Modern Warfare 2 responsible for 76 deaths?

[Rowan]

According to the christian community who's representative spoke out in an australian interview this morning on sunruse. Many opinions have arised defending and attacking the game that the mass murderer has admitted to using for 'training purposes'. Whilst most of us on here would agree that blaming a mass murder on a game and having it banned is on the same level of having a person of ethnicity attacking another and then banning that ethnicity from the country, I do think we need to point out that there are people who actually promote these pithy double standards. Of course we should try to understand where they are coming from to better our point of view, as per every argument. For example. They might see this as a case of a man whos so obsessed with playing shooting games, hes willing to try and close the gap between fantasy and reality by attempting to replicate the massacres shown in the game. Although that may be part of the reason, then you could not just limit the blame to video games. As there are often more gruesome and vivid displays of violence in other games as well as movies, documentaries and art.

The man appears to have absolutly no remorse for his actions. That is not a result of playing the game, but more so a condition of the mind which allowed him to perform his actions. Which brings me to my next question. In the media, they had mentioned that he said his actions were 'anti-muslim'. This leads me to believe that he attacked mainly muslim believers. They mentioned he was afriad of his country losing its national identity. Now, by 'his' country, I refer to the country he was born and raised in. Anyway, Does this mean to say that he was in fear of his country losing its national identity? Because if so, then that completely negates the so called 'fact' that the game was the problem. If so, his hatred for ethnicity within his own country was what lead him down the path of massacre.

After examining all the claims, this leads me to believe he is some form of a sociopathic psychotic. If we were to blame anything, it would have to begin at his state of mind. And those 2 conditions of the mind are not generated by video games (that I know of). The apathy of a sociopath could explain the lack of remorse for the killings and the reasons behind it, psychotic.

What do you think about the whole situation?

[nickness89]

I've heard of a few psychological experiments in which children who played violent games were compared to children who play non-violent games, and the outcome is that the violent gamers are ALWAYS desensitized to violence. However, I don't think this could be used as an excuse for wanting to go out and massacre people.

The fact that they said he used it for ''training'' purposes implies that he had planned on shooting people, and was using the game as a way of practicing.

I think you're right, it's usually the state of someone's psychological state that leads them to go around slaughtering other humans. In my opinion, blaming these kinds of actions is on video games, movies and such, is just a way to try and get a lighter sentence, or to possibly plead insane.

Mehhh, maybe it's just me, but this is what I think.

[Heartless Angel]

There have been numerous studies on whether or not violent video games cause real life violence. All have been inconclusive in any meaningful sense. While some have shown that kids who play violent video games can tend to be more violent, or more desensitized to violence, they have always c ompletely and utterly failed to prove that video games were at fault. With no proof of causality, it is completely idiotic to blame a video game for anything. In fact, it makes more sense that playing violent video games is an effect, not a cause. Somebody who abhors violence isn't likely to play a game about killing everything with legs, are they? All somebody playing violent video games suggests is that they already don't have any problem with depictions of violence. They were desensitized before they started. Nothing induces human stupidity. People are just stupid. If there were a true causal relationship between that game and mass murder, we'd have a few million more mass murderers than we actually do, so that line of reasoning doesn't seem particularly valid.

[Judge Magistrate]

I don't blame stuff like that on games, I blame it on a lack of mental strength. I play violent games, but I don't want to go out and kill people. This is a point in the Christian community that I don't agree with at all.

[Alpha]

According to the christian community who's representative spoke out in an australian interview this morning on sunruse.

Define "the Christian community". That's a pet peeve of mine. That label is meaningless.

I don't think it is at all reasonable to blame a video game for these attacks. Any attempt at that is stupid, not because video games do not cause violence (well, they don't anyway, but hold on), but because he is obviously, first and foremost, a radical nationalist. This would be the one in a million instance in which a comparison to Nazism is actually largely justified.

In fact this is the first time I've even seen video games brought up in relation to this. He killed students of a left wing political party, assumably, because they are more willing to accept immigrants. That's it.

[che]

Stop making this a debate. It's not. Claiming videogames cause violence is the same thing as claiming driving a car causes violence, or drinking milk, or being a Christian. There is an underlying issue.

[Alpha]

100% of all crime is committed within 24 hours of consuming water.

I agree with -- and <3 -- che.

The underlying issue is a cross over between highly visible immigrant communities, and racism. I'll tell you what though, multiculturalism isn't a failed project. Racism is.

[Rowan]

I meant everything I said. On sunrise this morning, A representative of the christian community gave his opinion. He was making the claim that video games are to blame. Thats exactly what happened. Stop messing with me, Alpha. You're a turd and im sick of your shit. piss off.

[OnOneRyder]

I'd too like to hear about who this group was, were they a smaller group of potentially more fundamentalists? Seems to me that you can usually trace this absurd claims back to them quite often when contentions of morality and blame arise.

[Rowan]

Video game debate - Sunrise - Yahoo!7 TV


Trash news report, nevertheless... they somehow manage to mentioned needing an R rating, which is comepletely beyond the point.

[loaf]

I'm going to post this even though I'm breaking the ID rules for having a short post.

Anyone who blames video games on anything, is looking beyond the bad parenting.

[Imposter]

So giving a quick look at what that guy was a head of it's the ACL (Australian Christian Lobby) which is a political party that uses biblical principles as a way to govern people, or at least thinks thats wise. Truth is though that they aren't supported by a lot of Australian Christians because of some of its policies. They don't even want to see Australia as a Theocracy. I don't know why they wouldn't though? I mean come on.

Anyways truthfully as a Christian myself I think the proper response to what happened in Norway is not using it as a platform to push on political agendas or views (I mean isn't that what the guy who killed the 76 is doing?) but rather should be showing love and support to a country that has undergone a pretty terrible event.

[Unknown Entity]

The differences between the "massacres" in the game and what he did was that the people you kill in the game are fighting back with guns too, and they're not children. He was just a disgusting, conservative idiot with extremist views who thought he'd be doing Europe a favour in immigration by killing them.

He was stupid to have called a video game a "training" tool. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world play Call of Duty games, and how many have ever used them to justify their behaviour, or as a tool to train them up to kill innocent children? I hate it when people claim video games are a cause for violence, but I hate it even more when someone uses them as an excuse.