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Earlier this month Tim Kretschmer, a 17 year-old German youth, took his father’s Beretta 9mm pistol and went on a rampage at his former high school that left 15 dead before he turned the gun on himself. He was a keen player of the squad-based shooter, CounterStrike. Can you see where this is going yet?
Yes, it’s that hoary chestnut about the causal link between video games and violence. And now Heini Schmitt, the chief of Germany’s Police Union, has joined the debate, calling for a ban on the sale of so-called “killergames”.
Schmitt states that roughly a third of (German) children and youths “regularly and addictively escape into a virtual world” and, while no measurable evidence of such a connection is offered, he thinks that “these frequent escapes into virtual killerworlds can contribute to such insane deeds”.
“When a chance to remove a probable cause exists, it must be used,” he concludes. “The world would be no poorer if there were no more killergames.”
Of course Herr Schmitt is not the first to hold such opinions - see any of the numerous pronouncements on the subject made by Leicester MP, Keith Vaz. Also it’s well-known that the Colombine High School killers were fans of the first-person blaster, Doom. But probable cause? …Really?
It would seem to us that videogames are being unfairly scapegoated - again. Surely individuals with a mind to undertake such horrific crimes will be drawn to media that fits with their twisted worldview in whatever form it takes - be it literature, cinema or videogames etc. Even so, it’s still a massive leap to suggest that such media can actually convert otherwise mild-mannered citizens into murderous psychopaths.
You can probably tell which side of the fence we‘re sitting on, but where‘s your head at? Survival/horror "killergame" Resident Evil 5 has just topped the games charts and violent drug deal ‘em up, Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars (the Nintendo DS’ first 18-rated game) looks set to repeat the feat - should we be double-locking our doors at night?
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User comments
The problem is not the games. It is something that was found and solved forty years ago, Subliminal Distraction. VisionAndPsychosis.Net
Posted by: justruckn44 on Wed Mar 25 04:38AM | Report abuseIf you look back to reporting on atrocities before video games were considered dangerous then you'll see that certain films or kinds of music were blamed. It's always a lot easier to point to some form of entertainment as the cause of kids shooting or attacking people and video games are just the last in a long line of "causes" for violence.
Posted by: glog68 on Thu Mar 26 12:06PM | Report abuse