Guns or Games: NIU Shooting Raises Questions of Probable Causes

On Thursday February 14, Northern Illinois University student Stephen Kazmierczack, 27, opened fire during a lecture on fellow classmates, killing 5 and wounding 16 others before taking his own life.  While fulfilling my daily refresh of news on popular gaming blog Kotaku, I discovered a post written by managing editor Brian Crecente that dealt with the cause behind the tragic shooting.  Crecente reports about an article in the New York Post, in which writers Michael Swiontek and Bill Sanderson point the finger at games for the massacre, citing the violent computer game Counter-Strike as a main factor leading to the shooting.  The second post is a short piece over at GamePolitics.com that reports Illinois legislator Robert Pritchard defending guns while shifting the blame to videogames and other forms of media that contain graphic violence.  Follow the links below to see my comments on each blog site, but for convenience I have also included the comments below:

NYPost: College Killer Crazy for Violent Vid Games

Comment:

I am perplexed as well at the idea that the killer was spurred to commit this murder from playing video games rather than the stopping of his medication.  In fact, not until halfway through the article do they acknowledge this very key element in such an extreme act of insanity.  Instead, they choose to label Kazmierczack as a loner obsessed with playing Counter-Strike.  I don't understand how a game as popular as this first-person shooter can realistically be interpreted as a legitimate influential factor in committing real-world violence.  Fortunately the student witnesses were sensible enough to acknowledge that the game was commonplace in the dorms.  However, the NYPost writers chose to neglect this bit of info to misrepresent videogames, as seems to be the trend of the news media today.  It's interesting to note that it's usually the traditional forms of journalism that cast a negative perception of videogames, whereas younger types, such as blogs, have grown up with games and show appreciation for the medium.  But going back to the issue, drugs definitely need to be given more of a closer look.  Virgina Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho and Kazmierczack were both users of anti-depressant medication.  Instead, attorney Jack Thompson finds the fact that both shooters played video games to be a more formidable link in explaining why these tragedies have occurred.  It is ironic yet sad to see Jack Thompson rejoicing over such a trivial element in the face of such tragedy that so many people must mourn over.  Thank you Crecente for actually showing consideration to the victims of this massacre.

Illinois Legislator on NIU Rampage

Comment:

Time after time, people look to videogames as the primary causes for school shootings.  Before games, it was movies and television that were attacked.  If videogames are even going to be considered as a probable cause in committing real-world violence, much more attention needs to be paid to the individuals performing these extreme acts and if their minds were stable enough to play games without being affected by their violent imagery.  Yes, Seung-Hui Cho and Kazmierczack both played Counter-Strike.  However, so do millions of other students to this day.  How this is more alarming than the fact that two college students were able to purchase guns with no problem worries me.  Furthermore, students on anti-depressant medication.  The right for any individual to bear arms is placing more people in danger than videogames.  Whether in the form of background checks or mind-stability tests, I think that we need to have greater restrictions or a more challenging process to acquire guns in order to reduce the number of victims that lose their lives to such senseless violence.

Mass Confusion: Fox News Under Fire for Inaccuracies

Many people rely on the news media for the latest coverage on pertinent issues around the world. However, Fox News recently abused its viewers' trust by disclosing grossly inaccurate information about the new video game Mass Effect after inviting author Cooper Lawrence to speak about the brewing controversy over sexually mature content in the game. Fox News asserted that the game depicted full frontal nudity and graphic sex, both claims completely untrue. Unfortunately, Lawrence had no knowledge of the game prior to coming on the show to offer criticism and completely misrepresented Mass Effect. Lawrence claimed that young boys in particular who play the game would be immorally influenced by its mature themes: "Here's how they're seeing women: They're seeing them as these objects of desire, as these, you know, hot bodies. They don't show women as being valued for anything other than their sexuality. And it's a man in this game deciding how many women he wants to be with." Lawrence's bold statements sparked a revolt against her and the media for making such false claims. Such dramatic and reckless reporting may prove to be self-destructive in the face of a rise in popularity among other news venues.

First and foremost, it is important to explain what the game truly is. Mass Effect is a science fiction role-playing game released on the XBox 360 in November of 2007. It received critical and commercial acclaim, achieving an average Metacritic score of 91 and 1.47 million copies sold. But there exist several fallacies within Lawrence's argument, and Jeff Brown, Vice President of Communication at Electronic Arts, singled out these misrepresentations in a letter to the Fox Network. The first most blatant correction is that the game allows the player within the first five minutes of starting the game to create a custom character, male or female. Secondly, the game is structured to allow players to craft unique stories that reflect individual choices they make throughout the game. The sex scene is an optional part of the game and requires effort on the player's behalf to first build an effective relationship with the other character. Contrary to Fox's proposition, the non-interactive scenes do not feature full nudity, rather brief profile shots. This remains an entirely optional and miniature aspect of the grand 40-hour adventure that Mass Effect provides. However, such ignorance created a torrential backlash against author Cooper Lawrence and the Fox Network.

Gamers across the internet reacted to Lawrence's comments by thrashing her book The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace With Your Inner Overachiever on Amazon with 1-star reviews. Many users commented that although they had never read the book before themselves, the overwhelming majority of negative feedback was enough to judge it. This caused Lawrence to take a closer look at the game, and after seeing two hours of gameplay, she admitted that the images in Mass Effect are "kind of a joke." But this whole ordeal is far from a joke to all those vested in the unfairly targeted game. As Ray Muzyka, chief executive of BioWare (the developer that created the game), testified, "We're hurt. We believe in video games as an art form, and on behalf of the 120 people who poured their blood and tears into this game over three years, we're really just hurt that someone would misrepresent the game without even playing it. All we can hope for is that people who actually play our games will see the truth." Unfortunately, this proves to be rather difficult when a major news source opts for controversial reporting instead of covering the facts.

Fox News took advantage of several individuals for the mere sake of a dramatic story. Fox crippled its relationship with a number of its viewers who were knowledgeable enough to discern truth from the sensationalism. This incident proves that the media is still caught up in a bye-gone stereotype of video game culture, that the majority of people playing games are teenage boys. However, the fact of the matter is that the average gamer is 33 years old, whereas 86% of those under the age of 18 that play games receive permission from their parents before buying or renting a game. The news media needs to recognize what the interactive entertainment industry has grown to become. According to editor of Edge Magazine Colin Campbell, it is the threat of upcoming news venues, such as blogs, video upload sites, and social communities, that will force the TV networks to shed its antique image of the games industry: "But in order to protect themselves from further decay, they need to understand how we, as consumers, relate to enabling, interactive technology. Old-school tech-bashing is finished." Times have changed. In this day in time, interactive entertainment plays a major part of people's daily lives on a global basis. Ignoring this very important factor will result in the formation of a great rift between journalists and gaming enthusiasts. As the games industry continues to grow and expand into the artistic and educational sectors, news media must mature alongside of it to remain viable in the ever-evolving network of news sources.