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

[PunkRex]

Guys, calm down and read the article again.

[HEADING=1]IF SOMEONE IS ALREADY MENTALLY ILL, VIOLENT VIDEOGAMES ARE ABSOLUTELY SOMETHING THAT CAN SEND THEM OFF THE DEEP END.[/HEADING]

Note that this guy isn't blaming violent videogames, he was blaming the kid's OBSESSION with violent videogames. There's a huge difference. And it sounds like the kid WAS obsessed. That's not the game's fault, but I don't think anyone is saying that it IS.

I concur.

This kid was obviously a lunatic and in my oppinion any form of violent media can push such people over the edge. I also believe that sometimes people are just born terrible. The parents may be to blame but I dont think it should be taken as a certainty, not until his past has been thoroughly looked into, which by this point it must have been.

 

[PunkRex]

Guys, calm down and read the article again.

[HEADING=1]IF SOMEONE IS ALREADY MENTALLY ILL, VIOLENT VIDEOGAMES ARE ABSOLUTELY SOMETHING THAT CAN SEND THEM OFF THE DEEP END.[/HEADING]

Note that this guy isn't blaming violent videogames, he was blaming the kid's OBSESSION with violent videogames. There's a huge difference. And it sounds like the kid WAS obsessed. That's not the game's fault, but I don't think anyone is saying that it IS.

I concur.

This kid was obviously a lunatic and in my oppinion any form of violent media can push such people over the edge. I also believe that sometimes people are just born terrible. The parents may be to blame but I dont think it should be taken as a certainty, not until his past has been thoroughly looked into, which by this point it must have been.

Try meeting a lunatic sometime guys. Push? Edge? As someone with intimate experience of psychosis and mental disorders, I can tell you that both these terms are null and void. His obsessional behaviour, not chosen consciously, is a symptom of an illness. Your leg falling off doesn't push you over the edge into gangrene. He was sick in some way, either neurologicaly/biochemicaly or experientialy/developmentaly/behaviouraly. Only one of these has possible blame factors involved at all, and that's the second, where interactions with people and events have, due usually to some trauma or another, caused a sincere discrepancy between what is percieved and what is.

But enough about trying to teach psychology to people on the intrenet when I don't have a degree...

Look guy, Ill admit im no psychiatrist (and what im about to say would proberly be laughed at by a professional) but I went to an all boys school which had several mentally ill boys. Several were even violent, I was friends with one and he was a big lad. I even worked there for short periods of time after I left. Again im not an expert but when I say pushed over the edge I didnt really mean there was a set line they could take. These kids tended to be far more random, sometimes they cooped, sometimes they didnt. I admit what I said was abit vague but at the same time I dont see it as some precise calculation you can do to see wheather or not theyll lash out. So I agree with you... I think...

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Guys, calm down and read the article again.

[HEADING=1]IF SOMEONE IS ALREADY MENTALLY ILL, VIOLENT VIDEOGAMES ARE ABSOLUTELY SOMETHING THAT CAN SEND THEM OFF THE DEEP END.[/HEADING]

Note that this guy isn't blaming violent videogames, he was blaming the kid's OBSESSION with violent videogames. There's a huge difference. And it sounds like the kid WAS obsessed. That's not the game's fault, but I don't think anyone is saying that it IS.

Can I blame violent video games for you needing to yell in public? In red no less?

It wasn't out of anger, though I see how you interpreted it that way. It was to get people's attention. I figured most of you would just be calling the guy an idiot(or worse, questioning his right to live) without really paying attention to what he was saying, and a normal wall of text (i.e., not huge and red) would be ignored the grand majority.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

Try meeting a lunatic sometime guys. Push? Edge? As someone with intimate experience of psychosis and mental disorders, I can tell you that both these terms are null and void. His obsessional behaviour, not chosen consciously, is a symptom of an illness. Your leg falling off doesn't push you over the edge into gangrene. He was sick in some way, either neurologicaly/biochemicaly or experientialy/developmentaly/behaviouraly. Only one of these has possible blame factors involved at all, and that's the second, where interactions with people and events have, due usually to some trauma or another, caused a sincere discrepancy between what is percieved and what is.

But enough about trying to teach psychology to people on the intrenet when I don't have a degree...

First of all, I will admit without embarrassment that I've read your entire post about 5 times I'm still not 100% sure I get it. So...I guess this is a disclaimer: I am absolutely talking out of my ass on this one. My only experience with psychology is the introductory class I took in college last semester. So, you know, if I'm totally wrong, just tell me and I'll shut up.

OK, here goes. The way I understand it, if someone has some kind of major mental disorder (which I realize is an extremely general term), like schizophrenia, then a stressful environment can make their condition worse. In this case, the kid wanted to play Halo 3 and didn't get to. That...well...stressed him out. Obviously his obsessive behavior towards the game was just a symptom of a much more severe disorder(because people with, say, OCD generally don't shoot people when they don't get what they want).


So...I rest my case?

 

[actar411]

I think it's funny when people try to prove a causal link between violent video games and real-life violence. What they don't realize is violent people tend to become obsessed with violent media. This can be proven. In the UK Call of Duty: Black Ops sold 3.72 million copies. Considering the fact that the UK still has not had 3.72 million murders we can assume that playing a violent video game causes people to become violent. Not to mention there are plenty of serial killers and regular criminals who haven't played video games. If violent video games are ever to be banned then so should violent TV programs, movies, books, and news articles be.

 

[Arehexes]

I blame violent people for giving gaming a bad name.

 

[Spartan448]

... the kid went crazy over H3.........

That's just sad, seing as Halo 3 really was not one of Bungie's high points. It was marginally better than Halo 2, which was the 2nd worst of the series (the worst being ODST).

Add in the fact that in 2009, Halo 3 was one of the less-violent shooters out there, and this report adds up to a whole lot of crap. That kid had to be messed up in the head before the whole thing started.

 

[punipunipyo]

I blame parents, it's all parents' fault, no more excuses! YOU WEREN'T READY TO HAVE KIDS, AND YOU GOT HER KNOCKED UP! now you see your neglecting resulting in your wife's death, you now dodge your foolishness and laziness by blaming toys? for shame!~ people like you makes me sick! you should be damned!

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Snip

Any time any new kind of medium, popular object, or artistic expression has always been demonized and often linked to crimes done by people who just happen to like doing said popular thing. It has happened to Comics, films, Rock and Roll, pinball (they actually banned pinball in some states), Elvis, anime, cartoons WAY back in the day, table top RPG's, and even books way back when.

I think these kind of claims are just going to die in light of the supreme court case and the continued expansion of the medium to mass popular appeal with facebook games and Angry Bird.

 

[scorptatious]

This kid obviously had serious mental issues to shoot his parents over not being able to play his video game. So why are we blaming a game when we could be looking into the more serious issue that is his unstable psyche or what's causing it?

 

[-Dragmire-]

It always gives me a sad smile to read about professional people who say things like this.

They're either charmingly innocent and believe that teens learn the value of life from violent video games, blissfully stupid for ignoring any data that doesn't support their argument or, frighteningly evil in that they use their knowingly altered data to prey on parents who believe their teen children are getting 'distant' and convince them to buy the authors book who answers all their fears by pointing to the various boxes connected to the tv.

edit: Is it so hard to believe that a teen's fascination with violence and/or unhappiness might stem from something else in their life besides video games and they merely use games as an outlet for their for all the bottled, chaotic emotions they naturally have during puberty?

 

[brainslurper]

A lot of people kill people because of money, so we can all safely assume that the reason they are committing murder is because of the look on george washington's face.

 

[pandorum]

if the kid is mental do not let him play or watch anything that can influence him.
I wish bad parents stop blaming everything on why their kid is messed up and look in
a fucking mirror.

 

[Ickorus]

Here's what it is really:

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

Yeah, the problem is the kid had an obsession, sure this time it was with a particular game but he could have become obsessed with a host of other things.

Probably didn't help that he was a nutcase because most people don't snap over something quite so small.