The alleged mass murderer Anders Breivik’s trial has reopened the dispute over video games. Breivik testified last Thursday that he used video games to train for his shooting spree that amounted to 77 deaths last summer.
He said at the trial that he played Call of Duty as a way to practice shooting. He also told the courtroom that he played World of Warcraft, an online game of role-playing with players from across the globe. He says he would play that game for up to 16 hours each day.
For those people who suspect a link between video games containing violence and real life violence, his testimony offered new, frightening evidence as to why the industry might have to be regulated more strictly. However, a number of gamers disagreed and just said, “Here we go again.”
The most memorable comparison was used when two teenagers carried out the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, which experts said might have been influenced by Doom, a video game enjoyed by the two teenagers in 1999.
Another popular video game Grand Theft Auto has also been targeted as glamorizing criminals and promoting violence. One attorney even sued the makers of the video saying it inspired his client, a convicted killer of a police officer in Alabama.
