Murder Simulators: Difference between revisions

 

See also: [[Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000]]; [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]; [[Hitler Ate Sugar]]; [[Comics Code]]. Often overlaps with [[Cowboy Bebop at His Computer]]. [[Moral Guardians]] are normally the invoker of this trope.

 

* There have been multiple instances where people have been discovered to be in possession of their own ''[[Death Note]]''. They were black books that said Death Note on the front, and had names of people written in them, as if the owner wished death upon them. Of course, that'd look like good reason to question the sanity college students who are so influenced by a work of fiction that they wish to kill a bunch of people.

 

* In 1982, a man murdered an elderly couple with the media claiming the film ''[[Halloween (film)|Halloween]] II'' inspired the killing. The guy did watch the movie, but the reason he committed the murder probably had more to do with the fact that he was shitfaced from a combination of booze, weed and PCP at the time of the killings.

* The British papers blamed the shocking murder of Jamie Bulger on ''[[Child's Play (film)|Childs Play]] 3''. It was later established neither of the boys responsible had ever watched it.

* John Hinkley, the guy who shot [[Ronald Reagan]], was obsessed with ''[[Taxi Driver]]'' (specifically [[Jodie Foster]]) and the assassination attempt was a re-enactment of a scene in the movie. It should be noted that Hinkley was completely batshit insane, and the scene in question didn't involve {{spoiler|Travis Bickle}} actually shooting his target.

 

* Both John Hinkley Jr. and Mark David Chapman were fans of ''[[The Catcher in The Rye]]'', and it probably doesn't help that Holden Caulfield refers to having a "people shooting hat". Though in Salinger's defense, the people shooting hat was a one time joke.

* While not necessarily blame, the reason the terrorist Ilych Ramirez Sanchez is known as "Carlos the Jackal" is because a copy of ''The Day of the Jackal'' was found in the apartment of one of his girlfriends, leading to the press creating a story that he was a fan of the book.

** Made even worse by the fact that [[J. K. Rowling]] is a... practicing Christian.

 

* A few years ago there was a long article in a Dutch TV guide on this subject regarding TV violence which demonstrated an infuriating variation of this trope. Although they did acknowledge a lot of research that showed that violent imagery on the TV had an influence on kids' behavior, they still tried downplay the influence of TV violence at the end of the article and pointed the finger at other forms of media (mostly games).

* Alan Titchmarsh's show on [[ITV]] once ran a "debate" on video game violence. It started off with the games representative being outnumbered 2 to 1 and went steadily downhill from there. Highlight include Titchmarsh not knowing that there was, in fact, a ratings system for games, and the crowd booing when it was pointed out that violence is also present in films. Watch the madness [http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2010/03/20/alan-titchmarsh-vs-cvg/ here] (preferably [[Head Desk|on a cheap monitor]]).

* ''[[Penn and Teller Bullshit]]'' [[Deconstructed Trope|deconstructed]] this in the Video Games episode. To counter the claim that violent games desensitize children to violence and that realistic games teach children how to use weapons, they test it by giving a nine year old boy who plays violent games very frequently an AR-15 at a shooting range. He holds the gun incorrectly, misses the (oversized) target, isn't prepared for the recoil, doesn't want to shoot more afterward when asked, and cries from the experience.

 

* A couple of kids killed themselves back in the '80s, and their parents accused [[Judas Priest]] of putting subliminal messages in "Better By You, Better Than Me" to "do it" (the "it" presumably being "kill yourselves"). They responded by denying any messages of the sort, since killing your audience is counterproductive, and if they had the idea, the message they would have preferred was, "Buy more of our records." Bill Hicks skewered this claim in one of his albums. It boils down to "What kind of idiotic band actually wants to kill off their audience? Too much money, drugs, sex, and fame?"

** The same album had a song ''about suicide'' called "Beyond the Realms of Death" but the controversy completely ignored it.

* [[Marilyn Manson]] was a target for [[Moral Guardians]] after the Columbine shooting.

 

* [[Socrates]] was sentenced to death for "corrupting the youth of Athens" in 399 BCE, making this [[Older Than Feudalism]]. Although if Jack Thompson and his ilk heard video game people comparing themselves to Socrates they'd probably have an apoplectic fit. Which may be a very good reason to do it as often as possible.

* Like Socrates, Nietzsche has received his share of blame, notably for motivating Leopold, Loeb, Pekka-Eric Auvinen and [[Godwin's Law|Adolf Hitler]]. This is so pervasive that fictional villains who draw inspiration from [[The Theme Park Version]] of Nietzsche's philosophy have [[Nietzsche Wannabe|their own Trope]].

** Aaaaand history repeats yet again when Tokyo's governor Ishihara vehemently demands a ban on manga, anime and games that show even remotely themes nonsuitable for children (i.e. all rated PEGI 12 and higher) because they "erode our children". Notable especially when Ishihara himself wrote books about school girls getting raped, but of course non-visual literature and live action movies are not in his program to be banned.

 

* [[Marilyn Manson]], ''[[South Park]]'', and ''[[Doom]]'' were all blamed for the [[Columbine]] shootings.

** ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' was also blamed by one group. Why? Because of the Sector 1 bombing mission at the beginning of the game. Yeah.

** He also mentioned [[WoW]] in his infamous manifesto. What he essentially wrote was that MMO games such as the aforementioned were good scapegoats to pick if family or friends happened to ask why he was spending so much time in isolation (in reality used to plan his deeds) due to the social stigma around them for being time-consuming and socially isolating, so no one would question the response. When media picked up on this, the words were often twisted and misquoted as Breivik using WoW as a murder simulator for practice (possibly in part because of his own invocation of the trope on ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2''). One of the effects of this was for a Norweigan store chain to immedeately stop sales of violent video games as well as gun-like toys.

 

* [[Dungeons and Dragons]] and other [[Tabletop Games|Tabletop RPGs]] have been blamed for a variety of things, including [http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp suicide, murder, and devil worship].

* This belief had become so widespread that at a certain point, [[Wizards of the Coast]] had one of their employees go around explaining patiently to people that getting your customers to kill themselves is not a good business model -- [[Mind Screw|this appeal to greed being the easiest way to convince people that they were not in fact evil.]]

* Four Brazilian murders accused of being RPG-related (it was mostly unrelated) have have tarnished said genre's reputation there.

 

* ''[[Deus Ex]]''. Warren Spector was asked by a mainstream media member at [[E 3]] about ''Deus Ex'' being a "murder simulator". Spector reacted in [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|the coolest way possible]]: by taking the question seriously and telling the reporter in strict technical terms that while some puzzles in the game could be solved by neutralizing the threat, other pathways could be utilized by selecting alternate routes such as verbal deception, evasion, and so forth. While directly answering the reporter's question, he made the interview unusable while simultaneously making the reporter look like an idiot out of his depth.

* Killology is the study on how real life tactics and common sense in video games can be translated in real life. The man behind it, Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, taught killing to Green Berets, so one would think he would know his stuff. It was a big enough concern to be raised in the making of Rainbow Six, whether the games are likely to teach terrorists anything.

* Andrew Schlafly of [[Conservapedia]] has a love of [[Insane Troll Logic]] and a hatred of video games and will invariably take advantage of the most tenuous connection to link any news story involving violence or misadventure to gaming. Highlights include the event of an apparently healthy college football star dying suddenly due to what turned out to be an undiagnosed heart condition; articles mentioned he had last been seen playing a video game, so Andy [http://www.conservapedia.com/index.phptitle=Template%3AMainpageright&action=historysubmit&diff=939108&oldid=939064 felt free to speculate] that the game was somehow responsible. He also announced that Kim Jong-un and the perpetrator of the Norway summer camp shooting were video game fans, as if this explained everything that was wrong with them, and managed to interpret a story about a boy accidentally shooting his younger brother to death because of an argument over a video game as being about the dangers of games rather than the dangers of leaving guns where your children can get them.

 

* Lampshaded and subverted in ''[[Durarara]]''. Two torture technicians are about to torture someone using methods inspired by manga. They reference the idea that partaking too much of a medium can make you violent/detached from reality, but then say essentially that the manga isn't to blame- that's just the way they are.

 

* Parodied in a panel of ''The [[Cartoon History of the Universe]]'' set in ancient times, in which a child playing chess triumphantly captures a rook. His mother laments, "These action games are ruining our youth!"

 

* ''[[Untraceable]]'', among many others, portrays [[The Internet]] as this trope. See also [[Murder.Com]] and [[Snuff Film]].

* Mentioned a few times in the ''[[Scream (film)|Scream]]'' series. Considering that the director, [[Wes Craven]], is a man who made his name with [[A Nightmare on Elm Street|violent]] [[The Last House on the Left|horror]] [[The Hills Have Eyes|movies]], it's hard not to see this as [[Take That|his response]] to [[You Can Panic Now|fear-mongering]] [[Moral Guardians]].

* Briefly appears in the [[Rutger Hauer]] vehicle ''Redline'', when a minor character is seen playing one of these in [[virtual Reality]], mowing down bodyguards in a mansion. A short while afterward, the game has him chasing a screaming woman through the same mansion, implying that murder isn't the only thing being simulated.

 

* In ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'', Dorian accuses Lord Henry of being responsible for his corruption through giving him the "Yellow Book". Lord Henry (and through him Oscar Wilde himself) scoffs at this idea, saying that books don't make anyone behave a certain way- they inspire inaction if anything- and can't be blamed for conduct.

 

* Lynda la Plant's drama ''Killer Net'', centred around a murder simulator of the same name. The game was divided into 'stalking', 'execution', 'disposal' and 'evasion'. One of the victim characters of the game, Lybra (Read: [[Character Creation]]) unknowingly to the three players worked very similarly to a [[Death Note]], the twist: {{spoiler|The character entered as Lybra was murdered before the [[Death Note]] mechanics of the game could take effect.}}

* Parodied in ''[[A Bit of Fry and Laurie]]'' when [[Stephen Fry]] explained that people had been encouraged to copy him when he punched [[Hugh Laurie]] on screen ... by specifically punching [[Hugh Laurie]] in public. Many incidents then followed when Stephen found excuses to give Hugh money instead.

* In an episode of ''[[Dexter]]'' the forensic intern who is also a video game developer excitedly shows Dexter a game he is working on, a literal murder simulator where you can play as Jack The Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer or the Bay Harbor Butcher (Dexter). Dexter (a serial killer) is offended someone would design such a game.

 

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]: Sons of Liberty'' plays this completely straight by involving the [[Player Character]] in the "S3 Plan", or "Solid Snake Simulator." Raiden is being made unwittingly by the [[Ancient Society]] known as the Patriots to shoot and kill actual soldiers in the hopes that he will evolve into some sort of [[One-Man Army]]. (At least, if you believe the character who tells you this. Maybe you should not; he the [[Trope Namer]] for [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]], he can't seem to decide if Raiden was in the simulation or [[No Fourth Wall|the player]] was, and this is a game where [[Mind Screw|Mind Screws]] happen every five minutes.)

** Actually, that's barely even half of it: Turns out that, in addition to using Raiden to kill actual soldiers in the hopes of his evolving into the next Solid Snake, they also used him in an attempt to control humanity's willpower and manipulate memories into their own image, among other things.

* [[Postal]] 2 parodies this by featuring protesters picketing Running With Scissors (the game's creators) in protest of violence in video games. Ironically, upon the player picking up his paycheck and getting fired from RWS, said protesters storm in with guns to ''kill everyone inside'', the player included.

 

* Obligatory ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' example, when they mocked this trope back in the "play violent games and you're a criminal" days. Tycho and Gabe are waiting at a line, when Tycho, sick of waiting, shouts [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|"I play violent video games! I could snap any minute!"]]... only to make fun of the clerk hiding behind the counter immediately afterwards.

{{quote|'''Tycho:''' ''[[Magnificent Bastard|"My bad!]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|This isn't even my line!"]]''}}

 

* And of course the new game featured from ''[[The Onion]]'': Close Range. A game consisting solely of shooting people in the face at close range. Video report on [[YouTube]].

** Parodied again in The Onion News Network with a "preview" of ''[[Modern Warfare]] 3'', which shows a "realistic" portrayal of war: asinine conversations with fellow soldiers, guard duty over empty warehouses, following inaccurate and contradictory orders, and repairing Hummvees for 12 hours a day.

 

* Parodied in an episode of ''[[King of the Hill]]'' when two game developers introduce the ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' clone ''Pro-Pain'' as a [[Take That]] to Hank Hill. Hank and Buck Strickland soon take up the role of indignant [[Moral Guardians]] and Hank is soon tasked with finding copyright infringement in the game in order to take them to court; the whole Moral Guardian plot is then thoroughly [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] and then turns into [[An Aesop]] about game addiction.

** Interestingly, Hank begins to enjoy the game when he tries to ''avoid'' killing anyone or causing damage, just like [[Real Life]] pacifist runs and the [[Deus Ex]] example above.