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
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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.
I heard Hitler was pretty good at Halo.
I bet that Al Capone's favorite video game was Grand Theft Auto.
Wake up and stop trying to blame video games. Video games did NOT invent violence. Out of all the people playing Counter-Strike, one person went and actually shot somebody. I bet you've seen movies like E.T. or Star Wars. Does that mean that you're going to go and try to build the Millenium Falcon or make your bike fly? No, that would be very silly to assume, wouldn't it? This was obviously a very troubled kid that boiled over. The signs were there for a LONG time and nobody did a thing about it. Counter-Strike in no way created these feelings within him. Anybody who's ever played the game on a competetive level can tell you that it's not the killing that's appealing. It's the competetive aspect. For those of us who are too small or not strong enough to play sports, it gives us that rush of competition. I don't see football players tackling people on the street because it's what they do on the field. Please stop being ignorant. You're still living in the wrong age and you've no idea what effects video games actually have on people (the only effect being enjoyment).
Amazingly, games are to blame for the shooting, even though i have read in another news article that no games, consoles, or software were found in the killers place.
Just search google news for video games.
By the way.... I WAS TRAINED ON DOOM!!!
Blame the money making industry that kills millions around the world I say. The Gun trader who sold him the gun. The poor soul was very unwell. He'd have got a gun from somewhere right enough, seemed to be determined enough along with mentally unhinged enough. There's more history to this than meets the eye and I can't help but think that an underlying bed of racist bullying and his in-securities drove him past breaking point.
WTF!!! Microsoft has nothing to do with CS. They cannot do anything. What a stupid anti-gaming n00b. cannot get the makers right :P
we are forgetting he went to a shop and bought 2 9mm pistols a glock and a usp. the right foe people to own guns killed those people not a video game.
why do you people not see that owning guns as a bad thing
Re: Ratm....Bullshit, playing violent video games do not make one violent. Being violent ALREADY makes one violent. Too much media hype on these supposed studies on violent video games creating these murderous children. You know who is to blame? Parents!! No ifs, ands, or buts. Parents are the cause of what actions their children take. How? That's easy. Most parents can answer it without a hesitation of thought. The media hero (Hillary) makes a claim that video games are the cause of all this violence, and everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Sheesh. If you believe any of this hype, then one is not smart enough to think for themselves and take to heart the bullshit media lies. Lemmings of the media are the ones apt to believe this crap.
This person is just looking for someone to tack the blame onto. The game 'Counter Strike' cannot be blamed here. If Counter Strike had such a profound impact on people, there would be exponentially more mass killers than there are today.
Here are the facts:
- Cho was a psychotic man who needed professional help. He should have been forced to go.
- There were numerous red flags that were raised. In his writings, for example. People who resist counseling the most are the very people who need to be counseled.
Microsoft cannot be held responsible for the actions of another person. Microsoft can only be held responsible for its own actions. The creation of a violent video game is not a crime. If a lawsuit is brought against Microsoft because of this, it will promptly be dropped because it is ridiculous.
If anyone deserves to be held responsible, it is the parties responsible for choosing not to over react to the situation. It is better to over react and lose a day of class than it is to under react and lose 33 students.
The fact that he played video games is irrelevant. So is blaming guns. He could have just as easily gotten in a car and started running people over. Everyone is looking for something to blame. That's the sad thing about society. If anyone is to blame, its the killer. He decided he was going to take human life. The Unabomber made mail bombs. The Boston Strangler used articles of clothing. Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy did whatever they had to with whatever they had. So how many video games did they play? The letter to Bill Gates is completely asinine.
Jack Thompson is a stupid noob. He deserves to get pwned. Get your facts straight. Valve not Microsoft is responsible for Counter Strike, and games are not the root cause of psychotic behavior.
Mr. Thompson should go after the US Army as well since they have a fps that does let you transition to firing at real targets. Since the army wants you to join up.
no violent games arent to blame in other cases people who know him siad he had a dislike for games he also was mentally ill most gamers are not i my self play halo2 gears of war and other shooters and am not insane or whatever
OMG, the people who blame all this violence on video games need to think more before they speak. Video games do not cause people to go out and do this stuff. It is bad parenting and mental issues, which are not caused by video games. If parents would raise their kids better and not leave it to the video games and movies/tv and music, there would not be as much of this happening. We have evolved into a more voilent world and this has nothing to do with video games. Just look at all the violence in other countries. A lot of them don't have video games.
that is the most rediculous letter i have vever read, valve owns, and supports CS every retard knows this..
1927 -- US: Bath, Michigan School Disaster. Andrew Kehoe, seeking revenge against the community for taxes imposed on his farm to pay for a new school, set off a TNT bomb in the school, killing 43 people, including 39 grade-school children. After the explosion, Kehoe killed his wife, then drove his truck back, loaded with dynamite & nails, to the school, & set it off, killing himself & the school superintendent. That was the worst school attack in US history and they would have blamed violent video games on that attack too.
i own handguns and play violent video games, and have /never/ even /thought/ of shooting a person. the primary reason i own a pistol is for self defence; it never leaves my apartment, except to go to the target range. i've been playing games since Wolfenstein 3D in 1992. i am not a homicidal lunatic.
Microsoft created HALO, not Counter Strike. People really need to get their facts straight before launching foolish accusations. It's evident that Cho was mentally disturbed to begin with. Playing a game in no way causes someone to become violent. They must already have violent tendencies to begin with.
It's a shame that it is so easy to point a finger and place blame.
Well, all the school shooters also drank fluids, and ate food. I think THATS whats really to blame. We need to stop giving our kids food and water because thats whats giving them the energy to shoot up their school.
If counter strike was the cause of shootings we would have all been shot a few times over by now. If you go to steam's site and see how many people are playing at any given time you would see if it led to that type of behavior it would happen daily.
Am I Wrong?
Thank You
Come on now, People have no one to blame but them selves. This kid was a loser. Its obvious he had something screwed up in his head. The thing that bothers me the most is how few students actually fought for their lives.
When schools are declared as gun-free-zones like Virginia Tech was, they create an unsafe environment for students because the students are rendered defenseless. If students with gun permits had been allowed to carry on campus, this monster would never have been able to kill 32 people before being shot by someone defending himself.
Of course it's video games, NOT. How about paintball, laser tag, or waterguns. People are quick to blame video games when they've never played one. I've often thought that driving a car would be simpler if it had an Xbox controller. Apparently it's the same with guns. On every gun i've ever seen, i've seen the 'A' button right there next to the trigger to quickly change targets, oh yeah.
Dear Dumbass,
Your letter strikes me as revolting. To try to say video games caused this is willingly ignorant. Please stop being a dumbass. I will never stop selling Counterstrike cuz it kicks so much ass the kids love it! GTA4 is coming out soon so you probably better write a cry baby letter to Rockstar too. I dont care how many dumb shows you've been on, I dont even watch FOX its a bunch of lying spin starts here doctors.
So in summary get a life. Cho did what he did cuz he is a stupid dumb deranged jackass who commited an unforgivable sin (suicide), bottom line.
Sincerely Bill Gates.
I've noticed that every single time there is a tragedy involving violent acts, the medias are to blame. This is getting ridiculous. I'm pretty sure that all of us somewhat feel sorry for what happened at Viginia Tech., but we don't point fingers at the wrong reasons and to the wrong people. Mr. Jack Thompson needs to do a proper research before open his mouth.
I grew up listening to heavy metal and love games, especially games like Counter Strike. But never in my life I would consider taking someone's life. There are thousands and millions people like me, but that doesn't mean we are the potential killers.
So what if we ban violent games, people like Jack Thompson will find other reasons to dig in and blame.
P.S. For Mr. Jack Thompson. Get a life!
Doesn't have a clue what he is talking about.
ok ok ok Games are mainly used to steam off stress. second CS does not rain you to kill kill kill. Its an unrealistic game. and thomson getta life.
no, the ONLY to blame here was shakespeare, this mate decided that he has two options:
to be or not to be?
-1 to no Be, Lonely WithOut future, and to live until die old, being noone.
-2 to be, to push foward the reality and them transform himself in the begining, and protagonist of a tragedy , and by sacrifice himself and others,to bright enough to be during a moment visible to every one else, and let a indelible mark in others.
this mate was driven by more poetic( macabre but poetic) principles than a videogame.
i bet 20 bucks that the police have already found a huge dia
io, full of rich lenguage, where he expresed very clearly his motivation and the evolution of his mental state.
probably he thought tha videogames was very childisch.
(i spent yeserday 8 hour playing oblivion. that action left me without time to w~~king myself with my destiny and blah)
what a dik head i have played games for twenty odd years and i have not killed anyone or got into fights he wants to get his fact's right
We should ban sports..it makes better criminals..We should ban school..makes better criminals..we should ban running shoes 99% of all get aways take place in running shoes! I love it!
These nutballs blame everyone except the folks most responsible. They are:
1) The person responsible. He might be sick, but that does not mean he is totally absolved of his responsibility.
2) The local officials. They HAD this guy and failed to commit him.
3) The school. They KNEW about this and ignored it, thinking he'd go away. They made a 'gun free' zone. How's that working so far? Academics...assholes!
4) elected officials. They made mandatory checks required, but did not fund a way to do it efficiently, OR EFFECTIVELY.
Much easier to blame the false enemy, legitimate gun owners, DEALERS, gamers, game companies....immigrants, the first, second, and all the other amendments of the Constitution...the Irish...
sheeiiit!
You cant controll what people are going to do any more than we can controll the weather...but thats not going to stop us from trying...Drone on you talking heads but remember that society today was born in the 60s with the social revolution...It went from peace and love to protest and hate...It went from mind your own business to mind everyone elses business...Funny that the birth place of this social movement now creates mass murders...He was there to be taught and what did they teach him? How to be a selfish hatefull murdering little prick who cares more about is utube legacy than anything else...The security in schools is for the paranoid staff to hide behind so they can preach their leftism, this leftism is creating monsters. Why? I dont know maybe you should ask your professor if you can get him or her out from behind their sandbags.
well i think violent video games have prevented more psychos losing it than caused them.
all i know is playing gta and blowing stuff up is a great stress release.
The guy that wrote this is a stupid loser. He can't even get his facts right!!! Why do people like him love fame so much that they will blame anyone?
God, I play counterstrike source and it doens't make me a terrorist. All it is a shooting game, they're just trying to find a scapegoat. The guy was already a crazy mofo, then he got a gun..... Crazy mofo with Gun!
The police use the same styled video 'games' to practice the use of force to stop nuts like Cho from deadly rampages. We should all carry guns, as the 2nd amendment allows and we could stop all these nuts before their carnage starts. More good people than bad. More than 2+ guns for every legal American. Blaming guns or video games is the ploys of Fascists.
Jack T. is an Christian fundamentalist Idiot. Pray for him.
The US Armed Forces have spent lots of our tax money to produce Video Games that are 'shooter' games. Are these people crazy? Are the people who play them crazy?
This is just more of the Religious Right and their Taliban Styles fundamentalism.
We should be more afraid of people like Jack Thompson than Cho.
There are many more religious nuts like Thompson than certifiable nuts like Cho.
They would kill everyone who does not agree with them when the are in control.
They do not believe in their savior as they claim, just the dollars they now worship instead. JESUS was righteous not Self-Righteous. There is a difference.
FASCISM!, FASCISM!, FASCISM!
I play MS Flight Simulator and now I have a desire to hi-jack an aeroplane and fly it. Before I played MS Flight Simulator, the thought never even crossed my mind.
Bill Gates Fault, every time. I blame him totally, he is definitely the nutjob.
I have played CS for about 5 years and the people addicted to it tend to play it competitively as it was intended 5 v 5 Clan wars aka (Team A vs Team B)the only way to get recognition is to climb the Leagues and ladders and get well known in the community, at that Level the game is more like Virtual Chess relying on team-play, tactics and skill It's a challenging yet rewarding game to those that put in the time to become skilled. Y not blame the news for showing soldiers shooting at real people? With So many idiots in High Places these days I often wonder if World War 3 is not too far in the Future.
Desensitization: It exists. And it slowly but surely permeates out societies, via TV, Video, Music, Games and the knock on effects generation after generation.
A Clockwork Orange was banned by the media and withdrawn by the Director in the early 70's because of its violence. 30 years later this is acceptable on an average Friday night cop thriller.
Meanwhile crime and violence are escalating ....
Is this what we want our children to grow up with. What price progress?
'We should all carry guns, as the 2nd amendment allows and we could stop all these nuts before their carnage starts.'
OMG! That statement just about sums up America really doesn't it? A kid shoots 30 classmates, reaction? WE NEED MORE GUNS! Charlton Heston talking about how 'they can take my gun from my cold dead hands'. Lets get real here, why do the public actually NEED guns? Time has moved on, there is no frontier, no hordes of wild 'Injuns' to scalp you, you people watch far too many westerns, either that or you are completely unable to separate fantasy from reality and therefore shouldn't be allowed to buy guns at all.
BAN THE BLOODY THINGS! TOTALLY! If that kid hadn't been able to go into bloody Wallmart or wherever and buy a gun as easy as a pizza then this wouldn't have happened would it?
This guy is full of crap. I have been an avid gamer for many years..from QUAKE to GEARS of WAR. No one in my circle of friends would ever do in real life what we do online. This murderer was on psych meds and he was a mental case. If video games caused his rampage then why aren't thousands of gamers out there murderingpeople left and right.
If we all had guns, (like we do here in texas) then everyone would be afraid of pulling theirs out for fear of death. (just like here in texas) Idiots don't shoot each other without knowing that bystanders, and the victim are going to shoot back. If we're all armed, then the killers will know they can't get away with it. And since when are videos to blame for violence? Parents need to take more responsibility. It's THEIR fault for messing up their kid, and not getting their messed up kid help, not a video game's fault.
I would knock this guy to the floor if he was in front of me.
What an idiot.
Jack Thompson and his like, who refuse to blame the troubled individual but instead enable him and remove personal responsibility from the person. Next Jack will blame too much sugar in US diets, what a troubled moron.
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