#ThoughtsonGaming: What if We’re Wrong About Video Games?

By R. Bryant Francis

My heart sank on Friday as the news poured in from Oslo. First the blast, then the campsite massacre. As the reports came in, I realized this wasn’t going to be a small, isolated incident—we were looking at a tragedy on the scale of the Madrid and London Bombings, or 9/11 and Timothy McVeigh.

Now we’re finding out more about the lead suspect in this case: Anders Behring Breivik. (I say ‘suspect’ in deference to our system in the USA, where we believe in innocence until proven guilty. I am well aware this man was photographed on Utøya, wearing a police officer’s uniform, and carrying a firearm.) He’s a Christian Extremist, a wannabe freemason, a xenophobic fearmongerer, and by his own confession, the perpetrator of a massacre. (Though by his own twisted logic, he’s pleading ‘not guilty’ despite that confession.)

Thanks to the power of Facebook, we know something else though–he enjoys World of Warcraft and Modern Warfare 2.

When that news first broke, I anticipated a simple “Oh, he played video games, that must have caused this” kind of story. Simple open and-shut. There’d be some arguing, Fox News would mention it somewhere in between the debt crisis, and we’d forget that part in a month.

Then Kotaku broke this.

Now I’m dumbfounded. Almost every previous case of videogame related violence barely amounted to more than “there was an Xbox in the room.” Except for a few cases that also were caused by bad parenting, video games have never been this closely tied to the actual execution of the crime.

But I’ve gone through his “manifesto,” to verify Kotaku’s claim, and it’s real. Here’s some of the quotes.

“Consider taking a vacation to a country where you are able to train in marksmanship or join a gun club. Simulation by playing Call of Duty, Modern Warfare is a good alternative as well but you should try to get some practise with a real assault rifle (with red point optic) if possible. “ 

“I just bought Modern Warfare 2, the game. It is probably the best military simulator out there and it’s one of the hottest games this year…I see MW2 more as a part of my training-simulation than anything else. I’ve still learned to love it though and especially the multiplayer part is amazing. You can more or less completely simulate actual operations.”

Using social taboos is an extremely effective method from preventing people who know you well from digging too much or ask too many questions about your activities that weekend or that year. Say you play WoW (World of Warcraft) or another MMO and have developed an addiction for it. Say that are going to play hardcore for the rest of the year and it is no point trying to convince you otherwise.

The entire manifesto reads as a backstory for Friday’s events. It lays out his motivations, the covers he used to secure equipment, and how he acquired the munitions necessary to cause the carnage.

As I read through, I was forced to come to an inevitable conclusion: Gaming helped this man accomplish his goals.

The link between video games and violence is one that’s been argued over since gaming’s inception in the 1980′s. I dug through a decades’ worth of studies in attempts to find any kind of conclusive studies. The problem is, the ones in favor of the link are conducted with strange methodology, and the ones in opposition to it are sponsored by gaming organizations, effectively removing their impartiality.

As a gaming community, we’ve stood by our pastime and defended it against all challengers. “Bad Parenting!” We exclaimed, as stories about violent children came forth. “He’s psychotic!” We shouted, as older gamers became the ones perpetrating the crimes. “The games had nothing to do with it!” We declared as the cases became more tenuous.

Ours isn’t the first medium to go through this. Comic books, movies, even literature itself have all been deemed “evil” to some degree or another in their history. We’re just the latest in a long history of media

Today though, I stand and force myself to look another way. Today, I ask myself “What if we’re wrong?” What are the implications of that? What if pulling the right trigger on my Xbox controller has desensitized me to the notion of actually firing a weapon at another human being?

And I feel we as a community need to ask this question too. Not because there’s suddenly conclusive evidence that we are, but because we have a responsibility to.

If we want to claim that games are intellectual, that games can be art, that games can do good things in the world, we need to be honest and challenge our own preconceptions on this. Just as we ask others to abandon their preconceived beliefs, we must abandon ours.

To what end? To think and to analyze. To examine the facts that we know, the studies that have been conducted, the events that have occurred. If we remove our personal opinions, we can glean new understandings, and maybe prevent events like the Oslo attack from happening again.

For there is an undeniable lesson to be learned from this attack. In the same way that previous works of art and communication have been appropriated for vicious ends by vicious beings–Friedrich Nietzsche by the Nazis, The Cure’s “Killing an Arab” (Known now as “Standing on the Beach”) by anti-Islamics in the 1980′s, or Taxi Driver inspiring Reagen’s would-be assassin–Video games have now earned their place in history as being misappropriated by their “fans,” and used as a tool for which their creators did not intend.

I do not hope for anyone at Blizzard, Activision, Infinity Ward or Respawn Entertainment to feel guilt over this. I hope in fact, for the opposite–that while they mourn the victims as much as we do, they understand they hold no responsibility. This man, deranged as he may be, chose to mis-use these tools for entertainment and community for a darker purpose, and he and any associates he may have are the ones in need of punishment.

Video games have grown up, and we’ve grown up with them. They’ve unfortunately reached the point as a medium where they can be turned for a darker purpose. Just as comic books, radio, books, and films before them (ESPECIALLY films, the modern ‘documentary’ got its start in Nazi Germany), they can be bent, mis-used, and misguided for malicious ends.

In the days to come, news networks may pick up on these video game related facts and run with them. I ask our fans to please avoid responding with harshness and criticism. As the Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg said, “we will respond to these attacks with more democracy, more openness, more humanity.”

I hope we can all have that reaction to these attacks, and any more in the future. Because that’s what’s going to eventually make them stop. Not anger. Not blame. Not retaliation. But understanding, knowledge, and compassion.

Our thoughts go out to those in Norway, and everyone else affected by this tragedy.

R. Bryant Francis, filmmaker and Jace Hall Show writer, hopes never to have to write a piece like this again. You can contact him at bf08@comcast.net, or @RBryant2012. Use #ThoughtsonGaming to share your thoughts on the matter with him or @JaceHall.

---

« Oops: 3DS Removed from Amazon (Temporarily!) Due... | « Hot Chicks at Comic-Con...

---