Games Are Once Again Linked to Violence

Posted by Lee Price on 11.20.2009

This time its the French...

Police in a town called Beauvais in France believe they have averted a school shooting being planned by what they call a 13 year old "computer game enthusiast".

Apparently the child, named Bastien, left for school early on November 17th, prompting his parents to become suspicious and check his blog, which revealed the message "This is my last message because Tuesday November 17, 2009 will be the last day of my life. Sorry to leave you...". Accordingly authorities made their way to the school to confront Bastien, but he avoided the school and later apparently dumped a shotgun with 25 cartridges nearby.

Of course, games were immediately implied to be to blame, with even the mayor of the town making sure to note that ""Many young people end up finding it difficult to tell the difference between dream and reality. He played his little fantasy on the net and then carried it out." French media followed the same route, making implied suggestions that the lad's gaming was to blame.

At least one source has gone against this however. Véronique Fima has this to say about games, "First of all, I wouldn't want them to be incriminated in the first place (...) rather than knowing that he was a video game aficionado, I would like us to ask the question : what was the deep discomfort that made this child act that way (...) All children and teenagers all play video games, yet they're not all mass murderers." So at least there is one sane voice in the controversy.

Still it is disturbing how much blame is still placed in gaming despite millions of well-adjusted people managing to play them without going on murderous rampages.

Source: Game Politics