German school principal: Videogames create “homicidal maniacs”

Oh, Germany. You know I love you. Your currywurst rocks my world. I giggle at your upside-down houses. Oktoberfest is close to my heart. But please, how about doing something about that loony anti-gaming brigade of yours?

Late last week, a German teenager ran amok at his school with an axe, knives, and molotov cocktails. Mercifully, nobody was injured, but now the school’s principal wants to make sure his students are banned from playing so-called “killergames,” a policy he hopes will eventually extend to a whole network of German schools. Bernd Denning also thinks that games end up playing “a major part in turning minors into homicidal maniacs.” Eh?

I can sort of accept that Denning needs to be seen to be doing something right now, and that this is the kind of traumatic incident that not many of us have direct experience of.

But then games are such an easy target nowadays (particularly in Germany) that it’s hard not to be cynical about these reactions, particularly when sensationalist terms like “homicidal” get thrown about.

Indeed, there seems to be an air of agenda-setting about this case. After all, police have yet to confirm that the teenager responsible was even a gamer, but already Denning doesn’t just want violent games banned within the school – he wants to make sure his pupils are banned from playing them at home. Hopefully, some of the parents are a little more level-headed than poor old Bernd.

[gulli, via Negative Gamer]