REUTERS.COM: That Anders Breivik was a regular player of violent video games does not explain why the Norwegian became the calm killer of 77 mostly young people, many of whom would have shared his gaming passion.
An obsession with games such as "World of Warcraft" might seem a plausible explanation for why the apparently unremarkable 33-year-old, now on trial for murder in Oslo, came to carry out the shooting spree and bomb attack last July, but it is a dangerous simplification driven by our need to understand.
"People want an answer for why these thing happen. That's completely understandable," said Seena Fazel, a consultant forensic psychiatrist at Britain's University of Oxford. "That's also why mental illness is often an attractive avenue, because it does seem to provide some sort of answer."
The motive, in part, is to understand what distinguishes a mass killer from the rest of us, experts say. Breivik's game-playing, however, doesn't do that. » | Kate Kelland | LONDON | Friday, April 20, 2012
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