Ben-DutkaIt's not like we needed more ammunition but nevertheless, here it is.
Call of Duty has become such a phenomenon, and it has generated such emotion from gamers, that it's not really helping our "games aren't socially disfiguring" and "games aren't addictive" arguments.
Death threats sent to the developers have been more common than we want to admit, and now comes an even more ridiculous example of rampant immaturity: "Swatting." According to the New York Post , a gamer from Long Island called police over Skype and told them he was Rafael Castillo, and- "I just killed my mother and I might shoot more people."
Long Island police dispatched helicopters and emergency vehicles to the address; all told more than 60 officers were on site, including "elite members" of a special operations unit. When they arrived, they found Castillo's mother in the kitchen, unharmed. It took authorities 20 minutes to get Castillo to come out of his room, but only because he had headphones on and couldn't hear 'em. As it turns out, the original call had come from a prankster who used Castillo's IP address to nail down where he lived, and then called the police.
The worst part? This has happened before; it even has its own name: "Swatting." No, it's not funny. It's pathetic and sad and a big reason why gamers will never be taken seriously, and might end up being feared more than ignored.
lol wow. GG hackers, gg.
This is *not* hacking.
Wow we'll never win will we? GG, WP
Definitely some disturbing news for gamers everywhere. Ugh. Just ugh.
Definitely beyond the pale – and dangerous, too, as fully armed SWAT teams can make a mistake and end up shooting somebody (or a homeowner can try to defend himself against armed intruders before realizing who they are).
Yet, this doesn't reflect poorly only on gamers. I first heard of this a year ago – with people "swatting" bloggers wise politics they disagreed with. It's just appalling that anyone would think this is funny or acceptable. I think it's the new bomb-threat-to-skip-school prank, but potentially more dangerous.
I heard of this before but as something unconnected to gamers and often done to celebrities, you'd "swat" Lindsay Lohan or the Biebs and of course they are gonna show up cuz look at those train wrecks.
Another reason prepaid cells should be tagged to a SSN so they can be tracked n ppl couldn't do such cause all other numbers that call the police r traced n they know where u r or who the phone belongs to b4 u speak
That would just give hackers an easier way of getting your SSN. All they have to do is hack your phone.
I thumbed you down because it is never preferable to actually ASK to be tracked in such a manner. It is the opposite of progress in this digital age. Social Security? Well, if you are an account holder the Cell companies already have that sooo….
That said, almost all technology can be traced, tracked, hacked etc… Soon there will be no other alternative but to stay completing off the grid if you don't wish to be tracked. Which is becoming more and more rare nowadays. Unless you are Amish or a recluse and the like.
that's just wrong.
There are no words to describe how pathetic those individuals are.
Just ridonculous. I hope they traced the original caller and gave him a good deal more than a stern talking to.
Why does the gaming media love throwing COD fans under the bus? I mean, we hear stuff every once in a while but there are some truly cool people that enjoy CoD, my sister who is a lawyer at the Department of Justice, being one of them. I know a certain sect of our community believes a dude in his basement trying to piece together his Yuna cosplay outfit is inherently better than the dude in his basement screaming into a microphone over a virtual death, but we are all gamers and we should all be defended against the misconceptions that are out there, no matter the culprit game.
I also don't understand the whole "games need to be taken seriously" syndrome. What the hell are we attempting to prove and to whom? Game launches are talked about worldwide and covered in repected print media. What else do we need? Every form of entertainment has a contingent of detractors. Why should gaming be immune?
Good post, sometimes we ourselves are a bit too eager to build stereotypes.
That said, there is a distinct difference between prank calling the cops and cosplaying Yuna.
Well… A difference, distinct or not, nonetheless. 🙂
I didn't know you were into cosplaying Yuna, Beam!
Have you been peeking in my window?
Yuna be kinda hard for a dude to pull off. She was short if I remember. But Lulu…… well, um…. just saying.
Pretty crappy thing to happen but I've read this article a couple of times and maybe it's because it's early in the morning that i'm just missing something but how does any of this have anything to do with specifically CoD and why we should hate it more?
When in doubt, check the source. Apparently the guy that called the cops had just been beaten by Castillo in a round of CoD; ergo, the connection.
Hi Lawless, sorry I should have been more specific. How is this behaviour directly related to CoD when the same exact thing happened to some dude who makes youtube videos of mmorpgs relatively recently too. I don't see why CoD is being specifically called out just because that happened to be the game of choice that both players were playing prior to this ' Prank '.
My point is that it could have been any game. If this guy has it in him to put in a call making these claims to the authorities, CoD had nothing to do with that. That's the mentality of this person but it's not the games design at fault. Or we're selectively choosing to say a psychopath who goes on a killing rampage in a school shooting but plays video games is not influenced by the games themselves but when it comes to prank calls it was the games fault. No it's not the games fault and therefore not another reason to hate CoD. This is solely on the shoulders of the a-hole who thought this was funny to do on someone and would have done it if he got shot with an arrow to the knee in Elder Scrolls Online.
Just… why? I mean, what kind of kicks would a person get out of doing this? And to do it out of a sense of revenge for losing a round of CoD. I just don't get it.
"gamers will never be taken seriously" this phrase is annoyingly pessimistic. Swatting's been around for a couple of years, there's been reports about it in the past. Most people with half a brain aren't going to think the guy's an ass cause he's a gamer, they're going to think he's just an ass. Those without so much as that aren't the kind of people anyone needs to worry about being taken seriously by. I think you're being to quick to jump to the idea that everyone will pin this on his hobby. Some media outlets may try to spin it like that, but I've noticed the interest in "OMG, games make you do bad stuff" news has been dying quite a bit.
I don't see this as an article that makes CoD players look bad. I see it once again showing the affects of social media and how out of control it is. This is just another example of how authority figures cannot keep up with the digital age.
Sometimes, I feel like, Ben looks for reasons to pin COD in as much of a negative light as possible. 'Swatting' has been around for a while and just because this latest incident involves a gamer, we are suppose to believe it's somehow associated with a game and gamers are the originator? Articles like this pin gamers in a negative light as much as the act itself. No, this is not a reason to hate COD. Just play games people. Quit trying to associate deviant behavior with gamers only.
kids these days!
what does this have to do with COD though?
no where in the article did it mention either were playing COD, so why pin it on that?
eh, more flamebait i guess.
It was retaliation after losing a game of CoD to the player he called the cops on.
Also, the referenced article tells you it was from playing CoD. In fact, it's pretty much the first thing you read.
Looks like the mighty ben messed up this time lmao, this has nothing to do with gamers..
It involved two gamers and came about as a result of one losing to the other while gaming and for whatever reason, wanting to retaliate.
I agree it shouldn't reflect gamers, but it does. And that's exactly how the mainstream media is telling it, too.
Not much of a big boss….
This has nothing to do with gaming or CoD, other than the most general "seven degrees of Kevin Bacon" reference. This is just some asshole who found he could do this. He could have done the same if he tracked a license plate to it's owner (much easier) because he got cut off, or the cashier didn't give him the right change, or the newspaper guy gave him a soggy paper. It's always the "hot" thing to connect any socially immature behavior to gamers.
Plus, anyone from NY knows that if it's in The Post, it's just sensationalistic drivel.
Ben,I don't think this is a new reason to hate COD per say. This guy was just an ass who played video games. FULL STOP
ps. been saying "ass" a lot lately. No idea why.
pps. Someone please motivate me to do my assignment. It's just not going anywhere people :-/
I've been watching Sopranos, that show is making me swear and say Jesus Christ all the time. I don't normally like to.
As for your assignment, I've been on a paper writing hell trip for a week that's giving me nightsweats, I've lost 5 pounds and I'm still kicking, so I'm sure you can do it!
Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 4/24/2014 9:02:51 AM
Just imagine all the money, time and gas that was spent just for that. Someone will get fined.
This is one of the main reasons why I stick to my offline games or games like Dark Souls where people won't take it that far (everyone is used to dying).
A complex world and we have a bunch of idiots that want to make it even more complicated @_@
Last edited by MRSUCCESS on 4/24/2014 8:51:43 AM
I must have missed it. Where is the connection to CoD? This says a gamer did some stupid stuff. If anything this is another reason to hate gamers or another reason to hate people who use computers to find out where someone else lives.
He referenced an article that clearly tells you it was while playing CoD.
This has nothing to do with gamers in general, like it says in the post ( GAMER WILL NEVER BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY) . Yes gamers were involed but non gamers do this aswell more often even. So i say again nothing to do with gamers.. uhh people these days…
Tis the problem, whenever millions and millions of people are doing something some of those people will also do something bad. Then someone links the two.
Did the kid freak out over not being able to finish a crossword puzzle? Over a kid who told him some movie he liked sucked? Over someone who beat him in a basketball game?
No, these are the people who send DEATH THREATS to the makers of a certain product, and the people who, when hearing them online, one wonders if in the future they're going to be arrested or committed.
Sadly, this is hostile, insane behavior that seems to rotate around this particular industry. Not all gamers, not all games, but it happens. That's that.
Edit: I should also add that I don't see this happening with people playing games like Journey or even The Last Of Us online. This crazy behavior does seem to exist only in shooters and MMOs…the two online forms of entertainment I would actually deem addictive.
Last edited by Ben Dutka PSXE on 4/24/2014 11:17:11 AM
Statistically the reason it's CoD and mmo's is because they have the larger number of players. Nothing to do with them being addictive, they're just the most popular. It's absolutely down to the player him / herself and has nothing at all to do with the game. And of the millions of players who happily die playing CoD or MMO's it's a real small number of them taking it to this level of absurdity. I'm not saying there are no idiots paying CoD because we all know there's plenty but they're such a small percentage when you look at over all numbers of players. You really can't imo blame the game.
Last edited by frostface on 4/24/2014 11:28:50 AM
Baloney. Let me say this: There ARE forms of video game addiction out there and zero of those cases – from what I've seen – have anything to do with single-player gaming. True addiction in this industry has been brought on exclusively by multiplayer gaming on a huge level, be it a million people playing CoD all at once, or a million people exploring a giant world together.
That's where the insane behavior lies. I don't believe addictive and dangerously irrational behavior occurs in those sitting down to play a game on their own, or even playing other multiplayer games that don't involve such a huge emotional investment (which so many of these competitive shooters and MMOs seem to have).
It's hard to believe I'm reading what you're saying. I mean I can agree with some of it but you're acting like people who only play single player games don't do irrational things.
The only reason you only hear about people who play only MP, or alot of, doing crazy crap against each other is because they're interacting with each other competitively (not calling gaming a sport but the competive mentality) and it makes a good news story to take a pop shot at gamers. But to suggest that this kind of person and mentality does not exist in the realm of single player gamers is ridiculous. That's not even an argument that makes any sense.
In all walks of life there's good people and there's really bad people and no game is solely responsible for turning a pillar of the community into a scumbag that does this swatting bull crap or worse. You haven't taken into account these people's interactions in society as a whole. What kinda life do they have? Real world conditions that made them into the person they are online. But that's not to say that this same type of person only plays online. There's more than enough who don't like that MP interaction, who are really antisocial, play their solo player campaigns then go out on a mad one and wreck s*it. Because you don't like MP and don't understand the competive MP mentality from your experiences does not place you into a position to act like you're an authority on what makes people tick.
Last edited by frostface on 4/24/2014 1:39:25 PM
You're too biased to talk about this, obviously.
I have a background in mental health. You don't. I am interested in what sort of cases come before mental health professionals in the realm of video game addiction, and I try to keep track of such circles.
You will not find one, not a single solitary documented case of video game addiction that exclusively involves single-player entertainment. At least, I haven't seen one in over 15 years. They're ALL spawned from the multiplayer world, for whatever reason. No, not "one" game has caused this. But the multiplayer revolution, starting with EverQuest, absolutely has. That's statistical fact based on who has been labeled – and treated – as having a clinical addiction to video games.
I never said people who only play single-player games don't do irrational things. Everyone does irrational things. I said this behavior stems from a certain type of virtual interaction, and that interaction has to include other humans, or this level of insanity absolutely does not ensue. At the very least, such a case would be in the extreme minority.
Has nothing to do with whether I like multiplayer or not. Has everything to do with documented behavior. Would this kid have "swatted" anyone had he lost to the computer in the campaign of CoD? Would ANYONE have ever "swatted" anyone else due to a gaming rage if only AI was involved? The answer is common sense: No.
Sorry, I should take back that last line. I don't think you're trying to act as an authority on what makes people tick. We just have different opinions and that's cool. I just really don't agree with your opinion on this story.
I think it's easy to label shooters and MMOs as the addictive games, because single player experiences don't last long enough to be addictive long term.
Games like CoD or WoW are never ending. You can always do more, attain higher ranks, get better weapons, join clans and even leagues, and more. And if you get close to finishing, a new game or expansion pack will release and the grind starts anew. The scary thing about WoW, for example, is that you could play 60% of every day of your life and still not ever do everything you could possibly do.
Look at something like God of War or Assassin's Creed… and after 20-40 hours, you're basically finished. Even games that are historically considered massive, like the old Final Fantasies, would be done by and around that 100 hour mark.
I think those types of games are addictive as well just because of the nature of them. I do think people can become addicted short term to SP games, too, but the opportunity for full blown addiction dies at completion.
The result is that when bad things happen from these addictions, media picks up on it. It's a relatively new medium, and it's one of the things people are fixated on since they don't understand it.
People understand alcoholism, drug addiction, hoarding, OCD, food addiction… so those rarely make headlines. But video games are this unknown thing that are tied to a kid-in-basement stigma that is still present, addiction or not.
With addiction, people typically become addicted when there is nothing else to fill their voids. We see that in drugs, alcohol, etc. If a person has no job, no school, no extra-curricular activities, no social life… etc… it's very easy for gaming to fill that void. And since we all admit it's a chance to escape the real world and relax… what do you suppose happens to a person with an addictive personality who constantly wants to escape and loves a game that will never end and has an insatiable void to fill? You get a high at-risk situation.
So… while I don't think it's right nor a proper response, I do completely understand why the media will (and it DOES) attach to games as this inherent evil.
This is NOT exclusive to the Game Industry! Obviously COD played a role in this but it is irresponsible for anyone to correlate this specifically to gaming. Not calling you out Ben. You have addressed the article and the actions and how COD was involved. Some may find this article harsh on COD but it is to be expected. The game itself is a "PHENOMENON" and it can and will and HAS produced erratic behavior. No harm in pointing that out.
My issue is how some will just see "GAME" and run with it to all ends. Is is ridiculous but it is a very big problem that we face in this Digital Age. These actions will definitely be used against us as a means of justifing Absolute Control of humans Digital consumption. If anything, Gaming is the true phenomenon. It is growing exponentially and when this growth occurs it is bound to introduce negatives such as this into the equation. And this is where the FEAR comes in. Gamers are very tech savvy so Digital Laws must be monitored in strict detail. And not just by lawmakers. The public must play a role otherwise we will be slaves to the system. The fine print gets much finer when buried in digital legalese. Plain English so everyone will understand what is going on and what is to be expected.
Everything is at risk of being labeled by the single experience a person completely unfamiliar with the topic has.
Non-gamers will look at CoD in the same way people label a person with a disability, label an athlete, label a musician, label a businessman or teacher……
For example: I see employers think "disability" means a wheelchair or a kid with Down Syndrome all the time. It doesn't matter to people that less than 2% of people with a disability use a wheelchair or that an intellectual disability does not often mean "kid with down syndrome"…
It's a case of ignorance. People just don't know and don't care enough to educate themselves about it unless that education just comes to them. I was at a training conference the last two days, and the one seminar I saw on what programs youth with autism need right after high school must have mentioned "get them out of the basement and 'off' video games" like a dozen times. (drove me nuts, actually)
As the age old saying goes, " The few, ruin it for the many".. or something like that… >.>
I think we need to quit talking about how this kid did something wrong and start talking about how it's not his fault, he shouldn't be held responsible for his own actions, he's the victim in all of this and that his actions are the result of some problem in society. We need to look for that societal problem and try and solve that. Then we should probably send this kid back through one of the self esteem classes so he will be reassured that everyone cares about every special little feeling he has.
Let us not forget that people need not take responsibility for their behavioral choices, now that we can call everything a "disease". Drinking, gambling and now playing video games too much are not choices people make, they are diseases that those people have no control over. It's sort of like cancer. Only, figuratively you could just choose to quit having cancer, if you wanted to change your behavior. But addictions are literally outside of your control.
Like if you're an alcoholic, you absolutely can not just decide not to drink. For example, let's say if you were in a dry town and didn't have a ride to a place that sold alcohol. Your addiction would force you to magic some alcohol to you so you could drink too much of it. It's the same with video games. If Hurricane Ike came through and knocked out the power to Houston for 3 weeks, normally you wouldn't be able to play video games for 3 weeks, unless you're addicted. Then you'd just magic some power or a generator and some internet and continue on.
So quit blaming the kid that pulled the dumb prank and start blaming yourself and society.
Oh I don't know, I think it's kind of funny. Activision is probably happy for the extra publicity.
Kids are getting smarter these days it seems.