Excerpted from my book The Minds of Mass Killers: Understanding and Interrupting The Pathway to Violence (McFarland, 2021).
Mass killings have been blamed on violent video games since the Columbine murders in 1999. The idea is a simple one: ban violent video games and mass killings will stop. First-person shooter games in particular have been condemned.
Though there is sometimes a relationship between video gameplay and real-world violence, it’s clearly not that simple.
Analyzing this research is complicated and has not been without controversy. Violent video games are universally popular, and gamers are understandably quick to become defensive at allegations their hobby could cause them to become real-world killers.
Gaming is far more significant than Hollywood as a cultural influencer and moneymaker these days. Forty-three percent of all U.S. adults play video games “often or sometimes.” Video game sales statistics show that electronic gaming industry revenue dwarfs all other entertainment industries combined. Global film box office revenue in 2018 amounted to $41.7 billion, while the gaming market generated $151.2 billion. Despite the stereotype that most gamers are adolescents, the average age of a gamer is now 35.
Enthusiasm for gaming is not limited to the United States. In many countries of the world, video games are considered a major social activity. South Korea, Japan, the U.K., Italy, Germany, Canada, and others are examples of countries where gaming is a common cultural pastime — yet they have dramatically lower incidents of violence than the United States, and mass shootings have never occurred in most of them.
Ninety-seven percent of youths aged 12–17 play video games. While many mass killers have been avid players of violent video games, so are most young men worldwide. Women are also gamers, making up 46% of all players, though they are less likely to play violent first-person shooter games; seventy-eight percent of women play nonviolent games on their smartphones.
A false dichotomy has been presented: either violent video games are causing mass shootings, or they have no relevancy whatsoever. Getting to the truth isn’t quite that simple, and neither of these extremes captures what’s happening.
If there were a direct cause-effect process between video games and mass killings, we would see two things: far more mass killings, as well as mass shootings in countries like South Korea, Canada, and Japan. This is not the case. In fact, as gaming has ascended in popularity since the 1990s, overall rates of violent crime have gone down. However, this does not mean there is no relevancy whatsoever.
There are particular concerns about children and violent media. While most children are likely impacted in some way, violent media does not affect all children in the same way. Children, just like adults, have many different personalities, strengths, and vulnerabilities.
The American Psychological Association cites decades of research that indicates that exposing children to a violent media clip increases their odds of aggression soon after. Major findings were:
Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others.
Children may be more fearful of the world around them.
Children may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others.
These effects are most potent when children are younger, the violence is realistic, or the violence is presented as heroic.
Childhood exposure to media violence predicts higher aggression levels in young adults; however, this does not translate to criminal violence. While this is both consequential and concerning, it is far from indicating a direct cause-effect relationship between violent media and mass killings. A case cannot be realistically made that playing violent video games turns ordinary young people into mass murderers.
What has created confusion in the research on violent video games and their relationship to violent behavior has to do with the fact that research samples have been drawn from youthful gamers in the general population. Mass killers are not like other gamers; they represent a specific subset of gamers who have particular psychological vulnerabilities that cause them to be more dramatically impacted by violent games than their peers. Players are not all blank slates who respond in the same ways to video games. Some may play to ruminate in gory violence that feeds their sadistic fantasies; others may use the game to reduce stress by engaging in the strategy of the game. Players experience games in qualitatively different ways, and multiple variables come into play.
We now see that violent video games have more substantial effects on kids already prone to violence. For them, violent media serves to normalize their aggressive impulses and can stoke their rage. Those individuals do experience a reduction in empathy from exposure to violent media and are more apt to see violence as an acceptable solution to problems.
Violent video games may have a more substantial impact than violent books or films since they offer the player agency. He is not just watching or reading a story; he becomes an actor in the story and helps determine the outcome. The player decides who lives and who dies. This sense of power can be particularly seductive to someone who feels powerless in real life.
It has also been observed that mass killers use games in different ways than regular players. Many have been obsessive players. The Norwegian killer acknowledged that at age 27, he spent one year playing World of Warcraft up to 16 hours a day from his bedroom at his mother’s residence.[x] The Newtown killer spent nearly all waking hours isolated in his darkened bedroom, either gaming or researching mass killers. The Isla Vista killer had played games obsessively since early childhood, and it was a frequent source of conflict with his parents.
And then there’s Parkland.
“Die, die, die,” the Parkland school shooter wrote in a story in his middle school English class. His explanation: It was a line from his Call of Duty warfare video game booklet. Teachers were concerned that at age 12, he was spending as much as 15 hours a day playing the violent first-person shooter game. Neighbors reported that his mother struggled to limit his playing time, believing it amplified his anger problems.
It’s not just the games; it’s the way certain players interact with certain games.
Some experiments have indicated that people become more prosocial and helpful when playing a prosocial video game and more aggressive after playing a violent game. Players of prosocial games were more likely to deescalate situations when another person was being harassed. Players of prosocial games were found to be less violent overall than those who played violent games. It’s speculated that playing prosocial games affects social cognition by influencing players’ emotions and thoughts positively.
Rehearsal
Some mass killers have openly acknowledged that they used combat video games as a strategic rehearsal for their attacks. The Aurora theater shooter admitted that he applied military strategies he practiced in video games during his preparation for the killings.
The Norwegian killer has described how he trained for the mass shooting by playing the computer game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, a popular combat first-person-shooter game banned in Germany.
“You develop target acquisition,” he said. In Call of Duty, he practiced shooting with a holographic aiming device used by militaries for training. “It consists of many hundreds of different tasks, and some of these tasks can be compared with an attack, for real. That’s why it’s used by armies around the world. It’s very good for acquiring experience related to sights systems.” He would use a similar holographic aiming device when he murdered 77, mostly schoolchildren.
Another critical concern long noted by therapists is the tendency for people to become so obsessed with video gaming that they stop engaging in or fail to start other everyday activities necessary for healthy development. People immersed in a virtual world while staring at a screen for hours are not moving their bodies, spending time outdoors, reading, exploring their creativity, or developing other hobbies and interests. They stop having conversations and developing relationships with those they meet in their daily lives, which can inhibit the development of necessary competencies and skills.
Excessive gaming limits healthy development in myriad ways and changes the trajectory of an individual’s development. Life becomes narrow and constrained to an online world that is controlled by a manipulative system of rewards. Obsessive gaming can keep people from meeting their potential, as they develop a sense of self-worth that is entirely dependent upon their identity in the virtual world.
Mods
“Mods” is the short term for modifications, which means that some games allow players to change and customize aspects of the games themselves. Game modification can enable players to create virtual environments which mirror specific locations and interests.
Much has been speculated about the Columbine killer’s fascination with and dedication to the video game Doom. They played obsessively and made custom modifications to the game that suited their homicidal interests. Perhaps of most relevance, they created a mod of their high school, allowing them to rehearse their murder spree. Once again, they displayed leakage of what would come.
In this way, violent games may serve to function as murder simulators for a small subset of gamers.
Gamification and the scoreboard effect
Scores matter to mass killers. High scores bring status.
Many have noted a process of “gamification” occurring in online imageboards as people compare the “kill scores” of various mass killers, glorifying those with high scores and mocking those who don’t. Would-be killers engage in one-upmanship and ego-boosting fantasies of outdoing one another. Mass killers are playing a game to win, and some make detailed posts about the best ways to stage a mass shooting, strategizing about ways to maximize their kill scores.
Mass killers target school children or church groups because they realize their odds of killing many are increased with easy targets.
By emphasizing the number killed in each event, the news media unwittingly contribute to the scoreboard effect.
Masculine domination
Violent video games focus on masculine domination themes through violence and provide the opportunity to “be someone.” They can feed the narcissistic tendencies of certain vulnerable players who are more apt to become addicted. For those who play obsessively, gameplay displaces healthy social activities, reducing real-life competencies in the non-virtual world.
Some games have been specifically designed to promote racial extremism and sexual violence. In one game, the player’s goal is to stalk and then rape a mother and her two daughters. The game was banned in Australia, the U.K., and Japan after public campaigns against it. It was subsequently withdrawn from the market. Battle Raper and Ethnic Cleansing have similarly horrifying themes. There is even a Super Columbine Massacre game in which the player is in the killer’s role.
While none of this may be healthy for society, it’s only one piece of what’s going on. Though it might be comforting to say there is a direct cause-effect relationship between video games and mass killings, it’s not that simple.
The Minds of Mass Killers: Understanding and Interrupting the Pathway to Violence