A victory we can't celebrate.

[Mechadon]

I found an article that should theoretically end the debate between whether or not violent video games have any contribution to anything like the horrible violent acts that transpired at Virginia Tech. http://www.joystiq.com/2007/04/19/no-video-games-found-in-vt-shooters-dorm/

No video game of any kind was found in the shooter's dorm room. Undoubtedly, this lack of evidence will only hold off opponents for a short time.

This is a victory for our side of the argument but, unfortunately, we cannot celebrate it. 32 innocent people had to die to prove it.

[Helios]

Completely agree with you Mechadon - evidence like this still won't stop idiots like Jack Thompson pursuing the subject. I can't believe he was claiming that stuff before any background evidence whatsoever was released on the shooter.

[Supersonic]

A life without video games would make me go nuts too...

(Another off-color remark, I suppose.)

[Andy]

Ya know. Everytime a violent crime or a shooting was made by some teenager. They automatically blame video games or movies or TV or anything that is watchable. This is pathetic. Video games and movies don't make people violent. Experiences make them violent. IT's all human nature.

I guess it is a great thing that they didn't find any games in his locker to consume that he even played games.

*rolls eyes*

Andy (The huge supporter of violent games, shows, and flicks)

[Mechadon]

A life without video games would make me go nuts too...

(Another off-color remark, I suppose.)

When I first read that the shooter never played any games, I kinda thought the same thing. *in a thick southern accent*: "Now that them there is yah problem!"

[Takila]

What really needs to be blamed is both poor parenting and racial discrimination. 

... and Mechadon, if only preemptively.

[Methid Man]

This was already proven before video games even existed.

Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson and the Zodiac Killer didn't need video games to become murderers. What did society blame it on back then?

-- Sam the Methid Man

[Threaux]

This is the same ridiculous junk that was happening after the Columbine shootings.  Everyone was blaming cultural influences, such as music, as well as games, namely doom.  It seems to me that people need someone to blame, possibly an external source of corruption, because they don't want to face the facts that the murderers were either mentally unstable, the products of a failed parental upbringing, or just frustrated and angry, carrying out the violence deliberately with a clear conscience.  People need to stop externalizing their accusations, and start to accept that the real problems lie within the individual, and that each person is ultimately responsible for his/her own actions. 

[SteC]

Everyone knows that violent video games don't do jack to a child or teen's conscious mind, unless they do suffer from some kind of mentally challenged weakness that makes them so passive to the brutal scenes they watch. Did Jack Thompson ever study sociology/psychology? I'd like to find out how much he knows about it. I'm also sure it's the lax gun laws in Virginia that is to blame for it all, sinking this whole situation into a deeper mess than before.
That Jack is no better than the Japanese detective who blamed erotic anime fans for brutal murders in the 80s/90s in that country after cracking just one sucessful case. They both get it all wrong because their dumb accusations got into their heads.

[Mechadon]

Kinda off topic now. I noticed that politicians, lawers, and the media are always the ones who like to pretend they're the scientists/experts. I mean just look at Al Gore!

  no. not you Big Al! I said AL GORE!

[Violet]

Maybe if he had some violent video games to play, he could have worked out his aggression without hurting anyone.

[Blackcat]

First they blamed TV, then they blamed videogames, how long until they blame the Internet?. It was those students fault for bugging the Korean guy for years and years, everyone has a limit you know...

[Daisensei]

Here in Brazil one can see kids that never played videogames, but play with knives, guns and bombs. This is the cruel reality for many and many youngsters who live as bandits. They play a game where they get some food or drink, occasional drug and if all went good, they get one more day alive. Unlike the videogame, they got only one life however.
The real world is cruel, and regardless being innocent or guilty, all people could find a stupid death. Within a game we are the heroes, and all things are done with proper purposes or excuses; in the real world things are far more complicated.
I don't believe that such kind of incident came from videogame, nor due to the nature of the mankind. However in a world where selfishness is most stimulated, more people will kill and will die.

[NPC]

Maybe if he had some violent video games to play, he could have worked out his aggression without hurting anyone.

Some people who have studied into why males enjoy video games is the prospect of victory. You hear a lot of news and reports about how all guys can do is fail in school. They are told to adopt studying techniques and and mannerisms of females in the classroom and in the workplace. In a virtual world, guys can act manly, being the hero, fighting for just causes, and saving the world.

[Takila]

So... did this guy play many video games? Had he watched many violent movies? I mean, he wrote plays, darnit!  How many gamers write plays these days? What, six? Maybe seven?

Yet everywhere in the media, there are generalizations of how violent video games, and the 10-25 year olds who play them, are banes of society.  They cite games specifically as the cause of increasing school shootings in the past 20-30 years.  Increasing divorce rates, television's portrayalof  the ostraciziation/enjoying of other's misery, that the divide between the rich and poor is continuing to increase, the fact that 80% of the world slaves away to keep 20% of the world comfortably wealthy, or our continuing to **** ** the planet with no care of the impact to later generations, and other flaws of the governmental, entertainment, and industrial systems are often overlooked.  There's spin for you.

As I see it, Cho wanted to hurt as many people (those that he saw as a part of the system) as he possibly could.  He didn't care how he did it, but rather that the killings be as systematic and effective as possible.  That's the reason why this shooting has had the highest death toll: it was both well planned, and well implemented.

I grieve for those who died at Virginia Tech and their families, and in no way agree with the killings.  Everyone who was a part of that (even Cho) suffered.

[Mechadon]

So... did this guy play many video games? Had he watched many violent movies? I mean, he wrote plays, darnit!  How many gamers write plays these days? What, six? Maybe seven?

Yet everywhere in the media, there are generalizations of how violent video games, and the 10-25 year olds who play them, are banes of society.  They cite games specifically as the cause of increasing school shootings in the past 20-30 years.  Increasing divorce rates, television's portrayalof  the ostraciziation/enjoying of other's misery, that the divide between the rich and poor is continuing to increase, the fact that 80% of the world slaves away to keep 20% of the world comfortably wealthy, or our continuing to **** ** the planet with no care of the impact to later generations, and other flaws of the governmental, entertainment, and industrial systems are often overlooked.  There's spin for you.

As I see it, Cho wanted to hurt as many people (those that he saw as a part of the system) as he possibly could.  He didn't care how he did it, but rather that the killings be as systematic and effective as possible.  That's the reason why this shooting has had the highest death toll: it was both well planned, and well implemented.

I grieve for those who died at Virginia Tech and their families, and in no way agree with the killings.  Everyone who was a part of that (even Cho) suffered.

Well said Takila.