Virginia Tech, Suicide And World Of Warcraft
By William on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at 1:09 AM PST In Gamer Life, Games, World of Warcraft
Last month, a Virginia Tech student was found dead in the Target parking lot of the Christiansburg, Virginia store with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head. His name was Daniel Kim, a 21-year old senior at the university. Unfortunately, some individuals have already started making assumptions that somehow his death was related to and possibly caused by gaming.
After doing a little research, I discovered that gaming is actually the one thing in his life that gave him a chance to live. Daniel was an avid Warcraft player who had developed numerous friendships playing the game over the past couple of years. The only warning signs that he was on the edge came in the form of emails sent to the university from various WoW players who were concerned for his safety. Unfortunately, little action was taken from the warnings and as we all know, Daniel Kim is now dead.
This was an unfortunate and probably preventable tragedy. It’s also unfortunate that some people will try to blame games when gaming may have been the only positive thing going on in his life. Online multiplayer games have a social aspect that the media simply does not understand. You create bonds with people you have never seen in real life. When it’s the middle of the night and there’s no one to talk to in person, there’s always a gamer somewhere online who will talk. When things are heavy on my mind, I often fire up the Xbox 360 and play some “big team battle” with my Halo 3 friends. I’ve never met any of them in real life, but I consider them true friends. I think one of the major problems with the media right now is that they simply do not see the overall kindness and generosity most gamers have in their hearts. As gamers, we do talk a lot of smack, but that’s honestly part of the fun. In the end, I truly believe that most hard-core gamers are good people with kind natures.
To be honest, I can’t objectively tackle the subject of video games and Virginia Tech at the same time. I was enraged that people such as Jack Thompson blamed the April 16 massacre on gaming when I was there and I saw what happened. I lost a good friend that day and I suppose that makes me take these media attacks personally. When you see large collections of lifeless bodies lying in pools of blood, you just don’t think of what to blame. There are more important issues at hand. Perhaps the media is simply too far detached from the reality of life to understand these tragedies. It did not surprise me that some people are voicing their opinions that gaming was somehow behind this recent suicide in the Hokie community.
Daniel Kim was an avid World of Warcraft player. He didn’t leave much behind in life. The only clues come from the traces of information from his instant messenger and Warcraft files. He left a cell phone behind with many numbers in them, but no one really knows what happened. I’m sure he’ll be missed by his WoW comrades. It was great that some of his Warcraft friends made attempts to contact the university asking for someone to help him. I think this situation shows how video game communities often care about each other more than we realize. It’s just a shame no one followed up on the emails the way they should have.
Oh, and World of Warcraft now has 10 million players. Are you expecting 10 million suicides or murders in the next few months?
Dave,
I truly believe that the shooting that took place in April could have happened anywhere. For some reason, Blacksburg was the last place on earth I would expect these things to happen. I grew up in Blacksburg and left when I was 17 to serve two enlistments in the U.S. Army. I had just gotten back from Iraq and was trying to decide where I wanted to go. I was in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq during my time in, so violence was something I wanted to get far away from for a while. I chose Blacksburg because it was familiar and safe. I was a little upset when news reports were claiming that one of the problems was that Cho wasn’t accepted by the VT community which was a total crock. If you can’t get along with groups of people in bburg, you aren’t going to get along with people anywhere on earth.
I suppose what happened that eerie April morning will never seem right to me. It was so out of place for Virginia Tech. I never expected to hear hundreds of gun shots and later see the bodies and find out one of my friends was dead.. it just didn’t fit with the area. So if you go the drift from my article that I was blaming VT, I’m definitely not. At the time of the shooting, I was going to school and also worked for the Virginia Tech police department. I certainly only blame Cho and no one else.
I have since left the area, but I still love VT and always will. Even though I don’t live there anymore, I will be going back for nearly every home football game. There’s really nothing in the world like a Hokie football game. I don’t think people who are on the outside understand the sense of community that has been established on that campus. There’s no place on earth like it. It’s a peaceful place. When it comes to crime in Blacksburg, nearly all crimes are committed by people who travel through town.
So I’m certainly not saying any of this is because of VT. It was just our bad luck that Cho chose to attend school in Blacksburg. It really could have happened in any town or city in America and I think that’s what makes it a little scary. After leaving the Army, I thought I was desensitized to violence, but April definitely showed me that I wasn’t.
I think that VT still needs to make some drastic policy changes, but there are thousands of colleges around the world that need to do the same thing. Who knows where the next Cho is? The only question is when.
So in the end, I do not believe that VT or Blacksburg had anything to do with the cause of these events. It was just random. Cho was a wack job who would have done something like this anywhere he went in life. Some people feel sorry for him and thought that maybe he could have been helped. I guess I’m not at that stage yet and probably never will be. I hate to say it, but some people are simply beyond help and some people are so crazy that they can fly completely under whatever radar we put in place to find these nuts.
These kinds of things lay in the hands of parents. If you allow your child’s mind to become so warped they begin to believe and/or act out what they see in video games you have failed as a parent.
I’ve been playing video games my whole life, I especially love the GTA series. It’s mindless entertaining as hell fun! Parents should know their kids better than anyone, if you know your kid can’t differentiate between Real Life and a Video Game don’t let them play violent video games.
If Mom and Dad would put down their cell phones for a minute or whatever else they’re busy with and act like they gave a rat’s ass it wouldn’t be an issue, there’s ESRB ratings on everything for EVERYONE to see!
Just the opinion of a 19 y/o
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(attorney)
“69%”
“The Florida Bar Association is currently seeking sanctions against Thompson for inappropriate conduct.”
Man I just played some WoW. I think I’m going to shoot some people, rape some nuns, and then kill myself. I’LL SHOW YOU PVP.
Does this mean we need to reroll on your server and crash ANOTHER funeral?
Did he drop any good loot?
Just want to point out that there has been studies about the link between Video Games and Violence, all of which have come up inconclusive, because the same types of aggressive behavior also come from any type of competition, other violent media (including books), or high stress levels.
Multiple published scholarly journals report the same findings.
jack thompson I played cs1.6 and cs:s for 7 years now and work eat n sleep have a nice life and 1000000000% think that your a stupid mother fucking old faggot lawyer left wing liberal and think u should uninstall yourself from society GAME DoNot cause violence jealous obessions do like my 22 year old brother has video games dont effect him in a violent way he’s already like that he will shoot you he plays cs:S and is calm but will go crazy on the outside world and beat u up and wear his hat sideway the type will kill you its not the video game its the intelligence of the common person from person 2 person I.Q. and common sense is lacking and mental illinesses are the cause not video games u can have GTA PIMP’s N HOE’s and then after blow there fkn head off and it wont effect ANYONE cept people with mental illinesses like you jack have a nice day. p.s. dont reply on this forum make urself like like an ass
If lawyers did not exist, we wouldn’t need them.
Suckers by nature, crybabies.
Either JT himself is pouring over messageboards and forums, scouring the internet for any place he can find to shoehorn his misguided crusade into; or there is a very bored individual out there who likes to stir up controversy. Let’s examine this, shall we? Based on very little research, Mr Thompson seems like a very bitter unhappy man, and I wouldn’t be the least surprised if he did in fact spend most of his free time Googling his own name. On the other hand, trolling has achieved a level of artistry previously undreamed of, so the likelihood of a professional troll hitting this article up for a cheap laugh is quite good. Personally, I kind of hope that it’s really Jack, as this adds an air of celebrity to these humble proceedings.
I do believe the corporations are to blame for any sale being made to a minor, I do not believe they are ‘trained’ as Mr. Thompson put it, to target minors in stores.
I understand how unstable it is for the ESRB system and corporations to have no security or any way of stopping minors to purchase these M rated games online, and while a ban on it is the simplest solution, I do not believe even Mr. Thompson thinks he is able to convince or force these companies of getting rid of the thousands of purchases even if they are minors buying.
I would like to know, Mr. Thompson, exactly how it is you expect to make these companies say good bye to their money, and start caring who’s buying it; that is if you even have a solution.
While you have stated the results of certain APA studies or ESA polls, perhaps something as simple as a link for myself and others to read (for those who haven’t studied as much as yourself), so I can see for myself “all the facts”.
Also, have there been studies, connecting with these damages to the brain, with other sorts of mediums? Have there been studies to see if a young mind watching violent movies perhaps, have the same or similar ‘violent’ tendencies? Or have these exact damages come from completely different situations?
If not, why is it that videogames is the only current target? Because there have been related deaths to those that play them? What about the men and women here, including myself, that have been exposed to the violent games since young age, that seemingly have had not been effected? Are we ‘immune’ to this?
Sorry to ask so many questions, but as your lack of maturity has shown with the latter posts, I just doubt any of them will be answered.
Thanks anyways.
I always find something interesting to read when its four in the morning and I am getting in from whatever social setting I was at. I love all of you for giving me smiles and brightening my day. I understand to some of you that this is very serious…as it is to me as well. But nothing that I say on here will be taken serious by Jack (or any other person who blames games for violence). So I don’t say this to chance anyone’s mind. I do think though that violent games have a tendency/chance to inspire the violence in someone. When I say this I am talking about getting upset on a competitive level to having the game help trigger some loose screw into falling completely out. We can’t prove one way or the other really. I do think its funny though that a finger is pointed so fiercly at video games and the gamers for the violence out there. I guess its an easy target due to the fact that gaming is so popular in today’s society. Maybe the link that they find is due to the fact that all types of people play games. Normal, everyday, family people…to psycopathic killers. Games are a fantasy world…and in this world you can find whatever escape you are looking for somewhere. The normal person is trying to escape the mundane of their everyday lives…and the psychopath is looking to live out desires without the ramifications. Eventually the psychopath regresses so far he no longer cares about the punishments of society and chooses to live out these desires in real life. Jack you shouldn’t blame video games…you should thank them. For without them, he would have been killing earlier than he ended up doing it. Maybe do to the fact that some unstable people get to play violent games…they don’t go out and blow up; harming themselves and others around them. I apologize if I have raved for too long…its been a long night…
Line 5….chance should be change*
Line 17…do should be due*
I gotta go to bed though…laters.
I feel for this bloke’s family.
It’s true, online gaming is a very caring community when you meet the right people, some online players have helped me through the toughest times in my life
R.I.P mate, rest in peace.
Actuallystudies carried out have not proved a direct link to video games being the cause of violence.
Most experiments are biased in their results, for example comparing people who played violent games and people who played puzzle games, suprisingly enough the people playing the violent games showed more aggresive behaviour, this does not indicate tendency for physical violence. Doing an experiment which studied the difference from people playing American Football and people playing golf would exhibit similar results.
Each of these approaches has its flaws. The first kind of correlational study can never prove that video-game playing causes physical aggression. Maybe aggressive people are simply more apt to play violent games in the first place. Meanwhile, the randomized trials, like Anderson and Dill’s, which do imply causation, necessarily depend on lab-based measures of aggression, such as whether subjects blast each other with noise. This is a respected measure, but obviously not the same as seeing whether real people hit or shoot each other.
When you look at the fact that the child school shooters also played video games, you can argue the fact that what child doesn’t? Of course not everyone is into violent video games but when you actually take into account how many people are playing the same video games that aren’t serial killers you will realise that its stupid to incinuate that video games are the cause.
There is a lot of violence in this world, and a lot of violence has come about since a long time before video games were invented, it is all about the need to blame something that is easier to control, the fact is that majority of violence is actually caused by people in poorer areas, perhaps people should be looking more into how to improve our society rather than laying blame upon video games.
Jack Thompson, you’re the coolest guy ever!
A 50-something year old comes onto a game site, onto a story talking about someone who commited suicide because no-one was there to help him – I think I know who needs to grow up here. If you’re so desperate to get you’re message across, find some place else to do it, no-one and I mean NO-ONE cares about you on this website. Not worth preaching to the preached.
The ‘hearts’ of America that you’re referring to are probably the majority of the backward Southerners who still think the word ’shit’ is taboo and if you blaspheme you go to hell. Well, good sir, that ISN’T the majority and I can tell you for a fact that everyone who I know in the UK (non-gamers too) think that you’re a total physco.
You know what this is? You’re just like the gaming version of the Westbro Baptist Church, your picketing at someones memorial – way to go.
Just because you’re a pHd in Physcology doesn’t mean you’re any better than the rest of us, I’m doing joint German&French, good on me huh? perhaps I could tell you in German or French how much of an anal twat you are?
Already wasted 5 minutes of my life on you. When you die and a topic is made I’ll come along and shit on your grave too.
So like, you’re argueing about ‘mature’ tagged games being sold to minors (
(Wtf only like 20 symbols came through in last post?)
So like, you’re argueing about ‘mature’ tagged games being sold to minors (
(Haha, when you type ( and
(Oh my god you cant write pointy brackets at all, those you use for htlm tags you know, the script bugs out
FAILURE CODING RIGHT THERE)
So like, you’re argueing about ‘mature’ tagged games being sold to minors (below 17) while the guy described in this article was actually 21 y.o.
From what I’ve read so far (not all the comments though) Jack Thompson is only against violent games being sold to minors, despite the ‘mature’ rating. Yet this has nothing to do with this article nor gaming addiction.
Hi.
Is it easier to lay blame on computer games than look at some of the other issues that likely conribute more to these incidents.
In most parts of the world it is difficult for the average games playing teenager to get hold of a gun, they either do not know how/where to get one or they simply dont have the money to buy one from one of the few sources. Perhaps americans should look at gun ownership and the ease at which these students can get hold of them before blaming a media source. Is it coincedence that these mass school shootings happen in America? i think not. In the UK there are regions that suffer from gun crime, but these are always as a result of robberies or gang-wars. Never a suicide or mass murder that is blamed on a computer game. The average child simply cannot get hold of a gun.
In the UK, games such as grand theft auto carry an 18 certificate, this makes it illegal to sell the game to anyone under the advertised age (im not sure how this compared to the u.s). The, problem here is internet sites that dont check the age of the buyer, however these all require a credit/debit card which atleast means nobody under the age of 16 will be able to purchase it. So, the parents have a large responsibility to keep such things away from their children.
I would like to point out that movies have been glamourising guns and murder for decades, as have large sections of the music industry.
Dear Mr.Thompson,
Firstly, I would like to state that you assessment of gaming is fundamentally flawed.
I myself am an avid gamer.
I play xbox 360, pc, psp etc and I play every genre from the harmless games like Portal to even games that you would hold up as the pinacle of the destruction of society Postal 2.
Now here is where your assessment is incorrect,
I live in Ireland, a country with extremely strict gun laws and weapons restrictions.
We have had to my knowledge not a single gaming related death in this country.
The gamers in Ireland also go against your sterotypical view of gamers as uneducated morons.
I myself got in top 50 people out of 50 000 in the junior certificate, as did several of my other friends.
So the real question is what is causing these so called “gaming deaths” because many of them appear to occur in Germany, which has some of the strictest game censorship on earth , with most games having no blood and many games being banned outright or the rest appear to occur in America which has some of the WORST gun control on this planet (which is outrageous). Why can you not buy a spray can until you are 18 but you can have a gun when you are 14?
You have an education system that makes the poor pariah’s with your ludicrous college fees ($48,000 for harvard, all education in Ireland is free)and your freedom of speech has absolutely no restrictions,which you may say is great but you must remember that in countries like Ireland, freedom of speech has but one restriction (and I know in U.S law there is a pale clone of this but it is weak and not enforced) prohibition of incitement to hatred.
Thank you for you time,
P.s My comments on America are not attacking the people of America but your flawed “Atlas Shrugged” style of pure capitalism. Capitalism is good but it does need a dab of socialism to at least get the less fortunate up to an acceptable level.
TIM
William:
Thanks for your reply. The post I was addressing came from someone named “annon” at 8:53 last night.
-Dave
Jack Thompson is simply a lifeless, scum-sucking lawyer, the worst of the worst, and the reason the profession has such a poor reputation despite all the good so many others do. He is actually attempting to turn a profit by misdirecting blame for these awful events away from the rampant gun problem, lack of parental responsibility in this control, and the failure of a school to act against many warning signs and personal contacts by those concerned about such events before they ever happened. By not addressing the real issues with why things like this occur, he helps make it possible for them to continue to happen, assuring that he’ll continue to be paid in his crusade against the false ’causes.’
Or maybe he’s not really so vile and disgusting. Maybe he really is so overwhelmed by grief at these events that he cannot cope and his mind is forced to draw these false conclusions, relying on half-truths to validate an easy scapegoat for the issues so that he can distance himself from them and make them somehow easier to accept. If this is the case, however, he is in need of much therapy and professional help.
To all of you people responding with crass attempts at humor asking if he ‘dropped any good loot’ or ‘rerolling on a server to crash a funeral’ You are the people who need to grow up. You are the people Jack Thompson is referring to as ‘E-Tards’. You are the people who cowardly hide behind avatars in little more than an effort to recieve attention. Go back to your games, and tea-bag some horde if you must.
I’ll go back to my games (WoW), and I will put the effort into making a person like Daniel Kim feel good about himself, and, in my own way, work on preventing a future incident like this from happening. If I kill an alliance, I won’t Corpse Camp him. If I win an arena, i won’t spam /lol /spit on the enemy. I will share my good experiences with those around me, in an attempt at making their own lives richer.
I am not a religious guy by any means. I have a christian background, and Jack Thomson is making a bad name for christians everywhere, as all extremists do. I firmly believe that God is not insecure enough to demand we all believe in him and worship him. I believe that all we can do is live our lives with as much kindness and decency as we can, and if there is a God, he will reward us for making the lives around us richer, rather than just our own.
Jack, if this is the real Jack Thomson. You will note that I have used a real name in this, not a cowardly avatar. You believe that you are attempting to enrich the lives of those around you by banning violent content in video games. But, weather or not you realize it, you are in the same breath, blaitently attacking those who play these games. The slander that I see you leaving is breathtaking… from an attorney especially.
I have been playing games since I was 5. I am 20 now. I will admit, i likely play too many games. I know the difference between right and wrong. It is those who don’t that crumble society.
Oh, and can i make another suggestion to you on a personal level? Please spend some time with your child. Sit down, play a video game with him. I garentee you will see a smile on his face, and perhaps, if you have a heart in your chest, a smile on yours. Examine that smile, and the warm feeling it gives you inside.
Oh, and Rest in Peace Daniel Kim. He may not have known it in his mind, but he deserved better.
If he was a shaman he might just self rez. They should keep the coffin open for him.
Counter-Strike was the MOST POPULAR ONLINE GAME for multiple years.
Being the MOST POPULAR game, if Cho is the ONLY one you can say it turned into a killer, it’s still doing better than religion. Millions of people played counterstrike every day, if ONE person went on a killing spree, it is a statistical anomaly.
Jack Thompson argues like a little girl.
I hate to disappoint you Jack, (can I call you Jack?) but whatever study you’re quoting here is not scientific. There is nothing scientific about your arguments in the past, and if I were science I’d be offended to even be mentioned by you.
I’d also like to know the confused path your logic seems to follow wherein someone who plays violent video games gains the desire to hurt THEMSELVES (I can type words in all capitals too).
Perhaps you can give us examples or links to these scientific, medical and law enforcement studies? I have a feeling the context of those studies were someone biased.
Here’s a list of some violent video games I’ve played in the past (or at least the ones I remember):
Halo 1 & 2
Call of Duty
Battlefield
Dawn of War
Fable
Unreal Tournament
Unreal Championship
Fear
Mercenaries
Grand Theft Auto
The list goes on, but really I’ve played so many I can’t remember them all.
Now guess how many guns or weapons I own. I’ll give you some hints:
Hint 1) It’s less than 1.
Hint 2) I don’t own any guns or weapons.
Am I a statistical anomaly Jack? And before you accuse me of something else, you should know I also don’t drink/smoke or do drugs of any kind. I’m also not voting for Ron Paul. I’m not even in your country.
In fact, Cho, according to the Washington Post, was an obsessive player of Counter-Strike in high school. The effects of these games are LONG-TERM, not just short-term, as the scientific evidence proves.
Also, the hard drive of Cho’s computer was never found, so you have no earthly basis for which to say that he didn’t continue to play violent games. None. His suite mates had no idea he had weapons in his room, either.
So you can be as enraged as you want about the link between violent video games and what Cho and others like him have done. Go rage at a full moon as well, convinced that it is Satan’s orb to raise the seas.
Next time, before you post such a silly set of assertions, actually read the medical, scientific, and law enforcement research. It establishes, irrefutably, the causal link between violent games and acts of violence.
So sue me. Jack Thompson
The last Jack Thompson post was Jack Tompson… no ‘H’ in the last name. I’m guessing it was a different poster assuming the identity of the real Jack Thompson.
Seriously, why get so roused by Jack Thompson? Do you guys seriously believe he is going to sway the government and gigantic software corporations to stop the sale and development of mature rated games? I mean video gaming is a multi-billion dollar a year industry. A huge percentage of these funds are generated from mature rated games. Regardless, the amount of sales tax generated from the sale of these games alone is sound enough reason for the government not to prohibit their sale or creation. I just don’t see where the claims of Mr. Thompson are absolute and think that for the most part, his efforts are futile.I know it and you know it, the direct causality of real life violence is not due to playing violent video games. It comes from a chemical imbalance or sociological factors and things of a similar nature. Now, I agree that children should not play mature rated games. Can we completely stop every child in the world from doing so? Absolutely not. Can we take measures to prevent this from happening as much as humanly possible? Yes and we already did that… It’s called the ESRB.
On a side note: Jack, your a fucking asshole. Not because of your outlook on violent content in video games, but for the way you treat people. The people you have attacked in this thread are the main people you need to be nicer to. If not for the purpose of trying to sway our opinions, then for the reason that you fucking fear us all and we may try to kill you based upon your logic. And no, I am absolutely no threatening you in any way. Just trying to point out the flaw in your manners of handling criticism.
I like how Jack verbally assault us by calling us morons and e-tards. I’m sure not as violent as him.
It seems that with these tragedies prior to there are many warning signs and pleas for help that go ignored.
Jack Thompson is an idiot, no reason why anyone should listen to what he has to say.
The kid had a positive thing in his life from video games and it sounds like the rest of his life (you know, things like his family and school) was crap so he just ended it.
Jack, don’t compare mature gamers who understand the difference between real life and video games to petty children who don’t have good parental authority over what they do.
To be honest, dont blame video games for people actions… maybe you should just take the idea that people are just fucking crazy and are idiots?….. i play violent video games all the time…. most of my life… im ok… i manage to maintain friends and play violent video games.. dont blame video games for peoples fucking incompetance to life… to be honest if he done that, then fuck thank god hes not alive anymore… and also i think its mostly americans who have this fucked up life and go crazy.. why not keep all the crazy kids in a seperate school? if anything and they decide to kill some 1 itl be another crazy person.
also “jack thompson” you may think “science is always correct” but at end of day this is just early days… more things could get resulted e.g. he was fucked up in the head or sommin.. and at end of day if you want games to be sold to a older generation try raise the legal age limit…. cunt
Dear Jack-off Thompson,
Shut your trap because we, as gamers, are fed up with your anti-gaming neo-Nazi propaganda. Do you understand that, with each debate where you do not use actual scientific facts (which is the case at the Expo in New York where you got your ass kicked by Lorne Lanning?), people get more and more ticked. You’re a moron. All you can do is attack us with insults that a kindergartener could outwit and hope that we’re intimidated by your “harsh burns.” God forbid you try and give us actual statistics. The reason you can’t give us statistics is because there are none. There are no statistics, just like there are no scientific facts that can prove that video games are causal links to violence.
Lol this troll wins even after he said things like he has a small wiener people are still trying to argue with him. Epic troll is Epic.
Perhaps if he had a real life and hadnt wasted so much time on the computer he wouldnt have wanted to kill himself.
It’s always interesting how many people attack video games as the cause of increased violence in youth, but in reality, its pretty much always correlation not causation. Aggressive people will enjoy aggressive media, be it movies, music, or games. These aggressive people will also more often be involved in aggressive situations, and act on that aggression in a way that could be criminal.
At the same time, people need to note how widespread gaming truly is. The NPD reports that 63 percent of the people within the US would be considered at least casual gamers. That means 210 million people within the US play games. We also have to look at the sales of mature rated game for a more specific correlation on which to try to base your assurtions. Halo 3 has sold almost ten million copies already, meaning there are almost ten million people playing a game which is often singled out as very violent, and yet I cannot find one story of one person who has engaged in violent activity due to influences from this game.
Consistanty psychologists observe gamers who enjoy mature rated media who do not then act on the influence of the games. They do see one case here or there where someone snaps, and they had been attracted to playing games which could be seen as violent. If you look into the person’s past however, you see relatives who spoke up about the person’s violent ways long before they played games.
The Virginia Tech incident occured due to a messed up person, a messed up person who at points in time in the past had played games. If you look further into the past, and listen to the mans grandmother, you would know that the child had always been violent, and that the family knew he had emotional issues since being a child, before the person had ever played a video game.
If you are going to assert that games cause violent behavior, you need to establish a true causation to back up that claim. Otherwise, you are stuck pointing out the obvious, violent people enjoy violent activities.
This is nothing new.
It makes me ashamed that a fellow lawyer would use faulty science to try to squeeze money out of media companies due to no real scientific tie. This is why you have consistantly lost your cases, and why states that have constantly tried to block the sales of mature games have not been able to do so.
z0mg a “casual” link, well I personally don’t give a shit what you feel about video games they’re harmless. There are a ton of violent movies and television shows, and yet they don’t get pointed at. I think we’ve all watched some sort of video and played games at the exact same time so who’s to say he couldn’t have been affected by television in the exact same manner that you are so desperately trying to shunt games. At the end of the day he committed suicide BECAUSE HE WANTED TO, if you can make some sort of miracle cure for all suicide victims I doubt it would be to abolish violence in any form of entertainment what-so-ever. (Violence is a part of reality since the beginning of mankind, denying a part of reality has to be in some form very unhealthy) Also to those who feel pointing a finger solves a problem on a past event get a life. You know what is a bigger waste of time then video games? Watching the idiot box, especially reality TV. When watching television ad-nauseum do you learn typing skills, are you any social at all? Do you develop skills such as puzzle solving, pattern recognition, or hand-eye coordination? The answer very simply is no (using the remote hardly merits hand-eye coordination by the way.)
Feeling so high and mighty because you aren’t an avid fan of video games is ridiculous because no one is 100% of the time productive nor would any one person want to be without going completely insane. You all have your idiotic time-sinks whether it be lame sports, misinformed news, politics, etc. So why try to demote one that at the least gives you some useful skill set practice.
Just because some idiotic school took your money and eventually you had earned yourself a meaningless piece of paper doesn’t mean you can be guaranteed more insight and knowledge on whatever your field of study was.
Also this has been said before but uh… what are all those violent video games that Hitler used to play? I’m sure J.W. Booth before shooting Abe Lincoln had mopped up a few rounds of CS and got an itch to assassinate too right? Quit trying to impress the masses and be in disagreement for the sake of disagreeing, if you didn’t personally know the kid you have absolutely no say-so into why or how his suicide was linked to anything more than a bad idea and a whim. Learn to not be an assuming dick face and lighten up on the vices that you personally aren’t aligned.
Disregard all that I have said for I enjoy cocks.
It is sad to see that Daniel Kim took his own life. When it comes to gaming though, I believe some people prolly are caught up in games and think it is real, but that would be only if the person was unstable. Coming from experience, I play many games and I know that gaming and real life are two totally different things.
World of Warcraft allows people to build many social bonds with eachother that are even stronger than bonds you can form with real people. If you think about it, you can’t just a book by its cover if there is no cover to look at. All you have is voice, a personality. That’s what you can fall in love with. Some of my best friends are people that I have never even seen before.
First off, calling the troll names only fuels his beliefs. Rant, curse at him, he’ll only have more “proof” that gamers are violent and horrible people.
Second, Jack, as someone who has studied this issue as much as you have, surely you’ve heard of the Bobo Doll Experiment. It showed that children who witnessed violence in ANY capacity were more likely to replicate it immediately after seeing it. Television, arguementative relatives, video games, violent play with a Bobo Doll, all of it contributes to making someone believe violence is alright.
What people have to do, and realize, is that the responsibility lies with the parent, the caretaker, and the salesperson. If you allow your child to watch a violent show, let them know this behavior isn’t alright. If the child attempting to buy GTA or some violent movie obviously isn’t 17, don’t sell it to them. I have been playing video games since I was four years old, starting off my playstation years with Resident Evil at the age of nine. My father, who brought this all into the house, let me know what was what and the difference between what was important in life and what was fantasy. I’m now a perfectly balanced 21 year old woman in college, and an avid World of Warcraft player, and grounded enough to know that what happens online has no bearing on my daily life, at work, home, or school. What these poor people who end up killing themselves need to know is that if something goes wrong online, its not the end of the world. There’s so much more out there.
And if life truly sucks online, change servers.
Just putting this out there for those who like to generalize, I think the number of murders tied to video games has just about pulled even with the number of crusading christian republicans caught with other men, doing drugs, and/or stealing from their own businesses.
After the real Jack Thompson gets disbarred in Florida because he ran out of “pornographic slander” blackmail material, I’m going to love the day when we see the report that Jack himself goes on a shooting rampage, claiming to be psychologically impaired after surrounding himself with negative images of video games for more than 20 years. He might just have a case for an ‘insanity’ plea.
This is how hard it was for me to pretend to be Jack Thompson.
While YOU are pretending, it hasn’t always been fakes. And sadly enough, the real troll does post here. Just ask the journalists on this site.
Honestly, this is so pointless. The link between violent video games and suicide of the Virginia Tech shootings is stupid. If we start blaming video games where are we going to stop? We could blame kids who were mean to Cho, maybe they should be punished? Maybe the University staff should be punished, or his parents for not recognizing the signs? It makes me so angry when people blame everything on everyone else.
He was probably a rogue and was pissed about the hemo nerf tbh