Oslo Terrorist Used Modern Warfare 2 as "Training-Simulation", World of Warcraft as Cover

The accused shooter in yesterday's massacre in Norway has been linked to 1,500 page manifesto that recommends using Call of Duty to train combat skills for an upcoming war with Islam.

Anders Behring Breivik also suggests that an obsession with massively-multiplayer role playing game World of Warcraft, which he was known to play, is a useful cover story to explain the time one is actually spending plotting attacks.

"I just bought Modern Warfare 2, the game," he writes, under "Andrew Berwick" (an Anglicization of his Norwegian name). "It is probably the best military simulator out there and it's one of the hottest games this year. ... I see MW2 more as a part of my training-simulation than anything else. I've still learned to love it though and especially the multiplayer part is amazing. You can more or less completely simulate actual operations."

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In addition to more practical means of gun training, such as visiting firing ranges and countries with relaxed gun laws, Breivik also says that military shooters like Modern Warfare are a way to keep one's skills sharp.

http://kotaku.com/5824147/oslo-terrorist-anders-behring-breivik-used-modern-warfare-2-as-training+simulation-world-of-warcraft-as-cover

His WoW handle Conservativism

That's unfortunately always going to be the so-called "answer" to these problems.

Leading to a horrendously toxic conclusion.

In my view banning the crap hate games would never work. Rather, they must be rejected out of free will because people see the true soul that lives and weaves in all that gaming imagery of death and destruction.

Feed a kid on toxic ideas over and over through the years, and what is he filled with?

to illustrate your post.

Hellfire stunk as a third-party expansion pack in the way only "Let's take a game about demons and make it about aliens while making the graphics suck and replacing the award-winning soundtrack with shitty synthpop instrumentals" could.

or expansion that made me want to go on a spree of real world violence, Hellfire was probably it. (That or Command and Conquer 4.)

Sierra was generally so reliable for making good games that it only fed the fire.

Maybe we could ban crappy video games? ;)

I've heard it sucked though.

Not up on the current state of the industry, are you?

It's a videogame. I played Diablo and Diablo 2 growing up and I'm going to play the 3rd when it comes out. I haven't hurt anyone because of them.

Intellectual laziness in my opinion. There are a thousand reasons why something like this happened, yet the easiest explanation is always to just blame it on video games.

misread

I've read a few dozen arguments now about how Showtime should be forced to pull Dexter off the air because it was Breivik's favorite show and he claimed it was inspiring.

I can't stand the stupid anymore. I think I'll become a hermit.

Some will blame this guy's right wing associations..
Some will blame this guy's religion..
Some will blame this guy's guns..

And some will blame a video game.

My guess is that it's a confluence of proclivities, reinforced in a self-perpetuating cycle (the more radical his ideas / views leads to finding sources, groups, and websites with even more radical ideas, which reinforces the previous ideas which leads to more radical ideas..) leading to this heinous act.

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I'm sure Modern Warfare 2 is a swell game but I don't foresee any armed service substituting gaming for actual training.

...he'd be quickly (and perhaps permanently) disabused of this notion.

But then, as a terrorist"real opposition" isn't what he was looking for.

Will want to pass a Violent Video Game act, that protects people from this sort of thing.. I am sure there are some games already on the "Lets get this banned" list. I think those games allows one to blow off steam... Every time I play a game like that, I always feel a like I have blown off some steam.. but would never occur to me to really go out and do that.. Real Bullets hurt like Hell, I am sure!

it's just as likely to be a liberal who will want to "do it for the children" hell, the SF city council will probably lead the charge.

that credited part of our drop in violent crime to the rise of the internet / video games.

Whether that's because kids / teens / folks aren't out sitting on their stoop or playing together (and therefore more likely to get into confrontations) or because they let people blow off steam-- I don't know, but like you, I suspect it's blowing off steam.

Here's a good read on the subject- http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=WWNKwlY96rEC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=Grand+Theft+Childhood&ots=8Y9F4z-Tbi&sig=HRw7oRrTRgf5GkIP1OXcBu36zN8#v=onepage&q&f=false

IQs drop pretty consistently whenever violent video games come up around here, too.

:sarcasm:

MW2, great for keeping your skills sharp? Puh-fucking-leez.

:eyes:

And the airport was filled with unarmed people.

I'm betting he didn't.

Let's not forget to burn the books in the same fire as the video games.

Because simulation software had been found on terrorist laptops. It was ridiculous that people wanted to eliminate it because it COULD be used as a teaching tool.

that these simulations are realistic enough to be used as real training tools. There is some of the same thing here in this thread. I think that what some folks don't realize is that there are a few video games are designed to be ultra realistic simulations, the physics, the equipment etc.



It is not so much that these games should be banned, just that people are trying to understand how these nutballs operate, prepare, etc.

The only thing they didn't model were security related systems like optional cockpit door cameras. The video is over an hour long, but I thought you could get the idea of the level of realism. http://www.flyaoamedia.com/aoa/nicks-737ngx-cockpit-thoughts/

I only had to watch 4 minutes to see that a ridiculous amount of work has gone into that game. lol.

If they want to make a REALLY realistic flight sim in our Post Bush All Terra All The Time world, they need to put a TSA guy playing with your balls before you ever get a chance to see the plane in there somewhere.

HOLY SHIT!!

Stuff'll irritate any asshole.

Never once did I ever feel like executing or killing people IRL. Blaming this on video games is ignorant and short-sighted. The guy obviously had mental issues.

The video games didn't turn him into a killer. He was already there and he says he used the games for training.