German Police Official Calls For Ban On Violent Games

[Logan Westbrook]

German Police Official Calls For Ban On Violent Games

In the wake of the terrible tragedy in Winnenden [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90185], a top German police official is calling for a ban on violent videogames.

Heini Schmitt, head of the Hessen German Police Union, has expressed his concern about the role of videogames in attacks of the sort seen in Winnenden. The German-language website Echo Online [http://www.echo-online.de/suedhessen/template_detail.php3?id=726879] cited those comments and added a few of their own:

It is known that in every situation in which a violent rampage (Amoklauf) has occurred, the perpetrator has had a remarked addiction to so-called killergames. The manner of the deed is astonishingly similar to virtual examples.

For him, the fact that roughly a third of children and youths "regularly and addictively escape into a virtual world" sets off alarm bells. Age restrictions for such games are often ignored. There is admittedly no proof "that these frequent escapes into virtual killerworlds can contribute to such insane deeds", said Schmitt, "But neither can the role killergames be completely dismissed."

When a chance to remove a probable cause exists, it must be used, insisted the chief of the national police union. "The world would be no poorer if there were no more killergames."

Given the recent tragedy in his country, Mr Schmitt's views can certainly be understood, but to say that videogames are a 'probable' cause for the kind of violence he describes seems reactionary at best. Germany already has one of the most restrictive videogames rating systems in the world, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unterhaltungssoftware_Selbstkontrolle] or USK, with many games heavily censored before being released in the country.

In the case of the Winnenden shooters, the perpetrator, Tim Kretschmer, was described as a detached individual with a fascination for guns and years of shooting experience. His videogame playing seemed like a footnote in the story of an individual with deep-seated emotional problems.

Essentially, we come back to the question asked time and time again; do videogames make gamers more violent?

Source: GamePolitics [http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/03/22/head-german-police-union-calls-ban-violent-video-games]



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[sirdanrhodes]

*Walks to laptop* Sorry, what did you say, I was on a murder spree.

Games /=/ killers.

 

[Ronwue]

Sorry, but why did he have a gun to begin with.

 

[Break]

Banning violent games?

Isn't that, like... All of them?

 

[Samurai Goomba]

This is just typical German anti-violence ranting. Like somebody else said, more overcompensation for the Nazis. It's a common sentiment, but I'll said it again:

"Anyone who would be coerced into killing another living human being in real life by the actions that went on in Make-Believe Land was seriously messed up long before he/she started playing video games. If it wasn't video games, it would have been a violent movie, comic, or maybe nothing at all."

I do get a bit tired of all this demented ranting from the politically misinformed.

 

[cainx10a]

Watch out Australia, Germany is trying to catch up with you on the race to ban "murder simulations"!

 

[wordsmith]

"It is known that in every situation in which a violent rampage (Amoklauf) has occurred, the perpetrator has had a remarked addiction to so-called killergames. The manner of the deed is astonishingly similar to virtual examples."
so before video games there were no violent rampages? Yeah right...

"For him, the fact that roughly a third of children and youths "regularly and addictively escape into a virtual world" sets off alarm bells."
We escape because the world that your generation has created is shit, so we go and make our own.

There is admittedly no proof "that these frequent escapes into virtual killerworlds can contribute to such insane deeds"
Why can't we just leave it there? No proof, ergo no problem.

"When a chance to remove a probable cause exists, it must be used, insisted the chief of the national police union. "The world would be no poorer if there were no more killergames."
Hey dude, you've got a penis, and if I chop it off then I've stopped you possibly raping someone. Yeah, learn2logic.

 

[dnadns]

As a german, I do feel with the people who lost relatives and friends in the massacre. However, it makes me feel sick how the media here came up with headlines and articles going like "Winnenden Massacre.... it needs to be confirmed, if he played killer games...".

Just to be followed by "it was confirmed that he played 2 hours of far cry 2 before that day and had counterstrike installed on his computer".

Especially, if his father had his guns all at home, the gun used was not locked away and the boy managed to bring about 400 shots of ammo with him.

Still it's just a shame that people seem to ask "did he play killer games? yes? ah, that explains...".

I'm already buying all games abroad as the censorship here is unmatched when it comes to games (and it does not affect movies or books that much). It's the old story of looking for a scapegoat that is far more convinient to blame than trying to investigate on the real problems that caused the whole thing.

 

[Kedcom]

I think we should ban everything risky or even potentially risky. We can start by taking that official's BMW away as I'm pretty sure it's statistically more likely to kill someone than someone who MIGHT HAVE BEEN BUT PROBABLY WASN'T induced to kill someone by playing a violent video game.

We'll have to ban the Bible too, that's also pretty violent...

 

[Spirultima]

*Face palm* I KNEW they would blame gaming, not like movies are 10 times for violent or anything.

Besides in case no-one noticed, the kid who did it was shuned by everyone and was a loner (i can kinda relate, to be honest) and he was rejected by girls (who he killed) and teachers, 9/10 of the victims were girls, i think there was a sadist+sexual+revenge, the combination resulted in the killings.

Stop blaming games, if im playing a game on killing people, im not outside actually killing people, understand what i mean people?

 

[Meanmoose]

the father of the shooter was gun obsessed. He built the kid an inside shooting range.
The family had twenty or so guns in the house. The father had gone hunting with junior too.

It was probably the videogames. Thats probably where he learnt about guns. (irony)

 

[Booze Zombie]

The boy was described as clinically depressed and they are worried about video games, not mentally unstable people obtaining firearms?

No wonder people hate the police.

 

[Rodger]

I think him and every other "ban violent video games" advocate are ignoring a far more sinister culprit. Pants.

Think I'm kidding? Consider this: how many violent crimes have been committed while the criminal was wearing pants? Many, many more times as many criminals wear pants than play violent video games. Therefore, I propose the banning of pants in all forms (shorts and skirts included) rather than video games.

 

[Simriel]

*sighs* bound to happen. Because every massacre in history was caused by violent videogames. Yeah slightly ironic there Germany...

 

[ideitbawx]

...

"Are you sure it wasn't using a controller or mouse to kill virtual people that caused this?"
"Yeah, pretty sure, seeing as how a mouse and keyboard setup is about as far removed from real guns as your wife is from sexual attraction to you."
"That was cold."

and priceless.

very true, too. chances are if someone has an obsession with murder, there's more to it than a game. did they ever blame RISK for turning hitler into a power-hungry dictator?

though there was that dipshit who said he stabbed a cabdriver "because of GTA 4", and he wanted to see if he could get away with it in real life. "i didn't know he'd attack me back!" jeez, the games aren't the problem: the morons with no sense of reality are the problem.

 

[HuCast]

I cant believe that "officials" are so short-sighted and uninformed. They all yell für "game bans" these days but dont think any further. Do they want to build a wall around germany and train the drug dogs on "killer-games"? Censor the internet? Search 12 million households for forbidden games? What happens to a 30 old that posesses "forbidden games"?
They cant answer a single of these questions and still they say bs. like that!

 

[J474]

Why can people not see that they have it the wrong way round...
One doesn't become violent and mentally unstable from playing violent video games, one plays violent video games because they are violent and mentally unstable (not to say that all violent VG players are unstable, just that unstable people will probably play violent games)