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Time to blame video games for violence again.

RandFan

Mormon Atheist
RandFan
Joined
Dec 18, 2001
Messages
60,135
CNN said:
Norway mass-shooting trial reopens debate on violent video games

Norway's alleged mass killer testified on Thursday that he played video games as a way to train for a shooting spree that killed 77 people last summer. In particular, Anders Behring Breivik said at his trial that he played "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" as a means of shooting practice, according to CNN's report.

The confessed shooter also said he once played the online game "World of Warcraft," a role-playing adventure with multiple players from around the world, for as many as 16 hours a day.
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And away we go....

Never mind that violent crime is decreasing as sales of video games increases.

FBI reports decrease in violent crime for fourth straight year
 
arthwollipot said:
Playing Call of Duty as practice for real shooting?

Let me know when you can aim an AK-47 with just your thumbs.
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This. The only way Breivik believes that CoD trained him to shoot people was because people told him it would help train him to shoot people -.-
 
I played too much Tomb Raider as a young man and now I loot buried cities, shoot wildlife with two guns at once, and have a fantastic rack.
 
My sample size of one is hardly scientific, but I just had what was supposed to be a quick round of Battlefield III turn into a grueling hour long knife fight over a hotly contested train tunnel.

After 110 kills and 9 deaths inside a long dark narrow concrete tube, the last thing I wanna do right now is shoot one more person. Simulated or otherwise.
 
arthwollipot said:
Playing Call of Duty as practice for real shooting?

Let me know when you can aim an AK-47 with just your thumbs.
Click to expand...

Well, let's admit one thing. Brevik was pretty damned impressive. Nobody gets to shoot and kill 69 people in one day. Whatever his training, he outdid entire companies of marines.
 
TragicMonkey said:
I played too much Tomb Raider as a young man and now I loot buried cities, shoot wildlife with two guns at once, and have a fantastic rack.
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I played too much Mario Brothers and now I jump on turtles and kick their shells, which skid across the ground forever and kill everything in their way.

I also love mushrooms.
 
devnull said:
Except marines typically dont gun down unarmed innocents.
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Well, marines who belong to the KKK, then. Or Viet Cong; whoever you think are bad, both in the sense of bad and in the sense of bad.

You have to admit that 69 people in one day with hand-held arms and ammunition you carried yourself on someone else's boat is an unprecedented accomplishment in carnage. Compared to that, John Wayne Gacy was practically a Quaker, and Jeffrey Dahmer could barely manage a snack.
 
I have never bought into the idea that violent video games cause violent behavior, but I do agree with Dave Grossman

http://www.killology.com/

That in certain circumstances, violent video games do lower inhibitions in individuals already violence prone, and that in some particular examples, first person shooter video games are closer to being training tools than entertainment.

Many law enforcement agencies have actually adopted a version of the first person shooter technology as a real world training tool

http://www.policeone.com/columnists/lom/articles/134982-Video-simulators/

That is a great leap forward in use-of force training. The F.A.T.S (firearms training simulator). system and the various spin offs and competitors really allow the trainer to run officers through various (and shifting scenarios) requiring shoot/don't shoot and force ladder scenarios.

I ran into a version of F.A.T.S. configured as a coin operated video game years back - no no-shoot problems, just shoot, shoot, shoot. The presentation of the targets and use of the simulated firearm (Colt Python) were not much different than the scenarios used in the actual training system.

An individual that didn't have the benefit of military or LE training could well use that particular game as a training tool for skill building - with no vetting required, just as long as their supply of quarters didn't run out.
 
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epepke said:
Well, marines who belong to the KKK, then. Or Viet Cong; whoever you think are bad, both in the sense of bad and in the sense of bad.

You have to admit that 69 people in one day with hand-held arms and ammunition you carried yourself on someone else's boat is an unprecedented accomplishment in carnage. Compared to that, John Wayne Gacy was practically a Quaker, and Jeffrey Dahmer could barely manage a snack.
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I understand what you are saying, but the guy pinned down a bunch of young kids who had nowhere to run, and calmly slaughtered them. This was an act of psychopathic sadism, not a battlefield achievement. I know you weren't applauding him, but I shy away from any hint of lauding his actions for any reason.
 
arthwollipot said:
Playing Call of Duty as practice for real shooting?

Let me know when you can aim an AK-47 with just your thumbs.
Click to expand...

Seriously. Playing Call of Duty would be useless for target practice. It wouldn't really be useful for planning one's tactics either. Perhaps he played incessantly to prepare himself psychologically to slaughter people, but I don't think the game can be blamed for that. Millions of people play it without going on killing sprees, so the logical conclusion is that the problem lies with the person and not the game.

And for the record, Battlefield is far superior to Call of Duty.
 
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