August 30, 2007 -
The final report of Governor Tim Kaine's Virginia Tech Review Panel has been made public, and video games are NOT identified as a factor in the massacre.Quite the opposite, in fact. The only game cited as being played by Cho is Sonic the Hedgehog. An overall non-involvement with games is detailed by his college roommates.
In Chapter IV, Mental Health History of Seung Hui Cho, video games are mentioned several times, but not as any type of causal factor in the April 16th shootings:
Sun and her parents recall that Cho seemed to be doing better. He was enrolled in a Tae Kwon Do program for awhile, watched TV, and played video games like Sonic the Hedgehog.
None of the video games were war games or had violent themes. He liked basketball and had a collection of figurines and remote controlled cars. Years later when he was in high school, Cho was asked to write about his hobbies and interests. He wrote:
I like to listen to talk shows and alternative stations, and I like action movies…My favorite movie is X-Men, favorite actor is Nicolas Cage, favorite book is Night Over Water, favorite band is U2, favorite sport is basketball, favorite team is Portland Trailblazers, favorite food is pizza, and favorite color is green.
...Cho’s roommate never saw him play video games. He would get movies from the library and watch them on his laptop. The roommate never saw what they were, but they always seemed dark. Cho would listen to and download
heavy metal music...
...Cho went to bed early and got up early, so his roommate just left him alone and gave him his space. The only activities Cho engaged in were studying, sleeping, and downloading music. He never saw him play a video game, which he thought strange since he and most other students play them.
The report will be well-received by the gaming community, which over the past few months has endured supposed video game links to the shootings as espoused by Jack Thompson, Dr.Phil, and the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee.
Comments
Game don't kill people, Lunatics who don't know how to channel there anger in healthy ways, Like video games for example, Kill people.
In all seriousness, games are most often used as an outlet for anger and violence, not a way to train for it.
I mean, how absurd does it sound to claim that pointing and clicking a mouse in anyway trains you to handle the breathing, aiming, firing and recoil of an actual weapon.
I know, i worked on a gun range, and lemme tell ya, it's a world apart from playing a game.
Me, I'm gonna go back to blowing up giant robots in Dynasty warriors: Gundam. I"m sure that'll teach me how to pilot a giant, multistory tall armed mechinized weapon right Jack thompson?
Do you why we (right here) are focusing on the video game aspect (or lack of) of V-Tech, or, why critics are focusing on it, or something else?
I am a mast swordsman as I play Maximo, Zelda and countless RPGs. I guess that makes me a master wizard and I can control the elements. I am also a master of Kung-fu and can fly and channel my ki energy into lazer blasts since I play Dragon Ball Z
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Now I get why he killed all those people.
I think the problem goes further than that. I think that there are so many violent video games BECAUSE we are a society that worships violence. It makes sense that there would be crossovers between the group called "People who solve problems with violence" and the group called "gamers". Neither of these terms are real as they do not express the people within them, only a trait that we use to identify them.
Yes, it also makes sense that violent people will be energized, for lack of a better word, by violent games. Also, interactive medium or no, I think violent movies and tv have the same effect.
@Chris:
quarter circle forward punch - Nasty letter
ditto kick - Litigation.
And JT wields a ban hammer.
Music, and the movies.
THey can't pin it on video games because Sonic does not wield a gun. Now if it were Shadow the Hedgehog he was playing, Shadow would probably never use a gun again (noting how sensitive Sega of Japan was to complaints about Rouge from -americans- of all people)
This still doesn't actually prove that video games didn't affect him. Since the video games burnt out his frontal lobe years ago, he was forced to linger on in his own madness as his brain was slowly burnt away by the mere presence of video games in the past.
Finally, he couldn't take the pain anymore, and decided to get revenge on all those who had ever played a video game... which was most of the college campus.
Thus... it's all Sega's fault... who is secretly owned by Take Two. and Rockstar. and Microsoft. and also Satan.
Agreed, that all forms of violent media would have an effect. Games are just targeted because they are interactive, and a few people, for some reason, believe that acting through a controller translates to performing similar actions in real life.
Also agreed that there are crossovers between the two labels. But idiots like JT use these labels as if they encompass all of our traits. We aren't people who enjoy a diverse amount of activities yet share one among us all, we are "gamers," and stereotyping us just makes those doing the labelling look like morons.
One word regarding this report: D'uh
Now, off to work.
Sadly, this is not something that public figures really seem to feel compelled to do. If they do, they will release an apology to the tone of Micheal Vick and do their best to not acknowledge that they did anything wrong (referring to the lack of any admission or apology for his direct involvement with the dog fighting & funding).
Maybe I wasn't clear. I remember on the day it happened, I was watching the news. It was only a few hours after the fact and for some reason I see Jack Thompson and others on TV talking about video games! It just seemed surreal, in the middle of this horrible tragedy these people are talking about something so trivial. There were more important things to talk about that day.
*snicker*
Don't you know nothing is more important than the blame game?
"Game don’t kill people, Lunatics who don’t know how to channel there anger in healthy ways, Like video games for example, Kill people."
I want that on a bumper sticker.
@Tristram
JT would be like Dan in the SF games. Attempting to be all flashy and full of bravado, but ultimately he is utterly impotent, and more likely to take himself out with a piece of paper while everyone laughs at him than do anything useful to his own cause.
Hmmm...JT _would_ be the best character to have a super taunt. He really IS Dan!
...it's all sticky, and smells of fear and ignorance!
Face it, you've lost. There's nothing you can do. All you can do is whine on a political game blog about "how we're wrong and you're right" when in reality, no one in the real world with half a brain cares about what you do. You will be forgotten like that German Doctor who tried to blame comic books for the decline of American moral values.
And Dr Phil? He doesn't really agree with you. He only blamed violent videogames for the V-Tech massacre because it's "the cool thing to do."
On a side note, can I borrow your tinfoil hat?
I agree. It reeks of Fake Jack. But if it was the real Jack then I was pretty darn close in my preemptive quote. :)
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
August 30th, 2007 at 11:12 am
This is the problem with out gamer-friendly society - this report was botched to ensure that gamers and their ill-founded culture will be protected when they are in fact responsible for the built up rage and aggression that is unleashed when a young man decides to shoot up a school.
I’d love to hear all of you apologise to the victims for this atrocity. In a way, you’re all to blame.
Yes, Just like Take2 was at the Center of a vast RICO conspiracy a while back. You Loony NUT
GP: That is a fake Jack post... now deleted.
Don't think JT would have such an obvious typo... he is a lawyer and they are known for being...precise...
There ARE a couple of hints. First, the REAL JT loves to post "HOOAH!" Seconf, he always leaves his name at the end of his reply. Third, Dennis erases the fake JT messages.
We're all to blame for a psychotic, troubled killer.
That. Makes. Sense.
What age are you pushing, Thompson, 50? 60? I'm just trying to get an estimate of how much longer I have to see your ignorant, asinine statements about things you have no grasp on.
He's not the real one. he likes to leave 'attorney' at the end, to show off. one time, he even said 'attorney and you're not' in his name.
Have you ever read his official documents to the Florida Bar and such? They are filled with typos, as are his comments here.
I'd like to see you pull off that defense in a court of law, Mr. Attorney.
How in the hell did you manage to pass the psych evaluation? Did you lie to the doctor?
Oh, and what happened to "moderating" your writing?
im sorry thompson i try to be respectful to others no matter what stupid things they think up, i really do. but you have created a whole new level of stupid. its now to the point where you have made legitimate stupid people look like albert fucking einsteins. just quit now while your ahead. we may spare you out of pure sympathy if you just quit now.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6969842.stm
"This is the problem with out gamer-friendly society - this report was botched to ensure that gamers and their ill-founded culture will be protected"
12 posts after I said I'll bet he claims a coverup...
I hate it when I'm right...
When was he ahead? I don't recall that moment.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Not had the pleasure... I'll keep it that way.
"In a way, you’re all to blame."
Wasn't there a portion of Mr. Thompson's mental evaluation that he would try to stop using hyperbole and would try to moderate his speech?
Oh, that's right. He did:
"I asked Mr. Thompson about the hyperbole and sarcasm that I read in some of his motions/pleadings. He said that he realizes that he may have offended some with his ad hominem writings, and he will be more moderate in his writing style in the future."
No, you stupid, senile, massacre chasing, schister, failure as a lawyer, Christian, and human being YOU and your ilk are to blame. Cho was a troubled young man who was likely harassed by his peers. He needed serious psychiatric help. But fuckers like you stand in the way of them getting such help. You think you can wave around the magical "ban video games" wand and all the problems will go away. But even if all the video games were banned from the face of the earth Cho, Harris, Klebold and others would still need psychiatric care. But no, you have scared, ignorant parents thinking that without games these massacres would never happen, WRONG. Fuck you Mr. Thompson. These kids need help, but all you offer is scapegoating and fearmongering. You are to blame for Virginia Tech, you are to blame for Columbine.
When your geezer heart finally gives out I hope you pack some SPF 1,000,000 Because you are gonna burn in hell.
Can we get a confirmation on whether that Jack Thompson was the real deal or not? I doubt it was because he usually goes by the "JACK THOMPSON, ATTORNEY AND YOU'RE NOT" name. But with him, who knows anymore?
GP: The one that made reference to a "gamer-friendly society" was a fake & is deleted... the one that zings me for "getting it wrong" again is the real Miami Jack.
Do you ever admit that your are wrong? Why do you feel that you must claim conspiracy every single time you are proven full of shit?
hes always been ahead of us. ahead in the be-as-fanatical-and-incompetent-as-you-can-be, race that is.