Violent Video Games in Society

On April 20, 1999, 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher in the Columbine High School massacre. After the incident, it was found out that the two were obsessed with the video game Doom. Contrary to certain rumors, however, neither student had made a Doom level mimicking the school's layout, and there is no evidence the pair practiced the massacre in Doom. K1uTY1A&feature=fvst COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL, LITTLETON, CO

When 14-year-old Stefan Pakeerah was brutally murdered by a friend in 2004, his parents claimed the murderer had been obsessed by the violent computer game “Manhunt,” which awards points for savage killings. Warren Leblanc, who pleaded guilty, had beaten Stefan with a hammer and stabbed him repeatedly after luring him to a local park. Stefan’s parents blamed the game and asked retailers to stop selling it, claiming that “It’s a video instruction on how to murder somebody; it just shows you how to kill people and what weapons to use” (BBC News, 2005). BRAUNSTONE FRITH, LEICESTER, UNITED KINGDOM

On April 9, 2011, 24-year-old Tristan van der Vlis opened fire in a shopping mall, releasing more than a hundred bullets with a semi-automatic rifle and a handgun, killing 6 people and wounding 17 others, after which he also killed himself. Looking for the source of this violence, authorities showed significant interest in the fact that Van Der Vlis had been playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. In this game, there is a well-known controversial “Airport Massacre” mission where the player can choose to (or choose not to) partake in the killing of a large group of innocent people inside an airport terminal. Several similarities exist between the incident at Alphen aan den Rijn and the “Airport Massacre.” ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN, THE NETHERLANDS