"Holy shit. Since most of the victims were stabbed in places like the neck, one "expert" was saying that it was through fighting games that Kanagawa learned about the body's weak points as assume things like that are only taught in video games."

I want to see the guy that actually doesn't know that the neck is a weak spot.

Spiderbait

Blame on a movie, tv, a bad influence... XD

Allen750

Everyone should write a letter to a big news company with the simple message.

Dear (news) station.

My name is (your name) and I play video games. I am not a killer.

NDub

The reason gamers get pissed and consider themselves a victim is because people look at the gaming community as a whole not individual people. If one person kills someone else its pretty much saying that gamers in gerneral are to blame. Like if someone in your family steals something people would more than likely say that your family is a bunch of thiefs.

xvorpsm

@Atheist Jew: "My statement was more to the effect that I don't see reports of attacks where children are the victims from other countries as much as I do from Japan. Is that...is that easier to understand?"

I know exactly what you meant, and my initial point still stands: either there's an extraordinary amount of child-related crime in Japan relative to elsewhere, or you are just completely unaware of a the volume of similar crimes in the western hemisphere.

inphanta

@Evil Tortie's Mom: oh, duh, they hadn't found him. my bad.

Evil Tortie's Mom

Why was the guy not in jail for killing the old man earlier this month?? Why was he still running around loose?

Evil Tortie's Mom

@NDub: Won't ever happen, though I wish it would.

Kojiro

The real tragedy here is that this all could have been avoided if those 28 people had just hit the X button when it appeared on screen.

Insomnia Bob

@Captain Impulse: yes. that just makes it in :P

cswat

From what I've read about the incident since, apparently the guy was also playing the new DS Ninja Gaiden in the timeframe in between the two murders. There's been a lot of delayed anime releases due to certain real-life events (FMP, NiceBoat, etc), wonder if this'll have any sort of effect on Gaiden2's release in Japan.

muu

"Kanagawa fatally stabbed a 72 year-old man earlier this month, after deciding not to go through with his original plan: A murder spree at his former elementary school. "

Wow, what a nutjob

KM91

Knives don't kill people. People kill people.

hehahohee

The neck is a weak point?
HOLY PROTIP, BATMAN!

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

The blame game is getting SO OLD. I don't even know what to say when I hear things like this anymore. I simply expect it, sigh, and go on with my day.

ThisCharmingMan

Uh, yeah, I'm a martial artist, and I've figured out that most fighting games don't really do so well teaching you how to fight. Taking down some who doesn't see it coming is different but any martial artist with half a brain can take down someone trying to mimic video games. Anyway, I've never seen people getting stabbed in the neck in DOA. (Maybe he played Mortal Kombat?) They might have a case if they figured out that he was a fan of Assassin's Creed but either way this is stupid. My theory is the opposite of most of the media. They say video games create an interest in violence and immoral behavior but I believe that those who are violent and immoral are naturally drawn to certain types of games, movies, music, books, etc. It's the same way when people commit heinous crimes for religious reasons. The majority of religious texts are very heavy on pacifism. Even those that condone violence of some type will mention that violence should be justified. Those with a violent or cruel mindset or a stilted sense of justice will look to the violent material in whatever they spend their free time with for inspiration and justification. The only way to overcome these dark impulses is to find peace within yourself. The only thing against violent games that I will say (This goes for any distraction. Otherwise normal businessmen have killed because of stress at work before.) is that when someone who has those impulses becomes too distracted by what he is doing to seek inner-peace, he will not prevent a tragedy. I hope someone with these problems reads this and is inspired to do something about it. It would feel good to save a life.

Sylar

He was trying to get all of his knife kills, silly. It was as bf2 achievement. You could clearly hear him say "Gunnery sergeant, here I cumz!"

GrimaceXL

"Still, if the mainstream media does pic this story up, we look forward to see how they explain DoA didn't inspire Kanagawa to smoother people with large, fake breasts."

Do you guys want to hire a copy editor? You might say no, but a lot of these posts say yes! I don't sleep much and I'm a cheap date. Call me.

Grave

@inphanta: I never stated it as fact, I said the most I ever hear of these types of attacks aimed at children come out of Japan.

This implies that the most I ever hear of these attacks come out of Japan. I love Japan. Tokyo is my favorite city on the planet. I married a Japanese girl, for fuck's sake. I have no beef with the Japanese people or their culture. My statement was more to the effect that I don't see reports of attacks where children are the victims from other countries as much as I do from Japan. Is that...is that easier to understand?

Atheist Jew

@Atheist Jew: "What is it with Japanese psychopaths and their desire to hurt children? ... the most I ever hear of these types of attacks aimed at children come out of Japan."

That's a pretty ignorant and short-sighted thing to say. I can think of plenty of western psychos and serial killers that have harmed or killed children. Check wikipedia.

It always gets me that, when atrocities happen in other countries, people suddenly become very moral and start projecting, proclaiming that "Foreign Country X commits worse atrocities than Home Country Y, which never does bad things to anyone ever."

inphanta

the neck... hmm yeah i learned to stab that in CS where else would one find that info??

silentbob23

And here I figured the Japanese weren't such alarmists like we are, since video games have always seemed to be more accepted there.

Does Not Equal

Well he did play DOA, so maybe he was just angry with the huge numbers of japanese Sony and Nintendo fans.

*Stabs guy in neck* "Dammit why won't Xbox 360 sell good here????!!!"

Jagzthebest

Most of these type of stories affect me, but this one like really just makes my stomach turn. What a sick piece of shit.

eric89

@TrevWolf: I'm not saying people learn super advanced fighting techniques, but that slitting someones throat is relatively common in stories with certain types of action. Especially if it's military action as in a war film/game or something to do with special forces types. Splinter Cell had it, I believe. It's just something one would pick up on eventually if one were into the more violence oriented video game/film/whatever.

And I mean plus I think everyone knows (hopefully) that's where the esophagus is which seems easier to access with a knife than a lung. You don't even need Ninja Gaiden to teach you that (if he played it).

Garro

That's it. I'm now totally for stronger knife control laws.

packratshow

What. The. Hell.

No, seriously. If you kill just to see what it's like, you're all sorts of messed up in the head.

BPM X: Soul Eraser

In before "Attack it's weak-point for massive damage"

zlimness

Damn Final Fantasy! The whole Tonberry sequence is just a murder simulation!

durrem

"A Japanese person into Final Fantasy? Holy shit."

hahahah... dear christ.

Really, if there were stronger punishments for murder, like torture, or genetic experimentation, do you think people would still continue to murder?

no. no one would be stupid enough to. at least then criminals could pay their debt back to society through aiding scientific research.

lasttimeyouaskedme

@Billkwando: I agree that if someone is out in space enough to actually go on a killing rampage, they'll find a way to make it happen. A certain American serial killer once said "If I really wanted to kill a man, I could take that book and beat him to death with it.."

DanimalJenkins

IIRC, I learned the body's weak points watching professional wrestling when I was 8. The phrase "That's a devasthating attack to his neck there and it is cuttin' auf hith air thupply" as uttered by Dusty Rhodes will always stick with me. I'd carry his commentary-like advice onto any potential murderous mayhem situation long before attempting to fire offscreen to reload a gun.

DanimalJenkins

they should have shot him on the spot... twice...

LittlestLamshi

Obviously nobody would know stabbing someone in the neck could be fatal unless they played video games. Where do they find these "experts?"

Gouki4u

In a video game you can knock someone out with a well-placed slap to the toe if their HP is low enough. Not THAT game though since it isn't even a fighter.

When are we going to hear about the sudoku killers? Or some of those poker-playing assassins?

fuchikoma

@Billkwando:
i remember reading somewhere that in 1996 there were 6 gun related murders/killings in japan.

that's pretty good numbers considering...

ManjiKengo

"Maybe if I successfully pull off that quarter-circle down-forward + punch I can do a ki energy ball attack.

Nope, I just stab people in the neck."

ManjiKengo

.........

Do fighting games like DOA tell you where to stab a guy for maximum killage? I was under the impression they just taught people that if you button mash square or X eventually you'll guard throw everyone.

ManjiKengo

I learned the neck was a weak point through the hit Patrick Swayze movie "Roadhouse". In it, he's a Zen super kung-fu guy (kind of like Steven Segal) who doesn't fight because he can kill a man with his hands by ripping out peoples throats.

Hmmm... maybe I shouldn't post this. Don't want the media bothering Pat, cuz he's going through some major shit right now. Oh well. He can take it, because "pain don't hurt".

Tenth

"Oh god, he's coming at me with a knife! My one weakness!"

Infradead

@NateN: Agreed. As I always say: "simple minds seek simple answers to complex problems".

I just wish the "journalists and experts" that get given media endorsement were actually into the "truth" they claim to have a stranglehold on, rather than being motivated by popularity and personal gain like everyone else.

I know I'm living in a fantasy world... but I'd still love to see people, in general, begin to question the whole "simple solution" philosophy they keep shoveling, if for no other reason that it has clearly failed time and time again.

dv8godd

What really disturbs me about it is that the guy was planning on going wild at his elementary school.

What is it with Japanese psychopaths and their desire to hurt children? There have been several completely meaningless, pointless atrocities in Japan committed against babies and children, and I just don't understand it. Of all the people you could go out and hack at with blades, just how incredibly fucked in the head do you have to be to go after children? That takes a very special kind of sociopath to connect children and babies with...whatever they perceive that needs attacking.

There's one horrible incident that took place a few years back where a man walked up to a mother and her new born baby and stuck a knife in the baby's head.

...

I just don't get it. I suppose that's the point when dealing with psychotics but the most I ever hear of these types of attacks aimed at children come out of Japan.

Atheist Jew

Up until now I'd been reading "Sexy Fighter" as a game title.

....wondering "When do they talk about Sexy Fighter!? That sounds like a game I wanna check out!"

LOL

Billkwando

*comes*

Billkwando

The neck is the body's weak point?, MUST THE EVIL TEACHINGS OF FIGHTING GAMES.. or 6th grade biology books.

tehFluffz

Of course the knowledge of the body's weak points somes from video games. He couldn't have learned it in science class, or biology class, or from kendo class, or from history class, or from watching a samurai movie.

There's a reason why beheading has it's own word. You never heard of someone dying from being "befooted".

Seriously though, at very least this highlights the fact that even in a country with no guns, people who wanna tweak out and kill people will find a way.

Billkwando

without videogames i wouldn't know that falling great distances could kill me.

relax_guy

@dv8godd: Part of the problem, and it seems to be pretty universal across societies, is the wish to have a "silver bullet" to solve the problem. If any REASONABLE person sits down and actually thinks about it, I doubt they seriously think that video games turn normal folks into mass-murdering psychopaths. But being able to say "Video games turned this person into a killer!" sums the problem up in a nice tidy package that fits well into a 2 minute news segment. Since video games can be pretty foreign to the 40+ crowd, I'm guessing they are as convenient of a scapegoat as comic books, rock and roll, and even books were in the past.

As I always like to point out whenever this sort of thing comes up, finding someone who is under 30 that has NEVER played video games in their life is probably like finding someone who has never driven a car or watched TV. Blaming video games is a pretty lazy shortcut, because if video games DID cause violence the whole US would be a war zone.

NateN

@Krumm:

Actually the percentage of possible mentally ill individuals wouldn't really go up because the world population goes up. The total number would, but the percentage of psychopaths won't go up just because there are more people.

One reason we see more examples of violence is simply because news programs are becoming ever more concerned with ratings. As a result they seek out stories that are going to catch the public's eye. Unfortunately, due to the culture we live in today (which could be influenced by previous exposure to violent media BTW), people are going to be more interested in stories about death and murder than politics and other more neutral topics. Other reasons have to do with cultural factors (e.g. increased stress due to increasingly more complex environments and increasingly higher requirements on individuals to achieve wealth to survive).

I think another important thing to note is that a lot of the posts in this forum seem to assume that all people who are murderers are born murderers. This is a quite grim assumption for those poor individuals. Rather what is more likely (and is suggested by research in psychological science) is that some people are born with certain predispositions that could make them highly aggressive, but they will not grow up to be killers unless they are raised in a hostile environment. This is the standard diathesis-stress model of most psychological disorders. Additionally, some people could be born without any predisposition and be exposed to so much violence (and other factors that could increase the likelihood of violence) that they become violent individuals. Given this, there is the possibility that violent games could be one influence. Not the only influence - Violent games won't do it on their own. But they are one potential influence.

So although this story, and other similar stories, are probably blowing the influence of violent games wildly out of proportion, I would be more considerate of the possibility that violent games may play a role.

graddy

It's tragic that a life could have end ed just because someone wanted to know how it feels to kill.

These kind of people depresses me.

Hope the survivors recovers well.

The_Antihippy

Masahiro Kanagawa apparently is a sick person. There is no excuse for what he did, especially pointing fingers at video games. Anybody can play video games, it is for entertainment purposes. Kanagawa enjoyed fighting games just like most of us do, except the difference between most of us and him is that he did what he did and made poor decisions. Blaming video games is crossing the line between reality and excuses.

CookieMasterPunk

@Suzaku: I remember reading a long time ago, that some Otaku was a serial killer a few years/decades ago, that pretty much set the term Otaku with a negative impact.

Humanity always had crazy ppl that went on killing sprees for the sole purpose of watching someone die. This has happened always since we exist as humans. No matter what they blame, it will happen again.
Looking at the amount of ppl that play violent games, if they caused this, we wold be killing each other all the time.

It happens more in recent history because:

1: The world is connected, you know everything that happens in it, in a split second.

2: The world population is a lot bigger, so the % of possible insane individuals is a lot higher.

Efforts should be concentrated on helping the families that were affected. But we all know thats not how things work unfortunately.

My condolences to the families.

Krumm

This bothers me considering I used to live out there.

The last time I was in the town some kid threw himself off the station and landed on the cab below.

Also some girl hung herself in the bathroom in a park near the HS.

Witzbold

@MartinX: I dunno, man. If you AWP someone in the knee, they die. Everyone knows this. It's a scientific fact.

Krytha

@Captain Impulse: I see. That would be kind of odd seeing as how after Final Fantasy VII the series kinda fell off and became less popular.

Wolfkin

I blame CoD4 Knife!

SigmundTheSeaMonster

Now that he knows what it's like to kill. He should know what it's like to die.

radink360

Umm...in fighting games there usually aren't any weak points. You can run someone through and take away a quarter of their life bar, then land the finishing blow by kicking them in the shin. And if he had learned killing from FF, shouldn't he have but a katana in the back? It's tragic, but I fail to see the connection.

Tiber

there are always weird mimics out there...

Vaanelo

Luckily this happened in Japan. By that, I mean, if it would have been America there would have been a gun involved instead and 15 people would be dead right now. Either way, I still feel bad for the victims and hope the 7 still alive recover.

AkumaX

Over here, it seems when they go off the rails, they REALLY go off the rails.

pylon_trooper

My money's on the fact that he learned about the neck by watching either Animal Planet or the Discovery channel. Those real life animal documentarys are quite disturbing.

oh, and FATALITY!

midwynter

Did he scream "Riiiiiidge Racer" as he plunged the knife in? No.

No connection.

gblock

The throat?

Not the toe?

I guess I've been learning murder from the wrong games.

It never ceases to sicken me how they gleefully demean the tragedy and suffering caused by events such as these with cheap, sensationalist, knee-jerk, pseudo-pop-psychology.

MartinX

Bash, I think you summed it up best, and I quote.

"(and really, there isn't any connection to be made between gaming and this truly disturbed individual)"

Seriously, this dOOd by his own admission was just plain fucking deranged. And again, I quote.

"I just wanted to see what it was like to kill. It could have been anyone."

I mean I could see the connection if he groped a bunch of tits at that mall after playing DoAXBV...but killing, that's a fucking stretch.

-EDGE-

@Brian Ashcraft:
Cool, thank you for answering my question.
I would say that I felt better knowing that... but I had been hoping that it was a local station. Shame on Fuji TV :(

Number41

@TrevWolf: Yeah. Still tragic, but a lot less tragic.

Captain Impulse

I learned all the weak points of the human body from the handy chart shown in Blood In, Blood Out, not some silly video game. If I learned out to attack people from video games, I'd take one step forward, wave a stick a few times, and then step back... or I'd simply butt stomp everyone. That seems to work. Ooh! No, I'd pick up the spread shot and go buck wild with red dots!!

*sigh* When will people learn that there is a huge difference between 'cause' and 'inspiration'. Music, for example, doesn't cause people to wear stupid hair or drop their pants to their knees. It does not follow that if you listen to emo, you have stupid hair. It is entirely possible that you are inspired to do so because these artists become your heroes or what have you, but it is not a tautology. "If A, then B" illustrates cause, but it's simply not so. Thus, it's not a cause.

dunetiger : apples are red

Now, if the guy had flipped the victims on to their backs, THEN I might have believed the video game connection.

However, since he didn't, he clearly didn't learn how to inflict MASSIVE DAMAGE from video games.

gblock

@Number41:
FNN. Fuji's evening news.

Brian Ashcraft

Fighting games? Holy shit I'm gonna button mash this guy to death. They always gotta blame something

tshack

@Captain Impulse: Hey-hey! 7 seriously injured; I misread that part. I'm officially at "better this than an elementary school" now: moral dilemma solved.

TrevWolf

Somehow I'm not surprised about 2ch from what I've learned from Kotaku. How far does the hatred go for a group? I remember those posters hating Koreans for something...

Angryrider

I hope some Japanese person brings this up to be at work. It'd be a welcome change of pace from hearing them talk so much about American maniacs killing randomly. Too bad these things even exist to have to talk about. What a shame.

Amerijapoxicano

"I just wanted to see what it was like to kill. It could have been anyone."

I'm assuming he didn't get enough from the first guy he randomly killed earlier in the month? Sigh.

And yes... so someone who's brain is more than a bit out of whack was into some form of escapism? Very surprising. Another opportunity for the media to hop on the latest scapegoat, directing attention at the attributes he shared with millions of other people rather than the specific attributes that turned him into a unattached killer in the first place.

Might as well say "The killer was 6 foot 4 and had blonde hair... be on the lookout for people that are 6 foor 4 and have blonde hair... they could be killers."

I'm pretty much ashamed to be of the same species as these types of "journalists and experts" anymore. When common sense itself is obvious enough to defeat any arguments they might have, it really begs the question how they get the opportunity to influence so many people in the first place.

Which leads me back to the eventual results of this sort of reporting... it always strikes me as curious that people get so quick to suggest regulating entertainment media formats while never questioning the validity of the information channels that led them to that course. As though calling themselves "the news" somehow made them impervious to distortion and falsehoods.

History lesson for the world:

The media and their experts said comic books were killers... the world learned better.
The media and their experts said television was a killer... the world learned better.
The media and their experts said violent movies were killers... the world learned better.
The media and their experts said porn was a killer... the world learned better.
The media and their experts said music was a killer... the world learned better.
The media and their experts now say games are killers...

Please, rational thought, allow the pattern to finish out... but can we please, as a species, stop this goddamn pattern?

dv8godd

If they had said Fallout it might have made some sense, but feck Final Fantasy?
Omnishlash: Aim for the neck.

DaDeath

To claim a direct causal relationship between video games and violence seems imprudent. However, it strikes me as equally imprudent to deny that violent games have ever influenced bad behavior. But perhaps what is most distasteful to me is that these types of stories typically lead gamers to make themselves out to be the victims.

McBonk

@TrevWolf: Only one was killed during this latest spree. Still, I wish that number had been 0.

Captain Impulse

Worth noting that a connection was drawn between "otaku" and "serial killer" by the Japanese media long ago, and that's one of the causes of otaku being such a prejorative term over there. Otaku of all kinds are frequently depicted as antisocial, awkward, and potentially dangerous members of society in the Japanese media.

Suzaku

yeah, isn't it redundant to state that a japanese person enjoys final fantasy?

smackthenun

Um, any chance we might find out what channel it was that broadcast the news program cited? Just saying "the Japanese evening news" makes it sound like there's only one news program that the entire nation of Japan watches.

Number41

oh noes, "Xtream Beach Volleyball killer"!

Seriously, this is getting more ridiculous every time ... even school pretty much teaches you about neck being one of "body's weak points".

uzivatel

@Garro: Oh totally. "Neck Brutality IV" was one of the greatest in the arterial-puncture genre, closely followed by "Rusty Nail: Neck Edition", and "Mr. Stabby Goes to Neckburg". Really, it's a crying shame it doesn't have its own award category.

But really, I'm at a loss. On one hand I'm sad that 8 people were killed, but happy that he didn't mow through an elementary school. It's a real toss up.

TrevWolf

@Lyrai: To stab: Direct pointy object towards other with sharp end away from soft pink self. AWAAAYYY!

Krytha

@cswat:

[us.i1.yimg.com]

Close enough? ;)

Captain Impulse

@ragfragger: You don't have to be stupid to be disturbed.

NameYourCharacter

" man at mall having seizure saved by child who played too much trauma+center "
where's that article?

cswat

Poor taste but here it goes: Hit the weak spot for massive damage! He's playing Genji 2 for sure.

Ludwig

Is there any fighting game where you can slash someone's throat out, anyway? Mortal Kombat, maybe?

Ashurahori

You connect "neck stab" to "fighting games"? Anyone whose even remotely interested in action (hell, anyone whose seen one war film or the like) knows that the neck is one of the bodies "kill points" for a number of reasons. Besides if he'd actually "learned" something, he wouldn't actually be stabbing people through the neck so much as trying to slit their throats. That makes me feel awkward to say...

This is a tragedy, it's upset that the victims and their families have to deal with this, and it's a shame the media has already blamed video games instead of mental illness.

Garro

Oh my, Microsoft has to pull out now

but seriously that is just sick, its really eerily similar to the Virginia tech tragedy. There are just some things which are just unexplainable

Next thing you know is that Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy will now have age ratings

KaliKOtt

I live in Ibaraki now....guess I gotta start watching my back for crazed Final Fantasy killers from now on....

FarmboyinJapan

lunatics ! told ya they have small brains too

ragfragger

Isn't being a Japanese Xbox-hater kinda overkill? What could you possibly say that would compare to the utter failure of your target?

Moonshadow101

I am sad to see "experts" in Japan seem to be trying to rival "experts" on Fox news...

Should we send Geoff over there?

Shiryu

@badasscat: You're right and what shocks me the most is that news networks don't show any decency when they shoot every single drop of blood on the pavement or sometimes bodys being carried away by the police. If there is violence to complain about, it certainly comes from the news at the first place.

Bombaaaman

I haven't seen any news coverage of this yet, but I would expect two things to happen.

First, any multiple-murder is national news here.

Secondly, I wouldn't be surprised if the game thing comes up, but it will all blow over pretty quick unless this guy starts screaming about video games in court or something.

feitclub

I wonder if the news media will ever make a story sometime with the headline "Man kills 5, watched news earlier that day". Now there's a connection...

NDub

@El-Suave: The Japanese media is just as bad, if not worse, than the American media. Pretty much every channel there is the equivalent of Fox. (Except for NHK, which is more like a cross between CBS and PBS.)

Pretty much every murder in Japan gets covered as if it's indicative of the downfall of society. Nevermind that the murder rate has dropped over the last decade or so and is pretty much the same as it has been historically. There's been a 4.6% rise in violent crime so far this year and it's being treated like the end of the world. And as you can see, the media's looking for anything it can to pin the blame on.

badasscat

Ah, but which Final Fantasy did he learn these "weak points" from? Up until VII, the on-screen sprites never even got close to actually physically striking a character on-screen.

What a bunch of sensationalist nonsense. Maybe if he'd killed someone with a volleyball they'd have something to run with. I guess this kind of scapegoating is universal.

Captain Impulse

Things like this happen less often in Japan, so it's bound to catch more attention.

El-Suave, JP games are actually quite strict with violence, many are blood censored exchanging red for blue/black etc.

Riquez

Right, since the only way he could have known that the neck is a fatal place to stab a person is through fighting games...

Nope, that's not common knowledge at all. Nosiree. Musta been games.

ShaggE

"it was through fighting games that Kanagawa learned about the body's weak points"...
So, weak points must be the whole body then...

Bombaaaman

That is so messed up...
My condelences to everyone affected as well.
I'm sorta at a loss for words after reading this.

NaryaMithrandir

Yeah ya know, cuz its a common fact that martial arts and CQB military training is taught through video games. :S

Grinman

Hmm... from his quote, I think he is a psychopath. "Curiosity" in murdering people isn't something you pick up from computer games.

Krytha

..."Learned about the body's weak points" through fighting games? Are they fucking serious?

Lyrai

Isn't the whole human body a weak point to a knife?

Funny, don't know why but somehow I had faith in japanese media treating games a bit more fairly, guess I was wrong.

El-Suave

it clearly has no connection to video games. He could lift his knife! He played FF, not COD4, Come on media get with the program!

bueatifulraven

Just a thought…What if the media was right and video games are behind these random acts of violence?

PhilESkyline

Ah... knives my only weakness. I wonder how he figured that one out, must of been those damn video games again.

seamouse

Stories like this make me wonder why Mario hasn't caused outbreaks of crazies attempting to jump on other people's heads. :/

helyxzero

If Geoff speaks Japanese well then by all means however I doubt it'll do any good. And Honestly learning the bodies weak points from playing Fighting Video games? I'm sorry but if you DIDN'T know your neck is a weak point against any sharp object then your a bloody idiot.

Anza

The real reason for videogames being blamed for everything is because of information control and learning. Sad to say that I learned more about the Cuban Missile crisis from MGS3 than from the classroom. The reason why I coupled information control with learning is because games like Bioshock (great one... if you have a 360, get it) and games where you are given a choice to do good or bad is counterproductive to regemented learning that takes place in schools where you are dependent on an authority figure for your praise, freedom, and information, and you hardly question it... and I notice the ones who do are more or most likely to either go to college and challenge the system rather than conform with it or realize that college is as much of a trap as a learning tool and goes his or her own way... which gives you your Albert Einsteins, your Philip Emeagwalis, your Mohandas Ghandis, or your Nikolai Teslas.

But, to conform to normalcy, I submit the following...

Blaming videogames again... I blame the fact that he has no guns. He was curious how it felt to kill someone, so obviously videogames didn't satisfy his curiosity, which also tells us we need MORE killing and blood in videogames, because if it was really lifelike, he would've known and would have been satisfied.

That, and loosen up gun controls in Japan: had one, or all, of those guys had a gun he probably would've had a spree of .5 victims.

See Fox News? Anyone can be an idiot...

pxeIsword

Yeah Im watching about this now on Zero News Nihon Terebi and they didnt really make a connection to him playing violent videogames as much as how he liked videogames and hung out in Akihabara.

Tanuki00

It never fails. Someone that coincidently plays videogames does an unspeakable crime and, of course, it's the gaming communities fault. Games don't kill people, raging psychopaths that can't function in a normal society kill people.

GlossGreen