]

Actually, Breivik got really fed up with the WoW questions from the judge. He said something along the lines of "During the NOKAS case (A big robbery that happened in 2004), it was discovered that Toska (the man behind the robbery) played chess. It was just as irrelevant for the case as me playing WoW is for this case."
He later turned off his microphone and refused to answer any more questions.

 

[Scarim Coral]

So by that logic would that mean most if not all WoW players should of been real life killers by now?
Sure some of them had problems like gaming addiction, neglect or etc but killing people with gun is not change by Wow.

 

[dogenzakaminion]

The prosecutors nor the article blame WoW for his killing spree...

Unfortunately, that argument would ignore the basic context of the article itself.

But then we would be arguing semantics and interpretation of a third party which isn't present.

Sorry, but the phrase "violent computer game World of Warcraft" has no other function in the article. There's nothing semantic here to argue at all.

When you say that the authors intent, by using the word "violent", is to establish a link between gaming and Breiviks insanity, then yes, we are arguing semantics, which is silly when the third party is not present. What if the author actually thinks WoW is violent. It is about killing things after all. What if he just sucks as a reporter and couldn't think of any other adjective to put there. What if....he had no harmful intention *gasp*

My point is that you make a thread saying "Prosecutors blame Violent WoW for Breviks shooting spree?" and link an article which doesn't actually do that. If anything, the article is very impartial and simply paraphrases what the prosecutors said, which also does not place any blame on WoW. Aren't we flying off the handle a little too soon.