The Oslo Massacre and Violent Video Games: the Facts

[dlevere]

Posted by Soulskill on Monday July 25, 6:09 P.M.

An anonymous reader writes

"Media hysteria is once again blaming a real life massacre on violent video games.

But looking at every single gaming reference in the Oslo killer's manifesto shows that such accusations are ridiculous. He played games to unwind from plotting and used them to mask his activities."

[BigBossman]

If a person can't tell the difference between fantasy & reality when it comes to video games, then they have a problem. Maybe they shouldn't be playing any video games.

[dlevere]

Norwegian Retailer Pulls Violent Games In Wake Of Attack

By Kyle Orland

Media reports indicate retailer Coop Norway will cease to carry 51 gaming and toy brands following attacks that killed 77 in a government building and youth camp.

Danish site Gamers Globe reports (translation) that the removal includes first-person shooters Homefront, Sniper Ghost Warrior, Counter-Strike Source, and the Call of Duty series, as well as popular MMO World of Warcraft.

Alleged attacker Anders Behring Breivik mentioned playing World of Warcraft and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in a wide-ranging 1,500-page manifesto written before the attacks.

"The decision to remove the games was made around the time we realized the scope of the attack," Coop Norway Retail director Geir Inge Stokke said, according to a Norwegian newspaper report translated by VG247.

"Others are better suited than us, to point to the negative effects of games like these," he continued. "At the moment it’s [appropriate] for us to take them down. I wouldn’t be surprised if others do the same. We have to think very carefully about when to bring these goods back. The economy involved is of no importance."

The move echoes that of German department store Galeria Kaufhof, which in 2009 removed all mature-rated video games from its shelves in the wake of a school shooting in the country that killed 15 people.

Coop operates over 1,000 retail locations across Norway through a number of independent national co-operatives, selling everything from food and housewares to DVDs and cell phones.

[UPDATE: Norwegian site ITavisen reports that major Norwegian entertainment retailer Platekompaniet has also decided to pull these titles from shelves (thanks to GamingVault's Herman S. Lilleng for the tip).]

[bungholio]

[sarcasm]YAY! Now that those are gone this will never happen again![/sarcasm]

Not to be a jerk, but why can't they just blame the individuals for things? There's always something.
This person killed these people. Does he own a TV? What channels and shows was he watching? Does he have comics and manga? Was he reading Animal House? Does he have posters? These all must be the root causes, there's no way he would have done things without them. We must ban everything!

Those game are everywhere, how many deaths occur because individuals played those games? There's other games like those, even though I'm not sure they are in Europe. I don't see Battlefield Bad Company or Medal Of Honor. There's Tom Clancy games, all kinds of things.

[OldSchoolGamer]

Let stores ban whatever games they want. The fact is, a person will always beable to buy whatever game they wish. They could just buy it at another store or buy in on the internet. These stores that ban violent games are only hurting themselves in sales. But on the other hand, they also attract some media and publicity when they ban violent video games which can actually increase their sales. It's a catch 22.