TV News & "Expert" Blame Violent Games For Teen Killer

[FalloutJack]

Welcome to another shining episode of...

[HEADING=1]Did Not Do The Research![/HEADING]

I'm FalloutJack and boom goes the dynamite.

Today's subject: Really desperate people will be party to any moronic plan in order to label games - already protected constitutionally - as a dangerous media. Operation Extreme Redundancy is being carried out according to plan. Expect the Jack Thompson Effect (gaming actually getting MORE popular because of the nay-sayers) to occur regularly as this new guy opens his mouth.

In all seriousness, there is no real connection here. Never was. The Halo-obsessed looney was Halo-obsessed because he was a looney. He already had issues and the game pacified him. In short, the game was actually the CURE in this case. I have no doubts that all the Halo fans are laughing at this 'expert' right now, and it's scary...

 

[uzo]

Jack wants to play a video game. His mother won't let him. He promptly shoots her with a rifle. The connection is clear - the game uses guns, the rifle is a gun, and he shot her with a rifle used in much the same way as in the game.

Tony wants to watch the football game. His wife won't let him. He promptly beats her to death with a baseball bat. The connection is clear - football uses balls, baseball uses balls, and he beat her to death with a bat used to hit balls.

From both of these incidents, it is clear that we must ban all sports and video games, as they are both equally linked to murderous events.

 

[Aprilgold]

AND HERES THE ANSWER WHY I DON'T HAVE A RELIGION, BECAUSE FUCK NUTS BLAME THE SIMPLIEST SHIT FOR JUST BEING FUN! Its like saying a BOOK made a man kill another man, or a MOVIE turned people gay, seriously, theres zero logic behind saying "OH YEAH, THIS GAME MADE THIS MAN KILL THIS OTHER MAN, SO ITS THE DEVIL!" When its just plastic, fucking, plastic.
To clarify my first sentence, I can almost GURANTEE anyone that does this is either a religous wack job [not all people who have a religion are like this, but some people {Look at the guys who tried to flag the Jackass Burial} try to make the simpliest things the devil and ban it.] or a mis informed person who should have his brain arrested by child services.

EDIT! Oh yeah, and I have played games my entire life, not only that, but some pretty violent, adult oriented ones, and I have NOT killed, REPEAT NOT killed a person, so this just is me being living proof that games do not make people kill, so anyone that is wondering, NO I do not hate people within a religion, NO I do not hate god, NO I do not hate anything to DO with religion other then people who try to ban things on the basis that their fun.

 

[Mischa87]

No, it clearly states he spent 25 years researching juvenile killers, not the effect of violent video games...

If that was true...And do look at that word "apparently"...then how is he sure that violent media is to blame? Because that would mean juvenile killings would have soared with the increase in violent media, rather than decreased.

In fact...I seem to remember a predicted skyrocketing of urban youth crime in the 1990s, around the time Phil Chalmers would have been starting this research - and around the time where violent media was just going through it's Postal, Mortal Kombat and Doom era.

In fact, in 1989, violent crime had risen 80% over the past fifteen years.

1990? Violent crimes took a massive decrease.

Homicide rates plunged 43 percent from the peak in 1991 to 2001, reaching the lowest levels in 35 years. The Federal Bureau of Investigation?s (FBI) violent and property crime indexes fell 34 and 29 percent, respectively, over that same period.

At the same time as the "worst" video game violence was being shown.

.

Now, if Phil Chalmers has studied juvenile killers since 1986, how would he have not known about the 1990 crime shortfall?

Source: http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/LevittUnderstandingWhyCrime2004.pdf

What? I didn't say anything like that, was just pointing out your reading mistake..

 

[Macgyvercas]

DAT ROCK N' ROLL IS TURNING KIDS INTO SATAN WORSHIPERS! IT'S ALL THE EVIL MESSAGES!

... Yep, just as stupid today as it was 30 years ago.

The whole thing is a cavalcade of idiocy and hysteria from start to finish.

You. I love you. Let's run away together and live together in a house built from sarcasm, dreams, and common sense.

Can I live in a hut of Understanding and Knowledge nearby? You guys seem like you'd be good neighbors.

 

[Michael Connell]

I wonder how long it'll be until one of these dopes makes an unintentionally depressing movie called "Video Games, It's Your Choice"?

 

[Phyroxis]

Lol. Son kills mother because he doesnt want to play yahtzee: http://weinterrupt.com/2011/07/son-kills-mother-because-he-doesnt-want-to-play-yahtzee/

Who is to blame for this one? Yahtzee?

 

[Nicolairigel]

Okay, yes, I can see how his father would be not-too-fond of video games, but as it's been said, it really seems like there was a mental problem with the kid if he's killing his parents over a game. Psshh, when I was younger my Mom put a ban on how much I could play ps2, and While I was pissed I never thought of killing my parents. Video games are just one of the many things that get blamed for people commiting crimes.

 

[Baresark]

...and he claims that the boy had two of the "top ten causes" of teen shootings: depression and "an obsession with violent media/videogames.

He nailed it, depression and obsessive behavior... it is of course not the responsibility of the videogame industry to hand out antidepressants and therapy to every kid who is messed up in the head. Nor should everyone who enjoys videogames be restricted from having them simply because people with problems can't handle them. I would say that it is a tiny tiny minority of people who actually suffer from these things. I would be interested to know what the other 8 things are though. The fact is, video games in there most recent state have not been around long enough to reach any such conclusions. I doubt you could count all the old 8 and 16 bit games simply because they were completely unrealistic in nature. You can also get rid of PS1 and Dreamcast while your at it. The most realistic and recent console generation is only 5 years old. Though, I do have to say, playing Assassin's Creed 2 today made me want to kill everyone, but only because the controls are so frustrating in the game.

 

[WorldCritic]

What can I really say about this that I haven't said before? The thing I'm really wondering is how this "expert" can really call himself such when there really isn't solid proof that games cause violence. Stupidity or overconfidence I guess.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

well i just watched the last episode of the inbetweeners, and it hasnt made me want to shag an old woman who works in asda, go camping, get drunk, play monopoly, let the car we need to get home fall in a lake then set fire to my friends stuff.

 

[Jezzascmezza]

"The medical community has released a joint statement that says if children are exposed to violent media, they're gonna become violent. But they make it politically correct by saying some or maybe."

Is he for real?
That is possibly one of the most generalised comments I've ever heard.

 

[Stall]

Honestly, citing studies is pointless. For every study you cite that shows games don't lead to violence, you can cite one in retaliation that shows they do. It means nothing in a topic like this.

At the end of the day, video games aren't going to make a healthy person into a violent, desensitized killer; however, I cast severe doubt if you can say the same thing about a person with mental instabilities and various psychoses, so I think there is some truth in both sides.

 

[Laser Priest]

Because it's not like the majority of gamers are not murderers.

And it's not like any human being is capable of fault themselves.

 

[Moromillas]

le sigh. I only hope there are not that many people that take bat-shit crazy ramblings seriously.

 

[FoolKiller]

What? Doesn't everyone have Halo on PS3? I just finished playing Super Mario Galaxy on my 360

The scary part of all these reports is that sheeple tend to believe everything they hear and see on TV without thinking critically about it.

 

[Awexsome]

Well, I can see disturbed people being drawn to violent media. But not all people who use violent media are disturbed... And then there's the fact that they think Halo 3 is "violent".

That was my first thought. I love me some Halo but if that fits into the category of "violent" video games there goes the majority of 'M' rated games since Halo has got one of the softest 'M' ratings out there.

 

[Torrasque]

But, if you decide to watch the actual video footage of the story, you can see how utterly negligent it was with actual fact checking: It shows Halo 3 being played on a PS3.

LOLWHAT?!
I really really wanna see this now, just for the sake of lulz.

But its no surprise that video games are being blamed, yet again for causing a kid to be violent.
Honestly, I'd be surprised if the news said the opposite even once.
I also really liked this line right here:

"Pretty much everything is to blame except the kids or their parents ..."

I think parents like being able to blame everything else, but themselves, or their child.
"My Jimmy swears because of his rap music" or "My Tommy hates me because of that new Harry Potter movie"
Without trying, I see alot of really fucked up parents around me, and their kids are not fucked up because of the media; its because of their parents.

/preaching to choir
=|

 

[CloggedDonkey]

Well, I can agree with the fact that the kid being depressed (he more than likely had other issues, too) and him being obsessed with violent media (though this was more than likely a symptom, not a cause) are signs that he might do or be violent... it's the kid that did the shooting, not the game. Violent people are attracted to violent things, this has been proven time and time again, be this books, movies, television, or video games. If I remember my facts right, two bank robbers who shot their way down several streets and wounded several police officers watched a scene from a movie about the bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde of their deaths (them getting shot a couple hundred times with automatic weapons) over and over again, to the point where the tape wouldn't play that part anymore. It's not the violence in the scene that made them violent, it just appealed to their nature.