Wednesday, April 18th 2007
Violent video games blamed for Virginia Tech slaughter
We can all agree that the tragic incident that happened at Virginia Tech was horrible. However, now is the time that we have to figure out what caused someone to kill this many peers, and how we can prevent this in the future. Unfortunately, as we've seen in the techPowerUp! Forums, this is something that people do not exactly agree on. Professional lawyers, as well as the highly acclaimed Dr. Phil McGraw, are quick to blame violent video games for the killer's maniacally depressed rampage. Currently, there is no evidence that the killer even had access to a video game console, let alone play violent video games. A much more likely possibility is the way the killer reacted to his anti-depressant medications. Instead of the anti-depressants calming the killer down, like they were supposed to, they made him violent and erratic. And so, this instability could easily have caused him to snap when the killer's girlfriend dumped him.
Source:
The Inquirer
42 Comments on Violent video games blamed for Virginia Tech slaughter
@ Dr.Death - Well you know what they say... by assuming you make an ass out of u and me. :P
It's very tricky. It's not affecting you or me. But it IS affecting somebody out there. And so it's a game of odds... and politics.
I hate Dr. Phil, Jack Thompson, and all other opportunists in the media these days. My message to them: get a real fucking career.
Prozac for everyone!
@wazzledoozle i read something like "fan of videogames, Counter-Strike player, yada yada yada"... the usual "LET'S BLAME VIDEOGAMES"-crap...
ah, here:
war games
sorry couldnt help it :laugh:
As for video games causing people to go on killing sprees... I do not buy it. Back in my youth, I remember teens getting blasted for playing D&D (Dungeons and Dragons). I spent a LOT of time playing it, and none of my friends or myself had any negative emotions or desires because of it. :) I also remember playing cops and robbers... cowboys and Indians... and that never led to anything more then having fun.
Maybe... just maybe, these violent games can actually help people quench those negative feelings in a virtual world, rather then the real one??? Now, that I would believe. :)
bastard...
violent video games to blame for high price of cigarettes
violent video games to blame for global warming
violent video games to blame for my local supermarket being out of stock of chocolate milkshake
violent video games to blame for aids
tosser, i bet he's an anti violent game campaigner who's using this to promote his fearmongering of games, regardless of whether they had ANYTHING to do with it or not, heck, people see atrocities like this as something to use to their advantage, it disgusts me how low people like this will go for 'their cause'
While the medication malfunction may have been a cause, or at least partial cause, I would dare bet my life it was a result of some psychological anomaly vastly unrelated to video game violence. Dr. Phil, as a clinical psychologist, should know the roll any particular psychological disorder can play in a persons thought patterns or behaviors. Not being a stranger to such issues myself, it's not hard to see what's most likely behind this (though of a less severe and completely non-violent nature :o ). They are much more real than many believe and generally seem to be the last investigated.
Millions of people play "violent" FPS games and watch horror/slasher/shooter movies every day; there's no epidemic happening, and no mention if he gamed at all. As for blaming guns, he could just as well drove a car through a crowd, or used some other means to whatever sick ends was in his mind.
Seems there were already a lot of red flags raised on this guy (stalking, intimidation, mental problems), and he slipped through the system. Judging by the "multimedia" package he sent to ABC, one wonders how this piece of crap was loose in society in the first place.
kotaku.com/gaming/jack-thompson/
Just because his girlfriend dumbs him doesn't mean that had to shoot down a whole class of students.
Why didn't he shot himself in the first place.
That would save the world from 1 raging gun slinging lunatic.