... yes... yes.. YES! Why didn't i see it before! I will turn the children of Halo 3 into my army of lunatic douchebags and it will all be blamed on Peggle! The world is mine!swaki said:
Times Online Points to Games as Motivation for Planned School Attack
- Thread starter Greg Tito
- Start date
World of warcraft?
Well if the kid showed up with 60 other kids using magic and battle axes and camping the "graveyard" I'd buy it....
Once again, kids if you plan to blow away the 40 + bullies that beat you down ever day please please....load your ps2 with barbies horse adventures and you cd player with Zamfir master of the pan flute then do it.... you will totally baffle anyone figuring out your motive.
Well if the kid showed up with 60 other kids using magic and battle axes and camping the "graveyard" I'd buy it....
Once again, kids if you plan to blow away the 40 + bullies that beat you down ever day please please....load your ps2 with barbies horse adventures and you cd player with Zamfir master of the pan flute then do it.... you will totally baffle anyone figuring out your motive.
OH MY GOSH! IT'S SO CLEAR NOW!!!Greg Tito said:Times Online Points to Games as Motivation for Planned School Attack
Predictably, the fact that a French boy played World of WarCraft is the only story that matters, even though he did not go through with the planned attack on his school.
A 13-year-old kid was arrested in Beauvais, France on Tuesday for attempted murder. Known only as Bastien, he made a post on his blog hinting an attack at his school and his parents, seeing the post, called the police. The authorities shut down Saint Esprit college, a Catholic private secondary school, and barricaded the front entrance. Bastien allegedly left his home with his father's shotgun and 25 cartridges, but upon seeing the police at the school's gate, ditched the gun in a field and ran off. He was later found in an internet cafe by his father. Bastien's friends said that he played World of WarCraft.
Those are the only facts known, yet the Times Online found it necessary to run with the headline "Computer games fan 'planned school massacre. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6922201.ece]'" It is upsetting that even an attack that was thwarted is blamed on the fact that the perpetrator played videogames. With games becoming so ubiquitous, that biographical detail has almost no bearing on stories of this nature. It might just as well be reported that Bastien played basketball, or that he enjoyed drinking Coke.
According to the French prosecutor, the boy, usually an excellent student, stated that he was upset that he recently received bad grades from his teachers and that he was planning to kill them all because of it. Hmm, maybe the academic pressures of a very competitive school atmosphere pushed Bastien to the edge of possibility committing murder? Maybe? Nah, it was clearly videogames.
It is just sloppy reporting by an uninformed writer, especially since the article describes WoW as a "hugely popular online game in which the player takes the role of a fantasy warrior from the Middle Ages." Yeah, right. The Middle Ages had orcs.
I don't know about you, but I'm disgusted.
Source: GamePolitics [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6922201.ece]
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The shotgun was clearly around in the middle ages and used frequently by the characters of WOW so the boy simply got too absorbed in the game and went on a killing spree because he confused real life with the game.
This report is just ridiculous. "Raising question on violent games". What nonsense. The kid was upset about his grades not masturbating over his female dwarf character, who told him to shotgun the students in a dream. The reporter is just twisting the story to make it so other people read it, side with his opinion and the times can further their force to put down gamers without a real voice in the UK.
Uh, "Super Columbine Massacre RPG" was made by a single person, presumably with a simple piece of software similar to "RPG Maker", which anyone can use to make a rudimentary game in approximately 1 week or less.Yoshi_egg80 said:
It doesn't count.
It's like saying a high school kid writes a questionable essay and regarding it as part of the 'book industry'. There isn't a book industry, it's just free flowing information and art if you will. Same with games...
Super Columbine Massacre RPG isn't art, obviously, but this is no "notable game" by any stretch of the imagination. Don't believe me? Download RPG Maker and make an RPG.
*yawn*
Society needs object to blame problems on, so as not to focus on the underlying problems. Videogames are the current scapegoat. The people most opposed are those who have no interaction with them, because people are scared of the unknown. Further, they like to use the unknown as a scapegoat.
Also, Frenchy threatens or promises action and bails? also yawn. (sorry)
ADDITION: Not to blame objects again, but Dad owned a gun and his kid had access to it... hrm... Yes, it is the gun's fault. Not Dad's. That's crazy talk.
Society needs object to blame problems on, so as not to focus on the underlying problems. Videogames are the current scapegoat. The people most opposed are those who have no interaction with them, because people are scared of the unknown. Further, they like to use the unknown as a scapegoat.
Also, Frenchy threatens or promises action and bails? also yawn. (sorry)
ADDITION: Not to blame objects again, but Dad owned a gun and his kid had access to it... hrm... Yes, it is the gun's fault. Not Dad's. That's crazy talk.
He said specifically a form of mediaSyphonX said:
me⋅di⋅a
1  /ˈmidiə/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [mee-dee-uh] Show IPA
?noun
that reach or influence people widely
Games do that, even really bad, and poorly made ones even though the word "widely" is a bit of a stretch here.
I fear for the worlds safety once that Popcap/Square Enix game comes out... or did it already...?swaki said:
Really? No seriously really? Slow news day at the Escapist. This shit happens once a week nowadays and it doesn't matter. Anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together can see that these media sites are just whoring themselves trying to get our attention. Hoping we gamers who spend so much time on the internet debating stupid crap will focus our nerdrage at them and increase thier ad revenue with hits. it is called the 7 degrees of video games. The goal is to associate any tragedy with games. Soon they will be telling us Hitler caused the holocaust because of video games.
Well that just spoiled my day. Guess I will just pick somewhere else to go in my time machine now. *sigh*CantFaketheFunk said:
OT: Behold the power of journalism at work. Can blame the french, but these days any news source does a halfass job in their research.
What kinda concerns me is if this kid really was a hard worker, and contributor to his class, then what really did give him the dumb idea that murdering his teachers would change his grades? We are such a long way away from true psychotherapy, and anyone who says different is a fool.
Sidenote: Hope nobody decided to pick up that shotgun and take it to a police station, or they'd end up getting arrested.
You are not the first, nor will be the last to grief about an article being so generic. You are welcome to your opinion about the article, this is the point of the forum thread. But if you really feel the need for more "newsworthy" items, you are also more than welcome to contribute as well.squid5580 said:
If we decide to stop responding to every article that insinuates that games contribute to real life violence and crime, then people will not have any differing opinion to have about such articles, and agree that games do contribute and there should be something done to quell the problem. If news like this isn't questioned, we may as well sit on our hands and wait for the days when the only games that are playable are like Mass We Pray [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96208-Mass-We-Pray-A-Holy-Hoax-or-Just-a-Really-Bad-Game].
Of course there weren't. They were all wiped out by the Horde.SilentHunter7 said:
EDIT: Whoops, Orcs are Horde, aren't they? Tells you how much I know about WoW.
I know I will get laughed at and told I am a fool but I still firmly believe the vast majority of people aren't stupid. Not stupid enough to actually believe this or any of the other media whoring sites who promote similar stories. Or would listen fanatics like Jack Thompson and take thier word as law. Now don't get me wrong here if a site were to put out this story in an unbiased fashion that the general public would read I would be all over that in a second. All this article and others like it aren't unbiased at all and are infact nerdtraps. They expect us to get our knickers in a knot and fight (which by now has probably happened). Unfortunately this is a set up and our passion will kick in making us look like we are exactly what they are portraying us to be. Or twist our words. A big arguement here is why was the shotgun and ammo lying around. Which would be followed by WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO TAKE OUR GUNS AWAY NOW?samsonguy920 said:
The way I see it we don't need to fight this battle. Why? Because this battle has already been fought and won. It was won the moment Jack spouted off and someone said 2 simple words. PROVE IT. They are the ones making the accusations. We on the other hand have nothing to prove. 40 million consoles, an extremely graphic violent game sells 5 million copies in the first week and there hasn't been millions of casualties or deaths is all the proof we need. Any response we put out there is just going to give the fanatics more ammuntion unless it is those 2 simple words.
*EDIT*
BTW you are aware that the comments are monitored by a mod right? That any arguement you might pose has to pass through a person who is employed by the site before it posts. Gamers will surely get a fair shake.
Video Game Playing Teen's Murder Plot Foiled.
A young boy's plan to go on a killing spree was brought to a halt when his parents discovered his plans posted on a blog. The Catholic school student ended his plot with the words "feel the wrath of God" (wrath being a spell possessed by his level 20 druid alt) and "for the lord [Jesus Christ]" a phrase bearing a significant resemblance to the warcry "for the Horde" spoken by the ultra realistic characters of that faction.
...Oh and supposedly he was molested by a priest... The priest also played videogames.
A young boy's plan to go on a killing spree was brought to a halt when his parents discovered his plans posted on a blog. The Catholic school student ended his plot with the words "feel the wrath of God" (wrath being a spell possessed by his level 20 druid alt) and "for the lord [Jesus Christ]" a phrase bearing a significant resemblance to the warcry "for the Horde" spoken by the ultra realistic characters of that faction.
...Oh and supposedly he was molested by a priest... The priest also played videogames.
