Game Violence to Blame for Va. Tech Massacre, Media Critics Say

The Entertainment Software Assn. (ESA) didn’t comment by our deadline. But Entertainment Merchants Assn. (EMA) Public Affairs Vp Sean Bersell referred to an L.A. Times editorial saying “in the wake of such a horrific event… a respectful silence is best.” The editorial complained that the incident was followed by “a blizzard of hasty conclusions, instant position-taking and the rehashing of old arguments.” Bersell said “there will be plenty of time later, after we have honored the victims and learned more about what led the perpetrator to do this, to discuss the causes of this very sad event.”

However, frequent game industry critic and Fla. lawyer Jack Thompson told Fox News that the shooter likely received his training by blasting characters in games such as Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto. Take-Two didn’t comment by our deadline.

Asked what might have triggered the assailant to kill so many people, Phil McGraw -- TV’s “Dr. Phil” -- said on CNN’s Larry King Live “the problem is we are programming these people as a society” to commit such acts. “You cannot tell me -- common sense tells you that if these kids are playing videogames where they're on a mass killing spree” -- that it doesn’t play a role, McGraw said, adding violence is “glamorized on the big screen” and has “become part of the fiber of our society.” If you “mix” the impact of playing violent games “with a psychopath, a sociopath or someone suffering from mental illness and add in a dose of rage, the suggestibility is too high and we're going to have to start dealing with that,” said McGraw, adding society needs to realize “the mass murderers of tomorrow are the children of today that are being programmed with this massive violent overdose.”

But retired FBI profiler Candice DeLong said on the same show that “in the vast majority of cases of mass murderers in the past involving a shooter, investigation usually reveals that the individual was, in the absence of mental illness, very, very upset about something going on in his life,” such as a break-up with a love interest, divorce or the death of a child. She downplayed the significance of easy access to guns in the U.S., saying if somebody wants to do something like this, he'll do it with a knife or another weapon if there is no gun. She didn’t address whether it would be as simple to kill more than 30 people without a gun.

Separately, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) said in a report on videogames that “many gamers” it polled “feel uncomfortable about the prevalence of violence in games.” But “a large majority of the gamers” it surveyed “believed there was no link between violence in games and violence in society,” it said. Some young gamers, however, said they had nightmares after playing gory games and females polled “tend not to play violent games as much as men and raise the subject of violence less spontaneously,” BBFC said. Females also are “more likely than men to object to violence” in games, it said. BBFC went on to say some believe the violence in games is not as “affecting” as violence in movies because game violence is less realistic. But even some game industry representatives polled by BBFC said they had “concerns about the implications of interactivity on the violence issue,” the report said, adding “the implications of more and more realistic images of violence, as technology improves, worry some professionals” involved in making games. BBFC didn’t identify the professionals.