Minecraft nearly causes school shooting...
As we all know (especially given how regularly it happens) whenever someone in America takes a legally available hand-gun/shotgun/rifle/whatever in to a school in America and kills children and adults, video games always (and I mean ALWAYS) get the blame. No one ever says"Well, if guns weren't made available to the killer in the first place, then this wouldn't have happened, you know, like in England where it never happens even though video games are just as popular there, because guns are illegal in England".
Well, actually a lot of people say just that, but they're not the ones with the power to change things. The people with just that power are rich and the people who make the guns are rich, and, well, it's not like there's no crossover between the two, and the former don't want to upset the latter anyway, as the latter often spend a fortune supporting the formers' political campaigns.
Anyway, here's the latest in the "Blame video games not guns" saga:
Now We've Heard It All: Minecraft Blamed in School Violence Case
A nine-year-old Orlando, Fla. boy?"so tiny ... he could barely see the judge over the podium"?was sentenced to home confinement by a state judge after he brought "multiple weapons to school." The video game being blamed? Minecraft. Mine-bleeping-craft.12P
The unnamed student had "an unloaded handgun, a magazine with six bullets inside, a steak knife and a small-handled sledge hammer," reports WFTV-TV of Orlando. The firearm came from his father's home.P
"The boy's father said he was playing a character he learned from the video game Minecraft," WFTV reports. P
"They use hammers to dig and knives and guns to protect themselves from zombies," he said, according to the station.34567 ...6P
WFTV reported that his father said "he was just acting out the game" and that the gun could never be fired, because it's firing pin had been removed. Still, the kid knew where to find it, and knew where to find the ammo, which ain't good.910P
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Teaching First-Graders with Minecraft
When his five-year-old daughter built a treehouse by herself in Minecraft, Joel Levin, a computer teacher at Manhattan's Columbia Grammar and? Read?
But while Minecraft is not exactly a nonviolent game, in no way does it rise to the level of violence in typical scapegoats like Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto. Minecraft is rated E10+ by the ESRB. Hearing that game?which is being taught in first grade, for God's sake?linked to a garden variety guns-n-schools freakout story is just nauseating.P
Source: http://kotaku.com/now-weve-heard-it-all-minecraft-blamed-in-school-viol-1418633346
Well, actually a lot of people say just that, but they're not the ones with the power to change things. The people with just that power are rich and the people who make the guns are rich, and, well, it's not like there's no crossover between the two, and the former don't want to upset the latter anyway, as the latter often spend a fortune supporting the formers' political campaigns.
Anyway, here's the latest in the "Blame video games not guns" saga:
Now We've Heard It All: Minecraft Blamed in School Violence Case
A nine-year-old Orlando, Fla. boy?"so tiny ... he could barely see the judge over the podium"?was sentenced to home confinement by a state judge after he brought "multiple weapons to school." The video game being blamed? Minecraft. Mine-bleeping-craft.12P
The unnamed student had "an unloaded handgun, a magazine with six bullets inside, a steak knife and a small-handled sledge hammer," reports WFTV-TV of Orlando. The firearm came from his father's home.P
"The boy's father said he was playing a character he learned from the video game Minecraft," WFTV reports. P
"They use hammers to dig and knives and guns to protect themselves from zombies," he said, according to the station.34567 ...6P
WFTV reported that his father said "he was just acting out the game" and that the gun could never be fired, because it's firing pin had been removed. Still, the kid knew where to find it, and knew where to find the ammo, which ain't good.910P
RELATED
Teaching First-Graders with Minecraft
When his five-year-old daughter built a treehouse by herself in Minecraft, Joel Levin, a computer teacher at Manhattan's Columbia Grammar and? Read?
But while Minecraft is not exactly a nonviolent game, in no way does it rise to the level of violence in typical scapegoats like Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto. Minecraft is rated E10+ by the ESRB. Hearing that game?which is being taught in first grade, for God's sake?linked to a garden variety guns-n-schools freakout story is just nauseating.P
Source: http://kotaku.com/now-weve-heard-it-all-minecraft-blamed-in-school-viol-1418633346
Post edited by ewgf on
Comments
Video games are evil, that's for sure.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
Which means the "nearly causes a school shooting" line is BS.
I didn't even know Minecraft had guns. The (very small) amount of time I spent playing it was mainly me wondering where the gameplay was, and why it's so popular - judging from it's sales figures, every living person apart from me must have bought eight separate copies of it. It's even spawned a genre, with well over a dozen copycat style games available now.
"As of September 3, 2013, the game [Minecraft] has sold over 12 million copies on PC, and over 33 million copies across all platforms."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minecraft#Reception
When I was first invited to be a contributor, we were flown to NetDevil's HQ in Colorado. For the amusement of all involved, I forwarded the UK Home Office guide to visiting the U.S.A. (including what to do in the event of a deliberate car-ramming, carjacking and other gun-related crime). I forwarded it as a 'guide to survival in the land of the gun-juggling burger-monkeys'.
I couldn't help noticing, in the final game, that your first ranged weapon was obtained on a pirate-themed level, where you have to find some bananas to trade with a monkey, sat high up on cliff, juggling a flintlock pistol by tossing it in the air from hand to hand. At least someone had a sense of humour about it.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
Weeeell, yes and no ... we could take the scenario a step further. What if the child had flashed the gun and a rent-a-cop had started firing at the 9-year old? Or the gun was drawn, school put on lock-down, SWAT team moves in guns-a-blazin'!
Hence "nearly causes a school shooting" though the "offender" couldn't have fired off any bullets.
But yes, I agree with you. It's BS reporting and wrongful hyping of the events.
I was thinking that just last night, while spending an hour or so watching gaming commentaries and trailers on YouTube. Minecraft seemed to involve a lot of hacking away at rocks and rambling on about diamonds and all these screens popping up with loads of little pictures on them which I couldn't make out and which the players didn't explain. Maybe gamers aren't very good at making videos about games; they mostly seem to be either very annoying or very boring, with a lot of inane babbling and dashing about.
Another one I watched was a big Elder Scrolls presentation at some convention, and you'd think that would be more informative and entertaining - but nope - dull, dull, dull. They'd created this huge & complex gaming environment with superb graphics and slick interface and then nothing much happened with it at the presentation. Wander here, wander there, someone looking moody & mysterious, occasional pointless homicide, more wandering, there was another 10 minutes of it but I lost the will to go on.
The cinematic game trailers for games are often very impressive, but if one doesn't keep up to date with the gaming news (as I don't) they often leave me none the wiser as to what the flip they're about. The Bayonetta 2 trailer, for example, WTF was going on with that?! There was a brilliant Elder Scrolls trailer with these various protagonists attacking this castle - if what they were doing wasn't actually impossible or at least highly improbable I would have taken it to be live action (although I expect there would be a tiny "not actual gameplay" disclaimer somewhere at the end) - which really did encourage me to want to play the game - but as I'm still using PS2 and Gamecube it's a bit out of my league I think.
well it could have caused a person to be shot in a school :p
Probably doesn't count though :)
There is a very good reason for them to do it. Because it's very obvious to blame everything else if you suspect that you did it yourself. Haven't you noticed that even shootings in schools or public figures always got games blamed? Even if games did not depict them whatsoever?
The sad truth is, those individuals got those idea from television or other news channels. News get broadcasted every day about terrible schools or misbehaving public figures. And it's on prime time tv, every day! The news broadcasts, that's where those people get the "excuse" from to shoot people! So obviously those "journalists" will be the first in line to blame gaming.
So the next time you hear the media blaming games being the cause, you know it's in fact that they have to shift the blame to gaming because otherwise they got attacked.
In fact, one should always blame the media, and never the games.
Games List 2016 - Games List 2015 - Games List 2014
TNT, horrifically devious lava traps & Bows & Arrows....
But no guns that I'm aware of....
If one person is so far gone and they see the media circus and infamy caused by the sensationalism they too could go on a shooting spree.
Instead of taking this sage advice the US media brushed it off and carried on blaming video games and all other manner and sundry, despite knowing full well the next shooting would be in a large part their fault.
worked with rap and video nasties. :D
Surely you're not suggesting the media is irresponsible!
But yes, I agree, a large part of the 'reason' people commit those atrocities is to shock the world and leave their mark. Lessening the media coverage of such events would remove a lot of the pride and kudos (the wrong words, I know, but you know what I'm trying to say) from these shootings and so make them less attractive to anyone planning a similar act. The same argument applies to terrorism - the less coverage you give an act of terrorism, the less potent that action becomes in the eyes of the terrorists, and so further actions seem less worthwhile by extension.
Oh, have you got a video?
yes
.......
Tut. It's "YES WE'VE GOT A VIDEO!!!!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqbMvbP_j1k