In a 1,500 page diary, the accused, Anders Behring Breivik, wrote that Warcraft provided a useful cover story for the time he spent in seclusion plotting his terrorist attacks. While Breivik also gave more practical advice on training with firearms, including where to acquire them, he also suggested that playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was a way to keep one’s skills honed.
The retailers Coop Norway and Platekompaniet both pulled the games, characterizing it as a temporary removal. In addition to World of Warcraft and the four most recent entries in Call of Duty (Black Ops, Modern Warfare 2, World at War and Modern Warfare), the retailers also pulled Counter-Strike: Source, Homefront and Sniper: Ghost Warrior.
But another retailer, Spaceworld, refused to pull any games, saying it saw no connection between games and the tragedy. “We have never seen any research that games alone have led to such incidents,” said a company representative.
Disse Spillene Fjernes fra Hyllene [IT Avisen (translated), thanks Mow]
Aidan
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 12:30 PMSigh.
Adam Ruch
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 12:34 PM/sigh
I didn’t notice any churches temporarily halting services…
Frenchy
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 1:24 PM+1
Ed
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 1:59 PM+2
Richard Smack
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 3:15 PM+ 1
markD
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 6:00 PM+10 !
spizzaza
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 10:03 PM+√π
Hawkules
Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 12:15 PM+√π+1
Taylor
Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 5:06 PMwinning!
JumpJumpDie
Monday, August 1, 2011 at 2:21 PM+googolplex!
Lance
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 12:35 PMThey should stop selling clothes, cause I heard the attacker wore clothes.
Cap'n Crunch
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 5:21 PMI’m all for nudity!
Repneiras
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 12:37 PMProtip: Don’t sell the Bible.
NicF
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 12:39 PMI can only imagine these two retailers will be pushing their sister businesses in the print media to pull the bible from their shelves, given the much more explicit links in his so-called manifesto?
No, I didn’t think so.
Reoh
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 12:40 PMDid the pull the bible too? He was reading a lot of that.
(I’m not blaming the bible, I’m just pointing out the over-reaction here)
PiMan
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 12:45 PMSpaceworld clearly has the right idea.
oggob
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 2:12 PMI agree with the reasons, but it’s a double bonus as not only that, they will probably get a decent sales boost seeing as they might be the only ones selling it.
horsebane
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 12:45 PM^this, sadly
mark
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 12:51 PMQuick, lets jump to conclusions and why isn’t anyone thinking of the CHILDREN!!
Xasrai
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 1:01 PMI see ultra-right wing conservatism wasn’t pulled either. Did the retailers suffer some sort of backlash that wasn’t reported?
Xasrai
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 1:05 PMTruth be told, this just gives the ACL more ammo, say, “Norway is pulling all violent games, we should, too.”
Sar Selack
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 1:02 PMHe mentioned John Howard and Peter Costello right? I do hope they plan on getting them removed as well.
Chris Lynn
Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 7:22 PMWe already did – it just took 8 or 9 years longer than it should have.
MikeZdoseit
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 1:09 PMWTF, their damaging their own lively hood!
PlimpyD
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 1:12 PM#facepalm
Cap'n Crunch
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 1:14 PMSorry guys, I’m going to go kill myself now, if this is how stupid some people can be nowadays, then I no longer have any connection to this terrestrial realm, have fun the rest of you normal sane people. Buh Bye!
Aliasalpha
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 2:32 PMNo! You’ve played games and that’ll just play right into their hands! Games cause suicide!!!
Of course doing nothing will mean you’re playing into their hands because it’ll mean games cause apathy & probably obesity
Cap'n Crunch
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 5:11 PMhahaha ahh nice one ;), Okay maybe I won’t commit suicide just yet, might take up gardening instead of gaming, go massacre a bunch of people and get gardening blamed because I wrote down in my manifesto that I visualized the hedges I was cutting to be actual human heads, then hopefully that will pull the attention away from games, THEN I will start playing games again, hopefully this works.
Brett C
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 1:19 PMDid he also eat food? Maybe they should stop selling that too.
Gavin
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 1:28 PMI doubt the retailers pulled these games from the shelf for any ideological reasons, I believe the reailers justification was purely monetary.
Consider the negative publicity that Coop Norway and Platekompaniet would incur if a member of the scaremongering-press recorded a story in front of their stores and claimed that “These stores sold the games that fueled the Norwegian massacre”. The retailers had to weigh the small amount of profit those games would generate in the short-term, against the potentially devastating negative publicity that a skewed news report would create.
While the retailers may not have made the correct moral choice, they may very well have made the correct commercial one.
Trent
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 6:25 PMThis.
Gamers can bitch and moan all they want, but this was a purely commercial decision. Not a moral one.
Deka
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 1:40 PMAnd yet they haven’t outlawed Christianity I sense a double standard in the works.
The Insufferable Señor Steengo
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 1:45 PMWell, they’ve gotta do something. There’s a lot of sad and distraught people looking for answers in Norway right now. Pulling the games temporarily and taking them out of any potential limelight is probably for the better in the long run.
James
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 1:47 PMSince there are some ignorant attacks on Christianity being thrown around here..
“And yet they haven’t outlawed Islamic immigration. I sense a double standard in the works.”
The Cracks
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 2:03 PMI don’t see these ‘ignorant attacks on christianity’. Some people are merely pointing out that the killer justified the attacks with fundamentalist christian ideologies, and that to blame games for the tradgedy is idiotic while ignoring the evidence.
MikeZdoseit
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 5:47 PMYeah, but I could say I massacred 15 Zimbabwe loan sharks because I’m a fundamentalist Hindu (which I’m not). Just grabbing a label and saying ‘I’m that’ doesn’t mean he was a Christian. He just used some 18th century fundamentalist teachings / ideology as an excuse. I’m sure Christians are human beings too and are as appalled which such as waist of life as much as everyone. Don’t forget, these people are mourning their dead and going to church services, they know this guy was a f*ck wit on his own crusade.
Please
Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 3:28 AMI thought all you had to do to be a Christian is to accept that Jesus died for your sins?
All so if you disregard “his not a real Christian” then you could claim that the bible should be banned because it’s material he read before the attack.
Really people here arn’t saying either one needs to be banned, just that people have double standards and if you blame games then you must also blame the bible 150 folds more.
MikeZdoseit
Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 5:14 PMI’m happy with what I said, Christianity has as little to do with this as video games. Its just one moron ruining everything for everybody. It’s like if a ‘fundamentalist gamer’ mowed down a church full of people, it’s not accurate or right to pile everybody in one group for the actions of one sick person. Jesus and teachings aside, were all people and have more in common with each other than differences.
Allanon10101
Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 4:15 AMYes, but the point is, we’re not making claims that Christianity was behind it in any way. We’re just saying that blaming games, or implying games were behind this event in any way, because they were mentioned very briefly in the manifesto is wrong, because he clearly outlines that his reasoning was based on Christian texts, yet there is no backlash against them. It is a clear double standard: “Christianity couldn’t have had anything to do with it, because we’d never do that, but look, there’s a footnote that he played games, lets blame them!”
If you’re going to pay any attention to the manifesto, you have to pay attention to all of it. You can’t just dismiss part of it because it coincides with your own set of beliefs. Personally, I think the manifesto is a load of crap and it was the deranged action of a sociopath who is trying to justify his actions to himself a lot more than others
Khuntza
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 1:58 PMI don’t care for either title, but this just makes me rage!
Gangreen1985
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 2:15 PMbut what about bobby kotik and his money from selling call of duty? this is an outrage
Daniel
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 2:19 PMNorway is the ACL’s version of heaven lol
Pulling Homefront is a great idea that game is terrible.
Todd
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 3:06 PMWhile I’m all for respecting the victims…seriously overact much though.
I’d recommend they stop selling -
1. Fertilizer
2. The internet
3. Cash transactions
4. The bible
5. Guns & ammo
6. That overacting list just goes on and on now doesn’t it…
Sam Timmins
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 3:47 PMAnd the stopped sales of the Christian Bible are where?
I thought so.
The Jagji
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 5:06 PMI am totaly fine with this.
As long as they also ban the religon he spent MOST OF THE THING talking about aswell.