Doom Strikes Back

The distributors of DOOM have asked justice to refute the influence of the game on the Columbine High School shooters. The full story can be found here.

Arlene?

From the four-book DOOM series, I guess.

man, games don't make these freaks kill people, they do it becuase they're just freaks. I mean, some of you have been playing the game since it came out and you are more sane than those who are making the lawsuit...

...right?

Exactly.
*Sigh*
Why is it human nature to look for something to blame when problems happen?

To me the most ridiculous part of this is "The class-action lawsuit seeks $5 billion in punitive damages from 25 entertainment companies." ... This is so typical for America. The problem is false education, not the companies. They could as well accuse Stephen King for writing horror literature.

If they don't do it, can I? =P

It's really sad that money corrupts all those people who have lost children to the maniacs. Instead of working with the game companies to create a solution they want bitter vengeance and, of course, cold hard cash. Uh, I don't think I'd be saying "DUDE GIVE ME MONEY BECAUSE YOUR GAME CAUSED THIS TO HAPPEN" when my son or daughter became a victim of some lunatic who is believed to have some distant connection with a video game.

...is this Arlene bullshit!?

"police found a videotape that shows one of the killers with a sawed-off shotgun he calls ``Arlene'' after a character in ``Doom.''"

I've read that from several articles already, WTF!? These people are full of shit!

Peace&Love,
Sir Robin

Arlene is the female character from the Doom novels.

I have a few comments on this.

#1: Guns and games don't kill people, I do! (crazy laugh)

#2: Parents are the largest influence on a child's life. That, and school. How come everything portrays the killers as completely evil? They were human, too, with likes, hates, hopes and dreams. Don't EVER forget what drove them to this. Sure, they overreacted, but I think that the mental damage done to them before they went on their shooting spree was the equal of the damage they caused. I don't count the number of lives. One death is the same as 10. The bullies killed the kids, and the teachers and parents were accessories to this killing.

#3: Ah, America, the land of the free, where you can sue anyone for incredible amounts of money. Courtrooms are better than vigilante justice, but I think that these lawsuits are getting out of hand.

It's amazing! I'm sure this law suit is the idea was from a greedy lawyer, and not any of the victums' family members.

The REAL target for these killing should be the psychiatrists who put these kids on psycho-tropic drugs. One of the side effects of these drugs is short temperment, with unpredictable violent behavior. (The drugs are dirivitives of cocane - a stimulant. Anyone who takes stimulants - especially over a long period of time - is going to be short tempered & posibly violent.) The game didn't make them violent the drugs the psychiatrists put them on did!

That's who should be targeted for a law suit! Go for the real target not the innocent one.

So let me get this straight... a computer game where you run around killing demonspawn caused two whackos to kill a few classmates... why not just blame the education system and it's teachings of WW2 in history and how evil Hitler was for causing people to become Nazis, you'll get the same effect..

I already wrote something about this over at newdooms forums, but here goes. I think this was all caused by the school authorities and parents turning a blind eye when so called geeks are bullied by the more popular kids. Schools always seem to ignore the victims of bullying and tend to see the victims as the problem, especially if the victim is in any way non-conformist. In a country where guns are easy for almost anyone to buy this is just asking for trouble. I know if I was being victimised by 'jocks' I would be sorely tempted to take the law into my own hands. Here in the UK there has been a rash of suicides by kids who claimed to be bullied at school. In every case the schools deny any bullying took place, I assume this goes on everywhere. I myself was the victim of bullying by a gang of 'popular' kids at primary (kindergarten) school until one day I just snapped and nearly killed one of my tormentors. Up to that point the school always treated me as if I was the problem. In those days if I had access to firearms I would have gladly shot and killed at least four kids at that school (one of them is now a drug dealer and known criminal).

The columbine thing had nothing to do with computer games, it had everything to do with bullying in school and easy access to guns. Im surprised this doesnt happen more often in the USA

This would be laughable if it didnt involve killings.


This kind of shit happens all over the place, especially by the Christian Fundamentalists in America (Pat Sharp et al.)

These people (not all of them, obviously) make similar claims about roleplaying games and similar stuff...

even to the point of saying that Smurfs were "laden with the occult"

hmmm.... anyone here being posessed by Grandpa Smurf? raise hands please.

Damn agreed.

Damn blue of the Doomworld forums reminding me of Grandpa! I'M SEEING SMURFS! I MUST SHOOT PEOPLE NOW!</sarcasm>

The sad pathetic part is, one of the company's is ATARI, for gawd's sake, when did pac-man get involved :)

Could it have something to do with Grandpa smurf being dressed in yellow?
And wasn't Pac-Man a Namco creation, not Atari?

Perhaps, I just meant, "how far back and how far reaching do these guys intend to go?" It's a case of "sue enough, and 1 will cough up some cash just to save court costs"

.meha .hahahahahahawm !em ? yddad rouy s'ohW .aet fo puc ecin a em ekam neht ,sdneirf rouy llik ,ylimaf rouy llik ,llik yas frums apaP

Make your own damn tea! :)

Hasn't Atari been defunct since the 80s?

Atari came back a while ago. Where have you been?

Yes master...

This is just retarded.

Quite frankly, I've seen many other forms of media besides video games that are just as, if not more violent than DooM. What about violence in movies, TV's, and even comic books? What about the millions of other people who play DooM and FPS's that are even more violent such as UT and Soldier of Fortune? If the person has a problem keeping fantasy out of reality, then it is the parent's job to keep them from playing the game, not the game companies responsibility to not make the game. Also, how can everyone keep overlooking the disclamers that the boys at Id put on all their games? This is not intended to promote killing ect...

We very like to shoot a imp in the face ! Whats the problem ? These no problem.
When someone got a gun and fire in a schools, all autorities said : video games are in the action of the one who fired. The problem is this morrons who can relax and think it's just a GAME not the reality. And also, all parents are subject in this case. This are parent problem who can't teach to his child that is a game, don't do that in reality. It's not the game compagnie who need to be accused. It's the parents of the morrons.

I'm not agrre the argument of this site http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010828/us/columbine_violent_media_1.html

Sorry i wanted to said.

I'm not agree with the argument of this site http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010828/us/columbine_violent_media_1.html

"During the investigation into the 1999 Columbine shootings, police found a videotape that shows one of the killers with a sawed-off shotgun he calls 'Arlene' after a character in 'Doom.'"

Yep, blame the game for a character in the 99% unrelated books.

this is complete utter bullshit!!!!! i can't beleive wat the hell is going on here. can anybody tell me why people do this kind of shit?

My message earlier compared primary school in the UK with kindergarten in the USA, my sister (Jugs) informs me thats wrong, primary school is for 5 to 11-y-o, I was 11-y-o when the bullying ended by violence.

Sorry about that, just incase you pictured violent 4-y-o.