Kotaku
The New York Post, not exactly a bastion for accurate and fair reporting, decided that "sick shooter" Steven Kazmierczak's interest in Counter-Strike three to four years ago made a better headline than the fact that he was off his medication when he decided to go on a rampage in an Illinois classroom.
The man who gunned down five people and wounded 16 in an Illinois classroom rampage was a loner who preferred studying to partying and was obsessed with an ultra-violent video game, dormitory mates said yesterday.Stephen Kazmierczak, 27, played the wildly popular game Counter-Strike while studying sociology at Northern Illinois University in 2003 and 2004.
"He played a lot of video games, especially Counter-Strike, really loud," said dorm mate Ben Woloszyn, 24.
What they failed to mention was what dorm mates likely told them next, or at least told the Northwest Herald, that just about everyone in the dorm played the game.
But both men said that if Kazmierczak seemed disconnected from the other students, it could have been because he was an older student living alongside underclassmen."I guess he was polite," Rice said. "He was just really quiet. I wouldn't have guessed he would do anything."
Kazmierczak often would play the video game Counter Strike, a first-person shooting game, the roommates said, but they were quick to add that the game was nothing unusual for dormitory halls.
It's also worth noting that over the nearly 1,700 articles published about the shooting the only two that mention the game are the Northwest Herald and the New York Post. That didn't stop Thompson for shooting out an email this morning crowing about getting it right. It's nice to know that he cares about what's important in this shooting, that a college student played video games at one point in his life, not that six people are dead and a country traumatized.
Our condolences go out to the families of those killed and to Kazmierczak's family.
COLLEGE KILLER CRAZY FOR VIOLENT VID GAME [New York Post]
Comments
Oh shit, now JT has some ammunition. Not good.
"Our condolences go out to the families of those killed and to Kazmierczak's family."
Well said Crecente - perhaps Jack could say that before he says anything else.
Tch, this truly is horrible. Those involved will be in my prayers.
"It's nice to know that he cares about what's important in this shooting, that a college student played video games at one point in his life, not that six people are dead and a country traumatized."
I'm not traumatized, I dont feel anything. I don't mean that in a bad way. Yes for the families involved I feel bad for them because this kids parents obviously never taught him right from wrong, but I am far from traumatized.
They should focus more on this story:
"Company: Gunman, Virginia Tech shooter used same Web dealer"
[www.cnn.com]
I thought playing Counter Strike was a requirement for living in the dorms.
"What they failed to mention was what dorm mates likely told them next, or at least told the Northwest Herald, that just about everyone in the dorm played the game."
Oh really? And this after you admonish the Post for their accurate and fair reporting. Consistency, please.
@McBonk: ?
Because you know, he would've never done it if it weren't for those damn video games....*sarcasm*
Check the comments section of that Northwest Herald article, specifically one made at 4:21am 2/16...
Since when is CS considered ultra-violent?
I guess if your comparing it against "Horsez" or "Kittenz" then yes. Anything else, certain segments on the news are more violent.
Man, who didn't play Counter-Strike 5 years ago? We're all doomed I say, DOOMED! First one to the respawn wins :)
"He played a lot of video games, especially Counter-Strike, really loud,"
Cause we all know...the louder the game is the more violent you become...
New York Post is far more fair then the New York Times. Who knows if CS did anything to him but I don't think its unfair to mention it in a article.
@Mr Fortitude: Because you've been desensitised by the evil that is videogaming! You feel no compassion or emotion anymore! Only a desire to kill/give JT something to do between court cases calling for his dismissal.
Anyway, what's up with the demonising of being a hard working student? They seem to present the 'fact' that he "preferred studying to partying" as some kind of contributing factor. Jeez, I thought stigmatising the studious got old when the stoopids left school and went into jobs cooking waffles or changing tyres. Or, apparently, writing for the NYPost.
Next thing the media is going to say is that President Bush played some "ultra-violent" videogames and that is why we got into the way in Iraq.
Wow, these people [the media that blamed videogames] are such idiots.
I'll just post it:
jackthompson wrote on Feb 16, 2008 4:21 AM:
" IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE - Feb. 16, 2008
Illinois School Shooter Rehearsed for Massacre
on Counter-Strike Video Game
On Friday, Miami attorney Jack Thompson appeared at 10:15 am on the Fox News Channel to warn of the role of violent video games in numerous school shootings such as the one authored by Stephen Kazmierczak at Northern Illinois University, as well as Columbine and countless other such incidents.
Thompson specifically mentioned the ultra-violent first person shooter game Counter-Strike which was played obsessively by Robert Steinhaueser, the author of the worst school shooting in European history-at Erfurt, Germany-and by Cho of Virginia Tech, as reported by the Washington Post. You can see Thompson's specific reference to Counter-Strike on Fox yesterday morning in streaming video at www.gamepolitics.com.
Note that Thompson said to the Fox anchor that it was too early to know if Stephen Kazmierczak was into violent video games like Counter-Strike by saying "We'll see."
Well, now only the blind will not see, and by their choice.
The following is to be found presently on-line at the Northwest Herald at [www.nwherald.com]
From his two college roommates, as reported yesterday afternoon:
"Kazmierczak would often play the video game Counter Strike, a first-person shooting game, the roommates said, but they were quick to add that the game was nothing unusual for dormitory halls."
What is unusual is for school shooters not to have wittingly or unwittingly rehearsed themselves on these murder simulators. These games not only feed an appetite for violence but they are teach killing tactics and scenarios.
Yesterday afternoon at 3:55 pm, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich opined on Fox News that "violent video games" figure in these massacres. He was right. Thompson was dead on right in identifying Counter-Strike as a likely training device.
Thompson wrote legislation passed unanimously and signed into law in Louisiana about these murder simulation games. A recent poll taken by the video game industry itself found that 65% of Americans want federal legislation to restrict the sale of these murder simulators. That percentage will grow after the Valentine's Day School Massacre.
Contact Jack Thompson for more information at 305-666-4366 and/or amendmentone@comcast.net.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Jack Thompson is a Miami attorney who has appeared on roughly 250 national and international television programs about the hazardous sale of violent video games. He has appeared on 60 Minutes twice, the Today Show eight times, and before state legislatures testifying as to this public safety hazard. He was recently profiled on ABC's Nightline, and he is the author of the internationally distributed Tyndale House book Out of Harm's Way about this problem. The publisher deleted from this book the chapter presenting a fictionalized account of a student who jumps onto the stage of a school auditorium and opens fire with a shotgun. The publisher said it was "too disturbing" and would alarm the public.
"
@Lstormy10:
that is why we got into the war*
Uh oh. So if valve releases some secret frequency, we have millions of potential killers activated on notice?
Hey, I am all about baby boomers and the knowledge of our forefathers, but this is...unless they know something about our world that we don't know about; a la date of apocalypse?
It's a well known fact that 90 percent of guys in dorms play Counter Strike. It's not the big issue here, the medication is surely. My thoughts are with the families of the victims of yet another pointless shooting.
He was definately an insecure guy, just look at how perfectly pruned his eyebrows look, he definately plucked.
Did you guys see that JT already posted a lengthy comment on the Northwest Harold article?
I play a lot of violent videogames and I've never punched a classmate...
THough I like to scream out loud extreme profanity when getting frustrated becuz I can't beat the last boss of a game...
QUICK, PUT ME IN JAIL BEFORE I SET PUPPIES ON FIRE!
@FlashIV: Sadly Jack has already posted that a number of times in the comments section on the last story.
Again he seems to be very busy early in the morning.
Perhaps he's pulling an all nighter on World of Warcraft. He should get more. He might turn into an angry loner or something...
Oh, wait.
Touche. You did. I'm gonna crawl back into my newbism corner.
I Heard that all the shooters also watched Family Guy, Family Guy is linked through all the school shootings so i deduce that is whats causing it.
Also, it is my understanding that they all breathed oxygen, so oxygen obviously turns people into rampaging suicidal murderers...
Didn't the American government create the game America's Army? Isn't that essentially as violent as CS?
It wants what it shows...that's the media for you. New reporters or old ones afraid of dying out so they just focus on the negative. The outlets that deliver the media should accept responsibility for not reporting all the facts. Get your facts right or get another job.
Of course, blame the Video Game
@Pombar: I am not going to say video games has nothing to do with it. Sure games are violent and people glean things from them all the time, good and bad. I am one of those people that believe if your kid kicks the dog at a young age you dont give him/her a game until they know right from wrong. Apparently this guy had some issues (because who just goes and shoots some place up). I am not blaming this entirely on parenting or on games, but what you do and are taught at an early age goes a long way in life. I personally have been playing games since 1987, most of them FPS and you dont see me out shooting people and causing mayhem.
As far as Jack Thompson goes, I do not understand his thinking. I find it hard to agree/disagree or even take what he says serious when the first thing out of his mouth every interview is "Games are bad". Wasn't he supposed to be stripped of his credentials or something?
I really don't need to see that JT-copypasta again. It's all over the board. Nice way of getting your point across...
(not aimed towards you, FlashIv. Sorry if it comes over that way)
I've never played CS, so anything type of FPS I have to compare to will have to be Call of Duty.
Murder simulator? Teaching killing scenarios? Oh sure. Next time I find myself on a broken bridge, most of my friends ad allies dead around me, with a pistol in my hand, and the man responsible for the death of my friends and countless marines right in front of me, too dangerous to be left alive, I'll know what to do.
You know, if I can figure out how to load the damn gun. Stupid COD4 forgot to teach me that.
Jacks "article" uses the phrase "murder simulators" three times. And as for the murder scenario training, theres only so much you can learn from endlessly playing DE-Dust.
@Meldy: I see... :/
We're all forgetting another connection the article makes. Not only do video games make us violent but apparently studying and being polite does too, so if we all want to be good citizens we should just put down our games, stop learning anything, go out and become arrogant tools.
Yup, he payed counter-strike, just like millions of other people. They couldn't get much more of a blanket statement for games if they used WoW.
@Mr Fortitude: I'd still give my kids games if they were showing violent tendencies. I'd just also try and do my bit as a parent to instill better values in my kid than thinking that random violence is acceptable. Also, most kids games aren't exactly disturbing. I think the only thing I got, behavior-wise, from Zoombinis was a strong pedantic streak and a love for Pizza.
A NY newspaper over sensationalizing a pointless piece of information?
No wai!
Jack Thompson is a FUCKING ASSHOLE! Who the hell is sick enough to boast about being right about if the shooter played video games, instead of offering condolences or maybe even CARING about the people involved in the incident. Jack thompson, if you read this post of mine I just want to let you know that I think you are one sick demented fuck!
Ok.... if someone plays too much Mario they will be obsessed with turtle stumping?
The NY Post is a joke newspaper. We shouldn't be caring about this.
This just in, 98% of crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread. BREAD MAKES YOU A MURDERER!!!
If only Dope Wars got as much "bad" press as these "murder simulators".
Darnit, with all these 'murder simulators' that I play, I should very well be a professional crackshot with a Kar98 by now, know how to fly on a Syringe, be able to stealth behind someone to backstab them, and manage to drive a tank.
No.. no sir... I can barely ride my bike. My stealthiness is about as good as the incredible hulk passing undetected through Smurftown. And my aim with a gun... well, I have no idea about that, but if it's anything like my aim with throwing paper balls into the wastebin from my bed, it's not looking so hot either.
@Kavatar: The first half? Yes. The Sports Section? Best there is.
Go Jack, you have our support!
@pylon_trooper: Haha, I remember that game. I played it to death, and live in Camden, the traditional drug-capital of London, yet I don't do, let alone deal, drugs. Strangely enough, most of my non-gaming friends do. Zomg videogames defend against drug addiction.
But yes, the reason Thompson will never be seen as having a legitimate point is that all his arguments are based on the same, flawed, post-hoc fallacy. Maybe he would've been better off as a NYPost writer than a lawyer, huh.
@tamago007: Every once in a blue moon I have urges to jump around breaking bricks with my head, get coins, stomp on goombas and punch turtles in the hyead.
I'm almost afraid of someone killing people OVER the stupidity of the people who are blaming videogames. Jack Thompson has gotten death threats hasn't he?
They forget that playing video games is a normal part of every dude's life, they still think games are for weirdos only.
I don't think the content of the article is even half as irresponsible as that headline...
Correlation does not equal causation.
Meaning, Just because you do something and then do something else you cannot always say 1 caused 2. If you watch rambo then go home and beat your wife Rambo does not equal Wife beating. Being a drunken redneck might but not the movie you watched or the game you played. I started playing shooters (T rated ones of course) when I was about 7. I have played most of the "Ultra-violent" games JT blames and I have never felt the need to shoot anyone.
WHAT A THOUGHT. Books had the same problem, then movies, now games. So when this generation who doesnt remember games not existing comes to political power another scapegoat will be found. Nobody wants to take responseability for what they do. Video games dont make you violent.
"...only the blind will not see, and by their choice."
You sick Fuck.
I will say it again:
Fuck you Jack Thompson
Jack Thompson; What a peice of shit.
Videogames haven't desensitized me to real-world violence at all (Band of Brothers and certain Lost episodes freaked the hell out of me so much I had to look away), but God help me if we ever come in contact with an alien race of short, brown, mushroom-shaped creatures with thick eyebrows and googily eyes.
Ahh, you gotta love the NY post.
This is the same paper that is broadcasting a federal witness' whereabouts and calling him a rat after bringing down one of NY largest mob families.
Way to go!
errrrm why is there always something to blame now a days can't ppl generally be just FUCKING CRAZY these days or what. It can't be them, has to be a video game, a toaster, the salt on pretzels gave em a chemical imbalance so they had to run down little kids or some stupid shit like that