Video games (both singles and multiplayer) are an opportunity to take a break from the complexities of real life.
However, in addition to the dose of endorphins, many games, especially those that encourage competition between players, can cause behavioral changes. Not all of them are pleasant to others, and some are even dangerous. True, the question of whether games cause crimes or are simply a favorite hobby of some criminals remains open.
Leave it to scientists. In the meantime, we will tell you about 10 crimes in which video games were involved.
10. The illusion of life
A list of 10 crimes on the basis of video games opens World of Warcraft. VoB is considered one of the most addictive MMORPGs ever appearing on computer monitors. Players spent many hours in the virtual world and completely forgot about the real world.
This happened with Lester Huffmir and his wife Petra, who were arrested in 2013 for child abuse. The police were called by an alert neighbor who reacted to the continuous crying of children. When the police entered the house, they saw a disgusting sight - the trailer inside was covered with dust, everywhere there were piles of garbage and human feces. Two girls aged 5 and 10 years were exhausted, they were left without food and water for a long time. They were not even allowed to leave the house. And unemployed parents all this time quietly played in World of Warcraft.
9. Pixel death
Loot in the game is a serious matter. So serious that some items are sold on the black market for thousands of dollars. And if we add here the emotional value of the subject, especially paid for many hours of sitting at the computer, then a bunch of pixels can be very expensive.
In 2004, two Legend of Mir III players learned this from their own hard experience. They were friends, and one of them, Zhu Caoyuan, asked the other, Ku Chengway, for a particularly valuable weapon. He agreed. Time passed, and Caoyuan still did not give his weapon back. In the end, Chengwe was horrified to find out that Caoyuan sold the weapons and put the money in his pocket. The deceived friend tried to file a complaint with the police, but there they laughed at him. And Chengway decided to restore justice in his own way, inflicting a blow on the chest of his former friend, from which he died.
Now in Asian countries there is a tendency to recognize virtual objects as real property and, accordingly, to provide judicial protection. And China is developing a “virtual law” governing the sale of gaming property.
8. PvP in real life
The game Lineage II in our country has many fans. Almost every MMO player who has now stepped over his thirtieth birthday started with a “line” pirate server, and some made their way to the distant “off”, despite the ping (the servers were then located in America).
Not only schoolchildren and students played it, but also adult family people. For example, dvp. In the world, his name was Andrey Ponomarenko, he owned a computer company, was married, raised a child. And in the "Line" several times he became the hero of the server and liked to record his PvP-fights (player versus player) and upload it to YouTube. This provided him with authority and popularity among gamers throughout the post-Soviet space.
However, in life, unlike the game, PvP is not encouraged, and dead people are not resurrected in the nearest settlement. In January 2007, the Line players gathered to drink and have a bite to eat. As usual, alcohol caused a quarrel, and dvp went out with the other player to the street to "talk". After Andrei’s blow, student Alexander Belkin (nickname in the game TOP) fell on the asphalt, hit his head on the curb and got a skull fracture. After 3 days, he died in the hospital. Dvp planted for 7 years.
7. Man as an obstacle
People addicted to addiction are willing to do much to continue playing their favorite video game. And if they try to stop them - ooh, what begins here. Scandals, swearing, crying. But some of them are ready to go even further.
One of the most famous crimes committed under the influence of computer games occurred in Russia in 2011. In the village of Fruit near Volgograd, a 32-year-old woman disappeared. Two weeks later, her body was discovered on her own land. It turned out that her son killed. A 16-year-old teenager hacked his mother with an ax in a dream when she refused to pay him for a computer repair. Then Alexey wrapped the body in a sheet so as not to leave bloody traces, and hid it under his own bed, on which he quietly slept the next night.
He came to work from his stepfather and said that Eugene allegedly went on business to a neighboring village. The neighbors then wondered for a long time that such a quiet, calm boy, albeit a little reserved, was capable of such cruelty.
6. Fatal Farm
When the Facebook social network began to grow and develop, it provided its users with the opportunity to play browser-based online games. One of the most popular was a farming simulator, Farmville. At least 75 million people all over the world used to play it.
Please note that the farm that the player controls is based on real-time laws. And this means that if you want to “win” the game, you will have to spend almost round the clock following it, regularly picking raspberries every two hours. Alexandra Tobias from Florida, USA, was so keen on picking virtual vegetables and fruits and milking virtual cows that when her three-month-old son began to cry and prevent her from playing, she shook him a few times. The child received head injuries and a broken leg and, despite the efforts of doctors, he could not be saved.
5. The price of life
Video games cost money. Even shareware require regular financial injections to keep the player afloat. And some work on a subscription plan, that is, for a monthly fee, the player gets full access to the content. Typically, the price is about $ 15, but for some categories of citizens, such as adolescents, this amount may seem incredibly large. And some of them are ready for the opportunity to continue the game at all.
In November 2007, when World of Warcraft boasted a maximum number of subscribers, Hanoi police arrested a 13-year-old. He strangled an 81-year-old woman, robbed her, covered the body with earth and ... paid for the game.
4. Clan War
Lineage II is a social game, it is difficult to play alone, so players unite and create clans. Between themselves, clans can both be friends and fight.
On one Lineage II server there were two clans from the city of Ufa, each numbering about 30 people. Between themselves, their relationship was tense. One day, at a party, two people met, 22-year-old student Andrei and 33-year-old taxi driver Albert. Word for word, we got into a conversation, found out common interests, and it turned out that they are rivals in the game. At that time, everything ended happily, those around them separated. However, this did not end there. Arriving home, Andrew called Albert and offered PvP in real life. As a result, Albert died from his injuries on his way to the hospital.
Players of the Albert clan in memory of a friend stopped playing. Players of the Andrey clan remained to celebrate the “victory” on the empty server.
3. There is no death in games
According to Evan Ramsey, the instigator of the shooting school at Bethel in 1997, which killed two people and injured two, he simply did not understand what death was. Indeed, in DOOM, Ramsey's favorite computer game, for a person to die completely, he needs to be shot at least 8-9 times.
It turned out that in real life once is enough. And the DOOM franchise continues to confidently keep its laurels one of the most violent and bloody in the gaming industry.
2. Life is a game
It seems that criminals especially love Grand Theft Auto - it serves them as a source of inspiration. In 2003, Alabama-born Devin Moore was convicted of three murders.
When the police were about to interrogate him in connection with the car theft, Moore killed two policemen and a dispatcher, got into their car and went on the run. True, he managed to escape not far, and after a couple of hours he was detained in the neighboring state.
During his arrest, he said the following words: “Life is a video game. Each of us will someday die. ” What struck me most was that before this, Moore had not shown any tendency to violence; he was even going to enter the US Air Force, and his candidacy was already approved. The offender was sentenced to death, but he appealed, claiming that he had committed crimes under the influence of GTA.
1. The bloody incarnation
Perhaps the most bloody of the 10 crimes motivated by video games was committed by Adam Lansa. On the morning of December 14, 2012, he arrived at Sandy Hook Elementary School, armed to the teeth. He had two pistols, a shotgun and a semi-automatic rifle.
Lenza burst into Sandy Hook Elementary School, a full-time student, and shot at children 5–10 years old, distraught with fear, for 11 minutes. He killed 26 people, 20 children and six teachers, and later shot himself.
Many people blamed Lenza for video games, especially the game with the talking name Kindergarten Killers (the name translates literally as “Killers in Kindergarten”). However, others point out that the dance’s most beloved game was Dance Dance Revolution, which can hardly be called conducive to violence.
