Bill Gates to Blame for Virginia Tech Killings

Gareth · 20-04-2007, 16:41

...according to Jack Thompson anyway.

Quote:

Bill Gates
Microsoft
1 Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052 Via Fax and e-mail

Dear Mr. Gates:

On Monday, April 16, at 3:10 pm, I was a guest, as I often have been in the past, on the Fox News Channel. News anchor Bill Hemmer asked me to profile the Virginia Tech rampage killer. I did so, noting that until that day the worst school massacre in world history was at the hands of Robert Steinhaeuser, who literally trained on the Microsoft on-line, hyper-violent shooter game, Counterstrike. I mentioned your companyâ€™s game by name. I explained that the rehearsal for such a massacre is key to being able to pull it off, as efficiently as Cho, whose name we didnâ€™t even know at the time. Cho and Steinhaeuser were able to do what they did the first time because it was not the first time. This is why the military uses this same virtual reality simulation to train soldiers to want to kill and how to kill calmly, as the witnesses of Cho said he did.

Sure enough, last night I was doing a west coast radio interview when the host said to me, "Mr. Thompson, you are right. The Washington Post is reporting right now the following:

â€˜Several Korean youths who knew Cho Seung Hui from his high school days said he was a fan of violent video games, particularly Counterstrike, a hugely popular online game published by Microsoft, in which players join terrorism or counterterrorism groups and try to shoot each other using all types of guns.â€™"

...

Mr. Gates, your company is potentially legally liable the harm done at Virginia Tech. Your game, a killing simulator, according to the news that used to be in the Post, trained him to enjoy killing and how to kill. You knew five years ago that your on-line game, Counterstrike, so clearly figured in the massacre by a student in Erfurt that the event and the game impacted the race for Chancellor in Germany at the time!

Yet, here you are, five years after "Erfurt," still marketing Counterstrike. having done nothing to disable the server(s) for this mass murder simulator, and it looks like "Virginia Tech" is a consequence. Thereâ€™s more going on in the world than Vista. Just ask the bereaved Virginia Tech families.

Mr. Gates, pull the plug on Counterstrike today, or do we need more dead to convince you? "Virginia Tech" was the 9-11 of school shootings, and it appears Microsoft is in the middle of it, in more ways than one.

Regards, Jack Thompson

source: http://gaming.monstersandcritics.com..._Tech_slayings

OMG!!!

Druchii · 20-04-2007, 16:43

It's a game...

I hate how it will always be demonised because the tiniest minority going take it literally and may supposedly use it as a simulator.
Editors/people like this should keep their traps closed IMO.

**Chris** · 20-04-2007, 16:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Druchii

It's a game...

I hate how it will always be demonised because the tiniest minority going take it literally and may supposedly use it as a simulator.
Editors/people like this should keep their traps closed IMO.

I think people should very rarely keep their traps shut. Unless you have difficulty constructing a decent argument against what they have to say, in which case making them shut up might make you feel better.

To address the point however ...

a logical extension of the argument might be to hold the manufacturers of flight simulators liable for 9/11. We have to be careful how far we extend liability in these sorts of cases. I think it is increasingly hard to ignore the parallels between violent crimes of like these and scenes from games or films that seem to have inspired them. The question is, do the games and films pose a risk to a significant number of people?

Gareth · 20-04-2007, 16:59

Another question is why Jack Thompson thought MS* was to blame even before the gunman had been identified... especially as the subsequent search of the gunman's dorm room failed to turn up any video games.

*Did MS distribute CS for XBox? I've only ever known CS as a Valve game, but I don't own an XBox.

gazzae · 20-04-2007, 17:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gareth

*Did MS distribute CS for XBox? I've only ever known CS as a Valve game, but I don't own an XBox.

They published it for the XBox according to Wiki

NEONKNIGHT · 20-04-2007, 17:39

It doesn't take a genius to work out the major factor of this appalling incident, the American Gun Laws.

Fawkes · 20-04-2007, 19:03

Blame, blame, blame....

Why can't we focus more on what would make a person value human life so little that they would carry out such acts. Whenever something like this happens, people are always looking for an ease scapegoat, gun control laws, video games, movies.
All important considerations but what about this persons social life, family, friends, why couldn't he turn to them if he was so unhappy?

papa smurf · 20-04-2007, 19:04

i saw a report on tv that stated in virginia you can buy a rifle or shot gun at 12 years old without a permit , now can you imagine twelve year olds running around with guns,every time they loose at marbles they could blow someone away , any way ..greatest country in the world[or so they think]

**Matt D** · 20-04-2007, 19:11

Jack Thompson...

Hom3r · 20-04-2007, 20:39

I own all the Grand theft autos.

After a stress filled day and idiots on the road, I play the latest San Andreas and run down peds and crash into cars.

But I do even thin about doing this for real.

IMVHO games don't make people do stupid things, Stupid people do stupid things

downquark1 · 20-04-2007, 21:16

Considering that even the likes of controversial conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has already dismissed this argument, I doubt this will escalate.