Gaming Media Suckered by Crappy Translation

The Wooster

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Jul 15, 2008
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Gaming Media Suckered by Crappy Translation


The psychiatrists involved in the Breivik trial did not imply gamers older than 20 are abnormal, no matter what Reddit might tell you.

It's a good story. The sensational trial of mass-murdering berk, Anders Behring Breivik, has fueled a glut of anti-videogame moral panics, largely due to Breivik's claims that he used Call of Duty to "rehearse" for the 2011 Norway terrorist attacks that left 77 dead. Now it turns out that the expert psychiatric witnesses called to testify on Breivik's mental state, are a bunch of game-hating moral crusaders, as the following quote seems to prove.

"I would still like to point out that sitting alone in your room and playing games, no matter what the scope of the matter, call it addiction or whatnot, is not normal for a man in his 20's," reads a translation of the original story. [http://www.nrk.no/video/dommeren_var_breivik_spillegal/253537FADFFEC100/]

Juicy. Exactly the kind of "what are they thinking?" anti-videogame nonsense that racks up hundreds of angry comments and keeps clicky-clicky-ten-dollar journalists in wine and Hobnobs. The only problem? It's bollocks. The psychiatrists said nothing of the sort.

The quote actually comes from an agenda-pushing Reddit user whose sloppy translation work was picked up by several gaming websites (I'm not going to name names, I myself was a few hundred words into a writeup before I realized something was askew). According to secondary [http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/v3bky/psychiatrists_in_breivik_trial_in_our_opinion_to/] sources [http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/v3bky/psychiatrists_in_breivik_trial_in_our_opinion_to/c512iqv], the translation is either hilariously cack-handed or deliberately misleading.

The psychiatrists were not implying that gaming itself was abnormal for those over twenty, kind of the opposite in fact. They make it clear that one can be completely normal and play games, but argued that the fact Breivik was capable of playing a socially involved game doesn't prove he's not a complete nutcase. They did admit that gaming for more than 14 hours a day could constitute an addiction. That's not an unreasonable statement.

Surely we have enough real anti-videogame arguments to worry about without inventing our own?



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Ohlookit'sMatty

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Sep 11, 2008
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Sad thing is that even after the truth about it been "badly translated meaning about what was truly said" is brought to light, like it is here, the aimt-video game people will still use the old quote to incite rage& support // That's why I only trust thing on the Internet that have been said by Grey // Some might call that crazy but I'm will to take that risk

-M
 

Kargathia

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Jul 16, 2009
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Ohlookit said:
Sad thing is that even after the truth about it been "badly translated meaning about what was truly said" is brought to light, like it is here, the aimt-video game people will still use the old quote to incite rage& support // That's why I only trust thing on the Internet that have been said by Grey // Some might call that crazy but I'm will to take that risk

-M
Hey, if they couldn't get anyone else to make up some juicy quotes, they'd do it themselves.

And as for those being incited to irrational hatred of gaming by misquotes mixed with some good ol' fearmongering - do you really think you'll overcome a firmly rooted prejudice with reason?!

God forbid.

(Really; he does.)
 

DustyDrB

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Jan 19, 2010
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It seemed weird to me because they shouldn't need that kind of sensationalism to get a strong conviction. He seems quite proud of what he's done.
 

Kargathia

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Jul 16, 2009
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DustyDrB said:
It seemed weird to me because they shouldn't need that kind of sensationalism to get a strong conviction. He seems quite proud of what he's done.
They're still going to go through with the entire hoopla; see all the evidence, hear all the witnesses. Not to mention that in something as emotionally charged as this, you're bound to get some sensationalism.
 

DustyDrB

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Jan 19, 2010
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Kargathia said:
DustyDrB said:
It seemed weird to me because they shouldn't need that kind of sensationalism to get a strong conviction. He seems quite proud of what he's done.
They're still going to go through with the entire hoopla; see all the evidence, hear all the witnesses. Not to mention that in something as emotionally charged as this, you're bound to get some sensationalism.
I mean it seemed like the kind of thing a prosecutor would whip out if he was really reaching and desperate for any kind of conviction: A sensationalistic claim followed by some nuanced mental and verbal gymnastics just so people might possibly agree a little bit.

Yeah, high-profile mass-murder cases are inherently sensational. That's not what I meant, though.
 

draythefingerless

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Jul 10, 2010
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DVS BSTrD said:
So what was the ACTUAL quote?
Even_that_takes_time

That's not what they said! I am norwegian and the translation sucks.

"I would still like to point out that sitting alone in your room and playing games, no matter what the scope of the matter, call it addiction or whatnot...
... "Is not the same as having a normal [social] function."
And by that the psychiatrist meant that just because you sit alone playing video games doesnt prove he is socially functional. Not that playing video games is by nature, non socially functionable, just that the guy said he had a normal social function and the evidence he presented was that he sat most of his day playing video games.
 

Kargathia

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Jul 16, 2009
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DustyDrB said:
Kargathia said:
DustyDrB said:
It seemed weird to me because they shouldn't need that kind of sensationalism to get a strong conviction. He seems quite proud of what he's done.
They're still going to go through with the entire hoopla; see all the evidence, hear all the witnesses. Not to mention that in something as emotionally charged as this, you're bound to get some sensationalism.
I mean it seemed like the kind of thing a prosecutor would whip out if he was really reaching and desperate for any kind of conviction: A sensationalistic claim followed by some nuanced mental and verbal gymnastics just so people might possibly agree a little bit.

Yeah, high-profile mass-murder cases are inherently sensational. That's not what I meant, though.
In this case it wasn't the prosecutor; it was a quote from the psychiatric evaluation.
 

sethisjimmy

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May 22, 2009
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mad825 said:
So I take it that Reddit users are one step below 4chan users?
Depends on who you're asking.
They each have their /b/tard meme spouting sections, and they each have sections for normal people and conversation, it's just that the idiots are louder.