Jack Thompson Blames Videogames for Virginia Tech Shooting.

darkpenguin said:

I can see how games could be blamed in a small way, there are many violent games where you can kill people in numerous sometimes sick ways and there are no consequences.
There are also scientific links between violent games and aggresion.

I'm not saying that games are to blame but you can't deny that some make you agressive and that some games and media make you immune to violence and make you perceive it as being normal.

Maybe there is a link here and maybe there isn't, all I'm saying is don't dismiss the idea as just being some silly scapegoat as it is a very valid explanation as to why someone might do what that guy did.

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Games don't 'make' you agressive. You are already agressive without them, you just haven't found your trigger yet. Blaming games is ridiculous. This young man chose to go out and kill people and after he had killed two, he knowingly went to the post office and mailed NBC his rhetoric and knowingly went and killed many more. The game didn't 'cause' him to do this; he may have gotten an idea from a game; but that's like blaming you cousin for giving you an idea. He choose to act of his own accord and it was his fault -- not a games.

beckysoup61 said:

Games don't 'make' you agressive. You are already agressive without them, you just haven't found your trigger yet. Blaming games is ridiculous. This young man chose to go out and kill people and after he had killed two, he knowingly went to the post office and mailed NBC his rhetoric and knowingly went and killed many more. The game didn't 'cause' him to do this; he may have gotten an idea from a game; but that's like blaming you cousin for giving you an idea. He choose to act of his own accord and it was his fault -- not a games.

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Hey hey hey, I'm not blaming games completely I'm just making the point that they can have a part in warping peoples minds.
I'm not saying that they should be blamed for the shooting but who knows, maybe they did alter his perception of right and wrong, to be honest even though I enjoy games I do sometimes wonder how on earth some of them were allowed to be released given the content.

darkpenguin said:

Hey hey hey, I'm not blaming games completely I'm just making the point that they can have a part in warping peoples minds.
I'm not saying that they should be blamed for the shooting but who knows, maybe they did alter his perception of right and wrong, to be honest even though I enjoy games I do sometimes wonder how on earth some of them were allowed to be released given the content.

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Videogames are quite common. It could have been a number of things.

What warped Vlad The Impaler's mind? How about Hitler?

darkpenguin said:

Hey hey hey, I'm not blaming games completely I'm just making the point that they can have a part in warping peoples minds.
I'm not saying that they should be blamed for the shooting but who knows, maybe they did alter his perception of right and wrong, to be honest even though I enjoy games I do sometimes wonder how on earth some of them were allowed to be released given the content.

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People; in most cases allow their minds to be 'warped' and 'altered'. I play violent video games, and have I allowed myself to have the change of mind? Hardly---since I've started playing video games, I've been much more against war and violence then ever before.

People allow themselves to get certain ways and then blame it on inanimate objects. Real Convienent. :sarcastic

Let not forget he was most probably mentally ill.

I can see how games could be blamed in a small way, there are many violent games where you can kill people in numerous sometimes sick ways and there are no consequences.

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I never hear of racing games though. I know in alot of normal racing games, a somewhat common thing to do is drive backwards and cause big crashes. I was notorious for doing this online while playing NASCAR '05 or '06. I don't remember which one.
And then the greatest racing series ever, Burnout, gives points for causing more damage as you slam your own car onto oncoming traffic, make your opponents crash, or crash as much rush hour traffic as possible. I cause one crash last night that caused over $9,000,000 in damages. That sort of carnage is considered to be great on that game, and is quite a site to see a piles upon piles of crashed, exploded, and completly ruined cars, buses, trucks, and semis. You even get bonus points for causing a semi to jack knife and/or lose it's payload, which is common on semis carrying logs, which causes even more destruction.
And driving is statistically one of the most dangerous ways to travel, and has one of the highest death rates amoung travel related deaths. Yet no one blames video games for that.

nutshell said:

Let not forget he was most probably mentally ill.

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Probably; most murderers are.

Video games? Tell him to get off his high horse and admit the truth. We don't know everything about everything. Who knows why that guy went off. We have a serious problem with guns in this country and until it is addressed than thing will never change. Humans have been doing these things to eachother for centuries. The reason it seems like it happens more now is because there are more people and everything is brodcast around the world in eight seconds providing instant access to the true horrors of the world.

Jack Thompson is just an opportunistic lawyer looking to exploit the victims' families so he can make a buck by suing video game developers, publishers, and distributers.