BBC: Are Video Games Breeding Killers?

Posted by Blitz at 22:18 1/2/2004.

Yes, an utterly nonsensical thing for anyone to insinuate...we know. However, that's the topic of a weekly gaming column, over on the BBC website. The column starts by concentrating on the much publicised film, Elephant, in which the plot focuses on a high school massacre, whilst also showing the killers playing an FPS at one point. The author then goes on to discuss the motives of the film and links to the [violent] gaming industry. One particular example given of a 'nod to gaming' was a scene filmed in a school corridor using Doom-style perspectives, where the gun was at the bottom of the screen in first person perspective. Here's a snippet:

"What he is asking is can kids really be turned into killers merely by being exposed to unmediated violent elements in culture, and/or bullied?

This is exactly what the media said about the Columbine killers who were notoriously outsiders with "dangerous" tastes, like Marilyn Manson, and Doom."

The article doesn't focus on any games other than the 'Doom' series, but it's still worth a read if you have a few spare minutes. The article doesn't come to any conclusions, but rather ends with 'check back next week' for the real discussion.

Source: ESReality

Comments

St_George
g30rg3h
UKTerrorist
22:14 1/2/2004
yeh blitz is one of em!! [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
fez
22:15 1/2/2004
LOL, dumbass yanks toting guns after playin cs. they are so thick i swear [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
dh
22:16 1/2/2004
well at least someones posting news, nice one [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Blitz
Editor
UKTerrorist
22:17 1/2/2004
It is rubbish, agreed. Can't stand all this crap about blame being put on TV/Movies, etc....games are just the latest in a line of things to blame. It's like people need something to blame so they can put their mind at ease, and not think that there are simply crazy people out there who have greater influences on them, like upbringing etc.

Hehe StG, now where did I put my shotty... [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Alk0r
22:18 1/2/2004
what a load of bollox yea 2d doom Characters make me a natural born killer [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Blitz
Editor
UKTerrorist
22:18 1/2/2004

(This was an automated post)

Yes, an utterly nonsensical thing for anyone to insinuate...we know. However, that's the topic of a weekly gaming column, over on the BBC website. The column starts by concentrating on the much publicised film, Elephant, in which the plot focuses on a high school massacre, whilst also showing the killers playing an FPS at one point. The author then goes on to discuss the motives of the film and links to the [violent] gaming industry. One particular example given of a 'nod to gaming' was a scene filmed in a school corridor using Doom-style perspectives, where the gun was at the bottom of the screen in first person perspective. Here's a snippet:

"What he is asking is can kids really be turned into killers merely by being exposed to unmediated violent elements in culture, and/or bullied?

This is exactly what the media said about the Columbine killers who were notoriously outsiders with "dangerous" tastes, like Marilyn Manson, and Doom."

The article doesn't focus on any games other than the 'Doom' series, but it's still worth a read if you have a few spare minutes. The article doesn't come to any conclusions, but rather ends with 'check back next week' for the real discussion.

Source: ESReality

[ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
SFAL^Sarge
Viva la!
22:20 1/2/2004
some people get affected by stuff in different ways.

to part-blame gaming would nessecitate the need to part-blame other "dangerous" tastes, such as watching Tele when films that include guns are on, or simply watching the news and hearing about people going on gun riots.

What are they going to do, ban FPS games? dont think so, theyd have to ban everything else with guns in or anything that gives a "first person view" of a gun?

Games dont breed killers, the people that are the killers are usualy already gone in the head so to speak, just because they play games (like 99% of adults) doesnt mean that is the link between violent crimes + why people commit them.

As for marylin manson as a dnagerous taste, rofl, yeah so he makes s*** music :P but if ur really so stupid as to listen to a song and go do what the person tells u to do in the lyrics, then your gonna end up doing something anyway, hell if all the R&B and black rap listeners did what was said in them songs, there would be mass shootings everywhere, everyone would have 7 kids with some black "booty" and wed all drive low-ride cadillacs.....

but we dont, because unlike the people that do this sort of thing, were not insane :) [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Ripper
Rush!
22:22 1/2/2004
come on fez/necro have a dig [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
SFAL^Sarge
Viva la!
22:22 1/2/2004
BlitZ comment about upbringing is a good one, the most probable cause is a violent upbringing, as studies probably show somewhere (be f***ed if im looking :P) that people with violent upbringings usualy end up violent themselves, as ppl have said, their just trying to point the finger so they can rest easy, but its going to take more than a few articles claiming that "gaming breeds killers" to topple a multi billion pound industry. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
commentmaster
22:27 1/2/2004
bowling for columbine clearly states that americans are tards and doom is not to blame. nuff said. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Krispy
22:31 1/2/2004
Hi

I played doom and now ive turned out to be a phsycotic serial killer.

f***ing queens [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Blitz
Editor
UKTerrorist
22:39 1/2/2004
Agreed Sarge, studies on the effect of violent games on individual's agression levels are usually inconclusive too, because of the problems with actually studying people 'playing' these games. Being sat down in a lab under someone else's conditions isn't playing, there are too many variables affected which make it a totally different experience for the test subject. (I had to do research and present a seminar at uni on this very topic, how dull it was arf).

The only way people get affected by stuff like this is in the sense of, imo, 'the straw that broke the camel's back', meaning the person was already pretty damn unstable anyway. In which case, video games aren't to blame, because anything could've set them off (a movie, a beating, an argument, whatever....they're mental hehe). [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Krondor
22:51 1/2/2004
Iam gunna kill all you mofo's [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
shads
theb0g
22:54 1/2/2004
omg its LR | Krondor!!!!!! [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Otis
Rush!
22:55 1/2/2004
yo wassup. yall be bulls***ting in this muther f***er. hush it dh, am gonna come down your hood and shoot up all ya [bleep]. word peace out meh bredrin. p.s. cs owns

[Edited by Blitz at 22:59, 1/2/2004] [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
SFAL^Sarge
Viva la!
22:58 1/2/2004
Krondor!

now hes one physco, i went to his house, man..... AK-47's everywhere :P

Agreed Blitz, No "normal" (i say normal meaning a sense of, not mentaly unstable in the 1st place) would go and shoot up a school just because its what they do (sort of) in a game.

You dont see me running off up to my old secondary school + letting rip with a sub machine gun, and i play FPS games all the time and listen to rock music. The link between the 2 has absolutly no proof at all, its simply a case of 1 off-the-rail person, who was triggered into something by an event, as u said, he couldve just been beaten up by someone, gone and got his gun + shot the person who beat him up, The BBC article means nothing at all. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
-Naz-
fightclubclan
22:59 1/2/2004
the problem is american families where the dads f*** the sons and the sons f*** the dog and they are all f***ed up, and then they chuck firearms into the mix and everyone gets shot and blah blah [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Messiah
Game2XS.Monkey Magic
23:01 1/2/2004
Krondor blimey [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Otis
Rush!
23:02 1/2/2004
I'm hardcore, i got censored.

If i call a person from a nigerian background, then I surely cant say WHITES under that rule then? [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Thuggie
Kirby-eSports
23:05 1/2/2004
cs makes me want to kill [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
dh
23:12 1/2/2004
lol otis [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
N38
23:20 1/2/2004
o h d e a r [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Carb
theb0g
23:36 1/2/2004
When will the media actually learn to RESEARCH their facts and allegations about computer games. I would bet about 85% of the people playing online games have perfectly normal social lives and all that comes with it. Computer games do not suddenly make people think "Oh, that's a good idea, I'll remember to take a knife to school to stab the other pupils at my school in the face".

No you see, the problem with THOSE people is they are already fµcked in the head. These are the people that need to be taken to psychiatrists and get their heads sorted out, get their self-confidence back etc and make a new start with life. The fact their parents have let it go unnoticed isn't the fault of computer games. Why try and blame societies shortcomings on something that in the end has very little influence on a person's decisions and actions "in real life". [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
brenje
reSonance
23:36 1/2/2004
Its crap like this, that will hold the gaming scene back!

How can people blame gaming, when there are wars going on all round the world. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
commentmaster
23:40 1/2/2004
news just in, team-dream have won a LAN... thats right u heard it here first. they won a LAN and got 250 quid each. guess u can stop calling them cfgers now c**ks. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
shads
theb0g
23:41 1/2/2004
ye it will hold gaming back so much, i mean look what its done to people like marilyn manson's career... no wait he/she/it was already s*** [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Carb
theb0g
23:47 1/2/2004
lol they won a 'LAN' against p*** poor teams at their local LAN centre and then competed in an online final. Wow what a LAN that was! [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Mango
23:47 1/2/2004
I played Doom once and it made me want to kill some babies/drown cats, true story. BAN GAMES NOW! [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Blitz
Editor
UKTerrorist
23:50 1/2/2004
Otis, the word you used was entirely different from Black/White mate. I'm not getting into it though, comments isn't the place for that discussion. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Choke|MaT
Choke
00:17 2/2/2004
Much more interesting than hearing about the German league that's for sure...... [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Blitz
Editor
UKTerrorist
00:20 2/2/2004
phew ;) [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
-Naz-
fightclubclan
00:35 2/2/2004
since playing counterstrike, i now want to kill all the black people on my road [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
nR
00:37 2/2/2004
Well if they didn't pick it up from games - they'd only pick it up from reading a newspaper, or watching the news... [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
m0rphy
00:43 2/2/2004
Although to commit gruesome crimes you have to be on the edge, I can see why one can argue that a game like GTA or a FPS can be the helping hand to topple you over it. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Par
suiGeneris
00:58 2/2/2004
Playing violent games and listening to GRR ANGRY music is a symptom, not a cause. That's why so many people's opinion is skewed I think - proportionately, people who play gruesome FPS games and wear Korn hoodies are more likely to commit genocide than Captivating Colin the Chess Champion... but that's because said games/musicians are an outlet for people of that disposition rather than a contributary factor to their violent acts. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Jimmeh
01:02 2/2/2004
par gets the prize for most intelligent comment ive ever heard [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Blitz
Editor
UKTerrorist
01:21 2/2/2004
"Playing violent games and listening to GRR ANGRY music is a symptom, not a cause."
Good point. I don't think you can say it's a symptom either though. It may well be more common in people more likely to murder, but I don't think you can call it a symptom just because of that.

A symptom means that there's an inference that something else exists [because the symptom tells you so] (ie, because someone plays violent games, a killer might exist...which is obviously true in a massively broad sense, but no use in proving links). I see what you're saying, just disagree with the symptom bit :P [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Sm[o][o]th
01:22 2/2/2004
What about violent games, movies, tv etc being an outlet for those with violent tendancies, a kind of therapy if you will - like punching a clown in the face just to have it bounce back up for more... [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
fraZie
contact!
01:22 2/2/2004
It's all true! i sometimes imagine what it would be like to have an awp in my bedroom, w00t i'd bo soo good with it hs'ing every1, and imagine how class spraying sum1 in the stomach uplcose will b think of the luvly guts!!!
i never felt like this until i started playing cs [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Blitz
Editor
UKTerrorist
01:26 2/2/2004
Smooth, that's one of the arguments of research that is 'pro-gaming' actually. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
shads
theb0g
01:26 2/2/2004
oi my comment wasnt racist it was a fact, which a lot of people suffer by [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
LEEZER
01:45 2/2/2004
the bbc know nothing,they sacked kilroy.
KILL ALL THEM f***ERS. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Crappy
Super Breasts
03:23 2/2/2004
I've seen this film and it's very good. The bit with the compuer games is just a very small part of it, but it certainly does imply that as they are going around shooting their random classmates that they see it as a video game.

The film doesn't really judge or apoint blame at any thing or anyone. To me the reason they go on the killing spree is because they are spotty geeks who get picked on constantly, have no other friends and are really confused about their sexuality etc.

Sounds like most kids in school to me! [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
MaCcA^
04:14 2/2/2004
Note to self: take an axe to LAN not a Gun. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Mango
04:40 2/2/2004
Yeah, axe's are way cooler. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Wolfie
WanadooWolfie
07:34 2/2/2004
games like doom and whatever don't produce mass murderers, but CS does create spotty teens with a superiority complex [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
m!lky
fluid element
10:35 2/2/2004
It effected me, I now run down the street throwing nades at anything that moves. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
m!lky
fluid element
10:36 2/2/2004
SHAZAM. boom, your all smoked! [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
St_George
g30rg3h
UKTerrorist
11:00 2/2/2004
rofl dick [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Magic^
11:31 2/2/2004
cs dont make killers it just makes ppl with s*** GCSEs/A-lvls/degrees [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Montaver
theb0g
12:03 2/2/2004
What a crock of media s***, the BBC are the masters of oversensitising and exageration, like the UK version of CNN. Watch bowling for columbine, and see just what Marilyn Manson has to say about it. What he says is infinatly more reasonable and plausable than the s*** that gets written i.e. this article. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Carb
theb0g
13:23 2/2/2004
Why not just ask the killers if Marilyn Manson or iD software told them/influenced them to go out and kill somebody?

Also, turn this on its head; I'm not being intentionally racist here but there are a lot of black youths who listen to hip-hop and dress the same as their rapper idols etc. Some rappers have these huge followings and influence over people and also talk about getting out their AK and shooting someone. Does this influence the young people of today to go out and buy an AK and gun down someone whilst listening to hip-hop/Rap music?

Of course it doesn't. Its a contributor to someone's mental state, of course, but you already have to be somewhat warped or to put it another way, stupid, to go out after hearing Marilyn Manson or Dr. Dre talking about killing people and then doing it yourself. The fact is the media is wrong about games and music having a profound influence over our state of mind. The killers of James Bulger have a lot to answer for.

"We saw it in a movie". YEAH because your parents are so f***ing useless they let you watch a movie that is not intended for people who are not old enough to be responsible for their actions and to realise some things are right, and some things are very, VERY wrong. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Black Cat^
13:25 2/2/2004
I believe violent films, television programme's and computer games do effect people.

If somebody is introduced to violent images, films and games at a young age they will become immune to horrific effects of blood, gore and mindless violence.

How are these people supposed to distuingish the difference between right and wrong if your parents allow you to shoot, stab and mutilate people in a video game ... but tell you it's not ok to do this in real life. People have been known to loose touch with reality and unable to tell the difference between their imgination and reality.

Parents need to act responsibly. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
MaCcA^
16:05 2/2/2004
ive watched horror movies since i can remember... and action movies with BIG BAD GUNS IN :o. And i still havent had the urge to go buy a gun and shoot someone ... So my theory is you still have to be a cracko to go out and kill someone or act violent.
Its like when people say Weed makes someone act more violent... nah they just tits to begin with... the drugs make them more c**ky. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
Fynite
18:13 2/2/2004
I'd agree with the points on upbringing but more frequently it takes an already unbalanced person to use game content as a suggestion to re-enact it. Like in the film, 90 percent of killers in school shootings were bullied, depressed and outcast students at that school. The other 10 percent were adults and most of these shootings took place in Europe if I remember my research properly.

Another factor I think contributes to the problem is sensationalistic and inaccurate reporting when it's all about ratings and the instant "celebrity" status gained by the kids once this s*** happens. [ Comment: Report | IP: Logged ]
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