While it might be clear to most people that the biggest influences on those that go on killing sprees, like the recent naval base shooter Aaron Alexis, are mental health problems, isolation and substance abuse, the British press have continued to target games as the biggest problem society faces.
The Daily Mirror leads the way, with a headline that reads "Driven to Kill by Call of Duty?" posing it as a question to draw you in and to cover the fact that the link is extremely tenuous. The front page was posted up online by a chap over at NeoGAF, but the story or a close approximation written by another Mirror writer is available online here.
It purports to quote friends of Alexis, who said he would spend hours and hours every day playing Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, two games that the tabloid rag describes as "violent." He would play so much in fact, that when a new game was out, he would know loads about it before it was even released.
This was cited as evidence of his killer instincts, as opposed to the fact that he reads gaming websites or has a subscription to a gaming magazine.
The Daily Mail is equally horrific today, deciding it needed to target the recent release of GTA V, which is described as ultra violent and built in a way that glamorises violence for children - forgetting that the game has an 18 age rating and that if parents choose to ignore that and let their kids play it, that's their choice.
The writer discusses no links with the fact that every generation has a new thing which the youth pick up and scare the older generation with. In the early 20th century it was dance clubs, later on it was rock music, then video nasties and for the past 20 years or so, it's been video games, this is just the latest of the bunch.
"The fact that this is the most popular computer game on the market should make us all shudder, and pray that the violence on the screen doesn’t bleed into Britain’s streets."
Thanks Daily Mail. Great insight there... jesus.
