Last night, we reported that Daniel Petric, the teenager who shot his parents after being banned from Halo 3, had been found guilty with no links made to his videogame obsession. While yesterday the judge was praised for being smart enough not to fall for the videogame defense, it turns out that he might not have been so clever after all.
In fact, Judge James Burge has actually been dismayingly critical about videogames, quite happily blaming them for having a major influence on the mindset of Petric, who killed his mother and left his father wounded. His comments are somewhat unsettling when contrasted with the original belief that he did not find games responsible for this rather horrible crime.
"This Court's opinion is that we don't know enough about these video games," stated Burge, at least admitting his ignorance. "In this particular case, not so much the violence of the game because I believe in the Halo 3, what it amounts to is a contest to see who can shoot the most aliens who attack.
"It's my firm belief that after a while the same physiological responses occur that occur in the ingestion of some drugs. And I believe that an addiction to these games can do the same thing. The dopamine surge, the stimulation of the nucleus accumbens - the same as an addiction. Such that when you stop, your brain won't stand for it.
"The other dangerous thing about these games, in my opinion, is that when these changes occur, they occur in an environment that is delusional," he continued. "Because you can shoot these aliens, and they're there again the next day. You have to shoot them again. And I firmly believe that Daniel Petric had no idea, at the time he hatched this plot, that if he killed his parents, they would be dead forever."
For someone who admits he doesn't know about videogames, Judge Burge certainly seems quite sure that they are just like drugs and allowed Petric to become detached from reality. Not really the way he came across yesterday, which is a real shame indeed. It seems that Petric is destined to go down in history as yet more tenuous "proof" that videogames turn people into murderers.
Contest:
6:30 PM on 01.13.2009
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The Halo 3.
No, seriously, WAT.
Games are not drugs... if they were then we would see a lot more people killing their parents.
Check out the A&E show "Intervention" when they had an intervention for a video game player.
In all fairness I think that video games could induce someone to violence-- BUT only if it was a Brave New World situation where they were put in a sensory deprivation chamber and forced to do nothing but play 'The Halo 3' for days on end.
It's very similar to the "food item x causes cancer" cliche, where there's always some truth to it but they don't tell you that they've bathed the rats in fifty billion tons of aspartame. Yes, any absurdly, insanely large amount of anything, be it Halo or Diet Pepsi, can be detrimental to your health in various ways. Holy freakin' crap. It's not like commons sense every would have dictated that or anything.
Just think of how even our parents, let alone grandparents, often struggle with new technology and concepts with computers and the like. Meanwhile, our younger siblings sometimes outstrip us.
Its sad, but its not gonna last forever.
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Ok really, how delusional would you have to be to not understand if you shot your parents they would cease to exist the following day? And how could such an extreme level of delusion be caused by a videogame?
Also, the cocks.
Really? Really?!
Damn, well I've been playing THE Lego Indiana Jones for the past week, you mean if I punch someone their limbs won't fall off comically and then come back together again? And I won't find gold in smashed vegetation either?
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HAHAHA... Be quiet, granddad.
It's scary that this guy is responsible for deciding people's fats.
lol wut
Then in my intoxicated state I couldn't subdue my blood lust and shot my neighbor, figuring he'd respawn the next day. I was sadly mistaken. :C
I'm a game addict and am REALLY stupid like that.
Apparently, while Capital Punishment is "cruel and unusual" by lethal injection, beating a kid with a belt across the back is considered acceptable forms of "Corporal Punishment" to this judge.
http://pattiewald.blogspot.com/2007/08/judge-and-belt.html
There are a great deal of articles dealing with lethal injection and this murder case, but if anyone else can find some articles on this judge's other decisions, I'd like to see them. Thanks.
However, the last comment on that blog makes sense. The person pictured does not look like an eight year old. When I first read the story I had to look twice just to make sure I read eight and not eighteen.