Terror in Erfurt: The Entertainment Impact (Part 2)

Note: This is part two of a special tssz|news series involving the potential impact the entertainment industry has to face in light of the shootings at Gutenberg High School in Germany.

The school shootings in Erfurt, as previously stated, had eerie similarities to the tragedy at Columbine High School in April 1999.

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a killing rampage in Littleton, Colorado before turning the gun on themselves. Classes were cancelled for the remainder of the 1998-99 school year at Columbine, while parents, students, and teacher mourned at the loss of their classmates.

Once the investigation began, a fact, that while unsettling to both individuals close to those affected and the entertainment industry in general, had to be released. Both Harris and Klebold used the first person shooter classic Doom as a means of “target practice,” to sharpen their skills and accuracy before doing the real thing.

In the months and years that followed, several medical studies came out on the issue of games and violence. Some found no link between the two, others, like this one reported by FGN Online in April 2000 and posted here on TSSZ, did:

In a new report Professor Karen Dill claims to have found a definite link between games playing and aggressive behavior. “Aggressive behavior and hostile thoughts are significantly increased in players of violent videogames, ” she said. “They are more harmful than violent television or movies, because they are very engrossing and require the player to identify with the aggressor. In a sense they provide a complete learning environment for aggression. These result are very, very worrying.”

Dill, who has published various reports on the subject of the media and violence, teaches at Lenoir-Rhyne College, North Carolina, a school affiliated with the Lutheran church. The report, details of which are published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology today, comes a year after the Columbine High School shootings, which focused attention on the role of games in an increasingly violent society. The two teenagers responsible for the atrocity were keen players of first person shooters.

A parallel study, led by Dr Craig Anderson, focused on games players who had already shown violent tendencies. “Young men who are habitually aggressive may be especially vulnerable to the aggression-enhancing effects of repeated exposure to violent games,” he said.
One of the tests cited as proof of gaming’s effects involved game players punishing opponents post-gameplay, with various noise blasters. Players of shooters were more likely to punish harder, than players of Myst, by pressing the buttons for longer periods. Anderson concluded that long-term effects are “likely” to be longer lasting.

Another study has been released on the matter very recently; coincidentally enough, it was right after the Gutenberg shooting happened, showing a similar link.

With scientific studies contradicting themselves, politicians and the legal system are left to figure the facts out for themselves. Senator Joseph Lieberman, a democratic from Connecticut, has been perceived as the gamers’ public enemy number one, with his consistent attempts to restrict the sale of “violent” video games nationally through Congress. While such attempts have been mostly unsuccessful on the national level, there have been several changes made in the private sector and in the public eye.

Indianapolis, the state of New Jersey, St. Louis, and many more areas have been impacted by legislature to prohibit those under eighteen from, among other things, buy M rated games at stores, and playing arcade games that are deemed too violent. The legality of such laws are being tested in various cities.

In the private sector, the ESRB now explains what gave the game its respective rating. For example, the ESRB will now say that excessive violence and gore is present in an M rated game.

Now, with the Gutenberg shootings, the debate is sure to heat up again, not only in America, but in Europe as well.

Coming up in part three: How the Gutenberg shootings may re-ignite the gaming/violence debate.