Gaming Features
Attorney blames Bill Gates, Microsoft for VA Tech slayings
By Casey Lynch Apr 19, 2007, 20:00 GMT
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Older Talkback
lmao! even i noe CS was created by MS. he should got his facts stright b4 writing a whole story 2 MS.
Violent video games are definitely to blame for school shootings. Teenage boys get so deeply involved in video games (trust me I was there ten years ago). When a lonely pissed off guy plays video games, he's just adding fuel to the fire.
It seems bullied kids either end up wealthy owners of hi-tech companies or suicidal loners.
all asian kids play counterstrike...it just happened to be that one of them was a nutjob.
This guy must be an idiot, So Bill Gates is to blame huh? Easy to point the fingure. What about the similar games released for free to get older teenages in to the army/navy?
Anyone who thinks that shooting virtual characters on screen will make it easier for anyone to actually shoot a real human being later on is totally out of touch with reality and trying to play on fear and emotions to make money.
I have played every type of video game known to mankind.
I have jumped off of tall buildings - but I am still afraid of heights.
I have killed spiders - but they still scare me to death.
I have shot people - but I know that I could never do so unless in self defense.
This guy who wrote this letter (I won't give him the honor of mentioning his name) is an ambulance chacer. period..
And I wouldn't even do that in a virtual world...
This clown is a fool. Microsoft did not make this game, it is a Vivendi/Valve game. Playing football should be banned as well since it is full of War metaphors and full of martial animosity towards an 'enemy.' Easy to blame the entertainment complex for everything(God they are guilty of many things) but bad parenting and even worse school security and student mental health policies are to blame here. If you want to blame someone, blame the judge who let this psycho get 'out-patient'(=non-treatment) for his mental illness.
First it was death metal, then is was rap and now it's video games. Everytime there is something controversial going on a nobody comes out of the woodwork and gets their 15 minutes of fame.
Back when there were no video games boys played cops and robers. Are we gonna blame that to? Is that the reason why there are criminals? Cause someone always has to be the robber. Crazy people are CRAZY. That is why they kill people. If a video game can influence some to kill, that person is CRAZY. If rap music can influence people to do a drive by, they to are CRAZY. People who obsess over porn and then go out and sexually assault someone, guess what? There're CRAZY. Cho lived in fantasy world were he was king, his way was rightouess. Sounds like a lot of people are doing that these days
The attorney doesn't care about the familys or about video game violence. He is just saying something controversial to get his name in the papers. Fact of the matter is the kid had some major screws loose and that is why he shot up that school. I play violent video games and the thought has never even crossed my mind to shoot anyone.
Why do people even still listen to these morons declaring video games to be the cause of violence in any real world situation, video games simulate life, the same things and probably More would happen without them.
Jack Thompson needs to shut the hell up. For one, Microsoft does not even make Counterstrike!! Moron! At least learn your damn facts.
Second, why don’t you bitch about the movies as well? Surely if videogames have that much of an impact on people, horror movies would as well (Even though I don’t think Games do have an impact).
Jack Thompson is an ignorant fool. Please go away.
Fucking carebear…
Violent video games are definitely to blame for school shootings. Teenage boys get so deeply involved in video games (trust me I was there ten years ago). When a lonely pissed off guy plays video games, he's just adding fuel to the fire.
If video games influence you then why didn't you pull the trigger wuss?
Uh oh, so playing Counter-strike makes kids into mass-murderers eh? Better start keeping tabs on the other 35,000 CS players world-wide. That's like another million potential shooting deaths. Maybe more if they're concerned about their kill:death ratio.
I do not agree that video games are to blame for this horrible event. Video game did not cause Cho to be indelibly depressed, violently jealous and certainly did not make him go out a purchase weapons.
Cho lost control of his mind, and thusly his actions. I believe that placing blame about incidents like this is realizing the vendetta of Jack Thompson. I am not familiar with him but his remarks were likely written years ago waiting for unfortunate events to occur to enable his finger pointing.
What does Thompson know about Cho that knowone else did? He started playing a game and that game spoke to him. That is like blaming all dogs because of the son of sam's rampage.
The truth is that Cho was not healthy mentally. His motivation is questionable, even after seeing his rants and photos. To me, I see a guy who went his whole life being noticed but never the way he wanted to be noticed. He made the decision to kill on his own and now everyone knows his name and what he was capable of.
If video games are the cause, then there are millions, maybe hundred of millions of people that would be inspired to act out like Cho did. Mr. Thompson will likely have fingers to point the next time tragedy occurs. Oh, Jack... don't close your eyes and narrow your mind, instead this incident should teach all of us to be better and to live life like each day could be our last.
I'm sure the families of the victems are sitting around saying, 'If only that kid didn't play video games.'
I am 15 ive been playing violent games seuch as Doom literally since i was 4. Belive it or not i am not a homocidal manic. You cant just point out flaws in something then there would be nothing good in the world
I lost both legs in the war and I know, nothing will prepare you to shoot someone. Especially video games.
millions of kids play violent video games all the time, I sure dont see a million kids going on shooting spree's do you???
NO, YOU DONT. you see 1 kid doing it. BECAUSE THE KID IS INSAINE!!!!
Its not the game's fault, or any game makers fault.
Because if it was the game's fault. All the kids would be doing it!
That insaine Virginia Tech kid would have killed those people even if he didnt have any video games, or a gun. Crazy people find a way to carry out their crazy acts, unless they are stopped.
This country needs to eliminate the CRAZY PEOPLE! Not video games and guns.
This kid showed signed of crazyness before he killed. He is to blame.
I swear some people are so stupid.
if you want to blame someone may i suggest you blame the dead killer
I'm male, 29. I used to play Half-Life CounterStrike all the time in college. I now play Halo 2 (another first-person shooter) on my X-Box 360 for about 4-6hrs a week with my wife. It absolutely DOES affect your outlook on life. I find myself fantasizing about using a rocket launcher to blow cars off the road in front of me etc. Have you seen the PlayStation 2 ad's - 'live in your world, play in ours'? That's exactly what the sane mind does, it distinguishes between fanciful urges to go 'wild' and the real world. A sane mind knows what's acceptable in the real world. There's no way to regulate all the various media that influences us and catches us up in fantasy, I think video games are no more dangerous than action movies or sci-fi books. The danger lies in the unstable mind that can not or does not discern the line between fantasy and reality. Does not digest the reality of the victims suffering, their family's heartache etc. Sure this guy might have loved CounterStrike, but his egg was bad before he picked up his mouse.
Games are not to be blamed here! People we need to look at this horrendous person not as a child but a man. This person was 23 he is man not a child he KNOWS what is right and wrong, what is real and what is fake. The police searched his room and found no sort of games in his room. No consoles or controllers no video game disks, and his room mates also said they never saw him play any sort of game. This man was not a sane person, who knew and has thought this action out for a very long time. He played no games to psyche him self up or train. This man was just a mentally disturbed person and proof of it lies in the records of him being in a psyche ward. We need to take in to fact that lets take GTA for an example it has sold of 30 million copys, if we take that and then take in hand how many school shootings have occurred its not even one percent. Let alone add up all the other types of violent video games it doesn't even make a scratch close to one percent. Jack T. needs to just quite whit his lying and assumptions and look at the facts.
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