Swedish Gamer Stabs Girl Over Dropped Internet Connection

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
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Swedish Gamer Stabs Girl Over Dropped Internet Connection


An 18-year-old StarCraft [http://www.blizzard.com/us/starcraft/] player has been committed to psychiatric care for repeatedly stabbing a 15-year-old girl after his internet connection dropped while he was in the middle of a game.

The teenager, from Sweden, was apparently driven into a homicidal rage when his internet connection went down during a hot-and-heavy game of StarCraft. Rather than calling his ISP or troubleshooting his hardware, he decided that the appropriate course of action would be to grab a kitchen knife and go for a late-night walk.

While strolling through his neighborhood, he came upon the victim, who was returning home from a party with a friend. Fortunately, despite being stabbed multiple times, none of the girl's injuries were life-threatening. The perpetrator was arrested after his father discovered the knife, with blood on it, in the house.

While the prosecutor in the case sought a verdict of attempted murder, the court found the knife-wielding teenager guilty of attempted manslaughter instead because of his "mental health condition" and the fact that he apparently had no actual intent to kill the girl.

It's never fun to read about someone being stabbed but the report by Swedish site Metro [http://www.translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.metro.se%2F2009%2F10%2F08%2F79624%2Fdataspelet-kranglade-da-ville-pojken-%2F&sl=sv&tl=en&history_state0=] does give the incident a certain "news noir" edge to it that I can't help but find amusing. The Google translation takes a toll, naturally, but this is still great stuff. "His thoughts became even darker when the internet connection was broken and he could not continue the war game StarCraft," the report said, reading like some kind of awesomely Engrish Raymond Chandler short.

"The computer-game-fixed 18 year old suddenly had no internet connection to function," it continued. "His dark thoughts about what it would be to kill made him suddenly grabbing a kitchen knife and go out into the residential area late on Saturday night."

The report claimed the incident, which actually took place on August 9, was one of "many unusual acts of violence" committed by teenagers this summer, although there was no suggestion that any of the other crimes were related to gaming.

via: SK Gaming [http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/26654-Starcraft_player_charged_after_knife_attack]


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Legion

Were it so easy
Oct 2, 2008
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Oh, for Christ sake. Why do we get these morons who constantly have to give the naysayers ammunition.

It becomes increasingly difficult to defend gamers/ing when you get people like this, especially when in this case the victim was a 'random' 15 year old girl who is now probably scarred for life both literally and metaphorically.
 

Legion

Were it so easy
Oct 2, 2008
7,190
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Vegetarian Barbarian said:
Funny, sad, but funny.
Yes... hilarious... Now imagine it was your sister/friend/girlfriend who was walking alone that night and that the person hit an artery instead. Not so funny now is it.

Internet hard guys are not generally welcomed here.
 

Xvito

New member
Aug 16, 2008
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That's... Actually, a really good translation...!?

It does sound kind of funny.
 

Gunner 51

New member
Jun 21, 2009
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Nutters are everywhere. Some play games and others don't. But it is very unfair of the media to blame games on underlying (and undiagnosed) mental health issues.

The trouble with such mental health issues is that they simply are not visible like a physical illness. Games are just an easy scapegoat for an ill-informed media who simply want ratings and sales.
 

DaxStrife

Late Reviewer
Nov 29, 2007
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So, does Sweden not teach their people conflict resolution or stress management techniques?
 

Elesar

New member
Apr 16, 2009
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Every so often I think I might regain a TINY bit of my faith in humanity.
And then shit like this happens.
 

KarumaK

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Sep 24, 2008
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Vegetarian Barbarian said:
Funny, sad, but funny.
It really is though isn't it? Time marches on, progress is made, but crazy... crazy never changes.
 

Vierran

None here.
Oct 11, 2009
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It is always sad to hear about incidents like this i just hope the media doesn't simply put the blame on the game or the internet in general as the sole purpose of the attack, which it clearly isn't.
 

Distorted Stu

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Sep 22, 2009
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many unusual acts of violence.. not moving to sweden then! How odd, i bet it wasn't all just the game though, he must of been pissed off about something else too. Still, that is harsh, i would never stab someone after losing internet connect. Hammers are where its at. Poor girl.
 

wolfy098

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May 1, 2009
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Distorted Stu said:
many unusual acts of violence.. not moving to sweden then! How odd, i bet it wasn't all just the game though, he must of been pissed off about something else too. Still, that is harsh, i would never stab someone after losing internet connect. Hammers are where its at. Poor girl.
careful theres a banhammer nearby

soz double post
my bad