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There is some basis in reality, however. People who play violent games for a long period of time can be desensitized to committing violence, making them more likely to commit murders or hurt others. However, a) this effect only occurs with those who were already inclined to commit violence, and b) ''any'' violent media (or even a real life event) can cause this, especially when the consequences of the violence aren't dwelt upon. To place the blame entirely on video games means ignoring the effects of violent TV, movies... and of course, real life violence, which is often [[If It Bleeds, It Leads|a fixture of the nightly news]].
 
See also: [[Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000]]; [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]; [[Hitler Ate Sugar]]; [[Comics Code]]. Often overlaps with [[Cowboy Bebop Atat His Computer]]. [[Moral Guardians]] are normally the invoker of this trope.
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=== Real Examples: ===
 
== Anime and Manga ==
* There have been multiple instances where people have been discovered to be in possession of their own ''[[Death Note (Manga)|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.
 
 
== Film ==
* In 1982, a man murdered an elderly couple with the media claiming the film ''[[Halloween (Filmfilm)|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 ''[[ChildsChild's Play (Filmfilm)|Childs Play]] 3''. It was later established neither of the boys responsible had ever watched it.
* [[wikipedia:Tsutomu Miyazaki|The Otaku Murderer]], who caused a moral panic against the Otaku subculture. Experts believe the fact that he ''[[Ax Crazy|believed he was a fucking rat]]'' had more to do with 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.
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== Literature ==
* Both John Hinkley Jr. and Mark David Chapman were fans of ''[[The Catcher in The Rye (Literature)|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.
* [[Harry Potter]] being accused of getting kids to become Wiccans or Satanists might qualify, especially since the quotes used to back-up this accusation came from ''[[The Onion]]''.
** Made even worse by the fact that [[JKJ. K. Rowling]] is a... practicing Christian.
 
== Live Action TV ==
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== Music ==
* A couple of kids killed themselves back in the '80s, and their parents accused [[Judas Priest (Music)|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.
*** Even more bizarrely, the song they targeted was a cover of a Spooky Tooth song, so the band being sued didn't even write it in the first place.
** [[Ozzy Osbourne (Music)|Ozzy Osbourne]] was the defendant in a similar lawsuit around the same time, which was dismissed for pretty much the same reasons. His case was helped by the fact that, despite the song in question ("Suicide Solution") having a title that seemingly encouraged suicide, the lyrics were rather blatantly about the dangers of alcohol abuse.
* Rap music has been a popular scapegoat for almost 20 years. The media frenzy died down around the mid 90's, then in '99, [[Eminem]] made his debut and the controversy went right back into full swing. It seemed that people stopped caring when it was black youths listening to black musicians advocating sex, drugs, and murder; but a ''white'' musician saying these things to ''white'' youths?
* Serial killer Richard Ramirez was a fan of [[ACDC (Music)|AC/DC]], particularly the song "Night Prowler" (his nickname was "Night Stalker"). This brought some bad publicity for the band (the title of that song's album, ''Highway to Hell'', didn't help matters).
* The song "Bodies" by Drowning Pool took the blame for the Arizona Shooting.
* [[Marilyn Manson]] was a target for [[Moral Guardians]] after the Columbine shooting.
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* Japan isn't immune from such things either. While the assumptions have lightened up, otaku ("obsessive" fans of various things; geeks or nerds) have been denoted as perverted men who [[Hikikomori|hole themselves up in their homes]] and do nothing but chat online. They apparently will attack young girls or stalk them. This stereotype/assumption was because of a [[Serial Killer]]/rapist was shown to have many horror films as well as various anime of questionable content. The media, of course, led to the conclusion all "otaku" are dangerous.
** Two words: [[wikipedia:Tsutomu Miyazaki|Tsutomu Miyazaki]]. When police found the serial killer's apartment filled with [[Lolicon]] manga and [[Gorn]] videos, a massive backlash against anime and manga ensued. (This, combined with a string of expensive theatrical flops, was directly responsible for the end of anime's golden age in the '80s).
*** All was not lost though, far from it : according to [[The Other Wiki]], thanks to this controversy, the Galge industry, in order to survive, [[wikipedia:Galge#1990s|created the Sofu-Rin organisation]], setting industry guidelines concerning acceptable contents ; this move would be a vital key in the [[Romance Game]] boom of [[The Nineties]], and got us gems such as the ''[[Tokimeki Memorial]]'' and ''[[Sakura Taisen]]'' series, and later ''[[Kanon (Visual Novel)|Kanon]]'' and ''[[Clannad (Visual Novel)|Clannad]]'' among others.
** Another anti-manga scare ensued in 1995, when the Aum Shinrikyo cult launched a terror attack on the Tokyo subway; they used manga as a promotional tool, their leader directly lifted some of his theology from '70s anime, and many of their recruits were disaffected [[Otaku]].
*** [http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-9802/msg00101.html Reportedly], the Aum Shinrikyo incident had eerie similarities to plot elements in the first draft of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', forcing rewrites to avoid controversy. Of course, ''Evangelion'' attracted plenty of controversial anyway...
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* There also needs to be some mention of the belief of some Christians that ''[[Harry Potter]]'' and ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' can teach people magic, despite the fact that neither source gives instructions and being capable of using these spells would require the ability to rewrite the laws of physics. [http://www.theescapist.com/spells/ As tested here].
* Similar to the Jim Adkisson example above, the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and several others in a Tuscon, Arizona supermarket was blamed on the violent rhetoric coming from radio and TV talk show hosts and pundits like [[Rush Limbaugh]] and [[Glenn Beck]]. Singled out for scrutiny was [http://thefastertimes.com/nonsensenews/files/2011/01/24972_382925783587_24718773587_3655178_2736968_n.jpg an election map] created by [[Sarah Palin]] in which twenty Democratic-held seats (Giffords' among them) [[Harsher in Hindsight|were marked with crosshairs, indicating "targets" for Republican candidates]].
* [[Gunman Withwith Three Names|Anders Behring Breivik]], the man responsible for the Utøya summer camp massacre and Oslo bombing in Norway, [[Invoked Trope]] this trope by claiming that he had used ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2'' as a "training simulator", causing [[Moral Guardians|the usual suspects]] to come out of the woodwork.<ref>Never mind the fact that ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2'', being an arcade-y, over-the-top war fantasy, can't teach you much even about how to handle a gun, to say nothing of [[Hollywood Tactics|proper tactics]].</ref> Presumably, this was an attempt to deflect blame from the fact that he was a political extremist who targeted the camp (which was affiliated with Norway's Labour Party) because he viewed it as an indoctrination center, and that if this became the dominant story, his cause would be stigmatized and marginalized through association with his actions. In any event, it seems to have failed, with most discussion of the massacre revolving around his political and religious views.
** 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.
 
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* [[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.]]
* A murder that happened in Sweden several years ago was touted on headlines to have been a ritual sacrifice, the 'vampire murder', because the victim played ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade (Tabletop Game)|Vampire: The Masquerade]]''. It later turned out it had nothing to do with that... although they didn't exactly put their correction on the headlines, no.
** There was one in America that turned out to be true.
* Four Brazilian murders accused of being RPG-related (it was mostly unrelated) have have tarnished said genre's reputation there.
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== Video Games ==
* ''[[Deus Ex (Video Game)|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.
** Army tactical manuals are still freely available on the Army web site, of course...
** His concern was desensitizing children to killing and violence, and that video games can teach a child how to handle weapons and use tactics properly.<ref>Which one would have thought a military officer would favour.</ref> However, video games often eschew realism for fun, and as such, most kids would wind up shooting themselves in the face or wondering why the gun isn't firing due to copying... say, Halo's reload animation. Or try and fail to find the circle button.
** Some of Grossman's claims have been refuted by the U.S. Military itself, such as his claim that ''[[Doom]]'' is used to desensitize Marines to the act of killing (the marines use a special software program to teach hand-eye coordination, but that's it). Another red flag is that many of the studies Lt. Col. Grossman cites to back up his arguments in turn cite ''Grossman himself'' as their primary source.
* ''[[Halo]]'' was blamed for the Beltway Sniper attacks because an Xbox and the game were found in the possession of the guilty parties. In fact, this happens to any game with guns in it if it's found in the possession of a murderer. [[Cowboy Bebop Atat His Computer|Don't count on the media getting the name right]] if it's not [[Halo]], ''[[Counter-Strike (Video Game)|Counter-Strike]]'' or [[Grand Theft Auto]], though. Not to mention the fact that millions of people own such games without feeling the need to kill people.
* The murder of a taxi driver in Thailand was blamed on ''[[Grand Theft Auto]] 4'', with the murderer confessing that he plays the game.
** A couple of teens threw a bunch of Molotov cocktails and went on record saying ''[[Grand Theft Auto]] IV'' taught them how to make them. While there are Molotov cocktails in the game, there are no such instructions in-game.
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** There was an unfortunate case in Cleveland where the victim's father kept insisting on blaming ''[[Grand Theft Auto]] 3'' for his daughter's murder (The murderer was living with them at the time), trying to get it pulled from area stores. [[Even Evil Has Standards|The murderer went out of his way to insist that the game had nothing to do with the crime]].
* In Germany, there was a case when two young boys ran amok and killed a woman. Guess who they blamed for this? ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', out of all things! Just because these two boys have been watching "[[Advent Children]]" the day before... Well, then again, the rumor that [[Final Fantasy]] was the "true culprit" was made up by the "Bild", a newspaper known for dropping the readers' IQ below 0. Still, many people believed it and insisted that FFVII was a "Killer game" and should be forbidden... see [[Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch]].
** As recent as January 2011, German news sites used screenshots of ''[[Counter-Strike (Video Game)|Counter-Strike]]'' as illustrations for articles related to video games and violence. It once became the archetypal murder simulator to german media and apparently is keeping that position for good. (Counterstrike is a 12 year old mod for a game released in 1998. Chances are good you were too young back then to remember it. Or not born yet.)
* There was another case in Germany where a guy stomped a homeless man to death. His attorney and the media tried to pin the blame for this on one of the ''Smackdown vs. Raw'' games, because he was allegedly frustrated that he was unable to beat his pal in the game and thus wanted to "win" the game in real life, using moves he learned from the game. Such as: Jumping on the head of somebody who's lying down on the street, because a game has to teach humans how to pull off that one...
* The Illusion games ''Rapelay'', ''[[Battle Raper]]'', and ''Biko'', all of which involve the player raping women at some point, though it is somewhat optional in the Biko games. They're frequently brought up on message boards and occasionally in media as being "rape simulators" that encourage young men (but never women) to rape people. It is always overlooked, however, that they're ero-games and not meant for minors at all, and are illegal for minors to buy in any case.
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* In 2004 a 14 year old boy was murdered by his 18 year old friend (apparently over some drug related debts), the blame was placed on Manhunt by the tabloids because it was allegedly found in the possession of the killer. [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/new-twist-to-manhunt-murder-allegations Cue the police pointing out that it was actually found to be in the possession of the victim.]
* After the Virginia Tech massacre mentioned above, pundits were falling all over each other to blame video games for the shooting spree ([[National Stereotypes|the fact that the shooter was a Korean college student probably contributed]]). Lo and behold, warrant searches of his house discovered no video games of any kind and his roommates did not recall ever seeing him play one. A little further research determined that the shooter was an unmedicated schizophrenic. Note that those same talking heads were not rushing back to correct themselves. [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18220228/page/2/ At least some media members recognized the scapegoating.]
* Parodied in "[[I'm OK (Video Game)|I'm OK]]", an entry to Jack Thompson's infamous challenge to make a game where the leaders of the gaming industry are killed by the player. The father of a murdered 14-year-old says that [[Captain Ersatz|Jack Offson]]'s claim that video games caused his son's death is preposterous, and that his son wanted to be a video game designer; however, when Offson tells him to think of games as [[Murder Simulators]], he says, "When you put it that way, it all makes sense!"
** Ah yes, "Modest Video Game Proposal". He promised to donate to charity if it would actually be made. When it WAS made, by different people (most famous would be "I'm O.K: Murder Simulation"), he said it was a joke and he would not donate. So what happens? [[Penny Arcade]] donates the sum he said he would donate, with Jack Thompson's name and text [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|"From Jack Thompson, because Jack Thompson won't".]] Cue to Thompson trying to have the creators [[You Fail Law Forever|arrested ''for extortion and criminal harassment'']].
* As of ''American Amusement Machine Association v. Kendrick'' in 2001, the American judiciary does not consider there to be enough evidence to argue that video game violence leads to real violence. A work that deliberately incited violence would be subject to ban under the 1942 case of ''Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire'', and the ''Kendrick'' case noted that a photorealistic, plot-free, grotesquely violent game might be ban-worthy, but neither applies to, say, ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'', the game that was to be banned in the ''Kendrick'' case. (The judge also noted that ''Mortal Kombat'' has positive themes as well as negative ones--for instance, the female fighters are [[Action Girl|just as powerful as the male ones]].)
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== Film ==
* ''[[Untraceable]]'', among many others, portrays [[The Internet]] as this trope. See also [[Murder.Com]] and [[Snuff Film]].
* Mentioned a few times in the ''[[Scream (Filmfilm)|Scream]]'' series. Considering that the director, [[Wes Craven]], is a man who made his name with [[A Nightmare Onon Elm Street (Film)|violent]] [[The Last House Onon the Left (Film)|horror]] [[The Hills Have Eyes (Film)|movies]], it's hard not to see this as [[Take That|his response]] to [[You Can Panic Now|fear-mongering]] [[Moral Guardians]].
** In the first film, there's this exchange:
{{quote| '''[[Final Girl|Sidney:]]''' You sick fucks, you've seen one too many movies.<br />
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== Live Action TV ==
* 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 (Manga)|Death Note]], the twist: {{spoiler|The character entered as Lybra was murdered before the [[Death Note (Manga)|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.
** Another parody mimicked the [[Judas Priest (Music)|Judas Priest]] example, with Stephen as a singer accused of singing the words Set Yourself On Fire, by the lawyer of a woman who did just that. Mid trial he then bursts into a song called Woman Drop Your Case, resolving the issue.
* In the third episode of [[Law and Order Special Victims Unit]], the manga Rapeman was used as evidence justifying the arrest of a man as an accessory to a rape committed by his 13 year old son. It's particularly idiotic due to the fact that it was the ''only'' evidence for the charge and that the arresting detective didn't even know what the manga was actually about (she incorrectly guessed the premise<ref>she thought it was a serious manga about a high school student who gets revenge on the girls that reject him by raping them instead of an erotic black comedy/satire manga about a high school ''teacher'' who uses rape to dispense justice for those that hire him</ref> due to her admittedly not knowing how to read Japanese).
** In another episode, three people in their 20s recreated a hooker killing from a [[Captain Ersatz]] of [[Grand Theft Auto]] and blamed their actions on the game. Their claim was that the game had warped their fragile minds so badly that they couldn't tell they weren't playing the game anymore when they hunted her down and hit her with a car and stomped her to death. The prosecution proves it for the bullshit it is.
** In another episode, a mother who was head of a [[Moral Guardians]] group blamed a shock jock for the rape her son committed. She shot him in what was proven to be a publicity stunt.
* ''[[3rd Rock Fromfrom the Sun]]'':
{{quote| '''Dick''': Obviously, these people have been completely desensitized by all the gratuitous violence they've seen on television and movies. ''[[[Beat]]]'' [[Leaning Onon the Fourth Wall|Especially the movies.]]}}
* In ''[[Midsomer Murders]]'', while investigating murders, Barnaby observes that a child is addicted to violent computer games. {{spoiler|It turns out that he was using the games to literally simulate a murder as a sort of dry run.}}
* the fourth episode of the second season of [[Misfits]] is about a man who believes he is a character of a violent videogame (he even see things like on a videogame), because he played the videogame (most probably The Storm was the ultimate responsible); he kills three people onscreen.
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== Video Games ==
* ''[[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.
* There's a joking nod to the trope in the [[Gears of War]] 2 multiplayer map "Day One" where one of the arcades machines in the level has the name "Murder Simulator."
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== Western Animation ==
* 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 (Video Game)|Deus Ex]] example above.
* Also used in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' in a Halloween special set in classical times where Bart's watching a fire and laughs when it crackles;
{{quote| '''Marge''': I don't want you staring at that fire. It's too violent.}}
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