| 1 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1643175769068923800 |
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| 4 | [[quoteright:248:[[Webcomic/PennyArcade https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/video_violence.png]]]] |
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| 6 | ->''"He's been playing those video games an awful lot. Makes him a '''very good shooter'''. Holding that controller's like holding a gun, they say in the news! You gotta help me, I fear for my life!"'' |
| 7 | -->-- '''Female claimant''', ''VideoGame/MaxPayne 2: The Fall of Max Payne'' |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Not only is it there the perception that NewMediaAreEvil, but some works attract criticism because of loose association with some contemporary murder or suicide. [[TropeNamer The title comes from]] since-disbarred attorney Jack Thompson's[[note]]Not to be confused with [[Creator/JackThompson the Australian actor of the same name]][[/note]] accusation that games like ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' and ''VideoGame/{{Manhunt}}'' turn players evil. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | MoralGuardians' attempts to blame the ''New'' Media often neglect to note that it's only our [[NostalgiaFilter misty watercolor memories]] that make it seem like murder sprees and school shootings only started happening after the release of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''. In fact, prior to the 2007 Virginia Tech Massacre, the deadliest school shooting in US history was the University of Texas at Austin massacre in ''1966'' (and a school ''bombing'' in 1927 was deadlier than either). Also, the rate of violent crime has gone ''down'' since the widespread adoption of video games in the '90s, for reasons that are complex and poorly understood but most likely have more to do with social conditions than with video games. While [[FalseCause correlation does not prove causation]], ''lack'' of correlation certainly ''disproves'' causation. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | Sometimes, the works are blamed ''before any evidence whatsoever'' of any connection has emerged, and then activists try to sweep the exculpatory evidence under the rug when defenders demonstrate that the criminals didn't even actually use a copy of the work in question. Also, various [[MoralGuardians politicians, media, and clergy]] will sometimes blame any (currently) popular game for violent events, or blame any game that has any connection ([[HitlerAteSugar however slight and tenuous]]) to the crime in question (e.g. blaming a JRPG like ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' for a shooting). |
| 14 | |
| 15 | There is ''some'' basis for this claim in reality, to be sure: people who play violent video games for a long period of time ''can'' be desensitized to violence, which theoretically could make them more likely to commit violent crimes. However, firstly, this effect is only likely to happen with those who are already contemplating acts of violence, and second, ''any'' violent media, including coverage of real life violence, has this potential. To blame only one kind of media is [[NeverMyFault a cheap way to escape responsibility]] for spotting early warning signs of a young person's mental state that might lead to violence, and their moral education in the consequences of acts of violence against others. On the other hand, it's ''easy''. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Some real-life criminals, naturally, have exploited this trope to blame their crime on a fictional work in the hope to get a "free of charge" claim in court or at the very least a lesser punishment than they would normally receive for the crime they committed. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | However, the more widespread acceptance of video games as a medium [[TimeMarchesOn thanks to those who grew up as video games were becoming a major industry now having children of their own]], combined with some games like ''VideoGame/{{Hatred}}'' embracing the idea of senseless violence and bombing, as well as video games being protected as free speech in the United States (as confirmed in a 2011 ruling by the Supreme Court), has all but rendered this trope [[DiscreditedTrope discredited.]] Nowadays, mentioning that someone played violent games in courtroom proceedings is guaranteed to get smacked down by a judge for being prejudicial. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | See also: UltraSuperDeathGoreFestChainsawer3000; VideoGameCrueltyPotential; HitlerAteSugar; MediaNotes/TheComicsCode. Often overlaps with CowboyBebopAtHisComputer. MoralGuardians are normally the invoker of this trope. AndSomeOtherStuff is a way of attempting to avoid this. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | ---- |
| 24 | !!Real Examples: |
| 25 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 28 | * The infamous scientist Dr. Ray Blanchard (whose rather bigoted, but influential, theories were largely responsible for advocating TransEqualsGay approach to UsefulNotes/{{transgender}} individuals for most of the 20th century) came out of relative obscurity in the winter of 2018 to try and endorse a HeteronormativeCrusader's theory that [[https://www.dailydot.com/irl/transphobic-doctor-twitter-anime-makes-people-trans/?fbclid=IwAR1VJCNsTR0rjk5H8sXS-nIHKEUWO640dNbpDFxtX6NtxRaU07Z_zmpyzJ0 anime was making children believe they were transgender]]. |
| 29 | * There have been multiple instances where people have been discovered to be in possession of their own ''Manga/DeathNote''. They were black books that said Death Note on the front, and had names of people written in them, as if the owner wished death upon them. Of course, that'd look like good reason to question the sanity of college students who are so influenced by a work of fiction that they wish to kill a bunch of people. It is even to the point that the franchise is BannedInChina after some Chinese kids and teens were caught using altered ripoff notebooks which resembled Death Notes to make hit lists, which came off as a little rebellious. |
| 30 | * On 30 July 2013, the murder of a young man in Belgium was dubbed a "manga-murder" by the press, because notes were left by the body that directly referenced ''Manga/DeathNote''. The culprits were eventually identified as Sidi Mohammed Atir, Abdessamad Anzi and Zacharia Benaissa, who had murdered their friend (Sidi Larbi Ezzoubairi). Though the case had limited coverage, it became notable due to the anime references used. |
| 31 | * At the time ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry Kai'' and ''VisualNovel/SchoolDays'' were airing there was an incident involving a daughter murdering her father with an axe. The two anime were accused of influencing the murder for a period since the girl said she wanted to be a mangaka. The final episode of ''School Days'' was canceled from many stations and the twelfth episode of ''Kai'' was delayed. Eventually the intro to Kai was censored and one of the channels that decided to air ''School Days'' created a [[MemeticMutation meme]] when they replaced the gore with a "nice boat", among other censors. |
| 32 | [[/folder]] |
| 33 | |
| 34 | [[folder:Film]] |
| 35 | * Ed Sherman murdered his pregnant wife in 1985, and tried to disguise her time of death (which would give him an alibi) by leaving her body in a heavily air conditioned room, an idea that he got from the Creator/{{HBO}} film ''Blackout.'' |
| 36 | * The British papers blamed the shocking murder of Jamie Bulger on ''Film/ChildsPlay3''. It was later established that neither of the boys responsible had ever watched it. The film was also blamed for at least two other KidsAreCruel murders, while its sequel ''Film/BrideOfChucky'' was cited by Elena Lobacheva, a Russian serial killer, as being one of the inspirations for her killing spree. |
| 37 | * The 2012 shooting at a midnight screening of ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises''. Some patrons even thought the masked/armed man was a prank or [[AllPartOfTheShow a publicity stunt]] before he opened fire. To make it even more unfortunate, the shooter identified himself to the police as "ComicBook/TheJoker".[[note]]It should be noted that The Joker's not even being mentioned in the movie itself and the murderer's choice to dye his hair red (rather than green, like The Joker) suggests that he may not be much of a fan at all.[[/note]] |
| 38 | * ''Film/AClockworkOrange''. A gang sang "Singin' in the Rain" during a rape, arguably as a result of the film's influence. Apparently, it also inspired a murder known as "The Clockwork Orange Murder", where a boy killed his best friend in his backyard. Indignant over the allegations, Creator/StanleyKubrick had Warner Brothers [[CreatorBacklash withdraw the film from distribution in Britain]] until after his death. |
| 39 | * Several incidences of Russian Roulette games gone wrong have been connected to ''Film/TheDeerHunter''. |
| 40 | * British spree killer Daniel Gonzales idolized [[Franchise/FridayThe13th Jason Voorhees]] (to the extent that he donned a hockey mask before attacking one of his victims) and [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy Krueger]], who he frequently compared himself to and hoped to become as memorable as. |
| 41 | * In 1982, a man murdered an elderly couple with the media claiming the film ''Film/HalloweenII1981'' inspired the killing. The guy did watch the movie, but the reason he committed the murder probably had more to do with his being blitzed with a combination of booze, weed, and PCP at the time of the killings. |
| 42 | * Several high-profile bank and armored car robberies, including the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout North Hollywood shootout]], were allegedly inspired by the robberies depicted in the film ''Film/{{Heat}}'', even though many of the robbers get killed in that sequence. |
| 43 | * The low-grade thriller ''Film/HuntingHumans'', in which [[EvilVersusEvil two serial killers play a cat and mouse game with each other]], gained a lot of notoriety after [[http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20179728,00.html a copy of the film was found]] in the possession of convicted murderer Adam Leroy Lane. |
| 44 | * The perpetrators of the Hi-Fi murders got the idea to use drain cleaner to try and kill their victims from ''Film/MagnumForce''. It turned out to not be as efficient a murder weapon as the film led had them to believe. |
| 45 | * ''Film/NaturalBornKillers'', so much that Website/{{Wikipedia}} has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_alleged_Natural_Born_Killers_copycat_crimes a whole list]] of crimes allegedly inspired by the film, including the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} massacre (the killers having been huge fans). The {{irony}}, of course, is that the main theme of the film itself concerns how [[IfItBleedsItLeads media sensationalism]] can lead {{Attention Whore}}s to commit violent acts in the name of FifteenMinutesOfFame, with its {{Villain Protagonist}}s being an OutlawCouple whose spree of murder and robbery turns them into celebrities. |
| 46 | * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Miyazaki The Otaku Murderer]], who caused a moral panic against the Otaku subculture. Experts believe that his belief ''[[AxCrazy that he was a rodent]]'' had more to do with it. He allegedly owned {{lolicon|AndShotacon}} pornography, but it's now commonly believed that he didn't own any at all. |
| 47 | * Serial killer Nathaniel White alleged that his first murder was inspired by ''Film/Robocop2'': |
| 48 | --> '''White:''' The first girl I killed was from a ''Franchise/RoboCop'' movie... I seen him cut somebody's throat then take the knife and slit down the chest to the stomach and left the body in a certain position. With the first person I killed I did exactly what I saw in the movie. |
| 49 | * John Hinckley, Jr., the guy who shot UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan, was obsessed with ''Film/TaxiDriver'' (specifically Creator/JodieFoster) and the assassination attempt was a re-enactment of a scene in the movie. It should be noted that Hinckley was completely batshit insane and thought assassinating Reagan would impress Foster, not to mention the scene in question didn't involve [[spoiler:Travis Bickle]] actually shooting his target. |
| 50 | * A Japanese girl developed an obsession with serial killer Graham Young and began poisoning people in ways similar to how he did after watching his 1995 biopic ''The Young Poisoner's Handbook''. |
| 51 | [[/folder]] |
| 52 | |
| 53 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 54 | * Both John Hinckley, Jr. and Mark David Chapman were fans of ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'', and it probably doesn't help that Holden Caulfield refers to having a "people shooting hat". Though in Salinger's defense, the people shooting hat was a one time joke. |
| 55 | * While not necessarily blame, the reason the terrorist Ilych Ramirez Sanchez is known as "Carlos the Jackal" is because a copy of ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal'' was found in the apartment of one of his girlfriends, leading to the press creating a story that he was a fan of the book. More directly, it's claimed that Yigal Amir read the novel obsessively before assassinating Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. |
| 56 | * ''Literature/HarryPotter'' being accused of getting kids to become Pagans or Satanists might qualify, especially since a lot of the people complaining about it fall victim to PoesLaw and use quotes from ''Website/TheOnion''. |
| 57 | * The reason why you can't find the Creator/StephenKing novel ''Literature/Rage1977'' in print anymore (it's still available as part of ''The Bachmann Books'' anthology) is because he voluntarily pulled it after several school shooters mentioned it having influenced them to commit the acts. |
| 58 | * Serial killer Leonard Lake named his plan to abduct and enslave women after the protagonist (Miranda) of the John Fowles novel ''Literature/TheCollector'', a copy of which was also found in the possession of fellow serial killer Christopher Wilder. Robert Berdella, yet another serial killer, also credited the book's 1965 film adaptation as being an inspiration. |
| 59 | * The thoroughly loathsome white supremacist manifesto ''Literature/TheTurnerDiaries'' by neo-Nazi William Luther Pierce is a rare example of a work of fiction that was intentionally created ''with the intention'' of inspiring mass murders, to the point of including step-by-step instructions on making bombs. Indeed, the Oklahoma City Bombing of 1995 was suspected to have been partially inspired by the book. |
| 60 | [[/folder]] |
| 61 | |
| 62 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 63 | * There was a long article in a Dutch TV guide on this subject regarding TV violence which demonstrated an infuriating variation of this trope. Although they did acknowledge a lot of research that showed that violent imagery on the TV had an influence on kids' behavior, they still tried to downplay the influence of TV violence at the end of the article and pointed the finger at other forms of media (mostly games). |
| 64 | * Alan Titchmarsh's show on Creator/{{ITV}} once ran a "debate" on video game violence. It started off with the games representative being outnumbered 2 to 1 and went steadily downhill from there. Highlights include Titchmarsh not knowing that there was, in fact, a ratings system for games, and the crowd booing when it was pointed out that violence is also present in films. |
| 65 | * Andrea Yates was said to have been inspired to drown her children in the bathtub by an episode of ''[[Series/LawAndOrder Law & Order]]'' (where a woman did just that) that aired shortly before she did the deed. No such episode existed. |
| 66 | * Similarly, a pair of teenage boys once built a bomb in their garage and it went off, killing one of them. The survivor claimed they got the idea from an episode of ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}''. The show was exonerated when it was discovered that no such episode existed. |
| 67 | * ''Series/PennAndTellerBullshit'' {{deconstructed|Trope}} this in the Video Games episode. To counter the claim that violent games desensitize children to violence and that realistic games teach children how to use weapons, they test it by giving a nine year old boy who plays violent games very frequently an AR-15 at a shooting range. He holds the gun incorrectly, misses the (oversized) target, isn't prepared for the recoil, doesn't want to shoot more afterward when asked, and cries from the experience. They also debunked an interviewee who claims that massacres occur because of a combination of a troubled kid, guns, and violent video games, using evidence of school massacres that involved none of those. They then point out that while he's against violent video games, he's actually a gun lover. |
| 68 | * The Vietnam war was the very first war to ever get full news coverage and quite heavy news coverage at that. Not only did they show real-life murder, but also real-life manslaughter and bombarding. Some people in the US absolutely refused to fight in the war and some of that group founded the subculture known as hippies. People have blamed people's refusal to fight in the war and the creation of the hippie subculture on the news coverage of the Vietnam war. Since then the news makes sure not to show too heavy imagery without warning to make sure that such an incident never would happen again. |
| 69 | * The self defense killing of con man John Meehan a.k.a. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_John "Dirty John"]] by his stepdaughter, who later would credit ''[[Series/TheWalkingDead The Walking Dead's]]'' methods for [[https://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-killed-real-life-dirty-john-channeled-walking/story?id=60765812 dispatching zombies]] in close combat with a knife as having saved her life. Specifically, she stabbed him in the head and then, in the [[EyeScream eye]] because, "that's the softest point of entry so I wanted to kill his brain for like a zombie, essentially.” |
| 70 | [[/folder]] |
| 71 | |
| 72 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 73 | * A couple of kids killed themselves back in the '80s, and their parents accused Music/JudasPriest of [[SubliminalSeduction putting subliminal messages]] in "Better By You, Better Than Me" to "do it" (the "it" presumably being "kill yourselves"). They responded by denying any messages of the sort, since killing your audience is counterproductive, and if they had the idea, the message they would have preferred was, "Buy more of our records." Bill Hicks skewered this claim in one of his albums. It boils down to "What kind of idiotic band actually wants to kill off their audience? Too much money, drugs, sex, and fame?" The same album has a song ''about suicide'' called "Beyond the Realms of Death", but the controversy completely ignored it. Even more bizarrely, the song they targeted was a cover of a Spooky Tooth song, so the band being sued didn't even write it in the first place. |
| 74 | * Music/OzzyOsbourne was the defendant in a lawsuit. Though the song in question ("Suicide Solution") having a title that seemingly encouraged suicide, the lyrics were rather blatantly about the dangers of alcohol abuse, which helped him beat the charges. |
| 75 | * Rap music has been a popular scapegoat for almost 20 years. The media frenzy died down around the mid '90s, then in '99, Music/{{Eminem}} made his debut and the controversy went right back into full swing. It seemed that people stopped caring when it was black youths listening to black musicians advocating sex, drugs, and murder; but a ''white'' musician saying these things to ''white'' youths? |
| 76 | * Serial killer Richard Ramirez was a fan of Music/{{ACDC}}, particularly the song "Night Prowler" (his nickname was "Night Stalker"). This brought some bad publicity for the band (the title of that song's album, ''Highway to Hell'', didn't help matters). |
| 77 | * The song "Bodies" by Drowning Pool took the blame for the Arizona Shooting. |
| 78 | * Music/MarilynManson is notorious for allegations of encouraging bad behavior through his music. Perhaps most infamously, he was a target for MoralGuardians after the Columbine shooting. |
| 79 | [[/folder]] |
| 80 | |
| 81 | [[folder:Other People]] |
| 82 | * Creator/{{Socrates}} is a deconstruction of this. During his life he was known as a rather annoying brat that asked random people on the streets questions such as "What is justice?" and "What is good?". He did also make a school where people could study rhetoric for free, out of belief that not making it free would be immoral. One of his students however turned out to be Alkibiades who, after having studied by Socrates and becoming a beloved political leader, restarted the war against Sparta and, later in his life, sided with the Spartans, where he uncovered all the military plans that Athens was making, which led to the Athenians' inevitable losing of the war. This all was followed by a regime led by thirty tyrants that, due to fierce backlash of very charismatic Athenian politicians, only lasted for about a year. Five years later, due to everyone except his devoted fans being tired of him, he was sent to court for corrupting the youth of Athens, in the hope that he would leave Athens for good. However, he refused defending himself and continued proposing worse and worse punishments because he broke the Athenian law and was in the end sentenced to death. Despite his fans offering him plans and strategies to leave Athens during his week in prison, which would have worked if for no other reason than because it was what the prosecutors wanted, he took his death and drank the poison that was given to him by the executioner. He died at age 81, which is quite old by ancient Greek standards. |
| 83 | * Creator/FriedrichNietzsche has received his share of blame, notably for motivating Leopold and Loeb, Pekka-Eric Auvinen, and [[GodwinsLaw Adolf Hitler]], who all cherry-picked bits of his philosophy that they liked and ignored the rest. The real Nietzsche would have been appalled by racist demagoguery and blind obedience to the state. It doesn't help that after his death his published work was being filtered through his sister who actually ''was'' an ardent Nazi and edited out the parts that disagreed with her views. This is so pervasive that fictional villains who draw inspiration from TheThemeParkVersion of Nietzsche's philosophy have [[StrawNihilist their own page]]. |
| 84 | * Japan isn't immune from such things either. While the assumptions have lightened up, otaku ("obsessive" fans of various things; geeks or nerds) have been denoted as perverted men who [[{{Hikikomori}} hole themselves up in their homes]] and do nothing but chat online. They will apparently attack young girls or stalk them. This stereotype/assumption was because of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Miyazaki Tsutomu Miyazaki]], a serial murdering rapist who was found to have been in possession of {{Gorn}} videos and a large manga collection at the time of his arrest. The media and news labeled him the "Otaku Killer", causing a massive moral panic against otaku in Japan and having, in combination with a string of theatrical flops, repercussions upon the anime industry. |
| 85 | * Another anti-manga scare ensued in 1995, when the Aum Shinrikyo cult launched a terror attack on the Tokyo subway; they used manga as a promotional tool, their leader directly lifted some of his theology from '70s anime, and many of their recruits were disaffected {{Otaku}}. [[http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-9802/msg00101.html Reportedly]], the Aum Shinrikyo incident had eerie similarities to plot elements in the first draft of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', forcing rewrites to avoid controversy. Of course, ''Evangelion'' attracted plenty of controversy anyway... |
| 86 | * Tokyo's governor Ishihara vehemently demands a ban on manga, anime, and games that show even remotely themes nonsuitable for children (i.e. all rated CERO B and higher, never mind that if such a ban would take effect on video games it would render the concept of a rating system useless, as the only CERO rating that would then get allowed is CERO A) because they "erode our children". On a similar note, many manga authors call him out on his hypocrisy by pointing out that he wrote an erotic novel. |
| 87 | * Jim Sterling has discussed this a few times in the WebVideo/{{Jimquisition}}: |
| 88 | ** In "Desensitized to Violence", Jim criticizes the idea that people are foolish enough to believe there is any correlation in the violence depicted in media (video games in particular) and real-world violence. To prove their point, they showed a video of Budd Dwyer's [[AteHisGun on-camera suicide]] during a live television broadcast in 1987, demonstrating that while real-world violence is often more understated, it is more viscerally disturbing than the over-the-top cartoonish violence of pop culture. |
| 89 | ** A much later episode, ''Blood, Guts, and Videogames'' revisits the issue, in response to reports that game developers are pressuring staff to watch graphic footage of real life violence and gore as artistic reference without any system to protect them from mental trauma, and trying to make the violence so lifelike as to disturb the player. For all their talk about trying to show the real horror and consequences of violence, Jim notes how creepy it is that these companies want a player to feel like they’re actually murdering someone, and how ironic it is that game devs denied during past controversies that they were making "Murder Simulators", yet now feel it fashionable to advertise that yes, they kind of are. |
| 90 | [[/folder]] |
| 91 | |
| 92 | [[folder:Some Combination Of Media]] |
| 93 | * Music/MarilynManson, ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', and ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' were all blamed for the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} shootings. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' was also blamed by one group. Why? Because of the Sector 1 bombing mission at the beginning of the game. Both Marilyn Manson and [[Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone Matt Stone]] appeared in ''Film/BowlingForColumbine'', discussing this trope. |
| 94 | * There also needs to be some mention of the belief of some Christian moralists that ''Literature/HarryPotter'' and ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' can teach people magic, even though neither source gives instructions and being capable of using these spells would require the ability to rewrite the laws of physics. [[http://www.theescapist.com/spells/ As tested here.]] |
| 95 | * Similar to the Jim Adkisson example above, the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and several others in a Tuscon, Arizona supermarket was blamed on the violent rhetoric coming from radio and TV talk show hosts and pundits like Radio/RushLimbaugh and Radio/GlennBeck. Singled out for scrutiny was [[http://thefastertimes.com/nonsensenews/files/2011/01/24972_382925783587_24718773587_3655178_2736968_n.jpg an election map]] created by UsefulNotes/SarahPalin in which twenty Democratic-held seats (Giffords's among them) [[HarsherInHindsight were marked with crosshairs, indicating "targets" for Republican candidates]]. |
| 96 | * [[GunmanWithThreeNames Anders Behring Breivik]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Behring_Breivik the man responsible for the Utøya summer camp massacre and Oslo bombing in Norway]], {{invoked|Trope}} this trope by claiming that he had used ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2'' as a "training simulator", causing [[MoralGuardians the usual suspects]] to come out of the woodwork.[[note]]Never mind that ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2'', being an arcade-y, over-the-top war fantasy, [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace can't teach you much even about how to handle a gun]], to say nothing of [[HollywoodTactics proper tactics]].[[/note]] Presumably, this was an attempt to deflect blame from his being a political extremist who targeted the camp (which was affiliated with Norway's Labour Party) because he viewed it as an indoctrination center, and that if this became the dominant story, his cause would be stigmatized and marginalized through association with his actions. In any event, it seems to have failed, with most discussion of the massacre revolving around his political and religious views. He also mentioned [=WoW=] in his infamous manifesto. What he essentially wrote was that MMO games such as the aforementioned were good scapegoats to pick if family or friends happened to ask why he was spending so much time in isolation (in reality used to plan his deeds) due to the social stigma around them for being time-consuming and socially isolating, so no one would question the response. When media picked up on this, the words were often twisted and misquoted as Breivik using [=WoW=] as a murder simulator for practice (possibly in part because of his own invocation of the trope on ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2''). One of the effects of this was for a Norwegian store chain to immediately stop sales of violent video games as well as gun-like toys. |
| 97 | * After a 16-year-old boy stabbed his teacher to death, the ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers Daily Mail]]'' blamed the killing on video games such as ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsII'' and the Website/YouTube channel Creator/AchievementHunter, mainly because the boy had a picture on Facebook with an AH shirt. |
| 98 | [[/folder]] |
| 99 | |
| 100 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 101 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and other [[TabletopGames Tabletop RPGs]] have been blamed for a variety of things, including [[http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp suicide, murder, and devil worship]]. This belief had become so widespread that at a certain point, Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast had one of their employees go around explaining patiently to people that getting your customers to kill themselves is not a good business model -- [[MindScrew this appeal to greed being the easiest way to convince people that they were not in fact evil]]. |
| 102 | * A murder that once happened in Sweden was touted in headlines to have been a ritual sacrifice, the "vampire murder", because the victim played ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade''. It later turned out it had nothing to do with that... although they didn't exactly put their correction on the headlines, no. |
| 103 | * Four Brazilian murders accused of being RPG-related (it was mostly unrelated) have tarnished said genre's reputation there. |
| 104 | [[/folder]] |
| 105 | |
| 106 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 107 | * One of Rockstar Game's most infamous masterpieces, ''VideoGame/{{Manhunt}}'', is the TropeCodifier, to the point that after its release, almost every major murder incident in the world had something to do with the game, and since then, it has been the bane of [[http://gamepolitics.com/2007/03/16/breaking-take-two-sues-jack-thompson lawyers and parents alike]]. It only got worse when they released a sequel ''Manhunt 2'', which was playable on the Wii. Yes, you can play the game in near virtual simulation with [[http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/10/manhunt-2-on-wii-a-true-murder-simulator/ the Wii-mote as your weapon]]. |
| 108 | * ''VideoGame/DeusEx''. Warren Spector was asked by a mainstream media member at [[MediaNotes/ElectronicEntertainmentExpo E3]] about ''Deus Ex'' being a "murder simulator". Spector took the question seriously, telling the reporter in strict technical terms that while some puzzles in the game could be solved by neutralizing the threat, other pathways could be utilized by selecting alternate routes such as verbal deception, evasion, and so forth. |
| 109 | * Killology: |
| 110 | ** Killology is the study on how real life tactics and common sense in video games can be translated in real life. The man behind it, Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, taught killing to Green Berets, so one would think he would know his stuff. It was a big enough concern to be raised in the making of Rainbow Six, whether the games are likely to teach terrorists anything. Army tactical manuals are still freely available on the Army web site, of course. |
| 111 | ** His concern was desensitizing children to killing and violence, and that video games can teach a child how to handle weapons and use tactics properly.[[note]]Which one would have thought a military officer would favour.[[/note]] However, video games often eschew realism for fun, and as such, most kids would wind up shooting themselves in the face or wondering why the gun isn't firing due to copying... say, Halo's reload animation. Or try and fail to find the circle button. |
| 112 | ** Some of Grossman's claims have been refuted by the U.S. Military itself, such as his claim that ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' is used to desensitize Marines to the act of killing (the marines use a special software program to teach hand-eye coordination, but that's it). Another red flag is that many of the studies Lt. Col. Grossman cites to back up his arguments in turn cite ''[[CircularReasoning Grossman himself]]'' as their primary source. |
| 113 | * ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' was blamed for the Beltway Sniper attacks because an Xbox and the game were found in the possession of the guilty parties. In fact, this happens to any game with guns in it if it's found in the possession of a murderer. [[CowboyBebopAtHisComputer Don't count on the media getting the name right]] if it's not Franchise/{{Halo}}, ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'', or ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'', though. Not to mention that millions of people own such games without feeling the need to kill people. |
| 114 | * Speaking of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'', the franchise has had an especially infamous history of this: |
| 115 | ** The murder of a taxi driver in Thailand was blamed on ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', with the murderer confessing that he played the game. Cue the game series subsequently getting banned in Thailand for this reason. |
| 116 | ** A couple of teens threw a bunch of Molotov cocktails and went on record saying ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' taught them how to make them. While there are Molotov cocktails in the game, such in-game instructions are only found in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoChinatownWars'', not GTA IV. |
| 117 | ** There was an unfortunate case in Cleveland where the victim's father kept insisting on blaming ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' for his daughter's murder (the murderer was living with them at the time), trying to get it pulled from area stores. [[EvenEvilHasStandards The murderer went out of his way to insist that the game had nothing to do with the crime.]] |
| 118 | ** Shortly after [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10513994 Raoul Moat]] went on a killing spree after murdering his ex-girlfriend's lover as well as injuring her, the ''[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers Daily Star]]'' ran an article claiming that the Scotland-based Rockstar North was planning on making him the star of the next ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' game, even [[KickTheDog bothering a grieving victim for a quote]]. In the backlash that followed, the journalist in question began criticizing gamers for calling him out on his bull (trying to frame it as him being criticised for reporting it, rather than for outright lying in his blog). Luckily, in this case, sanity prevailed, and the ''Daily Star'' was [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-11467287 successfully sued for libel]]. |
| 119 | ** In Britain, the gutter press, in their quest to prove that you can blame absolutely anything on violent video games, blamed riots on ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto''. Not the shooting of a man who pulled a gun on police being morphed into claims of PoliceBrutality. Not the simmering class and ethnic tensions in the UK. Not the poor economy. Not that police funding had been cut in the name of austerity. Not mob mentality, where if one person acts out the rest landslides. No, they blamed ''GTA''. For people ''rioting''. ''Years after any entries in the series were released.'' The only GTA game to feature rioting as anything beyond an easter egg code is ''San Andreas'', which was based on the Rodney King riots... which were caused by claims of PoliceBrutality, racial tensions, and high unemployment. |
| 120 | * In Germany, there was a case when two young boys ran amok and killed a woman. Guess what they blamed for this? ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', out of all things! Just because these two boys had been watching ''[[Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren Advent Children]]'' the day before... Still, many people believed it and insisted that FFVII was a "killer game" and should be forbidden. |
| 121 | * In January 2011, German news sites used screenshots of ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'' as illustrations for articles related to video games and violence. It became the archetypal murder simulator to German media and apparently is keeping that position for good. |
| 122 | * There was another case in Germany where a guy stomped a homeless man to death. His attorney and the media tried to pin the blame for this on one of the ''Smackdown vs. Raw'' games, because he was allegedly frustrated that he was unable to beat his pal in the game and thus wanted to "win" the game in real life, using moves he learned from the game. Such as: Jumping on the head of somebody who's lying down on the street, because a game has to teach humans how to pull off that one... |
| 123 | * The Illusion games ''Rapelay'', ''[=BattleRaper=]'', and ''Biko'', all of which involve the player raping women at some point, though it is somewhat optional in the Biko games. They're frequently brought up on message boards and occasionally in media as being "rape simulators" that encourage young men (but never women) to rape people. It is always overlooked, however, that they're ero-games and not meant for minors at all, and are illegal for minors to buy in any case. Sales of ''Rapelay'' were however discontinued by Illusion after the controversy, when they realized that the game pushed the boundaries of good taste a little ''too'' far. As a send-up to this controversy, in the Illusion game ''Yuusha'', young women ''are'' encouraged to attack and rape a demon lord in order to keep his power sealed. |
| 124 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'': |
| 125 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' was called a rape simulator by Fox News commentator Cooper Lawrence. The sex scene in question, which was shown almost in its entirety during the segment, was not only fully consensual and took place within a relationship (like all but one of the game's sex scenes), but was also more tame than what you would see on [[WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy The Other Fox's prime time line up]]. Lawrence also screeched that she had never played the game while condemning it: her whole basis over the game was based on one comment from a woman in the studio that it was "like porn". The research on this one was so poorly done that ''Jack Thompson'' called Fox out on it, and it sparked an InternetCounterattack from irritated ''Mass Effect'' fans in the form of bombing Lawrence's latest book's Amazon review score into the basement, [[HoistByHisOwnPetard on the grounds that having briefly heard about her book and never reading it was information enough to condemn it.]] |
| 126 | ** After the December 2012 Connecticut shooting, it was that found the killer's Facebook page mentioned he liked ''Franchise/MassEffect''. Cue Fox and tons of people claiming the game was behind the whole thing, and a massive video game burning in the town. [[InternetCounterattack And cue even more people dogpiling the haters on Facebook.]] It later came out that the haters had, once again, [[CowboyBeBopAtHisComputer gotten their facts wrong]]: it wasn't even the shooter's page, it was his brother's. |
| 127 | * In 2000, a Spanish sixteen-year-old killed his parents and his younger sister with a katana. The entirety of the Spanish press decided he had done so under the influence of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', commenting on how he even "looked like Squall", "had the same haircut", used to dress in a black tracksuit "just like him", and referring to the gunblade as a [[EveryJapaneseSwordIsAKatana katana]] while playing an endless loop of the few seconds of the intro video where some blood splatters on the ground (playing the prom sequence just wouldn't have given a [[RuleOfDrama properly macabre vibe]]). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGcfP5We3HI This TV program]] ominously describing Squall as ''having the sole mission to overturn the corrupted governments in the world'' as if that was a ''bad'' thing is particularly absurd. The "video game scare" that followed this incident was most likely the main killer of the previous "[tabletop] role playing game scare" that had been a staple of the same press during the 90s. |
| 128 | * In 2004, a 14-year-old boy was murdered by his 18-year-old friend (apparently over some drug-related debts); the blame was placed on ''VideoGame/{{Manhunt}}'' by the tabloids because it was allegedly found in the possession of the killer. [[http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/new-twist-to-manhunt-murder-allegations Cue the police pointing out that it was actually found to be in the possession of the victim.]] |
| 129 | * After the Virginia Tech massacre mentioned above, pundits were falling all over each other to blame video games for the shooting spree; ([[NationalStereotypes that the shooter was a Korean college student probably contributed]]). Lo and behold, warrant searches of his house discovered no video games of any kind and his roommates did not recall ever seeing him play one. A little further research determined that the shooter was an unmedicated schizophrenic. Note that those same talking heads were not rushing back to correct themselves. |
| 130 | * Jack Thompson once proposed an infamous challenge to make a violent video game where the leaders of the gaming industry are killed by the player, promising to donate to charity if it were actually made. When it WAS made, he said it was a joke and he would not donate. So what happens? ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' donates the sum he said he would donate, with Jack Thompson's name and text "For Jack Thompson, because Jack Thompson won't". Cue to Thompson trying to have the creators [[ArtisticLicenseLaw arrested]] ''for extortion and criminal harassment''. Interestingly, this trope is parodied in ''VideoGame/ImOK'', a game that resulted from this challenge. The father of a murdered 14-year-old says that [[CaptainErsatz Jack Offson's]] claim that video games caused his son's death is preposterous, and that his son wanted to be a video game designer; however, when Offson tells him to think of games as Murder Simulators, he says, "When you put it that way, it all makes sense!" |
| 131 | * As of ''American Amusement Machine Association v. Kendrick'' in 2001, the American judiciary does not consider there to be enough evidence to argue that video game violence leads to real violence. A work that deliberately incited violence would be subject to ban under the 1942 case of ''Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire'', and the ''Kendrick'' case noted that a photorealistic, plot-free, grotesquely violent game might be ban-worthy, but neither applies to, say, ''Franchise/MortalKombat'', the game that was to be banned in the ''Kendrick'' case. (The judge also noted that ''Mortal Kombat'' has positive themes as well as negative ones--for instance, the female fighters are [[ActionGirl just as powerful as the male ones]].) |
| 132 | * In Brazil, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mateus_da_Costa_Meira a shootout at a movie theater]] resembled the first level of ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D''. And it could fit "Some Combination Of Mediums", but no one blamed the film being screened... even though it was ''Film/FightClub''. |
| 133 | * Also in Brazil, a teenager who killed his family and then committed suicide had an avatar based on ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' (which even has a name that doesn't help) on social networks. After some blaming, Ubisoft even released a statement declaring that "murder simulators" are a {{Logical Fallac|ies}}y. There's also the fact the teenager's mother was a cop; [[FridgeLogic the police's declaration on how the boy killed his family, went to school next morning and then killed himself after getting home makes no sense]]; and how it's heavily suspected that corrupt cops killed the boy and his family and used the boy as a scapegoat. [[WretchedHive And since Brazil's media is even more corrupt than its police and government, and the people have no other sources of information than said media]]... |
| 134 | * After a school shooting in Germany, media coverage ran high as usual to find the common suspects; however, initially, the boy in question was described as a calm team player, capable in chess and tennis. Around 3 days later, all the news were about how he was a violent stay-at-home who played shooter games all day, apparently because no one in the media thought that saying the truth is a good thing, despite all the witnesses and friends having said how he actually was on LIVE TV just a day before. |
| 135 | * Andrew Schlafly of Conservapedia has a love of InsaneTrollLogic and a hatred of video games and will invariably take advantage of the most tenuous connection to link any news story involving violence or misadventure to gaming. Highlights include the event of an apparently healthy college football star dying suddenly due to what turned out to be an undiagnosed heart condition; articles mentioned he had last been seen playing a video game, so Andy [[http://www.conservapedia.com/index.phptitle=Template%3AMainpageright&action=historysubmit&diff=939108&oldid=939064 felt free to speculate]] that the game was somehow responsible. He also announced that Kim Jong-un and the perpetrator of the Norway summer camp shooting were video game fans, as if this explained everything that was wrong with them, and managed to interpret a story about a boy accidentally shooting his younger brother to death because of an argument over a video game as being about the dangers of games rather than the dangers of leaving guns where your children can get them. |
| 136 | * Attempted by ''Het Vlaams Belang'' with the extreme-right Flemish propaganda flash game ''Minder Minder Minder'' (which in itself is a reference to a hate speech by Dutch extreme-right activist and PVV leader ''Geert Wilders''). According to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aLyWxWZn4w this Dutch news interview]] ''Filip De Winter'', the leader of that political party, deliberately made a game in which you kill Muslims and socialists and destroy mosques because he wants to stimulate people to do the same thing in real life. They probably needed some controversy so that people would still know who to vote for during the elections. It succeeded at that though, because some people protested to get the game removed despite the game being still present on their webpage. |
| 137 | * After the Paris terrorist attacks in 2015, some media ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PouDg32gTS4 such as this Argentine TV program]]) stated that the terrorists used ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' to '''train''' how to pull off the attacks. They also said they used the game to send messages between each other without being detected - which while being possible, they talked more about the "training" part. |
| 138 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AasiL798imI This other Argentine program relates, in some way,]] the attack on two mosques in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, with the video game ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}''. The video is full of absurd claims, but the most stupid moment comes at minute 6:50, when they pretend to "play" ''Fortnite''. |
| 139 | * The German pop science TV show ''Galileo'' once produced a feature on the alleged correlation between violent video games and school shootings. To illustrate its point about video game violence, ''Galileo'' curiously showed gameplay footage from ''VideoGame/Swat4'', which - while technically a FirstPersonShooter - is more to the point a ''police procedural'' [[TacticalShooter simulator]] that both actively ''penalises'' players for shooting and killing their 'enemies' and incentivises them obeying professional police protocol (that is, taking suspects into custody with ''minimal'' violence) at all times. In other words, ''Galileo'' used arguably the worst possible example for video game violence in the then-contemporary FPS landscape. |
| 140 | * On 2009, in France, there were reports a little girl had been stabbed by her 5-year-old brother over a NintendoDS, leading to comments about video games causing violence. Days later, [[https://www.nintendo-master.com/news/la-fille-poignardee-pour-une-ds-est-un-mensonge it was revealed]] it was the ''mother'', tired from her children's noise, who did the deed and that her son was unable to do so. |
| 141 | [[/folder]] |
| 142 | |
| 143 | !!In Fiction: |
| 144 | |
| 145 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 146 | |
| 147 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 148 | * Lampshaded and subverted in ''Literature/{{Durarara}}''. Two torture technicians are about to torture someone using methods inspired by manga. They reference the idea that partaking too much of a medium can make you violent/detached from reality, but then say essentially that the manga isn't to blame- they're just sadistic and would use techniques from television and books if they were given the chance. |
| 149 | * One [[ShowWithinAShow manga within a manga]] the main protagonists work on in ''Manga/{{Bakuman}}'' is Perfect Crime Party, a series about schoolkids committing secret but ultimately harmless "perfect crimes." After getting complaints from parents throughout the series' run about kids reading it and renacting the crimes in the manga, the situation comes to a head when someone reenacts a hypothetical perfect crime (breaking into a bank vault without stealing anything) brought up at the beginning of the manga and MoralGuardians jump on it, causing Takagi to start to doubt the series. It's also brought up that the bank scenario was shot down by the protagonist of PCP as not being in the spirit of the perfect crimes he pulls, since even if the person doesn't steal anything, it would still damage the bank and security company's reputation. Of course, in true media fashion, this is never brought up in the news coverage. Said crime copying from their target audience is the main reason the manga would never be allowed to become an anime (thus allowing the story to continue longer), as the magazine couldn't justify allowing an anime made of a manga with so much potential for real life abuse. |
| 150 | %%* Referred to in ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'' at one point. |
| 151 | [[/folder]] |
| 152 | |
| 153 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 154 | * Parodied in a panel of ''ComicBook/TheCartoonHistoryOfTheUniverse'' set in ancient times, in which a child playing chess triumphantly captures a rook. His mother laments, "These action games are ruining our youth!" |
| 155 | [[/folder]] |
| 156 | |
| 157 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 158 | * The plot of ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'' hinges largely on this mindset. While the main issue with the Canadian movie ''Asses of Fire'' is the massive amounts of swearing and toilet humor, the real conflict starts when [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Kenny self-immolates]] while imitating a stunt from the movie. The irony of this mindset is deconstructed when America attacks Canada as a means of diverting blame away from neglectful parents, starting a war that causes ''far'' more deaths. There's also massive RealitySubtext given how ''South Park'' was scapegoated for influencing children to act out. |
| 159 | [[/folder]] |
| 160 | |
| 161 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 162 | * A pre-video game version in the 1960 caper film ''Film/TheLeagueOfGentlemen''. Lieutenant-Colonel Hyde is inspired to commit TheCaper due to a novel he reads where the crime is carried out with military precision, and mails the novel to the other ex-military men he's chosen as potential recruits. In a subversion, none of them feel inspired in the same way (some don't even bother to read it), though they do come on board once Hyde has spelled out his plan. |
| 163 | * ''Film/{{Untraceable}}'', among many others, portrays TheInternet as this trope. See also MurderDotCom and SnuffFilm. |
| 164 | * Mentioned a few times in the ''Film/{{Scream}}'' series. |
| 165 | ** Considering that the director, Creator/WesCraven, is a man who made his name with [[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984 violent]] [[Film/TheLastHouseOnTheLeft horror]] [[Film/TheHillsHaveEyes1977 movies]], it's hard not to see this as [[TakeThat his response]] to [[MediaScaremongering fear-mongering]] MoralGuardians. |
| 166 | ** In [[Film/Scream1996 the first film]], there's this exchange: |
| 167 | --->'''[[FinalGirl Sidney:]]''' You sick fucks, you've seen one too many movies.\ |
| 168 | '''Ghostface:''' Now Sid, don't you blame the movies! Movies don't create psychos! Movies make psychos more creative! |
| 169 | ** In [[Film/Scream2 the second]], a discussion in a film class early on has several characters debating whether or not violent slasher flicks turn people violent. In addition, the killer [[spoiler:(at least, one of them)]] plans on blaming his killing spree on said slasher movies (such as the newly-released ''Stab''), invoking this trope in order to create [[FifteenMinutesOfFame a sensational trial]] and get the MoralGuardians on his side. |
| 170 | ** [[Film/Scream3 The third film]] also has a discussion of this. One of the producers of ''[[ShowWithinAShow Stab 3]]'' notes how violence in cinema has become a touchy subject recently; the unstated-yet-obvious cause of this is that, a year before, the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} massacre took place. (In real life, ''Scream 3'' is probably the least violent out of all the movies.) They also speculate that Cotton's murder may have been by a LoonyFan. |
| 171 | -->'''Milton:''' Detectives, there's no reason to presume that Cotton's death had anything to do with this movie, is there?\ |
| 172 | '''Detective Kincaid's Partner:''' He was making a movie called ''Stab''. [[DeadpanSnarker He was stabbed.]] |
| 173 | ** [[Film/Scream4 The fourth film]], however, does indulge in this, but instead of violent movies, it blames RealityTV and its culture instead. The killer's motivation is to become famous as a result of "surviving" the massacre, [[spoiler:much as her cousin Sidney had done]]. |
| 174 | -->'''The killer:''' Look around. We all live in public now, we're all on the internet, how do you think people become famous anymore? You don't have to achieve ''anything!'' You've just gotta have fucked-up shit happen to you. |
| 175 | * As a ''Scream'' spoof, this is echoed and further parodied in the first ''Film/ScaryMovie''. When Cindy accuses the killers of becoming homicidal lunatics by watching too much TV, one of them corrects her: it's ''[[ScrewedByTheNetwork cancelling]]'' TV shows that actually made them killers, and he goes on to lament the end of ''Series/TheWayansBros'', an earlier show [[Creator/ShawnWayans the]] [[Creator/MarlonWayans creators]] were involved in. |
| 176 | * Briefly appears in the Creator/RutgerHauer vehicle ''Film/{{Redline|1997}}'', when a minor character is seen playing one of these in VirtualReality, mowing down bodyguards in a mansion. A short while afterward, the game has him chasing a screaming woman through the same mansion, implying that murder isn't the only thing being simulated. |
| 177 | * In ''Film/NewPoliceStory'' the bank robbers plan their heists and traps using computer games. |
| 178 | * In the Creator/SpikeLee film ''Film/InsideMan'', one of the bank robbers finds one of the hostages, a young black boy, sitting inside the bank vault playing his Platform/PlayStationPortable. He borrows the game to try it for himself, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYNUp5rAZJo we see]] that it's a violent, racially-tinged ''GTA'' clone in which the player gets points for stealing cars, selling drugs, and killing people. When the robber asks what the point of the game is, the kid replies "like my man [[Music/FiftyCent Fiddy]] says, get rich or die tryin'", comparing the robber to the game's VillainProtagonist and saying that he's scored a ton of points by knocking over a bank. [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even the robber is shocked]], feeling that the game is making the kid think that [[DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster crime is cool]], and he says he's gonna talk to the kid's father about the game he's playing. [[spoiler:This foreshadows the fact that the robbers, while willing to beat people up to quell resistance, have no intention of ''killing'' anybody and in fact plan to rob the bank's president ([[AssholeVictim a Nazi collaborator]]), rather than its customers.]] [[EnforcedTrope Spike Lee added this scene deliberately]] as an {{anvilicious}} complaint about the over-the-top violence in many video games. |
| 179 | * ''Film/{{Toys}}'': the evil plot is to make arcade games with an identical control system to military drones, so that new recruits will be able to pick it up immediately (and encourage sales of both products). The creator, an insane retired general, deliberately set them up to reward civilian deaths after being annoyed that another company's games penalized him for it. |
| 180 | [[/folder]] |
| 181 | |
| 182 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 183 | * In ''Literature/ThePictureOfDorianGray'', Dorian accuses Lord Henry of being responsible for his corruption through giving him the "Yellow Book". Lord Henry (and through him Oscar Wilde himself) scoffs at this idea, saying that books don't make anyone behave a certain way -- they inspire inaction if anything -- and can't be blamed for conduct. |
| 184 | * In ''Literature/JohnDiesAtTheEnd'', Arnie claims video games were recent additions to our world, possibly introduced by the shadowmen. Given their plot in ''Literature/ThisBookIsFullOfSpidersSeriouslyDudeDontTouchIt'', it seems very plausible. |
| 185 | * Mid-way through the third ''Literature/{{Noob}}'' novel, Stanislas (Arthéon's player) ends up missing his first class so he can take part in an extremly important battleground in the {{MMORPG}} in which most of the story is set. His boarding school principal walks in on him and is understandably furious at him. She immediately assumes he's playing a war game, which is understandable given he ''was'' in the middle of a battle, but doesn't listen to him when he tries telling her that battles aren't the only aspect of the game. In the middle of chewing him out, she mentions the school shootings in which the perpetrators were (allegedly) video game players. She also makes clear that she considers {{Geek}} culture in general to be responsible for all sort of evils related to the younger generation, all while not giving Stanislas a chance to explain any of it (which he's clearly more than willing to do). |
| 186 | [[/folder]] |
| 187 | |
| 188 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 189 | * A German police investigations show had the game "Killman 4". Which was smuggled into the country and sold as pirated copies on school yards and empty parking lots as if they were drugs. |
| 190 | * ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'': |
| 191 | -->'''Dick''': Obviously, these people have been completely desensitized by all the gratuitous violence they've seen on television and movies. ''[{{beat}}]'' [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Especially the movies.]] |
| 192 | * ''Series/ABitOfFryAndLaurie'': |
| 193 | ** Parodied when Stephen Fry explained that people had been encouraged to copy him when he punched Hugh Laurie on screen... by specifically punching Hugh Laurie in public. Many incidents then followed when Stephen found excuses to give Hugh money instead. |
| 194 | ** Another parody mimicked the Music/JudasPriest example, with Stephen as a singer accused of singing the words Set Yourself On Fire, by the lawyer of a woman who did just that. Mid trial he then bursts into a song called Woman Drop Your Case, resolving the issue. |
| 195 | * In ''Series/CriminologistHimuraAndMysteryWriterArisugawa'', the Screaming Castle case involves a serial killer that was apparently inspired by the events of the horror game Night Prowler. When the game's developers are approached about the manner, they're quick to refute the idea that a violent video game leads to violence in real life. [[spoiler:In the end, it's revealed that the killer had heard of people mistaking fiction for reality and wanted to experience for himself what it was like. Arisugawa is [[DisappointedByTheMotive none too pleased]] at such a weak motive for killing three women.]] |
| 196 | * In an episode of ''Series/{{Dexter}}'', the forensic intern (who is also a video game developer) excitedly shows Dexter a game he is working on, a literal murder simulator where you can play as Jack The Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, or the Bay Harbor Butcher (actually Dexter himself, unbeknowst to the intern). Dexter is offended someone would design such a game. It's left ambiguous as to whether Dexter claims offense to [[PlausibleDeniability deny that he himself is a serial killer]], because [[spoiler:his wife Rita]] was killed by another serial killer, or because he's genuinely sickened that somebody would want to imagine to be a killer like him. Maybe all or none of the above reasons. |
| 197 | * An episode of ''Series/{{Engrenages}}'' had a troubled teen go on a gun rampage (with no fatalities) in what initially appeared to be an example of this trope. However, it finally turned out that he was trying to commit SuicideByCop after killing his girlfriend (who he met in an online multiplayer mode of the game and who rejected him when they finally met in offline life). |
| 198 | * Lynda la Plant's drama ''Series/KillerNet'', centred around a murder simulator of the same name. The game was divided into 'stalking', 'execution', 'disposal', and 'evasion'. One of the victim characters of the game, Lybra (Read: CharacterCreation), unknowingly to the three players, worked very similarly to a Manga/DeathNote. The twist: [[spoiler: The character entered as Lybra was murdered before the Manga/DeathNote mechanics of the game could take effect.]] |
| 199 | * ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': |
| 200 | ** In the third episode, the manga Rapeman was used as evidence justifying the arrest of a man as an accessory to a rape committed by his 13 year old son. It's particularly idiotic in that it was the ''only'' evidence for the charge and that the arresting detective didn't even know what the manga was actually about (she incorrectly guessed the premise[[note]]she thought it was a serious manga about a high school student who gets revenge on the girls that reject him by raping them instead of an erotic black comedy/satire manga about a high school ''teacher'' who uses rape to dispense justice for those that hire him[[/note]] due to her admittedly not knowing how to read Japanese). |
| 201 | ** In another episode, three people in their 20s recreated a hooker killing from a CaptainErsatz of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' and blamed their actions on the game. Their claim was that the game had warped their fragile minds so badly that they couldn't tell they weren't playing the game anymore when they hunted her down and hit her with a car and stomped her to death. The prosecution proves it for the bullshit it is. |
| 202 | ** In another episode, a mother who was head of a MoralGuardians group blamed a shock jock for the rape her son committed. She shot him in what was proven to be a publicity stunt. |
| 203 | ** Another episode involving a murdered girl led the detectives to investigate her developmentally challenged foster brother. He was an avid player of a fantasy game that had similar imagery to the crime scene. Later, Cragan (of all people) manages to play the game and discovers the crime scene was similar to a scene from the game where the hero saves another character using a magic ritual. They then realize the boy was trying to save his foster sister. |
| 204 | * In ''Series/MidsomerMurders'', while investigating murders, Barnaby observes that a child is addicted to violent computer games. [[spoiler:It turns out that he was using the games to literally simulate a murder as a sort of dry run.]] |
| 205 | * The fourth episode of the second season of ''Series/{{Misfits}}'' has a villain whose "superpower" is the delusional belief that he's a player character in a ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' clone (he even see things as if he's in a videogame, with CGI characters and a pumping techno soundtrack). He kills several people on-screen and kidnaps Kelly in the belief that she's his in-game treacherous girlfriend. He escapes at the end, but we then hear that he tried to break someone out of jail as the next mission in the "game" and [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome got arrested]]. [[spoiler:He reappears in the series's final season, when he's apparently cured but in reality still having to resist the hallucinations and delusions. In the end he snaps and has to be killed to prevent him from committing another murder.]] |
| 206 | * Ironically given [[Film/{{Scream}} the film series it's based on]], ''Series/ScreamResurrection'' fully indulges in this trope during the killer's MotiveRant. [[spoiler:Beth, the series' resident [[MetaGuy Meta Gal]], claims that she loves violent horror movies because she's a [[TheSociopath sociopath]], and watching them helped satisfy her own bloodlust until, eventually, it just wasn't enough. This led her to put on a Ghostface mask herself and become a SerialKiller in imitation of her screen idols, bringing Deion's jealous half-brother Jamal into her plan in order to have a FallGuy.]] Trace Thurman, writing for the horror website ''Bloody Disgusting'', [[https://bloody-disgusting.com/reviews/3570638/tv-review-killers-scream-resurrection/ was not pleased]], and raked the series over the coals for what he saw as indulging in ThisLoserIsYou towards horror fans. |
| 207 | * In the fourth season episode of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', "Rules of Engagement," Worf is on trial for firing on a Klingon civilian transport which decloaked in front of ''Defiant'' in the middle of a battle. The Klingon prosecutor calls Dax to the witness stand to testify on Worf's character. During the questioning, the prosecutor questions her about a holodeck program Worf played shortly before the escort mission in question. The program puts Worf in the role of one of Klingon culture's greatest heroes, during a battle in which he ordered the slaughter of every inhabitant of a city when he conquered it. Dax is forced to acknowledge Worf gave the order, and is overruled when she attempts to note that it's the only way to ''complete'' the program. The prosecutor then uses this to argue Worf was perfectly able and willing to fire on civilians, and the program is presented by his argument as this trope. |
| 208 | [[/folder]] |
| 209 | |
| 210 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 211 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoHPDtqU3dQ "I'm Violent"]] by Music/SithClan is four and a half minutes of a {{nerdcore}} [[HipHop Rap]] quartet's unbridled irritation at the trope. |
| 212 | * The music video for "Where is the Love?" by Music/BlackEyedPeas shows a crew of activists plastering question marks over posters of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'', implying their contempt for video game violence being freely peddled to the youths; a later scene in the video shows children playing ''VideoGame/Postal2'' on a console,[[note]]The game was released exclusively for the PC and Mac OS, making said footage rather questionable.[[/note]] again further driving the Peas' point about video games corrupting the youth (though they apparently had no problem rapping about sex or materialism in their other songs, ironically enough.) |
| 213 | * The song "Spanish Psycho" by Spanish singer El Chivi is about a man who goes into a violent rampage after watching the spanish film ''Los Bingueros''. |
| 214 | [[/folder]] |
| 215 | |
| 216 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 217 | * ''VideoGame/FarCry3BloodDragon'' has Dr. Darling point out how games actually improve hand-eye coordination and there is no actual evidence that confirms that games are linked to Murder Simulators. |
| 218 | * ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'' plays this completely straight by involving the PlayerCharacter in the "S3 Plan", or "Solid Snake Simulator." Raiden is being made unwittingly by the AncientSociety known as the Patriots to shoot and kill actual soldiers in the hopes that he will evolve into some sort of OneManArmy. (At least, if you believe the character who tells you this. Maybe you should not; he's the TropeNamer for ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, he can't seem to decide if Raiden was in the simulation or [[NoFourthWall the player]] was, and this is a game where {{Mind Screw}}s happen every five minutes.) |
| 219 | ** Bonus points for Ocelot's reasoning behind the "Five Billion Dollar Murder Simulator" theory: He's already seen [[spoiler:a completely regular soldier who was crippled and mind-raped turned into an indistinguishable replica of the legendary Big Boss via narrative, context, and hands-on visceral experience]]. Also known as the "NGO Military Leader / War-Crime Sociopath Simulator". |
| 220 | * There's a joking nod to the trope in the ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar2'' multiplayer map "Day One" where one of the arcades machines in the level has the name "Murder Simulator." |
| 221 | * ''VideoGame/Postal2'' parodies this by featuring protesters picketing Running With Scissors (the game's creators) in protest of violence in video games. Ironically, upon the player picking up his paycheck and getting fired from RWS, said protesters storm in with guns to ''kill everyone inside'', the player included. |
| 222 | * Mentioned in ''VideoGame/TroubleInTerroristTown'' in the after-round achievements. If someone got more than six headshot kills, they get mentioned as having "applied their murder simulation training and got X headshots". |
| 223 | * The ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' games '''are''' in fact murder simulators, moreso than any other game on this list, in that your character you play as is an assassin for hire planning and carrying out murders as stealthily as possible. To date, the games has received almost zero coverage on being implicated with real life murder sprees or killings, in large part because it's not a hugely well known game series outside of the gaming scene, therefore many of the MoralGuardians that would complain about the game being a "murder simulator" barely know enough about it to comment on anything they'd find offensive. In fact, the games have been controversial for ''completely unrelated reasons;'' ''VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin'' was controversial as one of its levels' architecture was based on a holy Sikh site (which prompted IO Interactive to edit this accordingly at the time) while ''VideoGame/HitmanAbsolution'' was controversial because of its use of leather-clad-assassin-nuns with fetishes for violence. It's a little ironic that the game most would consider an actual murder simulator is the one with the least blame put on it for real life killings. As for the developers, they've repeatedly stated that the Hitman games are stealth-puzzle games, moreso than anything, as it's just as important to learn guard routines and weapons as it is how to kill someone in a given level, meaning loading a level and killing the target is not the idea; it's '''how''' you approach them that matters. |
| 224 | ** ''Franchise/JamesBond'' games also get flown under the radar too, [[DoubleStandard but at least]] he's fictitiously killing for Queen & Country. |
| 225 | * Radioman in ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'' invokes this trope when he jokingly blames Walker's violent rampage on video games. Then again, the entire game is a {{deconstruction}} of ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty''-style power fantasy military shooters. |
| 226 | * ''VideoGame/{{Harvester}}'' is an actual in-game murder simulator, the events of the game turning out to be a virtual reality simulation designed to turn the protagonist into a SerialKiller. The game itself was also created as a {{Deconstruction}} of this entire concept. |
| 227 | * In ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' one of the dropped ideas was an InUniverse game called "[[ShowWithinAShow Manhack Arcade]]". It would have involved controlling a [[AttackDrone Manhack]] and killing lawbreaking citizens for points... with a heavy implication that [[AndYouThoughtItWasAGame it controlled actual manhacks.]] |
| 228 | * The game ''VideoGame/{{Hatred}}'' has you playing a violent sociopath and active shooter out to murder as many people as he can before he dies. It's either a parody of a Murder Simulator, or an actual one. As one can probably guess, the MoralGuardians are all over it. |
| 229 | * [[Creator/RobinAtkinDownes Male Voice 3]] quotes the trope name verbatim in ''VideoGame/SaintsRowIV'' upon entering [[spoiler: [[VideoGame/StreetsOfRage Saints of Rage]], the location of the simulation that [[AxCrazy Johnny Gat]] is trapped in]]. |
| 230 | --> "[[spoiler: Gat's mind]] is a murder simulator... makes sense." |
| 231 | * In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoOnline'', the "Diamond Casino Heist" update has the player buying and setting up an arcade as a staging area for the heist. While the player is delivering games for the arcade, Lester calls and reminisces about one game, talking about how the game turned him from a mild-mannered young man into a delinquent. He then says he's only kidding and that he was always a punk. |
| 232 | * ''VideoGame/DeathRoadToCanada'', playing arcade games, "Like all games ever made" in the game's own words, will increase the shooting skill. |
| 233 | * ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'' is a murder simulator starting a female {{Yandere}} VillainProtagonist, who must kill '''anyone''' who is against her and her romance with her crush (and hide her victims' bodies, without being caught by people) such as [[MurderTheHypotenuse other (mostly innocent) girls who interact with her crush]] and [[LeaveNoWitnesses anyone who attempts to report her murders to social media]]. |
| 234 | [[/folder]] |
| 235 | |
| 236 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 237 | * Obligatory ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' example, when they mocked this trope back in the "play violent games and you're a criminal" days. Tycho and Gabe are waiting at a line, when Tycho, sick of waiting, shouts "I play violent video games! I could snap any minute!"... only to make fun of the clerk hiding behind the counter immediately afterwards. |
| 238 | --> '''Tycho:''' [[MagnificentBastard My bad! This isn't even my line!]] |
| 239 | * Interesting variant in ''Webcomic/MegaTokyo'', when Piro's conscience is trying to get him to stop lusting after high-schoolers. |
| 240 | -->'''Piro:''' Don't blame me! It's years of anime and games full of high school girls that has programmed me to be attracted to them!! I can't help it! It's not my fault!\ |
| 241 | '''Seraphim:''' So, you're saying if Largo went around town shooting people, that would be OK because he's been playing first person shooter games for years?\ |
| 242 | '''Piro:''' That's totally different.\ |
| 243 | '''Seraphim:''' No it's not, freak boy. |
| 244 | * [[http://choppingblock.keenspot.com/d/20130729.html Inverted]] in ''Webcomic/ChoppingBlock:'' |
| 245 | -->Years of exposure to real-life hardcore violence tragically led to Butch becoming desensitized to video games. |
| 246 | * ''Webcomic/TerminalLance'' inverts this in [[https://terminallance.com/2012/03/13/terminal-lance-185-experience/ strip #185: "Experience"]] when Abe plays ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' with a civilian friend. Abe says he's good at [=COD=] because of the Marine Corps, which his friend takes to mean that he uses his real-life military experience to play the game better. |
| 247 | -->'''Abe:''' Haha! No. That's ridiculous. We're on stand-by all the time. Practically all we do is play ''Call of Duty''. |
| 248 | [[/folder]] |
| 249 | |
| 250 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 251 | * ''Website/TheOnion'': |
| 252 | ** The new game ''Close Range'' consists solely of shooting people in the face at close range. Video report on Website/YouTube. |
| 253 | ** Parodied again in The Onion News Network with a "preview" of ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare3'', which shows a "realistic" portrayal of war: asinine conversations with fellow soldiers, guard duty over empty warehouses, following inaccurate and contradictory orders, and repairing Hummvees for 12 hours a day. |
| 254 | [[/folder]] |
| 255 | |
| 256 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 257 | * Parodied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' when two game developers introduce the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' clone ''[=Pro-Pain=]'' as a TakeThat to Hank Hill. Hank and Buck Strickland soon take up the role of indignant MoralGuardians and Hank is soon tasked with finding copyright infringement in the game in order to take them to court; the whole Moral Guardian plot is then thoroughly {{subverted|Trope}} and then turns into AnAesop about game addiction. Interestingly, Hank begins to enjoy the game when he tries to ''avoid'' killing anyone or causing damage, just like RealLife pacifist runs and the VideoGame/DeusEx example above. |
| 258 | ** Strangely, Hank voiced a very different opinion in an earlier episode, during his usual complaints about Bobby's unmanly tendencies. |
| 259 | --->'''Hank:''' The boy's got no fight in him, I don't get it. He spends five hours a day playing violent video games. What's the point if they don't have any effect on him? |
| 260 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': |
| 261 | ** Parodied in "Treehouse of Horror XI", in a story where the family are peasants in a fairy tale universe. Bart's watching a fire and laughs when it crackles; |
| 262 | --->'''Marge:''' Son, I don't like you watching that fire. It's too violent. |
| 263 | ** Parodied in "Dangerous Curves". After playing a FictionalVideoGame involving shooting breakfast cereal mascots, Bart expresses a love for killing stuff. Homer says that video games are why Americans are so violent. |
| 264 | -->'''Bart''': I'm cuckoo for killing stuff!\ |
| 265 | '''Homer''': Video games: the reason this generation of Americans is the best ever. |
| 266 | * Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/CodeMonkeys'', when Dave programs an Atari game where the main character has to impress Creator/JodieFoster. One of the objectives is to assassinate President "[[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Ray-gun]]." Three guesses as to what happens next. |
| 267 | * In ''WesternAnimation/CowAndChicken'' cousin Black Sheep stops two kids writing grafitti on a wall, which makes one of the mutter that they are bad because of too many cartoons. The Mexican GagDub went a step forward and had the kid claim it was because they watch too much ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' and ''Anime/SaintSeiya''. |
| 268 | * An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' titled "The Blame" features video games being banned for being too violent. Gumball and the other kids then show the adults that classic literature can be just as violent as video games, [[spoiler: so they start burning books.]] |
| 269 | * Comes up in the episode "Crisis Point" of ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'', where Mariner hijacks Boimler's super-accurate recreation of the ship to write a movie where she is the BigBad and uses it as PercussiveTherapy to act out her frustrations on the simulated crew. Boimler is simply annoyed because all the violence interferes with his interview prep, but Tendi is genuinely disturbed by the sight of her colleague shooting, stabbing, and exploding her own crewmates even though they are holographic recreations. She ends up walking out of the program, leaving Mariner to have an illuminating fight with the holographic Mariner (who forces her to admit that she is using the uber-violent "therapy" to avoid addressing her own problems). |
| 270 | [[/folder]] |
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