papertowelsguitar

papertowelsguitar

Burgermeister

papertowelsguitar

This "child" has no excuse, hes beyond the parents control. He clearly has problems and needs some serious help. This has nothing to do with video games or God of War.

Jericho114

Geeze... you'd think a God of War player would be better able to defend himself against a measly .22 pistol.

/Shooting was caused by irresponsible gun ownership. Period. The gun was unloaded - good, it should have been locked with kids in the house. Either in a safe or with a cable lock of some kind.

Jordan Lund

joelface

It would all sound a bit weird if "video games" were replaced with "basketball" and "God of War" with "HORSE," but really these are fairly innocuous articles and Bishmon is absolutely right that people here are over-reacting.

James MacAulay

ST19AG_WGreymon

My360broked

In this story, Gamers aren't the agressor- they're the victim. It was the kid playing the video game who was shot, not the other way around. If our local paper, the Picayune, publishes a follow up stating video games are the thing to blame and not the neglectful parents or the psycho child, I will personally see to it that they get my boot up the editors' collective ass.

TexanGasGamer

otakucode

Well yeah they don't actually blame video games but we all know that if they would have been doing puzzles or playing LEGOS it wouldn't be mentionned at all. The journalist probably knows little about what happened or what God of War looks like but simply mentionning it in the article ads a little extra to his article !

Shteve

Blackti3

Where was grandma? I bet she was fragging some noob in CoD4. Yeah.

nanikore

No credit on this tip? I emailed this to you yesterday.

elpierce

Of course the usual ambulance chasers and 'fair and balanced' news stations will be supporting the parents as victims in this while hounding the contents of a plastic disc to seek retribution and ratings.

The true victims here are the kids left without supervision. If nothing else it's a lesson for bad parents everywhere, especially if they are under the impression that they're good.

DONAR

bluesquareapple

"Two Boys Save Puppies (and a baby) From Burning House.

A 13 year old boy and his 15 year old brother are being touted as heroes after saving a box of puppies (and a baby) from a nearby burning house. Hearing the yelps, and risking their own lives, they snatched the pups and anklebiter minutes before the burning house collapsed. Everyone is doing fine.

The newspaper said the boys were playing a video game called 'God of War'."

Most kids play games. Most kids aren't violent or play with guns or get into accidents. We need more stories like my one.

monkeyjay

VakeroRokero

VakeroRokero

...the town newspaper reported the 13-year-old shot the victim over a video game.

Yet Dean Wagstaff, another mentor to the accused shooter, said video games had nothing to do with the incident.

"I've worked with this young man in the past many times," Wagstaff said. "They're trying to mingle it with the facts that there was a shooting, that we grant, but until all the evidence is in how can they possibly come to the conjecture that this and that happened."

Suzaku

[www.kxan.com]

Has the 911 call and a link to their CaringBridge blog.

Suzaku

Seriously. How could that be at all related to God of War, a title without guns or even the HINT of guns present at all in the game? God, people are stupid these days. I think I have officially lost all hope in humanity.

NoMoreTrolls

rich8606

I know that media violence has detrimental affects on youth, but parents really need to be more involved in teaching their children right from wrong and what is and is not appropriate behavior. Why were they playing an "M" rated game anyway?

heavenlyeire

PissedPS3Fan

v-rus

uknow_what_it_is

To further this perspective you have to ask how the hell a 13 year old kid so easily got his hands on a handgun & why the hell he was allowed to play such a mature game, especially considering it's clearly rated 17+ M for mature & the various reasons are listed quite clearly right beside this rating.

Even if the game actually belong to the victim it doesn't explain where the parents were in all this....

Nay, the game is not at fault here, just as games haven't been at fault in the many cases before this, it's about time someone finally brought the hammer down on the ones truly at fault here.... the parents are the ones who should really be under investigation here...

M. Lobo

Kind of funny, though. The only game that I've played that ever made me feel like killing anyone was The Sims. And that just proves that man was not meant to control the universe with the power of digital God.

Eienhander

Yeah, I'm just waiting to see how they pull this one off... the kid had no wounds that could be traced back to the "Blades of Chaos/Artemis..."

Enigma_20XX

How needless to mention such a thing, yet alone to say it like that...

The newspaper said the boys were watching a television program called "Batman".

The newspaper said the boys were eating a cereal called "Cocoa Puffs".

The newspaper said the boys were wearing clothing purchased at a store called "The Gap".

The newspaper said the boys were part of a religion called "Christianity".

Well, seriously, fuck, who cares? This is contextual in what way? They're grasping at fucking straws, just trying to get a rise out of someone.

UltimatePancakeSensation

RawSteelUT

Jagzthebest

I'm just glad he didn't shoot the kid while the kid was eating a Twinkie because apparently people like you would argue that kids shouldn't be allowed to eat Twinkies and I'd end up getting carded every time I go to buy some. Not to mention whenever I mentioned I liked them in public, people who don't eat Twinkies would give me dirty looks and grab their children to make sure I don't talk to them.

otakucode

otakucode

psychobaka

psychobaka

In other news, a man was shot while driving in traffic. Another during a football game. Also, a man was shot while buying grociers.

Aka: the video game was inconsequential.

TRT-X

manabu

And I like how the article just drops the fact they were playing God of War in there at the end. I can only hope that they actually know that it probably has no real significance to the crime itself, but simply just cannot resist dropping the name of a videogame in there to see who will erroneously fill in the blanks.

StormTec

If you want to read the scientific PROOF of this, get a copy of the book "Nine Crazy Ideas in Science" and read the first chapter, it's all about this issue.

otakucode

If that seems harsh to you, think about what he said. If the kid had been shot while on the computer reading Kotaku and a journalist had called Bashcraft or someone else involved with the site and said "We think the killing was caused by your site. What are your thoughts on the matter" and he shame-facedly said "Well, parents really should be careful what blogs they let their teenaged kids read" wouldn't you be a bit surprised? He's insinuating that yes, if a kid plays God of War, they ARE likely to KILL SOMEONE.

If you have that viewpoint, you really shouldn't be in the gaming industry at all. You're a simpleton who can't tell the difference between fiction and reality and on top of it you're a spineless wuss who won't even stand up for your own art.

His response to the journalist should have been: "My game had nothing to do with this shooting, and any thuinking person knows that. You should be ashamed of yourself for coming to me and suggesting such a thing. Our industry brings entertainment to hundreds of millions of people every day and doesn't contribute to societal violence in any way, shape, or form. By suggesting that this shooting was because of God of War, you are distracting people from learning what is really wrong and if whatever caused this shooting causes another, the blood will be on your hands you sensationalistic bastard."

otakucode

SuperMekman

If even game designers won't defend their own craft and humors these imbeciles, then we're screwed. We will see games become more and more idiotic and censored as time goes by and we'll end up with nothing. We deserve it for the lack of spine the gaming community shows with regards to these issues, we've let the retards win.

otakucode

@munkah:
Well he was his friend when he got shot so he was shot by his friend. Though I'm sure they're not friends anymore because if they are the kid should be shot again.

chiefpoopingpants

manabu

sir_carrot

oosiegewolfoo

vuhal

2) If you have any type of fire arm in the house, please lock it up. Right now. Stop reading this and lock it up. Done? Good. But then again, we can't blame the parents on THAT specifically. What if the kid brought it from somewhere else?

Mesren_Makai

WolfGod

mquest

Syco Killer

Granted, I'm talking based on principle here, because I'd never let a gun in my house, but it's not the guns that make people violent. If they want to kill, there are plenty of other ways. People have to have violent tendencies already. The only reason guns are popular is because they're easily portable, they're relatively clean (compared to stabbing or running someone over with a car) and they're hard to defend against.

bobtheduck

Morphine16

"OMG FUCK THE MEDIA GUNS DON'T HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS GAME ARRRGGGHHHHYBLABGHOYBDOAHDKAF"

Is this a premptive strike? If someone does a report blaming the game on the shooting, okay, you have a right to go into nerd rage but right now I think some of you are overreacting.

I mean, seriously, I wonder if half of you even read the news article which was all of 5 sentences.

fullmetal7

@The Amazing Exploding-Man: I wouldn't bet that. The article by Melissa Kanz clearly states that the 13-year old went to retrieve bullets for the .22 caliber pistol that was already out. Not pellets, bullets. Unless the writer is a fool with no grasp on the difference between the two, I'm inclined to believe the kid had access to real bullets.

Having seen real Airsoft guns and BB guns in action, I've also seen and heard many accounts of people being injured, but never fatally injured or putting someone in critical condition from a gunshot wound to the head with one of them. If true, this story would be a rarity.

I can't begin to say how many here questions need answers. Until more information is revealed, I'll leave my speculations to myself.

KeroseneClimax

And this: Americans use firearms to defend themselves from criminals at least 764,000 times a year.

And this: In 1982, a survey of imprisoned criminals found that 34% of them had been "scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed victim."

And this: Despite popular belief, Texas does not have the most lax gun laws in the country, and in fact has some pretty tough gun control laws, especially when compared to other states.

Syco Killer

fragdurarsh

Good thing they weren't playing Persona 3 or Atlus would be in deep trouble. But hey, as everyone else said, BLAME THE PARENTS! Why the HELL would you let a gun+ammo near these kids anyway?

jeffx

v-rus

LevelHead

ok, definitely quite a few things wrong here. One, why is a 13 and 15-year old playing God of War? Two, how did that kid get that gun. Three, why is God of War mentioned. There are no guns in the game.

KM91

DONNYchiban

FFS!

gique

Wolfers

kidko

Integral_Taken

The newspaper said the boys were playing a video game called "Katamari Damancy".

Byakko

Wyld

The game has nothing to do with it. Did they have snack foods while playing the game? I'd say there's more chance the food had something to do with the shooting than the game.

Videogames don't lead to violence because they're not real. Anyone who suggests otherwise is a blithering idiot.

otakucode

FelicioLostHorizonPT

darktorns

JBaird06

alecpyron

The Amazing Exploding-Man

munkah

robochick

@SycoKiller: Name three.

Evil Tortie's Mom

fragdurarsh

Krytha

Syco Killer

Ashurahori

CaptCaveman

karasu is my homeboy

bobtheduck

Grind_Axis

Very much so -- but I think that should have been mentioned too, if that's what was going in.

In news, context is key. In my view, the point here was not that context was supplied when it was irrelevant, but that it wasn't supplied properly or fully enough.

sebFlyte

Lets not resort to name calling. the 13 year olds grandmother, obviously completely oblivious to the games rating probably bought it for him because he asked.

I got my aunt and grandmother to buy rated m and r shit for me all the time before i turned 17.

From the moment the game gets to the counter and into the bag, it's up to the store employee, gamestop, walmart or whatever, to let the adult buying the game know about its rating. If the kid got it some other way than his grandmother, it's still somewhat up to her to know but hell, she could be like mine. 80 years old and not giving a damn about anything anymore.

ManjiKengo

Mister Adequate

ManjiKengo

Hey buddy, shut up.

ManjiKengo

Why did the kid have the gun, any why did he have it without anyone noticing? This directly pertains to the case, but they aren't giving many details.

They mention the name of the game. Is it that important? To us, no, but for others, they THINK it's important.

God of War, while violent, has no guns. Not only that, but it's a single player game. This gets me. They were not "playing" together in this case, one was sitting out. But God of War has no guns, and the kid who shot obviously had the gun already. Probably premeditated, unless they got in an argument and he just *happened * have a gun on him.

For all we know,the news is adding it in to explain why this happened. Do people really need something to blame? No, but the news knows people like to blame stuff.

Codexx

Barrels? It was that damned Donkey Kong!

NinjaMarion

--

Video game designer Ryan Mattson said it's the adult's responsibility to keep the child from reaching that point.

The shooter's grandmother is also his guardian, and said she wasn't present when the violence exploded.

"Monitor what they're playing. If you disagree with something, you as a parent should step in and not allow them to play that anymore," Mattson said.

Brooks said it was a bad idea that the boys played the M rated game in the first place.

"You can weed out some of the games they shouldn't play on the front end. Then the ones that are borderline. The parents should see for themselves, talk to their teen about it, create a dialogue," he said.

--
However, it's a shame it's a game designer talking. Had they got an independent person to supply the quote then it would have, probably, seemed more credible to the average reader as it would be much less easily dismissed.

The fact that the designer's credentials aren't mentioned is also a shame...

I also think that the author should have explained what M-rated meant, as the whole point of the balancing quote is to provide context for people who don't have a clue about games.

sebFlyte

No, let's not 'see' how this continues.

I just placed a coke can on a Wii game case... OMG, quick Kotaku, write a story about that!

Actually don't. Just focus on actual game news and stop trying to be something your not.

Okay? Good.

vonk

CancerMan

Moonshadow101

Tingle

if you have a gun you have bullets, locking them up isn't going to stop them being deadly.

some kids can barely comprehend death, and yet they're within arm's reach of deadly weapons.
i say this is not only a weird media drive to blame videogames, but also an even stranger part of this story is that they don't seem to have mentioned that gun culture leads to unnecessary death through the use of guns.

how many videogames shootings occur outside america? honestly, find me a country which has a similar proportion of gun crime which hasn't legalised guns.

comedy

evilralphwiggum

Magma

Syco Killer

must stop playing brawl.
.......

evilralphwiggum

ManjiKengo

he was a 13 year old kid who lived with his grandmother.

if they gun had not been out in the open the kid would have found it anyway.

ManjiKengo

Narynan

Sweet Tooth

The articles referring to the original are so fucking poorly written.

Here is the original story.
"Marble Falls teen shot in head

By Melissa Kanz
Highland Lakes Newspapers

A 15-year-old Marble Falls teen was shot in the head Tuesday and is listed in critical condition at Breckenridge Hospital in Austin, and a 13-year-old Marble Falls youth is in custody at the juvenile detention center in Belton and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony, according to the Marble Falls Police Department.

At approximately 6:45 p.m., two boys were visiting the 13-year-old boy at his grandmother's residence, located at 1209 Johnson St., when the 13-year-old decided to retrieve bullets for a gun, which was already out, while the other two boys sat on the couch playing a video game called God of War, according to one of the parents.

Once the boy returned, he loaded the bullets in the gun, and without saying a word, shot the 15-year-old boy in the head, the parent said.

One of the parents said she was told that after the 15-year-old was shot, the 13-year-old told a 12-year-old at the house to help him hide the body in an old car or a barrel, which were both located in the vicinity of the property.

Instead, the 12-year-old called his parents, who alerted police as they drove to the residence."

ManjiKengo

Doomstink

MasonL87

dekushrub150

Still insinuating that the game had something to do with it considering the title of the game.

ManjiKengo

Garo

ManjiKengo

If they weren't going to expand on the game or try to link it to being a cause, then why even mention it? It seems they are egging people on to blame the game, which makes no use of guns.

thammuz

I'd hate to goto any hospital other then Seton at Medical Park Towers, as they have some of the best food in Austin. *drools* And everywhere else,(except the Heart Hospital) I've had bad experiences. Especially St. David's. >:(

Syco Killer

greenwald3132

If this happened in the 80's metal or movies would have been blamed.
If this happened in the 90's, Rap would have been blamed.
But since this is happening now, video games are to blame.

Part-Time-Viking

TheNocturnalSun

[www.news8austin.com]

The kids guardian was the grandmother. She was not present when the kids were playing the game.
Where/how the kid got a hold of the gun isn't at all being released.
It's just "experts" saying that video games can lead to violence.

ManjiKengo

KYLE_ELYK

Christ. Thank God the kid lived...

InsidiousTuna

If as well as mentioning the title the reported had bothered to include the fact that the game doesn't feature guns and is rated as not being suitable for under-17s, I think it would just have been responsible reporting. As it stands, it's a lazy piece. It stops short of blaming the game, but the offhand reference--and the fact that given the name and context people reading it will expect it to be a gunplay-heavy military shooter--leaves the insidious insinuation in little doubt.

Lazy, lazy journalism.

sebFlyte

We see a game THAT is the reason!

If I was to kill someone and news reporters were to go in my room, I could have book all over my floor about how to kill a person, music CDs with bands that support violence. But one look at my game collection and THAT is the reason I killed.

Sailorcancer

TOCATL

nochitright

Again, this is a local affiliate. It's not exactly the height of journalism.

Besides, this is irrelevant, because they've actually got a story up now about video game violence, so we can now see that they don't handle the subject in these sort of nefarious insinuations apparently present in the story Kotaku linked.

Bishmon

[www.news8austin.com]

It has a quote from a psychologist that says violent video games could be a tipping point for prideful, competitive, aggressive kids, and those elements may have been at play in the shooting.

They also include a quote from a designer saying it's the adult's responsibility to prevent their child from even reaching that tipping point, and the article point's out the boy's grandmother, his legal guardian, wasn't around.

And the psychologist goes on to say the parent should talk to their kid about what games they play, and keep M-rated games away from them if they think it's inappropriate.

And the article even randomly mentioned that not all video games are bad for kids and that some can even stimulate learning.

This sort of even-handed approach to the tough, controversial, mostly-unstudied subject of video game violence is sure to cause riots at Kotaku.

Bishmon

HawaiianActor

Agreed. If it was as innocent as Bishmon seems to think, they could have easily tacked on "the shooter was wearing a blue shirt", but that wouldn't make any sense to the accusors.

anmkevin

etho

NoBullet

Makes about as much sense.

TheDaftPunk

But Faux News won't care about that, they'll care about Kratos and his habit of tearing off medusas' heads.

Zeag

I would think anyone would/should act similarly when something they love is bashed consistently and unnecessarily. But that's just my personality..and my opinion.

JerrD74: RIP George Carlin

Wubbytoes

I have asked before, How did he acquire a gun?. Last time I checked, the pre-order bonus did not come with a NRA license.

Fyren

Taco Bell™

Right, because this local affiliate is so clever that they want to drum up news about a "game-related" shooting, only they decide to not actually say it was game related in any way, and instead just throw in a veiled insinuation they found in a Marble Falls newspaper to do the legwork.

That's definitely more likely than this just being a poorly constructed story done by some hacks at a local freaking affiliate station.

This is ridiculous.

Bishmon

Yami

It's a sad story at many levels.

nochitright

JerrD74: RIP George Carlin

kyosuke9999

JetPogi

"The newspaper said the boys were playing a video game called 'God of War'."

was purposely done to make this about games.

T3kNi9e

The thing that confuses me the most, however, is that this just might turn into something pretty big against videogames when everyone will be ignoring the fact that a 13 year old was able to get his hands on a loaded weapon.

Besides, if they link this to games, without any proof, it's about the same if they were eating pudding before the accident. Would pudding be held as a gun behavior-inducing dessert?

AuraHACK

godot

If we don't stop these houses from harming our children, then chaos and anarchy wins and freedom dies.

GHamilton

It must be the asshat parents that bought these mature games, the same parents that keeps the guns locked and leaves the key on the kitchen table.

Fyren

squidboy007

This crusade among gamers to react against any negative story with any sort of mention of video games is just ridiculous.

Bishmon

DragonSphere

nochitright

Hmm. Being a teen, you'd think I knew something about angst, but I guess not.

Taco Bell™

Horseflesh

Seriously though, 100% of the blame goes on the parents. Aren't ALL three iterations of God of War rated M also? Why the hell were they even playing it?

JerrD74: RIP George Carlin

Rather it's that the person watching/playing the violent media is frequently being barrage with aggressive scripts and content. This makes aggressive concepts more readily available in memory (AKA hostile cognition). People with higher levels of hostile cognition are going to be:

1) more likely to interpret other's behavior as spurring from hostile intent,

2) more likely to expect others to respond to their actions with aggression, and

3) more likely to use aggressive behaviors to resolve conflicts.

Of course, this does not mean that you will see such extremem levels of violence from playing one simple video game, and the game play is not the sole contributor to the outcome. There will be many factors that contribute. Frequent violent game play and violent media consumption is just one risk factor. When it is present with other factors (violent/aggressive parents and other models, aggressive personality, etc.) it can lead to such extreme events. But again, to be clear, the game is not the sole factor.

graddy

Mpalm.

sorry for the double post

HawaiianActor

karasu is my homeboy

Samos42

Deltakiral

skaboy52

NeoStarr

LordMagnusMastah

Agreed. Let's see them tie a gun related death to a video game that doesn't have any guns in it whatsoever.

dead_red_eyes

HawaiianActor

rather than include the incidental detail of the video game, what should be included in the story are the details that are more directly linked to the cause of the shooting. Had the kid grabbed the gun because he was pissed his friend was beating him at the game, then fair game talking about the game. If, however, they just decided it would be cool to play with the gun and it was an accident (as happened with my friend) then the game likely has very little to do with this story.

graddy