Maybe it's all those ninja cartoons....lol

keiichimorisato

Zoe256

GM08

Sniper_Zegai

These people dream on killing a person fron childrens, and finnaly commit the crime. Made absolute no sense because we are normal people, but these guys need to "taste" how is killing.
This is not realted to videogames, or books, or nothing... is more a problem of how we, the humans, are build.

Tei

Responsibility is too much work for people

Shoot2thrill

People hear sex offender and it's instantly "Oh my god! Keep away! You're going to rape my babies! Burn, you pedophile!" and it's actually often "Uhh...I took a piss in my backyard." or "I was 16 and my girlfriend was 15."

NinjaMarion

zerojad

I hope they never blame the Iraq War on Advance Wars...

VakeroRokero

Shit i'm going to start eating people and say that Pacman made me do it.

_Ted_

-nesdude

nesdude

HAHHAHA too true

videogames will always get blamed for random violence because lawyers are just getting lazy, no longer are you responsible for your own crimes..

and to the person who said manhunt andd hitman were similar... no they aren't.

daklog

Crrusher

It's not my fault that he died, it's the knife. Damn you knives to be sharp.
It's not my fault that I failed the exam, it's the pencil. The pencil told me to mark "B".
It's not me that made the 3-pt shot. Mr. Basketball wanted to home.

LaserProof

duhforce

Capt_Birdseye

finelicker

So it's no longer a person's fault for committing a crime, there's something else to blame?"

There hasn't been personal accountability for at least two decades, mate. It's either bad childhood, genes, movies, rock music and now video games. It just wouldn't be politically correct to suggest that some people are just nutjobs.

inphanta

FelicioLostHorizonPT

MetaKz

Trust me shit goes on here, and in other parts of Asia.

Witzbold

Plsk1n

Now you might say, "Hey, he was a registered sex offender! String him up!" but Sorenson really didn't do much to get on that registry, unless you count having a 14-year-old girlfriend when you're 17 as a major crime.

And nobody is deserving of being stabbed to death and decapitated, regardless.

Zeliard

[pysih.com]

I doesn't excuse what they did. But its no great loss IMHO.

finelicker

phicaluk

Antiflow

Vodun

HedinnWeis

Also, he reportedly had an accomplice, and Hitman has no fucking co-op mode that I know of.

Samnub

You know, 20 years from now lawyers are going to look back on cases today where videogames are blamed for everything under the sun, and laugh. They'll laugh at how ridiculous they were, how unfounded, how biased. Then they'll wish they lived in today's world for that exact reason. 20 years from now the low standards of morality in videogames may sink into oblivion, (in the sense that by then the M rating may not be paid any attention at all) and videogames will become so entwined with our culture that they really can be blamed for violence just from the law of averages. In a future where everyone plays games, there'll certainly be people twisted enough to commit crimes based on them just like there are twisted people today who base their crimes on other media.

You know, this just occurred to me, but wouldn't it be a lot easier for the ESRB to rate games if they commissioned employees out to game development studios as observers so that they really can judge the content of a game in it's entirety?

The Maginomicon

I mean, seriously, what trained monkey wrote that speech for him to read? Someone died a brutal and grisly death, and the person CNN gets sounds like he's from the Reno Sheriff's Department? WTF?

Purple Dave

Clearly you could have found something a little bit more sensitive as a closing paragraph. While I certainly understand what you're trying to say and certainly had the same thoughts in even stronger language - it doesn't need to be said. That kid killed one guy and is now charged with first degree murder. Not something to be cynical about.

amadeus3000

Glahardt

Ciremu

Ciremu

MartinX

Oh, wait. That was all IN A VIDEOGAME! It was just a videogame, albeit a fun game that let you complete it in numerous creative ways. As I said with the shooting not too long ago, any reasonably sane person isn't gonna chop someone to fucking pieces just because a game did it. Could we stop assigning blame everytime something happens and just learn to make these idiots take responsibility for their actions finally?

NinjaMarion

Brackynews

I'm crazy, I'm going to kill this guy.

Oh crap, now what? I don't want to go to jail.

I know how to get out of this, Video Games made me do it!!!

It's bad enough a man had to die because this punk felt like it. Now he's dragging the Industry I love through the mud, so that he can look like a fucking victim. When will people learn that taking someone's life doesn't make you powerful? Needing to take someone's life to feel powerful, only shows how weak you really are.

My heart goes out to Daniel Sorenson's loved ones.

Insidious-Dan

"Pitbull, I choose you!"

Pitbull BITES. It's super effective!

PerswAsian

sephycloneno15

It seems that nowadays it is either video games, bad parenting, a soda, or something that drove a person to murder someone else. It is never that person's fault. Why doesn't the news stop looking for a scapegoat and tell it like it really is, "A deranged and troubled person who consciously committed these acts."

kylo4

RaepGoblin

NoahSteam

FUCK!

I mean, that sentence basically implies that kid came out of the other guy's ass and chopped his head off after WATCHING a video game. Wow. Just... wow.

PlayerX

nxp3

Seriously. What the fuck?

KagaSakai

RPGCrazied

It's never the kid's fault. Up until the age of eighteen, no one can separate reality from fantasy!

Lainface

This was just the work of a psychopath.

g8or8de

darkstar5555

Highlander Wolf

Scott-Survive

ugh, its absolutly disgusting.

chaos_isnt_here

ShadowSkill

Orionsaint

And to blame it on Hitman? I would blame Rob Zombie movies. Now that's senseless violence.

ChiChi_BBQ

If all his kills were done by bum rushing his victim and stabbing a handful of times then cutting someone's head off then he did it wrong.

Supposed to use the fiber wire or syringe full of death.

Pfft n00b

RagingTowers

Anemone

Only human stupidity is truly infinite.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

ca$h

a man can only dream.

zanzibarlegend

Krytha

Still, very sad for the victim and frankly I feel bad for the kid too. Something must have gone horribly wrong in his life for him to do what he did.

rawg

ca$h

I've been waiting to unleash this for these situations. Behold, the ultimate Facepalm!!!
[i75.photobucket.com]

KM91

Dude has those crazy eyes. Psychopath should get the electic chair for this.

mitch079

Or so it would seem.

Edge of Blade

TRAMS_AM

DeRangedKaos

TinyLightning

With that in mind, your point about the "video game" defense will probably stand. I can't see any judge or jury accepting that as a defense after they get the facts about the game, his relation to the game, his life history and the crime itself. If diagnosed as mentally deviant (which I think is likely) he'll just be imprisoned as such. (Not the insanity plea, but incarcerated with the fact that he is not normal from a mental standpoint.)

Krytha

if you plead innocence by video game, do you also plead insanity for being stupid enough to emulate a game?

Ra is on That 70s Show

Ethereal006

Columbine didn't occur in Detroit. Many famous killers weren't from Detroit either. Please, I urge you to think before typing out such statements.

Custom Reality

jerimas

I know that the "mental disorder" defense had its time in the courtroom, much as its replacement, "the video game." But for something like this, it really should be looked at.

I listened to several of the videos on the CNN website, and a sane person with everything in place does not seriously talk about the desire to kill another living being like this teenager did. Someone needs to take a step back and really look at the psychology of him and see just what wires are crossed.

I'm not saying that the lawyers should suddenly switch to a "reason of insanity" plea, but what good will anything do for the offender if whatever is wrong with is not corrected? He'll just have problems wherever they place him, mainly because it most likely will not be where he needs to be.

I'm also not trying to excuse what he did. It was nothing short of heinous, but I am studying criminal justice and it makes me see both a victim's and an offender's angle. Trust me when I say that I am glad that Michigan's age limit for being a juvenile is 17. (which is what age he was when arrested for the murder, and I haven't found anything saying he was younger at the time the act was committed)With the age limit being as low as that, he was able to be tried in an adult court, which is where he would need to be. The lawyers and media need to stop trying to find the "easy" way out of something like and try to determine the root problem, which will always lie with the offender(s).

(Side note: the age limit in Michigan I had to look up, and if what I found is incorrect, I'm more than willing to listen to someone who has the correct age)

DeRangedKaos

psycoking

hyped89

In seriousness however, this is a tragic case and I am just honestly saddened that the defense would attempt this line. For a game, whether Hitman, Manhunt, or Dig Dug, to influence someone like this, they would have to be very broken to start with.

Mister Adequate

Wolfers

IntelSilver

This is so god damn frustrating. You just want to scream at the top of your lungs saying "Shut up! Just shut the fuck up! This had NOTHING to do with Hitman! Stop blaming video games for every god damn thing wrong in this world!"

I mean, here we sit at our computers, typing away about how little sense this makes, just like we have for years, but it's not doing a god damn thing. The mainstream media is still making these ridiculous statements and it's getting to the point where all you think will get through to them is screaming.

But you can't scream at them. They'll just turn it right around and say "See? Look how aggressive these gamers are?" You can't fight ignorance and sensationalism with ignorance and sensationalism, because that only leads to more of the same. Nothing would be accomplished.

So you can't reasonably and calmly refute their points, and you can't scream at them. I'm just beginning to lose hope in this. It's starting to feel like nothing can combat this ignorance.

These people; these reporters, these lawyers, these statesmen, these cops are so entrapped in their so-called "values." They're so consumed by their predetermined judgments that it seems like nothing will ever be able to permeate those judgments and those "values."

It's just sickening. It's sad. It's disheartening. It's depressing. It's repulsive. It evokes such a lack a faith in humanity and logic and all the things we were taught were so important and so vital to being enlightened people.

We're told that people today are so tolerant, especially compared to the people of times past. We're told that we're so much more enlightened and so much "better" than those antiquated ignoramuses that accepted slavery, wiped out entire cultures, treated each other like animals, and believed in different degrees of human superiority.

We're told then, and yet we sit here, typing away, wanting to scream out at these antiquated ignoramuses who see scapegoats as motives, escapes as influences, and threats to their personal "morals" as threats to everybody.

So what the fuck? When did we go from racist, intolerant, vulgar classists to accepting, caring, enlightened *people.*

We didn't, and this news story (particularly in the wake of countless news stories before it) has made more clear than ever. We haven't moved beyond intolerance and ignorance. All we have done is shift focus. We've come to better (but, and I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, not fully by any stretch of the term) accept things that have been not accepted in the past and displace that intolerance on new things.

All we have managed to do is displace our intolerance. We made Civil Rights strides for African Americans and other minorities, then blacklisted Communists (and "suspected communists"). We allowed Communism, but then hated rock and roll. We started accepting rock and roll, and then hated drugs.

Now we've losing the War on Drugs, so now we're crusading against violent entertainment (specifically video games, but also including movies and TV).

When the FUCK are all the people who were into rock and roll, into drugs, into violent entertainment going to say ENOUGH IS E-FUCKING-NOUGH? When the FUCK are these assholes who get all the power and all the airtime going to get booted right the fuck outta here?

When, and more importantly how, the fuck are we going to get everybody to move the fuck on, stop being ignorant, and solve the REAL FUCKING PROBLEMS IN THIS WORLD.

The absence of this, and I'm going to pull this word out, revolution is making me lose faith. I'm losing patience, I'm losing nerves. I know this has turned into the longest rant on a Kotaku story about this issue, and I know I'm preaching to the choir. I also know my typing this is part of the problem, not part of the solution (or maybe it is, only time will tell). I mean, if I really believed in this and wanted to make change I'd do something, right? Otherwise I'm just a hypocrite, right?

But that's the problem. What can I do? I'm an 18 year old college student studying Computer Science. I'm in the ECA. I've blogged about this issue countless times. So what can I do? That's the issue. These fuckers that are the source of this entire problem are the people who have the power and have the airways to spew their ignorance.

The only thing that I can do is hope that the ECA (and organizations like it) gets influence and manages to get people to change their minds. All I (and most of us, I should mention) can do is hope that the right people get the power and the airways, and help them do so as much as I (we) can.

*The short version of my post is this: No. Hitman was not involved. You don't cut off heads and burn bodies in Hitman. That's what you do to zombies. Sue George Romero.

ShirtGuyDom

Gladman

I see...

Xiedo

Bon5ai

It's not too terribly surprising really, it's just how it's is "framed".

But you do make a valid point. You can sorta control the kind of responses you're likely to get in a story by the angle you take.

Personally... both perpetrators make me sick. One can't really honestly say one is much better than the other, but when you're looking at a picture of a 2 year old girl who was beaten to death vs some dipshit trying to blame society for his crimes, it does tend to focus your attentions with different emotions.

dv8godd

Krytha

So I hope this kid get the Death penalty. Not because of him saying Hitman is the reason but because what gives him the right to still be alive when He took some ones life.

BlackIceJoe

Deus Ex Machina

The only responsibility lays with the person that committed the act -- while there may be mitigating circumstances the judge could to into account while sentencing, that should affect whether the person is guilty or not.

jayntampa

No need to equate being old with being stupid. We've got enough problems just being old. ;)

dv8godd

CaptainHarrison

krunkjuice

This is a very unfortunate event, those kids deserve the full weight of the Law, I can see how the whole Hitman connection (Which BTW is tenuous at best) is going to buy them time and sympathy from those who prefer to blame everything instead of putting the blame on their own actions.

zoesch

I honestly want to know about the next hitman game. I have to be crazy but id give up mgs4 and gta for the next hitman game, no joke. They never made me want to do what this kid did though seeing as how none of the sawing and burning is possible in game. They did make me want to steal clothes however...

snakepliskin

I don't have a strong opinion on one reaction or the other, I'm just pointing out the inconsistency.

Snaphaunce

Pornosaur

lordbowser

diodegrey

Yeah, the kid has SERIOUS issues.

dead_red_eyes

Nexus6

dechire

Elijah Man

Grimmjow Jeagerjaques

tnx3

Probably not, because it's a lazy/easy defense. Before video games they said music killed people ... which is just freaking ridiculous.

dead_red_eyes

phalanges

Callidux

dead_red_eyes

turbofreak

With the readers we have here, I would be stating the obvious.

I don't necessarily condemn the defense, although they could have used a better argument.

Seeing how the defense is paid to try their best to prove someone innocent, regardless of whether it is true or not.

While the prosecution is paid to prove a person guilty, no matter what.

Deaf Mute

Custom Reality

dead_red_eyes

hirostroud

Eltigro

Anyway, the context made me sick to my stomach. "stabbing him multiple times in the back before sawing off his head and burning his body" - Disgusting.

Candlejack

Maybe he kept the head in a safe under his bed. I don't know as I don't read CNN if I can avoid it.

2NinjasTapedTogether

tnx3

7ucky

King Seafoam

Amazon_Chris

Silent Predator

k_dash

It really saddens me to read about people finding new and creative ways to blame their failings on anything but themselves.
This is nothing new, man has always strived to find ways out of anything. The age of modern science has given many new avenues for people to ween their way out of any crime, and it can be sad. Sure there are legit excuses for committing a crime (psychological mostly), yet people still try to put blame on anything...

Videogames is still a relatively new medium and so this scapegoating will be around for awhile to come before people start to wise up. Everyone must learn to live with it, and just ignore or see through the useless media spewing that takes place on an almost daily basis now. One day... Many moons from now, video games will finally get its name cleared, and our eyes will turn towards the new scapegoat of that time. My guess: Hoverboarding and the revival of spandex.

Scazza

2NinjasTapedTogether

your suit is black NOT.

On a side note, i doubt ill have many peaceful dreams this week with that kids eyes now permenantly burnt into my membrane.

EmeraldCockroach

BOMxAgonyxScenex

Sollus

Edward_likes_Soup

I guess it just makes for a better story on national news to get viewers when fingers are pointed at videogames.

Lstormy10

Skitzoap

shadowdude55

Iceking5

Edward_likes_Soup

Vidril

ZinkO: Balls of the Patriots

Second.

Scruffy_the_Janitor

RedEyedFacade

And really... who could blame him for that?

PositivelyJosh

TRT-X

BRB!

BlackDove

DigiMish

SUSPICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!

TaggarT6

I don't even know what that statement is trying to accomplish, its incoherent. Was he watching/playing? what?, got impressions of killing people?..what?

/palmface.

Fyren

@ShaggE: i second that

(俗・ ) Grey Gecko

Iceking5

MisterSleep

TaggarT6

DigitalHero

Ashurahori

Dear Lord, I couldn't understand that excerpt at all.

TaggarT6

Yeah i never played HItman but i think this would be more along the lines of Manhunt. Hey i mean if you throw a net into a pond you will get something and here we are just with a game. If only they could just research enough to know wtf they were talking about, but then again thats asking for to much :/

FP Shindokie

i_lie_to_fit_in

Eeeech... I'm going outside to drink a beer in the sun.

kelptocratic

So it's no longer a person's fault for committing a crime, there's something else to blame?

Should we blaming the beer companies for causing drunk drivers to kill people?

exkon

tsunami643

HamThePharoah

Wyld

ShaggE

nman

Still, it's a flailing defense that isn't likely to go anywhere.

frostcircus