How strangely police-state-like that law enforcement reaction seems...

 

I think I've seen that video before. It reminds me of a particular figure from the past... It's pretty amazing how a video like that can make an entire country believe half of their own offspring is as retarded like that one. If parents think their own children can become like that just because of a game, I think it's time for us Dutch to start making jokes about dumb germans rather than belgian people >_>

A 19 years old man has confessed that he killed a homeless man with kicks and blows to his face. His motive was frustration he stated at court. Right before this act of brutality he had been stopped by the local police and had been playing a violent computer game – losing every match.

At least Der Spiegel had the decency to write about the other factors in the case, albeit almost as a footnote. What they didn't feel appropriate to comment on in the lede, was the fact that he'd claimed the killing was a result of him playing the game and having drunk a bottle of beer, two bottles of wine and an entire bottle of chocolate liqueur before the incident. Nor did it mention that he was a neo-Nazi obsessed with violence. He'd even scrawled "Heil Hitler", "*********** Hooligans" and multiple swastikas on the walls of his holding cell before the trial.

Of course, it was the game's fault that the neo-Nazi caved in this man's skull. You know what the game was? Maybe Gears of War or Dead Rising, two games recently refused classification in Germany? The usual suspects of CounterStrike, Manhunt or Grand Theft Auto? No, it was SmackDown vs Raw 2006 - a wrestling game.

Bah, such misleading articles, the ones writing crap like that shouldn't even be allowed to do so. It clearly shows how media can influence mass opinion in a negative way.

 

I have a feeling that this anti-video game hysteria goes back to World War 2 causing them to think "violent media causes war" and not the other way around.
[sarcasm]If only Call Of Duty did not cover the time between September 1 1939 and September 2 1945 then we will not have Hitler.[/sarcasm]

 

That's what I like about Scotland. As we make the Grand Theft Auto games and no-one seems to say crap like "violent games make violent people." To anyone who actually says that "video games make people commit crime" is pretty much immediately told "Auch, quit talkin' pish ya bawheid."

 

Hey WB Industrian!!

on topic:
It's amazing how can people act like that.
Why don't they pay attention on how parents educate their children first.

 

Hi Industrian, where have you been all this time? Well Anyways welcome back

Back on topic, I agree with all of the above. Games Do not cause Violence, People Cause Violence. I honestly don't understand why this concept is hard to understand.

I've been playing violent games for years now even "M" Rated games Such as Mortal Kombat before I turned 12 and Resident Evil at 14 or 15 years old, and the never had a negative influence on me nor even made me ever think about hurting or killing someone.

If Some people are that easily Influenced By a petty video game, then They shouldn't be playing it in the first place. Also if they are Influenced this easily, they severly need to be monitered by a Psychiatrist. These people who are primed for such crimes even the smallest of things can set them off.

There is a Moral Boundry between distinguishing Fantasy from Reality, or in words Games from Reality, People who cross the line are obviosly unfit for playing games, as even a simple game of basketball, or someone being annoying, or name calling can already set people off that have never played video games.

Now this law in Germany. does that Ban Violent games altogether for everone, no matter if your of age or an adult? If it does, it must suck to live in a country like that, where you can't decide yourself what you wantoO

 

I think it also stems from events such as those that have taken place in Europe in recent years. As in: the place becoming more Americanised and (generally) violent. With this violence, people are looking for the answers to why it's happening. And the more conservative types can't come to terms that it's their systems that are failing - so they blame things like music and video games and whip up a moral panic instead of looking for the reasons why people are angry and frustrated: unemployment, lack of education, destruction of our culture, fear of the future, etc.

OT:

Hey WB Industrian!!

Hi Industrian, where have you been all this time? Well Anyways welcome back

Honours degree.

 

If parents think their own children can become like that just because of a game, I think it's time for us Dutch to start making jokes about dumb germans rather than belgian people >_>

Why not both?

Bah, such misleading articles, the ones writing crap like that shouldn't even be allowed to do so. It clearly shows how media can influence mass opinion in a negative way.

I keep wondering what the mass opinion over there really is, and for how long it has been what it is. It's not like the rant accurately answers these.

I have a feeling that this anti-video game hysteria goes back to World War 2 causing them to think "violent media causes war" and not the other way around.

I say such hysteria today is sooner powered by false intuition, convenience, and popularity contests. After all: anything remotely violent must be encouraging violence, pointing this out is easy for anyone to convey, thus my reputation is that of being one for the people moreso than anyone else after my job. Also, my penis is larger than anyone else's, my money-pile and/or ego needs growing, and I'm not getting enough attention-- look, I'm here too! I'm worth my money! See? Results! *BAM*

Wait, did you hear that? It's the sound of crowd gathering!

I have also said on numerous occassions that people are morons. Note that people is a plural noun. Each person added to a group of over 10 individuals (on average) makes it drop its IQ-average by at least one point. Some people even detract it by 10 points all by theirselves. Those are categorized as the vocal-yet-stupid type.

And the more conservative types can't come to terms that it's their systems that are failing - so they blame things like music and video games and whip up a moral panic instead of looking for the reasons why people are angry and frustrated: unemployment, lack of education, destruction of our culture, fear of the future, etc.

Let's not forget that the incidents causing these kinds of hysteria are of a type that has been around as long as humanity can remember.

 

MMR: Germany's New Berlin Wall for Video Games

MMR: Germany's New Berlin Wall for Video Games


New Video Game Legislation

When I first read the headline about a new proposed law in Germany that would essentially outlaw violent video games, I scoffed at the idea and dismissed the chances of the bill actually being implemented in Germany or any other country belonging to western civilization. For those that don't know, the regional governments of Bavaria and Lower Saxony drafted legislation that would put game designers, publishers, and yes, players, in jail for up to a year for "cruel violence on humans or human-looking characters." That's right: human-looking characters in video games.
Why has such a fascist, reactionary bill been created? Apparently, a recent school shooting tragedy has pushed stringent video game laws to the next level in Germany.

Last month, 18-year-old student Sebastian Bosse showed up at his secondary school in Emsdetten, Germany, and opened fired on students and teachers before turning the gun on himself and taking his own life. Luckily, no one was killed but more than 20 people were reportedly injured during the tragedy.
If you don't already know where this is going, then you haven't been paying attention to current events over the last five or so years. Bosse was an avid video game player and loved titles like Counter-Strike and Resident Evil. Thus, legislators in Germany quickly made the connection that the video games were to blame for Bosse's actions. And as a result, lawmakers in Bavaria and Lower Saxony drafted a bill that would equate real-life violence and loss of life with the trivial killing of digital characters.
I haven't followed this story as closely as others, but from what I've read there has been no reported discussion among legislators about how Bosse got his hands on the firearms, which certainly raised my eyebrows. Bosse reportedly purchased three guns on the Web via an Internet auction site called EGun. That's right; he legally bought the guns, which apparently require no license, on the German version of eBay for guns. I've read scattered reports about how Bosse was miserable because he was viewed as a geek and social outcast by his classmates, yet I doubt the issue of bullying and teen depression came up much during the rush to indict video game developers and players.
But the truly shocking development came when I read that Bosse, who wore a dark trench coat and gas mask during his attack, took inspiration from Eric Harris, one of the two killers from the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. Several excerpts of Bosse's diary were published in the aftermath of the shooting spree, and indeed Bosse wrote frequently about how he idolized the Columbine gunmen as heroes because they struck back at the peers that bullied and abused them. In one diary entry, he wrote "Eric Harris is God."
If you think that's chilling, well, then don't watch Bosse's video diary.
"Since first grade, people picked on me, and I was a loser," Bosse says on the video. "Every kid in school who is different from the majority is a loner." He goes on about how he wanted to have friends, but was never accepted by his peers or his school.
He closes by saying: "This is war."
According to several news reports, a German poll taken after the school shooting showed that more than 70% of those surveyed blamed video and computer games for such violence and another 59% supported the proposed criminalization of violent games. And this is where the real tragedy lies: it's no longer about games being wrongfully persecuted as the new media boogeyman. This is also about people in power, be it legislators, politicians, parents and teachers, targeting a false cause of youth violence and ignoring the real issues like depression, bullying, peer pressure and a lack of support for teenagers who find themselves on the outside looking in.
None of this, of course, excuses or condones Bosse's actions. He was a coward, a victim of abuse who became a bully himself. But just as there were warning signs in Columbine, I suspect there were warning signs with Bosse as well. The young man was miserable and reached a point where he wanted to act out his misery on the people he felt were responsible. Yet too many people will continue to focus on the games, as if they were instruction manuals for how to buy and use real weapons to kill real people. Absurd. Bosse was reportedly a fan of paintball, yet I haven't seen any outcry about making paintball illegal, even though it involves firing projectiles at real people.

The proposed bill reaches the German Parliament next year. Will this usher in a new era of fascist lawmaking and censorship and return us to the days when books were burned? Will lawmakers in Germany be allowed to build a new Berlin Wall, one that restricts freedom and jails people for nothing more than playing a computer game? If so, then we are looking at dark days ahead because not only will such reactionary measures fail to solve our real problems in society, but it will pave the way for even more drastic measures to be implemented. First, it's violent games, but then it will be all video and PC games, as well as the Internet. After that, maybe movies, music and books once again will be policed, regulated and even burned. Some people might take issue with me comparing video game legislation to the Berlin Wall, which involved the oppression and deaths of many Germans for nearly 40 years. It may seem extreme now, but if the day arrives when game designers are rounded up and jailed and when police raid LAN parties and pro gaming competitions, then the comparison won't be so far-fetched. All I can say, I hope that day never comes so that I can be the one who's accused of getting carried away rather than the politicians and legislators that are currently seeking to restrict and eliminate our freedoms.
I wrote at the beginning of this column that I scoffed at the idea of this bill actually being passed in Germany. I even remarked on the TG Forumz that I believed such a proposal was so over-the-top that it actually hurt the anti-video game movement and made critics look like fools who were out of touch. But now I understand that this is far more serious. Public opinion is beginning to support such outrageous measures, and lawmakers both in Europe and here in the United States are all too eager to take advantage of such emotional, un-informed finger-pointing. All that's needed for this to reach a point of no return is for the informed and intelligent people to be asleep at the wheel while others co-op democracy and take their liberty behind their backs.
More Gaming News

* The Video Game Awards on Spike TV
Memo to Spike TV: it's time to drastically overhaul the Video Games Awards. I watched the VGAs last week, giving it yet another chance after previous missteps. But this year's show was actually the worst yet. Maybe it was the musical acts, which were awful. Maybe it was VGA host Samuel L. Jackson becoming a parody of himself. Maybe it was the constant, shameless self-promotion of games that don't even look that good. Maybe it was the flow of poser celebrities oozing coolness to an audience that cares little about conforming to coolness standards. And maybe, just maybe, it was seeing pro wrestler Kurt Angle force a bunch of lame jokes while pimping his forthcoming TNA Impact video game. It all added up to a show that was way too much like the MTV Video Music Awards - a self-congratulatory promotion for the celebrities rather than the actual content - and couldn't have been further off from capturing the real essence of gaming.

Oh, and whoever thought of having Sarah Silverman come on stage and insult the crowd and gamers in general with negative stereotypes should be fired. She made some crude joke about how game consoles should be used as an AIDS prevention device in Africa because gamers never get laid. I usually like Silverman's shtick, but listening to her make the same old jokes about how gamers are geeks that have no lives made we want to watch the opening scene to "The Way of the Gun" on a continuous loop (underrated movie, by the way).
* "Alien" Games Gestating Within Sega - Game Over, Man! Game Over!!!
The good news: Sega just recently announced a major deal with Twentieth Century Fox to make not one but multiple next-generation games based on the "Alien" movie series. One of the titles will be a first-person shooter in the vein of Aliens Versus Predator game franchise. Another title will be a role-playing game. Interesting.
The bad news? Well, the first game is at least a few years away and probably won't see the light of day until 2009 (scheduled formats are the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360). And let's be honest - the Alien movie series is pretty much dead. The last two "Alien" movies were bombs, and the recent "Alien Versus Predator" movie was weak sauce.
Still, this announcement has me excited for a few reasons. First, Alien Versus Predator 2 is one of the most exciting and scariest FPS titles I've ever played, and we need more "Alien" titles like it. Second, Obsidian Entertainment has been confirmed for the RPG Alien game, and they've done a pretty good job with its first two games, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II and Neverwinter Nights 2. There's speculation that Gearbox Software will helm the FPS title, and again, the developer has a pretty nice pedigree with such games as the Brothers in Arms series. I'm just really, really hoping that another publisher/developer doesn't make a game that tarnishes anoter beloved franchise (see below item on Star Trek). Because if these two games turn out to be crap, I'm going to be feeling like Drake after getting hit with Xenomorph blood: burned.
* Star Trek: Legacy Story Was Phased Out, Writer Says
I had been looking forward to Star Trek: Legacy for quite some time, and for a few reasons. First, Star Trek has sucked lately. And second, I love a good strategy game. And third, I needed a really good Star Trek game to come along. So I was pretty pleased when Bethesda Softworks announced that all five actors that played Star Trek captains in the television series would be lending their voices to the game. Even better was the news that longtime Trek writer Dorothy "D.C" Fontana and writing partner Derek Chester had penned the script for Star Trek: Legacy.
Well, that got photon-torpedoed pretty quickly: news broke yesterday via Xbox360fanboy.com that the story for Star Trek: Legacy had been cut significantly from the proposed script provided by Fontana and Chester. In fact, the information came directly from Chester himself, who weighed in on the game via the Bethesda Star Trek forum. Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the Mutara Nebula, another weak Trek game comes along. Seriously, just stick a Ceti Eel in my ear and get it over with.
Here's what Chester said on the forum: "A lot of what was intended was cut. From rendered cinematics and interstitial cutscenes to a great deal of backstory and events that took place between the eras to tie them together. The total portrayal of the intended story was incomplete. Dorothy and I wrote a lot for this game...but not everything made it in. As a result there may be some difficulty in following the motivations for characters or the reasons for crucial events. The story as was written, tied together a great deal of Trek history and events to make it seem more substantial than it came across in the final game."
Well, double-dumbass on Bethesda!

It's hard to believe that such a law can even be considered serious let alone supported.

 

Oh come one, you just named another reason yourself:

But the truly shocking development came when I read that Bosse, who wore a dark trench coat and gas mask during his attack, took inspiration from Eric Harris, one of the two killers from the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. Several excerpts of Bosse's diary were published in the aftermath of the shooting spree, and indeed Bosse wrote frequently about how he idolized the Columbine gunmen as heroes because they struck back at the peers that bullied and abused them. In one diary entry, he wrote "Eric Harris is God."

See, even more proof videogames were the reason. They should check Bosse's harddrive for Doom 3.