That Damn School Shooting In Germany

[gameoverDude]

CNN's Story

Great... so they're blaming computer games.

Looks like Edmund Stoiber wants to ban violent games- apparently he wishes for Germans to play nothing besides Shanghai, Puzzle Bobble, Britney's Dance Beat, the various Bemani series, Arkanoid, Pop'N Pop, Pac-Man (oops... wait, aren't Pac-Man and the ghosts EATING each other? Scratch that one ), and Tetris, for example. All-out censorship stinks. If he wanted to regulate the sale of violent games by banning their sale to minors, then he'd have a better idea. Adults should be able to buy whatever games they please.

Counterstrike didn't start the fire. Mr. Steinhauser was obviously jacked in the head to begin with and his parents may well have dropped the ball. Violence has been around way before video games. What kind of murder simulator did Cain use?

[Error]

Actually, despite the fact that its a tragedy, if they go and blame videogames this time, they are barking up the wrong tree. Germany has some of the toughest laws regarding violence in videogames and such, in fact the original Army Men game was going to be much more real than it wound up being, simply because they wanted a game that could sell everywhere with minimal interference from governments like Germany. So at the risk of making a quick and very uneducated guess, I'd say gaming has nothing to fear, and possibly something to gain (ala "See, look at Germanys laws, it didnt do them any good to censor everything").

Still, it's a damn shame it had to happen again. So many needless deaths.

[arjue]

I've never understood why people do shit like this. Fucking losers.

As for the whole "blame the videogames" campain, it simply doesn't make sense. Movies get much MUCH worse things through sensorship, and even though you don't control the action, you do become immersed in it. if the content of American psycho or Hannibal were put in a video game, it would never see daylight.

[FirstBlood]

His favourite was called "Counterstrike" in which anti-terror units wearing masks battle each other to death.

lol... he played counter-strike... so because he wore a mask... he HAD to be simulating the terrorists!

... i bet he's part of the 1338 kr3w...

[innova]

Why do they let teens own a gun? And for once i wish the person writing the article knew what he was talking about when it came to videogames.

[arjue]

Today was the aniversary of the Port Arthur Massacre in Tasmania, Australia. It is one of the worst massacres ever to occur in Australia, with around 26 people shot dead. This in conjunction with the German shooting are putting pressure on our gun laws. Currently, it is illegal to own an automatic or semi-automatic rifle here, however pistols are still legal. With the current statistics of gun related deaths (Shootings in New South Wales have increased by 40% since 1995) Hopefully they will ban them too.

[Brotherman]

Originally posted by innova
Why do they let teens own a gun?

You know. That's a very good question.

[Hero]

Actually, Germany has some incredibly strict gun control laws. Seems he just picked them up *gasp* illegally.

[Eightbitbreaks]

So they just assume that since he was wearing a mask it means he got the idea from CS. CS didn't invent terrorism; WTF?

[Dunlap]

Originally posted by gameoverDude
Looks like Edmund Stoiber wants to ban violent games- apparently he wishes for Germans to play nothing besides Shanghai, Puzzle Bobble, Britney's Dance Beat, the various Bemani series, Arkanoid, Pop'N Pop, Pac-Man (oops... wait, aren't Pac-Man and the ghosts EATING each other? Scratch that one ), and Tetris, for example.

Those are fun games, at least