Most of us are familiar with Anders Breivik, the Norwegian man who attacked a youth camp last July, killing 77 people. He’s currently being tried for his crimes, and it’s clear that he’s a mentally disturbed individual. Breivik describes his killings with calmness, showing no emotion or regret at all, instead insisting that he acted to prevent his perceived Muslim takeover of Europe. And yet, much of the media focuses not on his mental state, but on one of his sinister pastimes: playing World of Warcraft and Call of Duty.
Head-lines such as “Norway killer sharpened aim by playing video game” and “Norway killer played video games to prepare for massacre” pepper the Internet, bringing focus to violent video games rather than the violent acts of real life. These articles imply that games such as World of Warcraft are to blame for this man’s crimes, though the endless hours of alchemy and enchanting involved in the game are hardly applicable to real life. True, Breivik claims to have trained to use rifle sights by playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, but even hours of “training” on Call of Duty prepares you for shooting people about as much as Asteroids prepares you to pilot a space shuttle.
The “correlation” here between violent video games and violent shootings is by no means a reason to ban shooting games, or even spark debate. The media simply chose to fixate on that single target as an easy way to exploit existing reader fears, thereby creating an interesting headline and increasing viewership. It’s transparent, misguided, and wrong.
In the case of the Norway massacre, video games are a scapegoat, exploited by the media to increase fears and headline clicks. We need to stick to the facts and pay respect to the dead, not engage in warmongering against harmless pastimes.