United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson opened on the street in New York. The deadly attacks have been making headlines around the world for some time. 26-year-old Luigi Mangione is now considered a suspect. In the reporting surrounding the assassination attempt on Thompson there are also some articles that try to find a cause for the murder of the CEO.
How a killer game debate is started again
An article from NBC News caused a stir in the gaming community. It says that the suspect and his friends impersonated “assassins” in a video game. NBC News specifically asked Mangione's former friends about his gaming interests. Other media outlets like the New York Post quickly jumped on the bandwagon.
The game in question is Among us. A popular multiplayer game with cartoon characters in which players have to complete tasks. However, a small number of gamers are secretly selected as traitors who have to eliminate everyone else undetected.
The game principle is based on the parlor game mafiawhich was invented in 1986. It later got a new lease of life with a medieval fantasy setting Werewolves of Mirkwood. Although the article relativizes the direct connection to Thompson's murder and emphasizes that Among us Since it has already been approved for children and the comic graphics do not allow for any explicit depiction of violence, the article is once again causing a stir in the gaming community.
Editorial recommendations
There are numerous stunned comments from gamers in the Resetera forum. Some of them emphasize that Among us There were such a large number of players that they essentially constituted a global threat. In 2020, SuperData Research estimated that almost 500 million people Among us downloaded and played (via The Verge).
Others criticize that NBC News didn't even include a screenshot of Among Us in the article. This could still create a violent image for people who have not played the game. Others suspect that they suspected completely different games as a scapegoat for the attack. Just as it has been the case in the past.
This is what the death animations look like in Among us. (Image Innersloth)
Killer Games: Didn't we already cover this topic?
Because the killer game debate has existed since the 1990s. Back then, however, arcade games like… Space Invaders counted among the particularly dangerous games. And paintball and laser tag also initially had to put up with the title. After the shooting rampage in Erfurt in 2002, the term was used again and again in Germany with video games like Counterattack associated.
Since then, countless studies have been conducted on whether video games promote aggressive behavior in children and adults or impair their empathy. To date, a crystal-clear causal connection has not been proven. What upsets the gaming community about current and past discussions is that games are sometimes used as the sole reason for violence – and the headlines that accompany it.
But the reality of none of the violent acts in the past was so one-dimensional. Often there were psychological problems, a difficult parental home or social conflicts that were ignored in the killer game debate – or whose origins were again sought in video games. In Germany the discussions have died down somewhat over the last few years. This is also because some politicians are more concerned with video games. For example, in 2011 there was a LAN in the Bundestag. And gaming has actually been socially acceptable in the USA for years. Last was World of Warcraft used for the election campaign, for example.
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