Teenager Kills Mother, Commits Suicide Over Gaming Argument

[Choppaduel]

Oh well, 2 losses of about 6.5 billion people is nothing

and while you were typing that 20 more were born.

Exactly, it's meaningless. None of us knew either of them so what does it matter?

yep. life's cheap these days isnt it?

it'll only matter if it starting happening a lot more often. A LOT more.

 

[The Rockerfly]

yep. life's cheap these days isnt it?

it'll only matter if it starting happening a lot more often. A LOT more.

I completely agree and even then, none of us will do anything about it
Instant gratifications is all most people want, especially to us consumers. It won't benefit any of us saving these fucked up addicts

 

[Signa]

I have to feel sorry for the kid in this one. The fact that he killed himself says to me that he ended up taking something far further than he meant to. It could happen to anyone who loses their temper. It's not at all like that kid with the sledgehammer that was mentioned on the first page: That kid was completely fucked up.

 

[DTWolfwood]

crime of passion, sad but it happens

just sucks gaming was involved. then again its not as big of deal when its not gaming related.

Indeed a crime of passion... A PASSION TOWARDS VIDEO GAMES
video games are indeed to blame for this death in a society that celebrates games such as starcraft and the only way to become really " good" at sc is to play mass games 10 hours+ a day.
Indeed video games are to blame.

Heres the last SC related death [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm] you ignorant tool. Get your fact straight b4 you respond. A thinking game doesn't turn you violent.

 

[Danish rage]

I suspect bad parreting more than anything else. MY guess? A controling mother, a teenage son, and no dad. Guess what went wrong in that picture?

poor souls all of them.

 

[Rasputin1]

Cue Fox News in three... two... one...

Seriously, why the heck does this crap keep happening?

Maybe because there might actually be a pattern?

I second this. I'm starting to think that games may actually be causing harm. With the amount of violence that can actually be traced directly to games.. it's sort of hard to just say "don't blame games" anymore.

 

[Vault Citizen]

*face palm* oh poop, more ammunition for the "Video games are from the rampant loins of Satan" brigade, and at a time when the Supreme Court is deciding whether or not they deserve first ammendment protection too.

 

[The Real Sandman]

For someone to murder someone else, they'd have to be pretty screwed up.

For someone to murder someone else and kill themselves afterwords, they'd have to be completely bat shit insane.

See also, Columbine and Virgina Tech.

 

[Dastardly]

I disagree on addiction in general. There are psycological components to addictions, but I do believe people can be addicted to things without personality flaws. A good example of this would be how pimps and whoremasters will get their girls addicted to drugs as a way of controlling them. All sarcasm about "nobody forced a needle in your arm" aside, in some cases that's exactly what happens.

And some people get addicted in this way, and others do not. The difference? It's psychological. After all, this hypothetical person has already fallen in with pimps and whoremasters--shouldn't that be a sign that they're already making less-than-ideal choices?

Don't think that I'm using "psychological disorders" or "personality flaws" in the way pop-science does. I don't think that every single thing that happens is "genetic" or "a chemical imbalance in the brain." These problems that lead to addictive behavior are developed over time, throughout childhood even, and can also be worked on in a similar manner.

It's like this, if your typical "extreme" gamer of any age was hit by a bolt of destiny, and given their ideal life, it's doubtful that nothing would change and they would remain right there playing video games. Rather they would head off to their awesome, and important job, have sex with their gorgeous girlfriend or wife, and spend their mountains of cash travelling around the world or whatever. If he was an addict this wouldn't be the case. He might still like video games, but he sure as heck wouldn't spend anywhere near as much time playing them.

Many, however, would behave as addicts. You're creating an ideal situation where one may not exist--this bolt of destiny can't be allowed to change a person's personality or psychology, or you've got a totally different person, and no point is proved. If they are severely introverted, antisocial, feeling persecuted, video games offer a decent escape and "power fantasy" for them. Without video games, they'd simply have found another.

What makes addiction different from obsession is that the addiction begins to supercede the reasons for beginning it. You got into X because it was fun/relaxing, but now you do it because... well... because it's what you do. Your mind gives up control, and you go on autopilot to the last place where you felt "okay." You are no longer choosing to engage in the activity in any conscious way, it's just your new default setting, regardless of consequences.

That is a personality type, usually developed over a lifetime. Withdrawal, the physical side of the coin, has an impact on whether a person chooses to fix the problem. Of course, that withdrawal can also be psychological. If a person becomes addicted to a coping mechanism (actually an avoidance mechanism), and they have to quit it to break the addiction, they're suddenly forced to cope directly with reality, which can be pretty jarring and send them running straight back.

Korean internet obsession is not an addiction but simply making used of one of their better national resources. Korea being in the state it is, I'm not surprised there are far more people hitting the escapism hard there than in most places.

Obsession borders on, and can easily become, addiction. Someone who uses the internet a lot is not necessarily obsessed or addicted. But when it becomes a ruling force in their lives, or leads them to destructive behaviors, it's in a different ballpark.

 

[Best of the 3]

Alright, this incident happened because of some disturbed kid, not because of games.
You'd have to be an idiot to view it any other way.

That is so true, but unfortunately the media won't see it like that. It's like over here (in Costa Rica) a kid (16 or so) killed his dad by putting a kitchen knife through his neck while they were playing FIFA because his dad was better that he was at the stupid game... I mean that's something I would expect from a slasher movie like Friday the 13th...

I mean a whole kitchen knife through the neck of your father... :S

It's like the Russian Kid who killed his dad while he was sleeping with a Sledgehammer because he had grounded him and put the games away... The scary thing is that the kid killed his dad and then just went to play his videogame like nothing had happened at all.

I read both those those stories on here. Nasty stuff they were.

I feel quite sad about this story, nobody wins here.

 

[ExileNZ]

Straw that broke the camel's back.

Next.

 

[8-Bit Grin]

I wonder what game he was playing...

Does anyone know?

 

[Teh_Dave]

This could have escalated from an arguement over anything, just because its video games its getting blow out of proportion.

 

[thahat]

*sigh*

Again? Really? It doesn't exactly help my industry's efforts to clear its name when people keep pulling stupid stunts like this. As usual, this will be blamed on us without any note given to the simple fact that people with serious mental issues are going to be prone to irrational or violent acts regardless of whether they were just playing Gears of War or My Little Goddamn Pony.

As children, most of us learned how to properly connect the dots. Why have we, as adults, forgotten how to do so?

cause of of the adults, are, frankly, idiots.
then you have politicians who want to get votes from said idiots and hey! and easy to understand target! lets go agains videogames!

anyway, its all a bit foolish because we have what,3.2 BILION people in the world.
anyone can do the maths on this, its surprising that it doesnt happen MORE OFTEN.

 

[DTWolfwood]

crime of passion, sad but it happens

just sucks gaming was involved. then again its not as big of deal when its not gaming related.

Indeed a crime of passion... A PASSION TOWARDS VIDEO GAMES
video games are indeed to blame for this death in a society that celebrates games such as starcraft and the only way to become really " good" at sc is to play mass games 10 hours+ a day.
Indeed video games are to blame.

Heres the last SC related death [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm] you ignorant tool. Get your fact straight b4 you respond. A thinking game doesn't turn you violent.

Thankyou for pointing out this wonderful news article. I didnt state above that starcraft was to blame i said it is a culture that has spawned this type of competitive gaming. I would like to quote a professor from within that very artical for your reading pleasure.

"They are the types of games that completely engross the player. They are not games that you can play for 20 minutes and stop"

Professor Mark Griffiths

thankyou and goodnight.

Video games is as much to blame for this kids temporary insanity as alcohol is to a drunk who just did the same thing. Correlation is not causation.

Last i check competition among healthy sensible people makes them better persons overall not the other way around. But I guess its easier just to stereotype an entire nation of people and their culture based solely on the actions of a few video game addicts, and at the same time damn an entire entertainment industry for being related to these weak willed people.