Guys , stop defending video games for every wierd glare that they get. The important matter here is that an 18 year old girl got brutally raped and murdered. My condelences to the family of the victim.
Killers Confess in World of Warcraft
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
This whole thing has been going on since D&D started, it will stop (or at least cease relevance) eventually.
Then again, The Beatles/Rolling Stones/Ozzy Osbourne etc. were all enticing evil weren't they? Though from time to time that does come up again, it is usually shot down.
CTV blames WoW when all it did was get even more material for a longer and harsher sentence on some sick psychopaths. that is worthy of a facepalm, but not much longer of my time.
There will always be bad apples in the barrel, that doesn't make the barrel bad, throw away the bad apples and leave the rest alone.
I think its time we all came to accept that the media will do things for attention just like anyone else will, its immature. It's also immature to spend all these words expressing disdain when its apparent that nobody in the general public really took notice of that article.
Then again, The Beatles/Rolling Stones/Ozzy Osbourne etc. were all enticing evil weren't they? Though from time to time that does come up again, it is usually shot down.
CTV blames WoW when all it did was get even more material for a longer and harsher sentence on some sick psychopaths. that is worthy of a facepalm, but not much longer of my time.
There will always be bad apples in the barrel, that doesn't make the barrel bad, throw away the bad apples and leave the rest alone.
I think its time we all came to accept that the media will do things for attention just like anyone else will, its immature. It's also immature to spend all these words expressing disdain when its apparent that nobody in the general public really took notice of that article.
OANST said:
I completely agree, most of these people are more upset that there favourite passtime got insulted rather than a girl getting raped and murdered.
So wait... World Of Warcraft is responsible for bringing these people to justice and a news outlet is claiming that the murder is Wow's fault?
Even if I wasn't a gamer I would be confused and displeased with this news agency. Why? Because they are using a horrific and tragic incident and blaming it on something that aided in bringing the two individuals to the authorities in an effort to generate cheap ratings. If the news blamed phones because the two killers confessed to the police over a cell phone I would be just as disgusted.DestroytheTyrant said:
Ah... the typical "they did this thing, it has violence in it, and therefore that is what caused it" trend. Overused, overplayed, and unfortunately overeffective.
It's a shame that people blame games for real life crimes, when clearly there are other factors involved. But, on the other hand, people would rather find something made to blame instead of someone's instability, prefering everyone to be healthy and normal and having some outside factor cause the "insane" act.
Just wish it wasn't gaming, makes me feel like us video-game enjoying people are being picked on
It's a shame that people blame games for real life crimes, when clearly there are other factors involved. But, on the other hand, people would rather find something made to blame instead of someone's instability, prefering everyone to be healthy and normal and having some outside factor cause the "insane" act.
Just wish it wasn't gaming, makes me feel like us video-game enjoying people are being picked on
Well, to be fair and play Devil's Advocate a bit here, psychologists have found that people that are already mentally unstable do tend to act out their fantasies in the virtual world now before moving on to real targets. They are not saying that violent video games create sado-sexual killers, or that all those d**kbags who camp at a corpse to kill that same person 78 times are killers, but it is easier for those already psychologically predisposed to murder, torture, and rape to escalate their fantasies through video games than it has been in years past. 20 years ago, a killer would start fires, then move on to harming small animals, then small children, then, usually, peeping at women, then theft, then maybe sexual assault or use of prostitutes, then murder. Now, a man can find all of those things online. He can go kill small animals in WoW, then later watch some violent, hardcore porn, maybe a simulated snuff film, then move on to some voyeur films, all without leaving the comfort of his home. (BTW, I am using men as an example because women only kill for pleasure if they are severely unbalanced. Most of you may have seen Monster with Charlize Theron, and the character she played in that movie actually had severe schizophrenia which fed her delusions that she was ridding the world of scum who would probably rape her or other women in the future. An otherwise perfectly normal man can kill for pleasure without giving away the slightest clue. The B.T.K. Killer only got caught because he turned himself in after police speculated, when the killings stopped, that the killer was either dead or incarcerated for another, lesser, crime. Sorry, guys, but we are a messed up bunch.) Anyway, without indicators of past behavior such as setting fires, there is no way to predict that this man who watches hardcore bondage films is actually capable of murder. I bet when they search these boys' hard drives they will find evidence of hardcore violent porn and voyeurism, and a psych evaluation will reveal the same thing. In summary, the internet and video games don't create killers, but they do help killers evolve to that stage much quicker and with less warning. No matter what the internet generation may think, it is a very dangerous tool. And the only defense we have is education.
Sorry, this ran longer than I expected, but I am studying to be a criminal behavioralist, so, this is kind of my thing. I am not condoning CTV's reaction, especially from Canada's biggest and most trusted news source. In point of fact, I am condemning them for shoddy reporting and not speaking to experts, but the point is, we all need to be more careful, more alert, and more critical now than in the past. Using our brains is our only defense against killers like these.
Sorry, this ran longer than I expected, but I am studying to be a criminal behavioralist, so, this is kind of my thing. I am not condoning CTV's reaction, especially from Canada's biggest and most trusted news source. In point of fact, I am condemning them for shoddy reporting and not speaking to experts, but the point is, we all need to be more careful, more alert, and more critical now than in the past. Using our brains is our only defense against killers like these.
I'm just as angered about this as you are, but this kind of talk only helps their point.The Great JT said:
EDIT: I just went and read a few more posts about people being more concerned about the insult to video games than the crime here, and now I feel really bad. That's absolutely right, there is definitely a more pressing issue here.
I concur, but truth does not sell papers. Unless you start your own magazine, it will be up to your editors what is printed and what isn't. Oh, unless you live in a country that still abides by the standards upheld by a Journalistic Ethics Committee. In that case, can I come live with you?Tonimata said:
I am deeply sorry for the loss that you and the victims family are feeling. I can only hope that the two individuals are tried as adults so that justice can be served. The 18 year old almost certainly will be as long as 18 is considered a legal adult in Canada. The Escapist community supports you.pipers_r_gods said:
I blame Stanley Milgram for creating this assumption. It was his research after the Nuremburg Trials (I hope I spelled that right) that led to the population believing that there has to be a social influence for people to commit atrocities. The problem was, he was a social psychologist, so his research holds no weight in the field of criminal psychology.the-kitchen-slayer said:
http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/a/milgram.htm
That is a link to a synopsis of Milgram's famous experiment if anyone does not know the details. It is a fascinating study, really.
I agree man. But we as gamers, are making ourselves look immature by being more sensitive about our favourite pass time getting used as a scapegoat instead of a girl getting raped and murdered. That is all I'am trying to point out.Canid117 said:
LMAO. "During the BlizzCon dance contest, this guy got on stage and gently hopped so hard that he shattered his own leg. His brittle bones shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone. Without physical activity, the only way a human body can digest a Hot Pocket is by shedding layers of its own skeleton to battle it. Bones aren't the only thing that atrophy when you're in the World of Warcraft, though."Woodsey said:
Read more: http://www.cracked.com/blog/8-questions-every-wow-fan-apparently-needs-answered/#ixzz13mOZVDU1
Both irrelevant, and untrue. Irrelevant because the joke was made. Untrue because whether or not you were calling attention to it, you were making the joke anytime anyone read your profile. Directly or not, you were making a joke about rape at the same time you're trying to act sympathetic towards a rape victim.OANST said:
Actually it has everything to do with everything. How are we supposed to believe that you're appalled by this article being disrespectful towards a rape victim when you're making a tasteless joke about rape inside your profile (Which, by the way, just tacking "Not" before the words doesn't make it any-less tasteless)? It's the old glass house argument. You can't call someone out for being disrespectful when you're arguably being worse about it. It'd be like if Fox News accused CNN of being biased in their news coverage; maybe they'd be correct in their assertion, but they still have no place calling someone out on something they do just as bad if not worse.
It's beyond a "weird glare", and more of a finger pointed directly at us in a very public manner. And no one will disagree that the murder was tragic, but what's even more tragic is the thought that people fear-mongering on video games will provide a scapegoat that gives the murders leniency in their trial. I mean really, what's worse? The needless murder of one girl; or the murders getting an easy scapegoat that gets them off the hook so they can go out and do it again?DestroytheTyrant said:
This isn't just about covering our asses, it's about making sure that criminals can't use us to cover their own asses as well. If a punishment serves any purpose, it's to make sure that people are too afraid to break a law. If any scapegoat means that they can get away with it a lot more easily then believe me they'll milk that scapegoat for everything its worth, and the video game hate mongers are just going to make it easier for them.
You know, I actually understand it when people blame Manhunt for real-life violent behaviour. You can see where they're coming from; teen plays violent game and re-enacts scenes from it, game's at fault. It's a logical, though incorrect, conclusion (the person who commited the crime was already predisposed to violence, the game provided exact inspiration in terms of themes and methods blah blah blah we already know this).
WoW isn't quite as realistic, but I can again see where people are coming from when they blame it for violence. I do understand how they arrived at their flawed conclusion. Boy runs around in WoW stabbing things with a knife, evantually staps the local bully with a machete... you can see the similarities even when you know there are deeper psychological issues (not least that it was the local bully the boy stabbed. Funny how the teachers all know he's the local bully now eh?).
But blaming World of Warcraft for a 16 year old raping somebody? Where does that come from? Apart from (and this is a guess, I've never played WoW) the usual backstory to whatever the half-orcs are called this time round, where the fuck is the inspiration for that?
WoW isn't quite as realistic, but I can again see where people are coming from when they blame it for violence. I do understand how they arrived at their flawed conclusion. Boy runs around in WoW stabbing things with a knife, evantually staps the local bully with a machete... you can see the similarities even when you know there are deeper psychological issues (not least that it was the local bully the boy stabbed. Funny how the teachers all know he's the local bully now eh?).
But blaming World of Warcraft for a 16 year old raping somebody? Where does that come from? Apart from (and this is a guess, I've never played WoW) the usual backstory to whatever the half-orcs are called this time round, where the fuck is the inspiration for that?