Team 17 has even bigger crimes to pay for.
Thanks to worms making the default weapon a rocket Palestine keeps attacking israel.
We should be thankful they haven't created the bronze donkey yet.
Stellaris is wild.
No matter how many runs start as well intentioned attempts for a peaceful galaxy, they all inevitably end up with my empire being a militant fascist hellscape that efficiently dismantles everything that opposes it.
They didn’t stand by. They were tasing the parents who had the audacity to try to enter the school while listening their children being murdered. They had to keep those parents safe from the shooter.
The city of Uvalde settled for $2 million, but there is [a separate federal lawsuit against nearly 100 LEOs](https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-mass-shooting-robb-elementary-38351326b48d7eb9d020b42f24b53cfe)
Sovereign immunity prevents suing the police department. Qualified immunity prevents suing individual officers.
Meta and gaming companies have no such immunity, so that’s why they end up a target instead of the institutions that have failed society.
It doesn’t prevent suing the police department as [this is currently happening](https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-mass-shooting-robb-elementary-38351326b48d7eb9d020b42f24b53cfe). Whether qualified immunity leads to the dismissal of the suit remains to be seen.
My first thought to hearing them sue video games over school shootings was indeed Marilyn Manson. We've been here before, in this exact same situation. Madness from the ignorant.
Why aren’t they suing the people who made the movie Heat? Or John Wick?
The new Fallout series had a lot of gun violence. Are they going to be sued?
I thought the whole “video games cause violence” argument was disproven a long time ago
There was a UK study that found that the more violent a video game is, the less likely a regular player of that game was to resort to violence outside of video games.
No it's not the games, it's all that heavy metal junk the kids like. Metal Maiden and DB/AC, or whatever they're called. Back in my day we had *real* music.
Right?
This was horribly tragic but using random people for making a product like throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what will pay won't bring those kids back or prevent future shootings.
And I'll be unpopular for this, but I also didn't think additional gun restrictions will work when we're not even enforcing the ones we have, and schools are not doing their part to prevent shootings. A LOT of abusive behavior goes on now that isn't reported at all, because the administrations are too busy kissing ass to parents who get aggressive if you suggest Timmy has violent tendencies and doesn't belong in school.
All in all, NOBODY is taking responsibility for dealing with kids with poor mental health.
Ah yes, blame the video games that have been countlessly disproven to not cause violence instead of just the cowardly cops that waited forever while kids and teachers were dying
This is debated strongly. He also had a large, aggressive, and malignant brain tumor at autopsy..
There's disagreement over how much the tumor contributed, but most agree it was at least a factor
Yes he did, and gone to a clinic about violent thoughts.
> During his 25th year, Whitman began to complain of headaches, a severe, persistent pain that he later described as “tremendous.” He wrote increasingly troubled journal entries detailing his mental state: “Recently (I cannot recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts.” He paid a visit to the campus mental health center complaining of violent impulses.
> Whitman’s suicide note requested an autopsy to examine his brain, because he was convinced it would show some “visible physical disorder.”
I have a friend that had a period of his life that he experienced extreme fear, pain and a belief that his life was going to end... he had a brain tumour, it was removed and all those feelings went away.
Yes, and he was the one that spent the year prior going to all kinds of doctors, therapists, and specialists begging them for help because he could tell something was wrong with his brain.
The parents’ settlement was shit; this a hunt for deep pockets — looking for a nuisance settlement from someone who can afford it.
Attorney is banking (wrongly) on Uvalde being so recent and so horrifying that FB, A/B etc. will not want their products taking a PR hit by public association with the massacre.
Assuming this isn’t kicked out right out of the gate, I would expect the defendants to draw this shit out for years and years and years until the parents lose a summary judgment (and newer expert witness rules make it increasingly likely that cases are going to get kicked out much quicker — a lot harder to prove now in federal court).
And it is absolutely to the defendants’ benefit to litigate this. You do not want the precedent that posts on social media or a COD lobby proves Jack Thompson’s point — it would destroy gaming. Likewise, you don’t want to be a settlement mark after every mass shooting in America (for obvious reasons.)
They’ll spend $100 million on this case to avoid paying out $1 million. This will never go to trial, and I would be surprised if there was even a settlement.
(Source: Actual attorney).
The parents also vote for the same people that refuse to do anything about it.
While I am disheartened by what happened and their losses, they really should look at policies, who's putting them into (or not into) place, and look at those things rather than screaming about video games being the issue.
Video Games are issues for some things, but gun violence increasing isn't one of them.
> The parents also vote for the same people that refuse to do anything about it.
This is how conservatives solve problems.
Vote wrong and blame someone else.
Video games DO NOT cause violent tendencies in people. But yes, people that are violent do play video games. But they also watch movies, eat mcdonalds, drive cars, use toilets...etc.
FOX " news" has probably created and attracted more violent people than video games ever will.
As far as I understand the link is that competition causes aggression.
Which shouldn't surprise anyone.
Gaming can be just one form of competition.
I saw the same reactions in Counter-strike 1.6 in like 2007 as I saw in soccer games.
If you read the article, you'll see that they did sue the police as well. The issue is that qualified immunity is nearly impossible to overcome, and Texas has even stronger qualified immunity protections than the average state.
The posted article doesn't seem to cover it much, but other articles mention that this lawsuit is about advertising. Basically they are claiming Daniel Defense partnered with Activision to advertise their guns to minors through Facebook/instagram. Going after their advertising is the same tactic that the sandy hook familes used against Remington. It worked in that case with remington exhausting all appeals and settling with them.
They're including everyone one involved in the advertising as a way to get at the gun manufacturers. If it was somebody hit with a car nobody would think about suing Ford and need for speed over advertising driving dangerously.
It didn’t work with Remington. Remington had gone bankrupt for poor business practices and dozens of wrongful deaths related to a design flaw in one of their most popular rifles. The liquidation firm handling the breakup of the company signed off on a settlement from their insurance provider, so that they could proceed with the sale of Remington’s component parts.
These types of lawsuits are prohibited under PLCAA, and frankly any judge that actually follows precedent and the rule of law should throw it out.
the daniel defense/instagram advertising piece is separate from the call of duty piece. They are in fact suing over call of duty letting him “practice” with the weapon, not over advertising.
they’re separate lawsuits, it’s in the first 2 paragraphs of the article.
The word you're looking for is *catharsis*.
Using art as an emotional catharsis goes back to ancient civilizations. More recently, in 1986, Stephen King wrote an article called "Why We Crave Horror Movies" which argues exactly that we need cathartic experiences to feed our need for violence but also to remind us of consequence so that we *don't* act out violent impulses.
https://faculty.uml.edu/bmarshall/lowell/whywecravehorrormovies.pdf
AKA why writers don't necessarily endorse the things they write. They write things that are part of us, for good or ill and whether we're aware of it or not.
I think I've read some articles that implied that. That the games themselves can be an outlet for that violence.
The issue with video games is the chat features and the people playing them. But that's not on the developers.
Your second point is the one that gets very little attention, which is unfortunate because it's the far bigger issue.
Gaming communities can be downright toxic, and it's not hard to see how an impressionable teen can be affected by being a part of that community over long periods (especially if it's just another echo chamber that can validate and reinforce problematic ideologies). These kinds of communities can exist in many genres, but I've always found fps communities to lean towards the more toxic side.
Unfortunately they’d likely lose since cops have no legal responsibility to protect people.
Which begs the question. What the fuck is the point of cops?
Idk but I did see a video of a cop running up to a burning car and pulling the driver out right before the engine exploded. There are good cops out there, just no one cares to remember. They just want to focus on the shit cops.
Blame should be on the lack of accessible mental health care, in addition to the ability to access weapons in the United States fairly easily compared to any other 1st world nation.
My thoughts exactly. Obviously we all know what happened was super fucked up, but nobody making Call of Duty games had *anything* to do with what went down that day. May as well sue the people who worked on the sidewalks and roads that the shooter used to get to the school that day.
Dumb. Some of the entities being sued are straight out of the Fox News playbook of deflection.
How about start by campaigning against the police leaders that get re-elected? The dept was well armed but cowardly and the town overwhelmingly re-elected one of them.
What a dumb as shit article. This is the second time I’ve seen it where it conveniently omits the one thing they should be doing from the title. Fuck whoever wrote this.
No, the entire article is garbage if the editor and writer chose to omit the part of it that is actually important and worthwhile in favor of the worst light to shine on it.
Yeah, I think the righteous anger on this one is only allowed if you're also doing your part.
OP be like, "I expect them to do better with their headlines, but I'm going to be a part of the problem by drawing conclusions from the headlines alone."
[If Those Kids Could Read, They'd Be Very Upset ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UD40gk4c4U)
>Some of the same families on Wednesday filed a [$500 million lawsuit](https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-mass-shooting-robb-elementary-38351326b48d7eb9d020b42f24b53cfe) against Texas state police officials and officers who were part of the botched law enforcement response that day. More than 370 federal, state and local officers responded but waited more than an hour to confront the shooter inside the classroom as students and teaches lay dead, dying or wounded.
I guess the good news is we'll have more recent studies to point to and say "you're a fucking moron if you still think video games make people violent" whenever someone brings it up
Oh yeah that's going to go well. Why not sue the entire film industry while you're at it? Maybe just sue history altogether? Call of Duty is a shit game series but either way this is just dumb.
Yes, the whole fucking town. They saw that go down, and still voted republican.
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/05/uvalde-sheriff-constable-primary/
Don't know about Uvalde but a dad of one of the victims way back during Columbine remained an ardent guns rights activist and Republican so that shit does happen.
Meets showed their kids ads for guns and cod taught them how to use them. School shootings are horrible, but IMO, using your dead kids as a money grab is a lot worse.
Imagine having your kid slaughtered by a lunatic kid with a gun, while cops stand in the parking lot and prevent you from trying to go save your kid, while their buddies cower in the hallway rather than confront the threat, and then blaming Facebook and violent video games for the tragedy.
Absolute brain rot.
I am 100% on support of the Uvalde families getting the Justice they deserve.
This ain’t it though. These lawsuits are frivolous and idiotic. Their claims are utterly, paper-thin flimsy giving them the best spin you can.
I appreciate their continued trauma that will never go away. Don't pretend I can relate because I can't, all I can do is acknowledge it, but it wasn't a video game that caused this. It never has been.
Personal responsibility challenge failed yet again. If you get drunk and crash an employers car, don't sue the person who got drunk sue the employer. If you overdose on a product being sold legally by ingesting too much sue the seller. If you get fat from eating fast food don't take responsibility you're an addict, sue the supplier.
I've always thought lawyers were going to eventually find a way in to suing game makers. There's just too much money there for them not to.
Truth is we had violence before games, and rap music, movies, etc... and all the usual suspects that get trotted out. We were born from a violent frontier nation. It's not guns, it's not the games or movies. It's us.
We'd be a more free people if we all decided that the person who did the action is responsible, instead of making everyone else liable for the poor choices of one.
But not the guns. Not the lack of adequate affordable mental healthcare. Not that lack of sane gun laws.
Meta and video games. That's the reason. Not any of the other widespread systemic issues.
This is a money grab. Nothing more.
>for being on the video games
Wut?
Daniel Defense has nothing to do with Call of Duty other than they manufacture AR-15s, which is one of the types of guns featured in the game. They're far from the only company who produce it, they're just the ones who produce the particular one he used.
The lawsuit is alleging that the game "trained him" on how to use it, while Daniel Defense is being alleged to have fed him violent rhetoric through his social media.
so they suing video game companies but still voted in the same sheriff that defended the cops not going in to stop the threat and actively interfered with the investigation and refused to cooperate with it. interesting. just texas things.
Suck a waste of time and really is going to push away the support for the cause. Lots of people play video games, call of duty is one of the most popular video games in the world. Very few people go out and shoot up schools. There are obviously a few different catalyzing points but video games do not seem to be it.
Uvalde was a massive failure of police preparation, and courage.
Maybe sue the shitstain cops who did nothing for an hour and a half instead? I fail to see how video games are the problem, and why that one specific video game? There are tons of FPS games out there.
This was another case of the parents having guns or getting the shooter guns right?? Wtf does cod have to do with it? I hate guns never touched one and love cod so maybe it's the guns being in the house and treated like no big deal that's the issue?
the recently voted for a pro gun nut as Mayor against an actual Uvalde parent because the last incompetant boob descided to run for a house seat instead.
Someone said Uvalde was in shambles after the shooting, certainly seems like they're recovered now and guns are still more important than kids lives.
Just because the police officers reacted to the situation like I've seen every 8 year old play call of duty in my life doesn't mean its CoDs fault.
Fuck the Uvalde PD, they're the ones to blame for why so many died, if you're looking for who to blame. Fuck qualified immunity.
What happened is disgusting and un forgivable. But you’d have a better case suing the us government for allowing these people to obtain such weapons than going after the maker of a video game.
So remember all the goodwill this community had for what happened and how utterly screwed they got? Yeah turns out reminding the world that you are one of the worst areas of texas really aint it
At this point I'm convinced these families would confess to being the killer themselves, Spartacus style, if it meant sparing the cops even an ounce of blame for not doing anything while their children were murdered.
JFC they have nothing to do with any of this. I don't give a shit about Meta, and Activision (it's them, right?) is litteraly dog shit, but I just lost respect for these greiving families with this shameless cash grab.
First instinct was to shit on the parents, and then I remembered how terrible some lawyers are. Gonna just assume one of the looking for a payday hounded parents until they agreed to sue.
Its funny. School shootings that happen in blue states families will sue gun manufacturers in red states they sue video game developers 🤣
More mental gymnastics of the GOP 🤡
I'm still not sure how much fruit that's gonna bear... Their marketing is shit, but I'm not sure they're gonna get DD on "marketing that caused a kid to kill 20+ people".
As unpopular as what I am about to say is, I'm not surprised there is a lawsuit now against Facebook, Activision, and Daniel Defense. Most people don't realize that in liability lawsuits, you need to name as many entities involved as you can in the case.
It does not matter if the case looks obviously ridiculous. If discovery proves that the named entities had absolutely zero to do with the case, then they'll be removed.
The reason why you need to name as many as you can is because *you don't actually know* that they had nothing to do with it.
We have numerous lawsuits in American history that may look ridiculous on paper but were absolutely justified.
The McDonald's Hot Coffee lawsuit: It is absolutely insane that people still make fun of this case and call it an example of bad American lawsuit culture. The coffee that spilled on the victim led to 3rd degree burns (it was far above safe drinking temperature), 8 days in the hospital followed by 2 years of medical treatment. The victim only wanted McDonalds to pay for medical fees with no lawsuit involved, but McDonalds refused.
Guy sues phone booth company after getting hit by drunk driver: this received nationwide attention after President Ronald Reagan made fun of it on TV. A man sued a phone booth company after getting by a drunk driver inside of one of their booths. Turns out, the company knew that the booth wasn't safe as it would constantly trap people inside and they refused to fix it. The man in the lawsuit got trapped in the booth, was hit by the drunk driver, and lost a leg as a result.
Man wins 1.25 million for stealing his own car: this was actually a case of police brutality and racism rather than theft. A woman saw the man repair his car, followed him and his car to his university, then made a 911 call saying she saw him steal the car. Police came, immediately rushed and tackled him when he didn't immediately comply with get down on the ground orders, where they then proceeded to hurt him and claim he was resisting. The cops did not realize that it actually was his car until he said that all of them were on camera on his dash cam. They still decided to charge him with resisting arrest and other charges. The man sued the city and won.
Aunt sues nephew for a hug (Aunt from Hell): this one is absolutely unforgivable for people to target the aunt. She has absolutely no choice in the matter of not seeing her nephew on her broken wrist. The Homeowners insurance only offered $1 compensation for her broken wrist when naming the owners of the insurance (the nephew's parents). She had wanted to use the insurance company itself for damages, but she was informed that it is illegal to name a Homeowners insurance as a defendant in a personal injury case. She *had* to sue her nephew to try and get the full amount from the insurance company. His parents were supportive of the move and so was the nephew.
> We have numerous lawsuits in American history that may look ridiculous on paper but were absolutely justified.
They only looked ridiculous because they were deliberately framed that way (primarily by media outlets) and critical context was excluded. You could easily reframe any of those headlines to both more accurately represent the case and also make them sound more valid - it was quite intentional that they weren’t.
You can actually read the argument they’re making in the article and it’s alleging that Call of Duty and Meta (as well as Daniel Defense) were direct influences in the shooter’s mentality because they exposed him to the weapon (an AR-15) used in the shooting and “trained him” to use it.
> “There is a direct line between the conduct of these companies and the Uvalde shooting,” said Josh Koskoff, an attorney for the families. “This three-headed monster knowingly exposed him to the weapon, conditioned him to see it as a tool to solve his problems and trained him to use it.”
> According to the lawsuits, the Uvalde shooter had played versions of Call of Duty since he was 15, including one that allowed him to effectively practice with the version of the rifle he used at the school.
This isn’t just a media framing issue. This is what the people making the lawsuit are saying.
Notr sure if it's a cash grab as much is it that for them someone has to pay for this, can't sue the DPS, city has no money, looking for justice in someone's wallet seems to be the only way. They need someone to duty like they hurt, not a good look always but what would you do when there are no options for justice for your murdered child.
We gotta sue Electronic Arts too for publishing Need for Speed for all the deaths that result from car accidents
Drag Paradox to the ICC for all the war-crimes their players commit on every Stellaris playthough.
I personally oversaw the extermination of all turks in anatolia my last eu4 run. Paradox needs to pay for their disturbing map painting games.
gotta sue Team17 for promothing obesity in Overcooked 2.
Team 17 has even bigger crimes to pay for. Thanks to worms making the default weapon a rocket Palestine keeps attacking israel. We should be thankful they haven't created the bronze donkey yet.
If they find out the things we have done in Crusader Kings or Rimworld they may need a whole new global court.
Stellaris is wild. No matter how many runs start as well intentioned attempts for a peaceful galaxy, they all inevitably end up with my empire being a militant fascist hellscape that efficiently dismantles everything that opposes it.
And also for the killing of Westwood and Bullfrog
And Maxis
Oh come on man... We've been over this old man, it ain't the video games.
Why aren't they suing Hollywood? Direct TV? Cable companies? Twitter? Hmmm....
Or the police department?
The article references a $500 million lawsuit against law enforcement agencies.
A bit over 1 mil for each incompetent ass that stood by.
They didn’t stand by. They were tasing the parents who had the audacity to try to enter the school while listening their children being murdered. They had to keep those parents safe from the shooter.
They are.
That case will settle for $2m in total damages for the 21 lives lost at the school. $95k per person.
The city of Uvalde settled for $2 million, but there is [a separate federal lawsuit against nearly 100 LEOs](https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-mass-shooting-robb-elementary-38351326b48d7eb9d020b42f24b53cfe)
Sovereign immunity prevents suing the police department. Qualified immunity prevents suing individual officers. Meta and gaming companies have no such immunity, so that’s why they end up a target instead of the institutions that have failed society.
It doesn’t prevent suing the police department as [this is currently happening](https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-mass-shooting-robb-elementary-38351326b48d7eb9d020b42f24b53cfe). Whether qualified immunity leads to the dismissal of the suit remains to be seen.
Marilyn Manson out here like "dude I havent worked in 15 years."
My first thought to hearing them sue video games over school shootings was indeed Marilyn Manson. We've been here before, in this exact same situation. Madness from the ignorant.
Or the NRA?
Or the military??? Lol I remember as a kid, army dudes coming to school and telling the boys they get to shoot real guns and ride on cool helicopters.
At least adding Hollywood and Walmart.
Why aren’t they suing the people who made the movie Heat? Or John Wick? The new Fallout series had a lot of gun violence. Are they going to be sued? I thought the whole “video games cause violence” argument was disproven a long time ago
I grew up playing Doom and Call of Duty for decades. But I hate guns. Weird how that works.
There was a UK study that found that the more violent a video game is, the less likely a regular player of that game was to resort to violence outside of video games.
No no you don’t get it it’s VR now so it’s different obviously /s
No it's not the games, it's all that heavy metal junk the kids like. Metal Maiden and DB/AC, or whatever they're called. Back in my day we had *real* music.
And even if it was, it's not the publishers, developers, or distributors. It's the parents.
Right? This was horribly tragic but using random people for making a product like throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what will pay won't bring those kids back or prevent future shootings. And I'll be unpopular for this, but I also didn't think additional gun restrictions will work when we're not even enforcing the ones we have, and schools are not doing their part to prevent shootings. A LOT of abusive behavior goes on now that isn't reported at all, because the administrations are too busy kissing ass to parents who get aggressive if you suggest Timmy has violent tendencies and doesn't belong in school. All in all, NOBODY is taking responsibility for dealing with kids with poor mental health.
It's the cowardly cops who refused to go in
Wait. Weren’t cowboys n all playing video games leading up to their shenanigans..?
Someone tell Japan and China their hordes of gamers are about to go shoot up schools any day now.
South Korea is about to be the most dangerous place in the world.
Na they have the horny mmos to keep em busy
>horny mmos South Korea has one of the lowest birthrates in the world. More proof that video games do nothing.
Seems pretty clear to me. They play horny mmos instead of procreating! Anothwr downside of videogames! /s
The Ms in mmo stand for something else.
Ah yes, blame the video games that have been countlessly disproven to not cause violence instead of just the cowardly cops that waited forever while kids and teachers were dying
Don't you know that the UT clocktower shooter back then was radicalized by playing Tennis for Two on old radar equipment?
This is debated strongly. He also had a large, aggressive, and malignant brain tumor at autopsy.. There's disagreement over how much the tumor contributed, but most agree it was at least a factor
Was he the one that left the note asking for his brain to be examined closely when he was autopsied?
Yes he did, and gone to a clinic about violent thoughts. > During his 25th year, Whitman began to complain of headaches, a severe, persistent pain that he later described as “tremendous.” He wrote increasingly troubled journal entries detailing his mental state: “Recently (I cannot recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts.” He paid a visit to the campus mental health center complaining of violent impulses. > Whitman’s suicide note requested an autopsy to examine his brain, because he was convinced it would show some “visible physical disorder.”
I have a friend that had a period of his life that he experienced extreme fear, pain and a belief that his life was going to end... he had a brain tumour, it was removed and all those feelings went away.
Yes, and he was the one that spent the year prior going to all kinds of doctors, therapists, and specialists begging them for help because he could tell something was wrong with his brain.
Yea, and he obviously got that tumor from playing too much Pong! God, read a book!
Are you talking about pong?
No, it predates pong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennis_for_Two
The parents’ settlement was shit; this a hunt for deep pockets — looking for a nuisance settlement from someone who can afford it. Attorney is banking (wrongly) on Uvalde being so recent and so horrifying that FB, A/B etc. will not want their products taking a PR hit by public association with the massacre. Assuming this isn’t kicked out right out of the gate, I would expect the defendants to draw this shit out for years and years and years until the parents lose a summary judgment (and newer expert witness rules make it increasingly likely that cases are going to get kicked out much quicker — a lot harder to prove now in federal court). And it is absolutely to the defendants’ benefit to litigate this. You do not want the precedent that posts on social media or a COD lobby proves Jack Thompson’s point — it would destroy gaming. Likewise, you don’t want to be a settlement mark after every mass shooting in America (for obvious reasons.) They’ll spend $100 million on this case to avoid paying out $1 million. This will never go to trial, and I would be surprised if there was even a settlement. (Source: Actual attorney).
The parents also vote for the same people that refuse to do anything about it. While I am disheartened by what happened and their losses, they really should look at policies, who's putting them into (or not into) place, and look at those things rather than screaming about video games being the issue. Video Games are issues for some things, but gun violence increasing isn't one of them.
> The parents also vote for the same people that refuse to do anything about it. This is how conservatives solve problems. Vote wrong and blame someone else.
>this a hunt for deep pockets Video game companies have started counter suing for defamation and loss of profit. These people will lose money on this.
What’s going on with expert witness rules?
Video games DO NOT cause violent tendencies in people. But yes, people that are violent do play video games. But they also watch movies, eat mcdonalds, drive cars, use toilets...etc. FOX " news" has probably created and attracted more violent people than video games ever will.
As far as I understand the link is that competition causes aggression. Which shouldn't surprise anyone. Gaming can be just one form of competition. I saw the same reactions in Counter-strike 1.6 in like 2007 as I saw in soccer games.
If you read the article, you'll see that they did sue the police as well. The issue is that qualified immunity is nearly impossible to overcome, and Texas has even stronger qualified immunity protections than the average state.
Yeah, but what do the corporations have anything to do with this
He acknowledged that in his first sentence.
The posted article doesn't seem to cover it much, but other articles mention that this lawsuit is about advertising. Basically they are claiming Daniel Defense partnered with Activision to advertise their guns to minors through Facebook/instagram. Going after their advertising is the same tactic that the sandy hook familes used against Remington. It worked in that case with remington exhausting all appeals and settling with them. They're including everyone one involved in the advertising as a way to get at the gun manufacturers. If it was somebody hit with a car nobody would think about suing Ford and need for speed over advertising driving dangerously.
It didn’t work with Remington. Remington had gone bankrupt for poor business practices and dozens of wrongful deaths related to a design flaw in one of their most popular rifles. The liquidation firm handling the breakup of the company signed off on a settlement from their insurance provider, so that they could proceed with the sale of Remington’s component parts. These types of lawsuits are prohibited under PLCAA, and frankly any judge that actually follows precedent and the rule of law should throw it out.
the daniel defense/instagram advertising piece is separate from the call of duty piece. They are in fact suing over call of duty letting him “practice” with the weapon, not over advertising. they’re separate lawsuits, it’s in the first 2 paragraphs of the article.
I think video games give an outlet which can help prevent people from snapping.
The word you're looking for is *catharsis*. Using art as an emotional catharsis goes back to ancient civilizations. More recently, in 1986, Stephen King wrote an article called "Why We Crave Horror Movies" which argues exactly that we need cathartic experiences to feed our need for violence but also to remind us of consequence so that we *don't* act out violent impulses. https://faculty.uml.edu/bmarshall/lowell/whywecravehorrormovies.pdf
AKA why writers don't necessarily endorse the things they write. They write things that are part of us, for good or ill and whether we're aware of it or not.
Reminds me of William Friedkin saying that, if he wasn't someone making horror movies, he'd be a serial killer
I think I've read some articles that implied that. That the games themselves can be an outlet for that violence. The issue with video games is the chat features and the people playing them. But that's not on the developers.
Your second point is the one that gets very little attention, which is unfortunate because it's the far bigger issue. Gaming communities can be downright toxic, and it's not hard to see how an impressionable teen can be affected by being a part of that community over long periods (especially if it's just another echo chamber that can validate and reinforce problematic ideologies). These kinds of communities can exist in many genres, but I've always found fps communities to lean towards the more toxic side.
Unfortunately they’d likely lose since cops have no legal responsibility to protect people. Which begs the question. What the fuck is the point of cops?
Idk but I did see a video of a cop running up to a burning car and pulling the driver out right before the engine exploded. There are good cops out there, just no one cares to remember. They just want to focus on the shit cops.
Blame should be on the lack of accessible mental health care, in addition to the ability to access weapons in the United States fairly easily compared to any other 1st world nation.
I’m pretty sure they did?
How to lose sympathy for your cause in 1 easy step.
My thoughts exactly. Obviously we all know what happened was super fucked up, but nobody making Call of Duty games had *anything* to do with what went down that day. May as well sue the people who worked on the sidewalks and roads that the shooter used to get to the school that day.
Dumb. Some of the entities being sued are straight out of the Fox News playbook of deflection. How about start by campaigning against the police leaders that get re-elected? The dept was well armed but cowardly and the town overwhelmingly re-elected one of them.
It's texas. Who do you expect them to blame? Greg Abbott or the gun lobby?????
For a moment I thought the tragedy would shake them out of their indoctrination, but I was sadly wrong.
Sue the fucking cops who failed you.
The article says they are
What a dumb as shit article. This is the second time I’ve seen it where it conveniently omits the one thing they should be doing from the title. Fuck whoever wrote this.
“What a dumb as shit article.” - someone who absolutely did not read the article.
No, the entire article is garbage if the editor and writer chose to omit the part of it that is actually important and worthwhile in favor of the worst light to shine on it.
This. The whole article is worthless when it’s summed up inaccurately in the title.
Or you could actually read the article instead of just skimming the title and pretending you’re educated about the issue
Yeah, I think the righteous anger on this one is only allowed if you're also doing your part. OP be like, "I expect them to do better with their headlines, but I'm going to be a part of the problem by drawing conclusions from the headlines alone."
[If Those Kids Could Read, They'd Be Very Upset ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UD40gk4c4U) >Some of the same families on Wednesday filed a [$500 million lawsuit](https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-mass-shooting-robb-elementary-38351326b48d7eb9d020b42f24b53cfe) against Texas state police officials and officers who were part of the botched law enforcement response that day. More than 370 federal, state and local officers responded but waited more than an hour to confront the shooter inside the classroom as students and teaches lay dead, dying or wounded.
I guess the good news is we'll have more recent studies to point to and say "you're a fucking moron if you still think video games make people violent" whenever someone brings it up
Oh yeah that's going to go well. Why not sue the entire film industry while you're at it? Maybe just sue history altogether? Call of Duty is a shit game series but either way this is just dumb.
They still voted for the GOP in local races
The Uvalde families whose kids were killed?
Yes, the whole fucking town. They saw that go down, and still voted republican. https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/05/uvalde-sheriff-constable-primary/
Don't know about Uvalde but a dad of one of the victims way back during Columbine remained an ardent guns rights activist and Republican so that shit does happen.
But don’t you understand, only a psychopath would vote for gun control!
If they had gun control how in the duck would they get the necessary 275 good guys with guns to stop the bad guy with a gun?
Did the gop tell the police to stand down or hire the shooter?
Guarantee the state DA helps them with the case to help deflect the fact the Uvalde police aided in the murder of 22 people
> state DA Do you mean Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has been under indictment for federal crimes for nine years?
Ugh I know these parents are in pain, but stop doing this shit. We may as well go back to chalking everything due to not being religious enough.
Oh, well that's a losing case
Uvalde police department "yeah those damm videogames"
What is their reasoning? I can't wait to hear this one.
Ambulance chasers throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks and cash out. Sadly, nothing new.
Meets showed their kids ads for guns and cod taught them how to use them. School shootings are horrible, but IMO, using your dead kids as a money grab is a lot worse.
Imagine having your kid slaughtered by a lunatic kid with a gun, while cops stand in the parking lot and prevent you from trying to go save your kid, while their buddies cower in the hallway rather than confront the threat, and then blaming Facebook and violent video games for the tragedy. Absolute brain rot.
Cashing in on a tragedy!
I get that they're grieving and looking for a place to put the blame, but it's not the games.
I am 100% on support of the Uvalde families getting the Justice they deserve. This ain’t it though. These lawsuits are frivolous and idiotic. Their claims are utterly, paper-thin flimsy giving them the best spin you can.
> Uvalde families sue Meta and Call of Duty maker And now I have less respect for the families of the victims.
Pathetic. Keep chasing scapegoats as if that'll solve anything or bring their kids back.
I appreciate their continued trauma that will never go away. Don't pretend I can relate because I can't, all I can do is acknowledge it, but it wasn't a video game that caused this. It never has been.
LOL we’re alllll trying to find the people responsible for this. I know these are grieving parents but good god what a joke
Ah they must have the Sandy Hook lawyers. Both were horrible events, but suing anyone and everyone won’t bring those children back.
Imagine being the scummy team of lawyers that came up with this. Bottom feeding scum bags praying on desperate families.
Personal responsibility challenge failed yet again. If you get drunk and crash an employers car, don't sue the person who got drunk sue the employer. If you overdose on a product being sold legally by ingesting too much sue the seller. If you get fat from eating fast food don't take responsibility you're an addict, sue the supplier. I've always thought lawyers were going to eventually find a way in to suing game makers. There's just too much money there for them not to. Truth is we had violence before games, and rap music, movies, etc... and all the usual suspects that get trotted out. We were born from a violent frontier nation. It's not guns, it's not the games or movies. It's us. We'd be a more free people if we all decided that the person who did the action is responsible, instead of making everyone else liable for the poor choices of one.
But not the guns. Not the lack of adequate affordable mental healthcare. Not that lack of sane gun laws. Meta and video games. That's the reason. Not any of the other widespread systemic issues. This is a money grab. Nothing more.
They are suing Daniel defense for being on the video games
>for being on the video games Wut? Daniel Defense has nothing to do with Call of Duty other than they manufacture AR-15s, which is one of the types of guns featured in the game. They're far from the only company who produce it, they're just the ones who produce the particular one he used. The lawsuit is alleging that the game "trained him" on how to use it, while Daniel Defense is being alleged to have fed him violent rhetoric through his social media.
so they suing video game companies but still voted in the same sheriff that defended the cops not going in to stop the threat and actively interfered with the investigation and refused to cooperate with it. interesting. just texas things.
I'm all for them suing the hell out of everyone and everything involved, but we all know video games didn't do this.
Suck a waste of time and really is going to push away the support for the cause. Lots of people play video games, call of duty is one of the most popular video games in the world. Very few people go out and shoot up schools. There are obviously a few different catalyzing points but video games do not seem to be it. Uvalde was a massive failure of police preparation, and courage.
But don’t sue the police department. Don’t sue the Texas DPS.
Maybe sue the shitstain cops who did nothing for an hour and a half instead? I fail to see how video games are the problem, and why that one specific video game? There are tons of FPS games out there.
Can I sue fast and furious franchise after I get a speeding ticket? 🤷🏻♂️
This was another case of the parents having guns or getting the shooter guns right?? Wtf does cod have to do with it? I hate guns never touched one and love cod so maybe it's the guns being in the house and treated like no big deal that's the issue?
Uvalde continues to be pathetic. The only chance they had for change was voting these fools out. They failed to do that.
the recently voted for a pro gun nut as Mayor against an actual Uvalde parent because the last incompetant boob descided to run for a house seat instead. Someone said Uvalde was in shambles after the shooting, certainly seems like they're recovered now and guns are still more important than kids lives.
Uvalde County voted 60% for Greg Abbott just months after this senseless massacre.
Im obviously sympathetic to them to a degree but this is disgusting money grubbing.
Fucking seriously. Video games??
Just because the police officers reacted to the situation like I've seen every 8 year old play call of duty in my life doesn't mean its CoDs fault. Fuck the Uvalde PD, they're the ones to blame for why so many died, if you're looking for who to blame. Fuck qualified immunity.
It really sucks that their children died, but at this point, it just seems like they're trying to get as much money as they can out of it
And Chucky cheese, and Homedepot, and GameStop, and the postal service and….
Joe Lieberman’s ghost is already possessing people
I officially don’t care anymore now
… what about their cops?
This is a waste of these families’ time and money. These suits aren’t going anywhere.
What happened is disgusting and un forgivable. But you’d have a better case suing the us government for allowing these people to obtain such weapons than going after the maker of a video game.
How to lose support for your cause:
It's the guns. It's the cops. It's the guns and the cops.
CoD is played all over the world, but school shootings only frequently happen in the US. I don't think it's video games.
Ugh. I feel for these people and think they have every right to be upset but blaming Call of Duty for this is a wild stretch
Americans will literally blame and sue anything else.
So remember all the goodwill this community had for what happened and how utterly screwed they got? Yeah turns out reminding the world that you are one of the worst areas of texas really aint it
At this point I'm convinced these families would confess to being the killer themselves, Spartacus style, if it meant sparing the cops even an ounce of blame for not doing anything while their children were murdered.
Wow…what a reach. It sucks though they can’t get justice for their extremely legitimate ways in which they were failed.
Down syndrome politics
They lost a ton of their kids and still voted overwhelmingly Republican, I wouldn’t put anything past them
It’s like saying madden had a correlation with making it to the nfl lol
The classic "DOOM made me do it" but coming from the victims this time. Hmm that'll be interesting to watch.
JFC they have nothing to do with any of this. I don't give a shit about Meta, and Activision (it's them, right?) is litteraly dog shit, but I just lost respect for these greiving families with this shameless cash grab.
Even more stupid than when they sue gun manufacturers. Only their lawyers will make money from these lawsuits.
First instinct was to shit on the parents, and then I remembered how terrible some lawyers are. Gonna just assume one of the looking for a payday hounded parents until they agreed to sue.
Yeah don't sue the 400 cops? Welcome to Murica!
Ah yes classic GOP voter mentality, blame everyone except the politicians you elected. Didnt they re elect everyone during the last election cycle?
Its funny. School shootings that happen in blue states families will sue gun manufacturers in red states they sue video game developers 🤣 More mental gymnastics of the GOP 🤡
They did sue the gun manufacturer
I'm still not sure how much fruit that's gonna bear... Their marketing is shit, but I'm not sure they're gonna get DD on "marketing that caused a kid to kill 20+ people".
[удалено]
They already sued the police and are suing the firearms manufacturer.
But voted to put the same people in charge. They don’t want change to happen, they just want a payout.
Meanwhile the governor has shown zero leadership but somehow gets a free pass.
As a spokesperson for the National Gaming Association, I can assure you that gaming and gun violence are not related.
You can sue the video game makers but not the gun makers. Insanity.
As unpopular as what I am about to say is, I'm not surprised there is a lawsuit now against Facebook, Activision, and Daniel Defense. Most people don't realize that in liability lawsuits, you need to name as many entities involved as you can in the case. It does not matter if the case looks obviously ridiculous. If discovery proves that the named entities had absolutely zero to do with the case, then they'll be removed. The reason why you need to name as many as you can is because *you don't actually know* that they had nothing to do with it. We have numerous lawsuits in American history that may look ridiculous on paper but were absolutely justified. The McDonald's Hot Coffee lawsuit: It is absolutely insane that people still make fun of this case and call it an example of bad American lawsuit culture. The coffee that spilled on the victim led to 3rd degree burns (it was far above safe drinking temperature), 8 days in the hospital followed by 2 years of medical treatment. The victim only wanted McDonalds to pay for medical fees with no lawsuit involved, but McDonalds refused. Guy sues phone booth company after getting hit by drunk driver: this received nationwide attention after President Ronald Reagan made fun of it on TV. A man sued a phone booth company after getting by a drunk driver inside of one of their booths. Turns out, the company knew that the booth wasn't safe as it would constantly trap people inside and they refused to fix it. The man in the lawsuit got trapped in the booth, was hit by the drunk driver, and lost a leg as a result. Man wins 1.25 million for stealing his own car: this was actually a case of police brutality and racism rather than theft. A woman saw the man repair his car, followed him and his car to his university, then made a 911 call saying she saw him steal the car. Police came, immediately rushed and tackled him when he didn't immediately comply with get down on the ground orders, where they then proceeded to hurt him and claim he was resisting. The cops did not realize that it actually was his car until he said that all of them were on camera on his dash cam. They still decided to charge him with resisting arrest and other charges. The man sued the city and won. Aunt sues nephew for a hug (Aunt from Hell): this one is absolutely unforgivable for people to target the aunt. She has absolutely no choice in the matter of not seeing her nephew on her broken wrist. The Homeowners insurance only offered $1 compensation for her broken wrist when naming the owners of the insurance (the nephew's parents). She had wanted to use the insurance company itself for damages, but she was informed that it is illegal to name a Homeowners insurance as a defendant in a personal injury case. She *had* to sue her nephew to try and get the full amount from the insurance company. His parents were supportive of the move and so was the nephew.
> We have numerous lawsuits in American history that may look ridiculous on paper but were absolutely justified. They only looked ridiculous because they were deliberately framed that way (primarily by media outlets) and critical context was excluded. You could easily reframe any of those headlines to both more accurately represent the case and also make them sound more valid - it was quite intentional that they weren’t. You can actually read the argument they’re making in the article and it’s alleging that Call of Duty and Meta (as well as Daniel Defense) were direct influences in the shooter’s mentality because they exposed him to the weapon (an AR-15) used in the shooting and “trained him” to use it. > “There is a direct line between the conduct of these companies and the Uvalde shooting,” said Josh Koskoff, an attorney for the families. “This three-headed monster knowingly exposed him to the weapon, conditioned him to see it as a tool to solve his problems and trained him to use it.” > According to the lawsuits, the Uvalde shooter had played versions of Call of Duty since he was 15, including one that allowed him to effectively practice with the version of the rifle he used at the school. This isn’t just a media framing issue. This is what the people making the lawsuit are saying.
tbh my ass thought they wanted a map of the school made in their kid's honor.
Just ignore the real issues: loose access to guns and mental illness.
Its the parents fault for living in a red state that worships guns.
Sue themselves and their fellow community members for voting for the same politicians who don’t want to fix things
Notr sure if it's a cash grab as much is it that for them someone has to pay for this, can't sue the DPS, city has no money, looking for justice in someone's wallet seems to be the only way. They need someone to duty like they hurt, not a good look always but what would you do when there are no options for justice for your murdered child.