Connecticut Elementary School Massacre

[barracuda]

Fascinating to follow the filthy News Stream as it gurgles its way downhill, all the way from its distant, mysterious source to its grateful recipients: Anonymous Cop (who may or may not exist) > NY Daily News sports columnist (who may or may not have been sober) > Salon > HuffPo > The Plebs (Comments: 2,279; Pending Comments: 84)

You left out the original source here, Col. Danny Stebbins of the Connecticut State Police. He's the one who gave the presentation at the conference which was relayed to Lupica by anon.

So was that giant "special printer" also found in The Monster's gloomy lair? Or did The Monster in fact have to leave his lair in daylight and carry a data stick to a well-equipped copy shop? Which copy shop? Was it a friendly local one in Newtown? I think we should be told.

I was wondering about that myself. It would be pretty easy to trace. I have one of those printers, a large format HP that outputs from a continuous roll which I bought used on craigslist. But you usually don't find them in private homes. Any Kinkos would print a file like that.

[MacCruiskeen]

drew,I was directly quoting Lupica of the NYDN (emphasis added):

a chilling spreadsheet 7 feet long and 4 feet wide that required a special printer

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... 1408?print

Whatever that was, it was no slip of the tongue.

[MacCruiskeen]

You left out the original source here, Col. Danny Stebbins of the Connecticut State Police.

No, I quoted the original source: the anonymous cop who claimed to be quoting Stebbins. Stebbins can plausibly deny it, in whole or in part. Of course the anonymous cop himself (presuming he actually exists) can also claim to have been misquoted by the NYDN hack. And so it goes.

The actual original source of nearly everything reported about this massacre has almost always been anonymous, and therefore such statements are always easily deniable whenever necessary, in whole or in part, by the very few accountable people speaking on the record. Handy, that. Meanwhile, suggestion, insinuation and innuendo do their work.

Certainly the world has been and is still being comprehensively prepared by countless prudently-anonymous "sources" for whatever ultimately emerges as the Official Story. We're witnessing nothing if not the careful and conscious creation of a monster here.

[FourthBase]

The law enforcement officer, who did not want his name used, said the spreadsheet that Lanza had created looked like a score sheet. The type of thing created by a video gamer to keep track of players' scores, so he could put his name right at the top.

He said cops think Lanza killed himself because he didn't want to lose his lead in the game. In a video gamer's mind, if someone else kills you, they get all your points. That may be what Lanza believed would have happened had he been taken down by the cops.

^^Is this even true?

No, not for the most popular FPS, like CoD and Halo. Perhaps there are other games where that's true, but I myself have never seen them played. I mean, maybe some party games, child's play. On the other hand, any GTA gamer knows what it's like to go on a virtual rampage, to escape virtual cops, and to virtually take oneself out with a virtual grenade, not for any extra points, just for the virtual honor of not being virtually taken down by the virtual cops. I rapidly found that I hated that style of play, that entire mindset, and only ever now play GTA: San Andreas for the non-lethal non-violent lulz, sometimes I even play for hours under the strict condition of having to obey normal rules of the road, stopping at red lights, no unauthorized passing, no excess speed, no accidents where I'm at fault (although the AI of NPC drivers is designed to be rude and aggressive, so one can't help some crashes), no hitting people ever.

[justdrew]

The law enforcement officer, who did not want his name used, said the spreadsheet that Lanza had created looked like a score sheet. The type of thing created by a video gamer to keep track of players' scores, so he could put his name right at the top.

He said cops think Lanza killed himself because he didn't want to lose his lead in the game. In a video gamer's mind, if someone else kills you, they get all your points. That may be what Lanza believed would have happened had he been taken down by the cops.

http://mynorthwest.com/11/2229647/Repor ... ss-murders

^^Is this even true?

no, that's just anti video game insanity. a fun pastime the lamestream media can play to keep people wound up and clicking on their stupid web sites. It's pathetic really.

[FourthBase]

The law enforcement officer, who did not want his name used, said the spreadsheet that Lanza had created looked like a score sheet. The type of thing created by a video gamer to keep track of players' scores, so he could put his name right at the top.

He said cops think Lanza killed himself because he didn't want to lose his lead in the game. In a video gamer's mind, if someone else kills you, they get all your points. That may be what Lanza believed would have happened had he been taken down by the cops.

http://mynorthwest.com/11/2229647/Repor ... ss-murders

^^Is this even true?

no, that's just anti video game insanity. a fun pastime the lamestream media can play to keep people wound up and clicking on their stupid web sites. It's pathetic really.

Is all of it really pathetic, though? Have you ever known a young male who was temporarily obsessed with the free-roaming ability to commit virtual spree killings in any one of the best-selling GTA games over the last 10+ years? Have you ever been that young male? It can be a type of intra video game insanity. It absolutely temporarily re-wires your synapses or something. You know how when you play Tetris obsessively you start dreaming loopy scenes of those falling interlocking shapes? When you obsessively play GTA in certain ways, it can do the same thing, except you dream about chasing down people and killing them, avoiding being killed by others, exploding head shots and such. If you've played GTA and not had such a dream, then you either didn't play it enough, or you simply don't remember those dreams.

[barracuda]

I think Lanza supposedly played Call of Duty.

[DrEvil]

About that chart. Sounds to me like he meant the cops needed a special printer. Why would Lanza print out his evil master plan for all to see (his mom and the guy at the print shop).

Most city halls have a plotter for maps and whatnot. Cops might even have one, they're not terribly expensive.

Edit: Gaming. Doesn't. Turn. People. Into. Monsters.

[FourthBase]

About that chart. Sounds to me like he meant the cops needed a special printer. Why would Lanza print out his evil master plan for all to see (his mom and the guy at the print shop).

Most city halls have a plotter for maps and whatnot. Cops might even have one, they're not terribly expensive.

Edit: Gaming. Doesn't. Turn. People. Into. Monsters.

No. One. Is. Saying. That.

Gaming doesn't turn people into monsters. Correct.
Very, very, very few people are predisposed to ever be able to become monsters, anyway.
Of those very, very, very few -- it is not possible that violent pop culture could be a trigger, inspiration?

Let's get real here, let's cut the shit and not just be gamer versions of NRA rednecks.
"Another shooting, hmmpph, figures...They're comin' fir our games!"

[beeline]

Is all of it really pathetic, though? Have you ever known a young male who was temporarily obsessed with the free-roaming ability to commit virtual spree killings in any one of the best-selling GTA games over the last 10+ years? Have you ever been that young male? It can be a type of intra video game insanity. It absolutely temporarily re-wires your synapses or something. You know how when you play Tetris obsessively you start dreaming loopy scenes of those falling interlocking shapes? When you obsessively play GTA in certain ways, it can do the same thing, except you dream about chasing down people and killing them, avoiding being killed by others, exploding head shots and such. If you've played GTA and not had such a dream, then you either didn't play it enough, or you simply don't remember those dreams.

I have had those GTA dreams. Thought I was the only one.

[FourthBase]

Is all of it really pathetic, though? Have you ever known a young male who was temporarily obsessed with the free-roaming ability to commit virtual spree killings in any one of the best-selling GTA games over the last 10+ years? Have you ever been that young male? It can be a type of intra video game insanity. It absolutely temporarily re-wires your synapses or something. You know how when you play Tetris obsessively you start dreaming loopy scenes of those falling interlocking shapes? When you obsessively play GTA in certain ways, it can do the same thing, except you dream about chasing down people and killing them, avoiding being killed by others, exploding head shots and such. If you've played GTA and not had such a dream, then you either didn't play it enough, or you simply don't remember those dreams.

I have had those GTA dreams. Thought I was the only one.

I'm glad to be the one to inform you otherwise!

So, now, we two can't possibly be the only ones, right?
It's not a peculiar, idiosyncratic, unique personal thing.
There is some general brain effect, mechanism.

EDIT: And so, how many play GTA in the same way, long enough, to have those dreams?
Rather, is it in the millions, or just the thousands? And what about other games?
And out of all those, how many are conditioned/predisposed to be monsters?
Several? Dozens? Hundreds? What does it do to their brain, their mind?

[IanEye]

i used to have intense Bioshock dreams. usually involving Rapture's unique HVAC system.

[elfismiles]

I think it's true in Tournament play on CoD. There are all kinds of point systems for kill-assists, etc.

The law enforcement officer, who did not want his name used, said the spreadsheet that Lanza had created looked like a score sheet. The type of thing created by a video gamer to keep track of players' scores, so he could put his name right at the top.

He said cops think Lanza killed himself because he didn't want to lose his lead in the game. In a video gamer's mind, if someone else kills you, they get all your points. That may be what Lanza believed would have happened had he been taken down by the cops.

^^Is this even true?

No, not for the most popular FPS, like CoD and Halo. Perhaps there are other games where that's true, but I myself have never seen them played. I mean, maybe some party games, child's play.

[Canadian_watcher]

Is all of it really pathetic, though? Have you ever known a young male who was temporarily obsessed with the free-roaming ability to commit virtual spree killings in any one of the best-selling GTA games over the last 10+ years? Have you ever been that young male? It can be a type of intra video game insanity. It absolutely temporarily re-wires your synapses or something. You know how when you play Tetris obsessively you start dreaming loopy scenes of those falling interlocking shapes? When you obsessively play GTA in certain ways, it can do the same thing, except you dream about chasing down people and killing them, avoiding being killed by others, exploding head shots and such. If you've played GTA and not had such a dream, then you either didn't play it enough, or you simply don't remember those dreams.

I have had those GTA dreams. Thought I was the only one.

I'm glad to be the one to inform you otherwise!

So, now, we two can't possibly be the only ones, right?
It's not a peculiar, idiosyncratic, unique personal thing.
There is some general brain effect, mechanism.

EDIT: And so, how many play GTA in the same way, long enough, to have those dreams?
Rather, is it in the millions, or just the thousands? And what about other games?
And out of all those, how many are conditioned/predisposed to be monsters?
Several? Dozens? Hundreds? What does it do to their brain, their mind?

this is pretty interesting, really.
I had the Tetris dreams. (I still think about how invasive and awful they were - worse than dreaming I am at work, even) However, I've played lots of other video games, some of them somewhat obsessively at times, and never, ever dreamt about any of them (that I remember) I do dream, too, and I remember many of my dreams, so I don't think I have dreamt about video games other than Tetris.

I wonder. I wonder what it is about some of them?

[DrEvil]

...stuff...
Edit: Gaming. Doesn't. Turn. People. Into. Monsters.

No. One. Is. Saying. That.

Gaming doesn't turn people into monsters. Correct.
Very, very, very few people are predisposed to ever be able to become monsters, anyway.
Of those very, very, very few -- it is not possible that violent pop culture could be a trigger, inspiration?

Of course, but anyone capable of doing something like this can be triggered by anything. A comic book, a movie, a TV-show, a game, the wrong comment at the wrong time. Pretty much anything.

The media, and a lot of people, blame games, simply because they don't have a clue. They don't play games, they don't care about games and they don't understand games (Fun fact: five years ago the average gamer was a woman in her thirties). They're easy targets. Just like Dungeons & Dragons in its time, and rock music before that.

And about CoD as "training" - if you want to train for military style action you do not play Call of Duty. That's like trying to learn real military tactics by watching a Michael Bay movie.
There's plenty of actual combat sims out there, like Arma 2 (which runs on the same engine as an actual simulator used by armed forces), or America's Army - made by the US military for your tax dollars as a recruitment tool. At least it's free to play.

Oh, and you don't lose points in games like Call of Duty. As elfismiles said, you can get points for kill-assists and stuff like that, but that comes in addition to other points, not at their expense.

There are some games where you can lose a lot if you screw up, like Eve Online or DayZ (a zombie survival mod for Arma2), but they're more niche, and usually have a more mature player-base (but not necessarily any nicer).
If you want truly psychotic players you should try League of Legends

Let's get real here, let's cut the shit and not just be gamer versions of NRA rednecks.
"Another shooting, hmmpph, figures...They're comin' fir our games!"

You're right, I do tend to have a knee-jerk reaction to people bashing games, but I'm just so sick of them being blamed every time. You would think that most people realize that actual guns do more damage than virtual ones.