In the wake of the recent shooting rampage in South Germany, there have been calls to raise the age rating of World of Warcraft, a game known for its extreme promotion of gun crime and simulation of school shootings. Restricting the sale of a fantasy MMO will definitely stop people from wanting to put bullets in children. Obviously.
“Parents must know what danger potential exists in their children’s bedrooms,” claims German politician Mechthild Ross-Luttmann, who seems to believe that twelve-year-olds are too young to be playing WoW, and that banning them from the role-player will stop crime because of reasons.
Author Andreas Rosenfelder contests this amazing kneejerk reaction: “I don’t see a connection between digital role playing games like World of Warcraft and shooting sprees. In heated debates there can easily be some confusion.”
Of course, Herr Rosenfelder is being far too reasonable to see the excellent logic at work. Everybody knows that banning or restricting something completely unrelated to a certain crime will make sure that crime never happens again. Even a lamb knows that. The connection is there, if you simply close your eyes and imagine real, real hard.
