While the immediate reaction to the shootings in Arizona this weekend centered on the possible role vitriolic political rhetoric might have played in motivating Jared Lee Loughner to allegedly shoot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (and a federal judge, and a 9-year-old girl, and others), now that more details of the troubled young man's life are appearing, a fuller picture is emerging. The Wall Street Journal reports that Loughner was a gamer.
His game of choice was, apparently, Earth Empires, a text-based browser strategy game with a heavy focus on community--pretty far from the sort of ultra-violent gaming you might expect from an apparent mass killer. He also reportedly played Diablo and StarCraft when he was younger.
While little can be read from Loughner's choice of game, his posting on Earth Empire's message boards provide a glimpse into his mind. While many of Loughner's posts concern the kind of mundane chatter familiar to anyone who has spent any time on the internet, in retrospect, some of his words are chilling, including this post from April 20, 2010:
"Would you hit a Handy Cap Child/ Adult?"
Or this post, from May 20:
"I bet your hungry....Because i know how to cut a body open and eat you for more then a week. ;-)"
On May 9 at 2:00 a.m., he asked:
"Does anyone have aggression 24/7?"
Overall, Loughner's posts echo many of the themes on his videos from YouTube page. They display an obsession with language, a hatred of the educational system, aggression and an inability to find employment. Also, problems with dating and cracked philosophical musings. There is no mention of anything political in his online postings.
If you read Loughner's posts before he reportedly committed his massive, violent shooting spree, you'd see little that would concern you. No threats of violence. No Unabomber style manifestos. Loughner's posts and involvement in this community and with other strategy games honestly doesn't seem all that out of the ordinary. He seems like the weird kid in your guild. The kid you probably don't think that much about, but if you do, it's to wonder if he's on drugs, or if he needs some kind of psychological help. Ultimately, Evil can be pretty mundane, and Evil people pretty much like all of us.
If there can be anything said to be positive in this story, the reaction Loughner's online pals showed to his posting are illuminating. Loughner's post complaining about not being able to find a job were answered with constructive comments on what to do, as, it seems, were most of his comments. Overall, judging from The Wall Street Journal's posts, the online community of Earth Empires was one of the few positive aspects of Loughner's life, a fact that troubles some of the Earth Empire community, a member of which recently wrote, "I can't stand that I know him."
Source: Wall Street Journal
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wolfman99202
I feel sorry for this guy in some ways. I don't condone what he did but in some macabe way it was inevitable. You push someone far enough, they snap. I also suffer from mental instabilities but seeked help long before anything could ever happen. Gaming is not a cause for violence in life. You can't blame a game for someone like this guy to kill people. He had a gun, he used it, people died! It's that simple. He made a choice.
EvilMonkeyDTT
Why does this matter at all? What next, your gonna tell him his favorite movie is Pulp Fiction? Because that would matter just as much.
musk2419
who cares if he played games how many murderers DONT and never have played a game i love how the media goes straight for the BS i lost my younger brother to senseless gun violence so i know the pain these people are feeling and i hope he gets @ss fuhk3d in jail daily
SoloReverb
psssssst....... I heard he watched movies and television too!!!
p0t
Extreme right is calling him a liberal, extreme left is calling him a conservative. He was just a nutjob, plain and simple.
MacPhisto
Wow that is one seriously creepy mugshot. I think we just found Uncle Fester's evil twin.
austin43
Damn, now I wonder if news outlets are going to continue tea party bashing or head straight for gamers? Time will tell...
Mr_Paisley
I think it's kinda silly to relate this event to gaming. Like, I get it, we're a gaming website so, let's involve it in games. But hell, Darth Vader could've been a gamer and an article titled "This just in, Darth Vader played Pac Man" would be equally silly (or Hitler, or Osama, or whoever else).
It IS points to the gamer though against that stupid "Violent videogames cause violence" argument. Nope, life, and genes in yer birth cause violence you dope :p (I also don't really see how the quotes show "a hatred for the educational system", or "an inability" to find employment. Really you wrote it best that, this is just sentiment that is echoed daily on the internet. I take it with a grain of salt every time.
Dynamo903
Nothing to worry about. The left are more interested in blaming this on right wing rhetoric and not gaming.
Those douche bags pick their battles very carefully and will take any oppurtunity they can get to say " BAD EVIL REPUBLICANS " (even though there is not even the slightest shred of evidence that he was pushed over the edge by the right, but eh, that's how the liberal hive mind works)
kidtendo
I also heard that Power Puff Girls was his favorite tv show
kidtendo
I better stop playing Mario otherwise i'll end up like him right? D:
Tony267
Why even give this piece of garbage the time of day with this article? Just another idiot who gives the gaming community and humanity in general a bad name.
RandyMercer
This means we should prep for more media backlash, cause you one way or another; if a young adult plays video games (even if it was just one) then the video game made him do it. Personally I don't care what he played, he went crazy. More than likely he was gonna go off the deep end anyway. I don't even know why people are trying to understand the psyche of a mad man anyway. Society found their scapegoat and it's a common denominator shared by other lunatics unfortunately.
g4ismediocre
Well, crime is always going to be present. Unfortunately this was an example of that. As far as videogames having anything to do with the Arizona shootings, the evidence is insufficient, those statements the man posted were from over a year ago. Nevertheless, the media always wants a story and videogames might be blamed just for their own selfish desires.
Taco151
I mean guys, its not like HE pulled the trigger. It was the Vidoegames! he was just an innocent pawn.
MrKrinklez
I mean no disrespect to G4, The Feed, or it's writers... but I just can't stop thinking "why should I care about this article?"
epicexposure
Violence exist in other medias such as movies and even the news on TV. I don't feel video games is to blame for most of his actions.
billy66bare
Ahhh, so we are starting to see something that has been said since the days of KISS and before I'm sure, if someone is mentally ill, anything, and possibly nothing, could set them off. I like the idea of the violent political rhetoric at first, it seemed to "fit the bill" so to speak, as stirring up the lesser educated/intelligent to improve your ratings/get votes is a sleazy, yet easy way to go when you know your ideas are flawed. For years people have blamed the entertainment industry one way or another, here, you more or less see, in bold colors, that a mental illness is to blame, plain and simple.
SonicATL
At least they can't say that video games caused this guy to go postal. In my opinion, he had mental problems to begin with and he nor his parents knew that Lougher was unstable. In fact, he thought he was the only one who wasn't insane! He made thing worse by consuming alcohol and other drugs (including pot). However, I don't believe that he was mentally stable before he started using anything.
edbdqt
What next? If we look hard enough, I bet we can find his OKCupid dating profile.
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