Seven-Year-Old Girl Murdered for Videogame Money
- Thread starter Barbalute
- Start date
some people chatting balls about government regulated game time, seriously? how the hell.. no just no that's even less possible than trying to control the internet.
whatever you do i'l still have my psp suckers!
although the weeny eyestrain-o-vision would get to me after a while.
and, ive said it on many an article, these things come down to bad parenting what we truly need is government controlled population control, if you cant afford or cant look after a child, you shouldn't have one, period. it %$&*" up your life, their life and other people's lives, as proven here.
it would also limit the resources we suck from the ground on a daily basis, actually improving people's lives!
but no, attack the last possible thing in the chain first, because that's logical isn't it.
whatever you do i'l still have my psp suckers!
although the weeny eyestrain-o-vision would get to me after a while.
and, ive said it on many an article, these things come down to bad parenting what we truly need is government controlled population control, if you cant afford or cant look after a child, you shouldn't have one, period. it %$&*" up your life, their life and other people's lives, as proven here.
it would also limit the resources we suck from the ground on a daily basis, actually improving people's lives!
but no, attack the last possible thing in the chain first, because that's logical isn't it.
Video games are like alcohol. One shot ain't bad. Two shots is doable. The amount of alcohol you can take depends from person to person. You just should not push it. But nooooo, everybody wants to get drunk. And taking too much is never a good thing. But alcohol on it's own ain't bad.Barbalute said:
It's simple, if people can't take it, they shouldn't drink it.
Enough with the analogy. It's the person's fault. It was, is and always will be. Don't blame the games.
And damn that kid is crazy.
Couple points.
First, unless I totally misread this, the problem had absolutely nothing to do with the MMO. The problem is the infrastructure in that country where internet cafes exist. You could have the exact same thing with email, social networking or anything you can do on a computer, so trying to connect it to the MMO is just plain wrong. Dont hate the game.. hate the platform I guess.
Secondly. As much as a gaming advocate as I might be, I am a student of Psychology. There is a degree of validity to the claims that MMOs are a new source of addiction. Keep in mind that they have the same yardmarkers as established addictions such as gambling and drinking. MMOs are less than 15 years old. So its natural we do not yet fully understand how they effect people.
Im not claiming this is proof, however I had my own bouts of MMO addiction at one point in my life. It was clear to me that MMOs held an addictive power when back when I played EQ heavily that when the power went out, I literally stared at the modems "connected" button waiting in anger for it to stop blinking. There was also a time when I was so addicted to the game that I would log in for hours, but never even leave shadowhaven (a safe zone), and after doing that for about a month, I knew there was something seriously wrong and I worked on breaking that addictive behavior.
Ive never had a problem with addictive behavior in my life. However MMOs were as close as I ever got. So I can see someone who has less self restraint or willpower not being able to cut themselves off from an addictive activity, and it progressing into something far worse than just playing a game.
Look, I love games as much as the next person, but I think its a little off to ignore something that is pretty obvious with anectdotal evidence that is being studied and that research likely will confirm the validity of addiction, just because you like video games and are afraid of the negative backlash that will come if they are found addictive.
First, unless I totally misread this, the problem had absolutely nothing to do with the MMO. The problem is the infrastructure in that country where internet cafes exist. You could have the exact same thing with email, social networking or anything you can do on a computer, so trying to connect it to the MMO is just plain wrong. Dont hate the game.. hate the platform I guess.
Secondly. As much as a gaming advocate as I might be, I am a student of Psychology. There is a degree of validity to the claims that MMOs are a new source of addiction. Keep in mind that they have the same yardmarkers as established addictions such as gambling and drinking. MMOs are less than 15 years old. So its natural we do not yet fully understand how they effect people.
Im not claiming this is proof, however I had my own bouts of MMO addiction at one point in my life. It was clear to me that MMOs held an addictive power when back when I played EQ heavily that when the power went out, I literally stared at the modems "connected" button waiting in anger for it to stop blinking. There was also a time when I was so addicted to the game that I would log in for hours, but never even leave shadowhaven (a safe zone), and after doing that for about a month, I knew there was something seriously wrong and I worked on breaking that addictive behavior.
Ive never had a problem with addictive behavior in my life. However MMOs were as close as I ever got. So I can see someone who has less self restraint or willpower not being able to cut themselves off from an addictive activity, and it progressing into something far worse than just playing a game.
Look, I love games as much as the next person, but I think its a little off to ignore something that is pretty obvious with anectdotal evidence that is being studied and that research likely will confirm the validity of addiction, just because you like video games and are afraid of the negative backlash that will come if they are found addictive.
*Sigh* Fox news is going to get a hold of this, I just know it
I never understood how people could say video games are just as addicting as drugs, Something can't be addictive if there's no addictive substance... Right? Anyway I don't think this crime really had anything to do with video games, Just a really messed up kid who snapped
I never understood how people could say video games are just as addicting as drugs, Something can't be addictive if there's no addictive substance... Right? Anyway I don't think this crime really had anything to do with video games, Just a really messed up kid who snapped
Some people are just messed up, and blaming games is not just disrespectful, it is skirting the issue. Some people are just easily addicted, or just don't understand right from wrong. But in my personal opinion, that could be anyone if they were raised that way, so I think it's the parents fault. But I can't tell for sure unless I researched this a bit more, and that would just be horribly depressing.
Having put well over 200 hours into modern warefare II, I easily say that games aren't *that* addicting, eventually the repetitive grind wears thin and you get bored PROVIDED you play by yourself and not in a guild, and if you stay on as a result of the guild, it's a social addiction, enjoying the game with outer people, you could just as easily switch to playing rugby if the same guildmates came over for a pint. >_>
I think we need a new word for behavioural or mental addiction, so the word addiction can't be used to deliberately confuse the issue with chemical addiction.
Generally the stories printed about 'game addiction' are desperate to pin Tetris down as the new heroin (as that's about how clued up and current their experts are, too).
Do MMOs come with a tube you stick in your arm so it can release chemicals into your arm that your body will come to crave? No. Can it be an enjoyable way of spending free time, so enjoyable that you may want to do it more than other things? Yes. That's the difference, and that's why 'addiction' is a highly suspect word.
I like cake, I'm not ADDICTED to it, tho I'd be unhappy if I was never allowed any more cake ever.
Just liking something and doing it a lot is not addiction - and if I'm going to be fair, the gaming community itself doesn't help, using 'addictive' as a complimentary term in game reviews. It SHOULDN'T be a problem, but there's too many trolls out there in need of feeding, and using that word is a shot in the arm for them. (see what I did there?)
News in short: 'mentally ill sicko murders little girl for money' what he wanted money FOR, isn't the issue, if it was games, crack, whores, or pringles, the end result and the reasons were the same.
Wouldn't it be refreshing if you turned on the news tomorrow and heard the presenter state -
'In the headlines today - an old woman was murdered for her pension money, experts state the man killer her because he is 'fucked in the head', in other news...'
Generally the stories printed about 'game addiction' are desperate to pin Tetris down as the new heroin (as that's about how clued up and current their experts are, too).
Do MMOs come with a tube you stick in your arm so it can release chemicals into your arm that your body will come to crave? No. Can it be an enjoyable way of spending free time, so enjoyable that you may want to do it more than other things? Yes. That's the difference, and that's why 'addiction' is a highly suspect word.
I like cake, I'm not ADDICTED to it, tho I'd be unhappy if I was never allowed any more cake ever.
Just liking something and doing it a lot is not addiction - and if I'm going to be fair, the gaming community itself doesn't help, using 'addictive' as a complimentary term in game reviews. It SHOULDN'T be a problem, but there's too many trolls out there in need of feeding, and using that word is a shot in the arm for them. (see what I did there?)
News in short: 'mentally ill sicko murders little girl for money' what he wanted money FOR, isn't the issue, if it was games, crack, whores, or pringles, the end result and the reasons were the same.
Wouldn't it be refreshing if you turned on the news tomorrow and heard the presenter state -
'In the headlines today - an old woman was murdered for her pension money, experts state the man killer her because he is 'fucked in the head', in other news...'
It annoys me when people try to say that gaming is an addiction and limits and restrictions must be put on them. But on topic, that is just despicable. Killing a little girl for money for a video game? Come on kid, you can do better than that, just ask your parents for money.
I sort of understand where you are coming from, the whole "it is more fun than other activities, so I would rather do this than to other boring activity" appproach, but think of it more as a mental addiction than a physical addiction. Just because it isn't a physical object like tobacco doesn't mean that you can't become addicted to it.RT-Medic-with-shotgun said:
The reason people become addicted is because of the in game rewards, they make you feel good, like achievements they give you a sense of pride, make you want to play more. You start to feel more successful in game than real life, so you start to play the game more to feel better about yourself.
As for the whole blaming games thing, believe me I will stand up for games just like the next person. But I do draw a line at certain times. Take this article for instance, the kid obviously has mental problems, I mean who would do a thing like that. But the reason why he killed that girl was so he could play a game. I'm not saying games are fully to blame, but obviously partly. He had an addiction, he felt the need to play it so badly he murdered someone to do it. I know this is a gaming community, but somewhere along the line I just stop and think that, yeah, games are part of the problem here. This is just a very rare case though, and the kid obviously had big issues, which is why I continue to stand up for gaming, because it definitely gets more hate than it deserves.
But hey, they are called opinion for a reason, we are both right and wrong, and don't worry I understand where you are coming from and can see the sense in it, its just that I am thinking a little differently about the situation
i believe you can get addicted to video games, just like you can become addicted to watching tv, surfing the web, eating, and exercising. But the addiction, while harmful, will not engender this kind of violence on its own. No way. There was obviously some other issue here--mental, environmental, we don't know. But take note: not even hopeless addicts beat children to death with rocks to gain some play time. That is not in the behavior pattern.
In other words: Silence, Woolley, you pontificating fool. You do not know what you speak of.
In other words: Silence, Woolley, you pontificating fool. You do not know what you speak of.
Seconded. About him being f**ked in the head, I mean.McMullen said:
The media that blames video games needs to be focused more on other stuff. Like, say, I dunno... EVERYTHING.
We might as well take out anything fun and not free because some people will kill for fun things if we ban videogames