Rampage in German School

according to the news today, that old chestnut "he listened to Death Metal" was mentioned.I know some of the lyrics can be pretty grim, but can someone seriously be persuaded to kill someone on the basis of what music they listen to?
 
Well, I always like to think about this Alfred Hitchcock quote:

"Violence on the screen increases violence in people only if those people already have sick minds. I once read somewhere that a man admitted killing three women and he said he had killed the third woman after having seen ‘Psycho.’ Well, I wanted to ask him what movie he had seen before he killed the second woman. And then we'd ban that movie, don't you see? And then if we found out that he'd had a glass of milk before he killed the first woman, why then we'd have to outlaw milk, too, wouldn't we?"
 
If all school shooters attended psychiatric treatment, you might as well say psychiatric treatment causes school shootings...  I'm more inclined to think that they listen to metal in an attempt to cope with their problems, not fuel them.
 
Well of course its much easier to put the blame on easy scape-goats such as shooting games and metal rather than face the reality, which is that you yourself are to blame (the parents and society). Most of all I blame society, both in the way it reacts to tragedies like this and the way it deals with children anyway. Some kids are just messed up, but mostly it stems from parents not having enough time for them and there being no good role models. What needs to happen is parents need to give their kids their time again and just listen to what they have to say, and the problems they are facing.
 
Forgot to mention, there was another rampage in a town called Ansbach in September. Some fucked up kid threw a Molotov cocktail into a school and wounded several pupils.

Reports explicitly point out that no computer games or firearms were found at his place (and felt the need to do it). Media ignored it.

An activist group called "Families against Killer games" (this is getting more and more American) are planning to publicly dispose of violent video games in the centre of Stuttgart tomorrow.
 
Oh, that's ridiculous.  Video games have nothing to do with violence in children.  Nothing.  Not a thing.  Nada.
 
Personal opinion:

I don't see why video games have to depict the killing of other people... so I don't give much about the games that are targeted. However, the action is completely ridiculous. Every decent study (and by that I mean decent not popular, i.e. the ones spread in private media) showed that the kids were fucked up by school, not by video games or anything else. It's just really convenient for irresponsible parents and teachers to pinpoint an outside scapegoat instead of looking in the mirror.

Maybe it's time to realize that people who have influence in the raising and educating of a child - parents and teachers - are bearing the responsibility of not fucking them up. It's easy to traumatise a kid, and many people just don't care.
 
If I want to play a violent video game, that's fine.  I'm age 17 and over, I can buy mature games.  If you are 10 and you're playing GTA, there's something wrong with your parents.  End of story.
 
I'd agree with that-- i've had to pull the plug on a couple games that my son rented.  Just too much. 
 
I don't know the age of this kid but he could have played the game from his 10th til his 13th, and:
Be fucked up by school the following 3 years.

1 + 1 = 2 ?

Doesn't have to, but couldn't that in theory culminate into a kid who learned that violence is normal (and fun) at a young age + the terrible school period learned him to hate?
 
Studies have shown that kids who play violent video games are less likely to act out violently, at least in the US, and there is a very strong correlation with the rise of video gaming and the decrease in adolescent crime rates.  So no, I don't think violent video games is behind these sorts of things.
 
Perun said:
Personal opinion:

I don't see why video games have to depict the killing of other people...
Click to expand...

I think you already know the why. The usual - violence sells, people like different degrees of realism, hence the depiction of vivid and gorier death.

I really feel like writing a paper on how we should view video games as an entertainment medium and how we draw our moral lines with it. How is it different to a book or film that depicts violence? Does the interactivity take away our inhibitions and does this classify as defining our morals? Should it be compared to acting under the influence of a drug in this instance?
Its a very interesting area and I've read quite a lot of papers on it already, I could debate it for hours (probably).

Anyway, to bring this post a little more on topic, I agree that video games are pretty obviously not a sole cause or even a main contributor to these incidents, just as much as metal is not (as suggested, metal probably stops a lot of these incidents ironically). However, as also has been said, the age ratings are there for a reason and I fully support initiatives in educating parents better about this vast entertainment medium. Parenting isn't to blame fully either for this reason - not enough is done to get parents to take a bit more interest in what their children are doing. However, at the same time, I'm not so sure games companies and particularly retailers are doing as much as they possibly could.
I don't have a suggestion how to improve both sides, but I feel they could be better.

I personally believe video games can be very strong influences. Whether they are as strong or stronger than other mediums thanks to their interactivity loops back to that interesting debate. They certainly influence and can teach. You still experience and therefore must at some level be learning or taking something from the experience - even if its a game with little or no narrative or descriptive structure like Tetris.
What each of us takes from the experience(s) will vary wildly, but perhaps in a similar fashion to how metal burns off many people's anger and frustration, perhaps also violent video games satisfy that side of human nature.
 
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