Quote from Incgamers:
http://www.incgamers.com/News/28553/...d-off-shelves-
by John Robertson
Quote:
51 videogame and toy brands taken off sale after bombing and killings.
Coop Norway has taken 51 videogame and toy brands off sale in response to the massacre committed in the country by Anders Behring Breivik. Games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, World of Warcraft, Homefront, Sniper Ghost Warrior and Counter-Strike Source join toy/replica guns in the self imposed ban.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and World of Warcraft have been receiving the most attention from the Norwegian press after Breivik mentioned the two games in his manifesto. "I see MW2 more as part of my training-simulation than anything else," wrote Breivik.
Coop Norway director Geir Inge Stokke said: "The decision to remove the games was made around the time we realised the scope of the attack. Others are better suited than us to point to the negative effects of games like these.
"At the moment it's appropriate for us to take them down. I wouldn't be surprised if others do the same. We have to think very carefully about when to bring these goods back. The economy involved is of no importance."
Activision have been contacted for comment but weren't available at time of publishing.
FIRST OF ALL: I FEEL TERRIBLY SORRY FOR THE VICTIMS IN NORWAY AND IN NO WAY DEFEND BREIVICK FOR THE HORRIBLE DEEDS HE DID. I THINK HE IS A MENTALLY ILL, CRAZY AND DANGEROUS PERSON AND SHOULD BE CONDEMED FOR HIS CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.
I personally understand their reaction, but I think they are wrong thinking that games can have these negative effects. Sure, Breivick mentioned MW2 as a game that he used to train for the attacks. To be honest, though, what good is MW2 at being realistic? I actually believe that playing a match of Paintball is a better training. Ok, there's the airport mission. I understand he might have gotten a lot of inspiration out of that.
So ban MW2 from the stores. Ok, I understand and can support this decision.
Then, the second game. World of Warcraft. Breivick writes that he used this game as a cover for when he was training for the shooting etc. The fact that it is WOW is only because it's so addicting (apparently) and thus accepted as something that takes a lot of time, giving Breivick an excuse for doing these illegal things. There is nothing evil or bad about WOW in itself, though. So why ban it?
The list goes on. My point is: I've been playing violent videogames since I was 12. I'm probably the calmest, quietest person you could meet. I see no relation whatsoever between videogames and violence. Sure, Breivick used it as training. But before I knew of videogames, I just played "Soldier" in the backyard with my friends. People are mistaking videogames for the evil. Breivick is evil. Not the videogames.
Well, that's just my opinion. Please do comment, as I would like to be able to form a well-written opinion on this matter, since it's been bugging me since the affairs with that now-fired lawyer in the US that videogames have been called evil several times. And "what better way to form an opinion than by combining the opinions of others." - Some guy said this a long time ago :P
Thanks for reading through this rhetorically terrible text.
AGAIN: I FEEL TERRIBLY SORRY FOR THE VICTIMS IN NORWAY AND IN NO WAY DEFEND BREIVICK FOR THE HORRIBLE DEEDS HE DID. I THINK HE IS A MENTALLY ILL, CRAZY AND DANGEROUS PERSON AND SHOULD BE CONDEMED FOR HIS CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.
TL;DR: Are videogames evil?|||/not to start a death penalty debate
I see a little irony in Norway "not being changed" to give this monster the death penalty, but then going out and doing this.|||Coop is a store chain. Sort of like Walmart. If they take games off the shelves it means nothing; just go to another store.
I agree with the OP, video games does not make you evil, nor do they make you violent. IIRC there's been some very contrived experiments where children became more violent/cruel after playing a video game. Then again, more or less the same result was obtained by letting children play (non-video) games while wearing masks. And the effect was completely temporary.
Sure, I can see how an exceptionally sick person could play MW2 and pretend to be shooting actual people in order to harden himself (or at least imagine hardening himself). But that has nothing to do with the game.|||Playing video games does little to teach you how to use weapons. You might as well watch action movies or meditate while imagining shooting people.
As for banning games... You might as well ban coffee... didn't he like to drink coffee?
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The reason I suspect that store chain pulled the games is for free publicity. I expect the stores to fill up with dumb anti-games supporters and dumb anti-terror supporters* over the next few weeks, after which those games will be put back on the shelves without the slightest protest.
*dumb because they don't realize that giving into their fear is supporting it indirectly.|||Agreed, this is stupid. But as Raspberry said, Coop is just a chain of supermarkets, it's not the place you go to buy games anyway, it's where you go to buy groceries. Now if chains like Game did the same, I would be worried..
As to games being 'evil', I remember playing 'cowboys and indians' as a kid, (how terribly politically incorrect today) and running around 'shooting' each other. Didn't make any of us want to do it for real tho.. And if video games are the source of people being violent, explain why people turned violent before video games even existed.|||Hahah good point.
I remember as a kid we'd run around with plastic guns filled with water shooting at each other. In winter, we'd throw snowballs at each other. Then we'd fight using sticks and plastic swords (not even nerf ones).
As fun as that was, this was probably better practice at using real guns and grenades and swords than video games can ever hope to be.|||Quote:
The reason I suspect that store chain pulled the games is for free publicity. I expect the stores to fill up with dumb anti-games supporters and dumb anti-terror supporters* over the next few weeks, after which those games will be put back on the shelves without the slightest protest.
*dumb because they don't realize that giving into their fear is supporting it indirectly.
Probably not, according to this the Coop leader did NOT want publicity about this and they pulled it off silently (this hasn't even been mentioned in national news that I can see). They are just overreacting, which is something that happens with Coop.|||They might as well stop playing movies, take books off the shelf, ban songs and stop kids from playing with wooden swords. People who do these kinds of things have problems that aren't caused by video games. Strange words floating up in their alphabet soup can trigger them. I read a study a while ago that actually said that people that play violent games are less violent because they get their aggression out there rather then in real life. Kinda like boxing or yelling really loud. It can chill you out.|||Quote:
Probably not, according to this the Coop leader did NOT want publicity about this
And you believe them? I don't.
Of course they have to make it look like they're not in for the free publicity... because if people figured that out they'd point them out as profiteers. Let's face it... pulling those titles off "silently" is not gonna go un-noticed.|||hey good thing they are taing out wow from the store sothey won't have to play that crap mammirte!!!!???? hahahahah ladies
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