Did video-game violence lead to real-life shooting?

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Christian Kwee was an average 17-year-old from the suburbs. He wasn't brilliant at high school, but he was hoping to get into college. The Grade 12 student, however, had a talent for playing video games, and loved to hang out with friends perfecting his skills.

When Mr. Kwee died last Saturday, it was in an Internet café. Police believe the violence on the video screen may have tragically spilled into the room. Witnesses say he was shot to death because he was too good -- murdered by someone he had just beaten at the popular game Counter-Strike.

"The hardest part to comprehend," RCMP Corporal Pierre LeMaitre said, "is that the victim was just a young man out with friends, enjoying himself early in the evening -- at 7:30 p.m. -- and he was a victim of this kind of violence."

Mr. Kwee's death has drawn attention to the darker side of Internet cafés and violent computer games. "It seems that something from the imagination has been taken to the next level and made into reality," Cpl. LeMaitre said. The young men who were defeated by Mr. Kwee may have been so wound up that they crossed the threshold between imagination and reality, he said.

News source: The globe and mail

(2 replies) #1 on 01 Jan 1970 - 00:00

#1.1 Neobond on 26 Jan 2003 - 10:50

well this is the whole problem with the game. I actively play CS too but I get really pissed off at dweebs constantly telling me where to go etc etc because yea face to face I would probably kick their heads in. I and others are being subjected daily to vicious abuse all because I want to play a game that is supposed to be a break from reality for a while. and to make things worse I'm an admin on 3 CS servers I frequent (unrelated to Neowin) so I get abuse and whiners wanting different maps all the time. Some people really do have issues, they think that the barrier of the Internet is a safe thing to go messing with someones head when in fact all it does is confirm the fact that most are nerds who need a life and to get out more and start being more polite.

#1.2 Redmak on 26 Jan 2003 - 11:25

[quote]Some people really do have issues, they think that the barrier of the Internet is a safe thing to go messing with someones head when in fact all it does is confirm the fact that most are nerds who need a life and to get out more and start being more polite.[/quote] So true

#2 smek on 26 Jan 2003 - 12:29

i used to go to gaming cafes to let of steam in the game, i dont think its the game itself but the people playing the game that cause the trouble, maybe there mental states should be looked at, instead of jumping on the games are bad band wagon.

#3 bangbang023 on 27 Jan 2003 - 06:15

people need ot chill out. I play Natural Selection all the time. Every now and then, I kill a guy and he just gets so pissed about it. I get told to "f*ck off" or get called a "b*tch" and one time one guy flipped and would only go after me all game long, all because I got lucky enough to kill him once. people need to remember, this is not real life! games are just games and on a computer there isn't anyting real about it at all, no matter how true even the top simulations may be.

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