After Sandy Hook, Guy Says He Got 50,000 People To Stop Playing Video Games. But One Gamer Refused.

Kotaku - Antwand Pearman is a father. As we spoke on the phone this afternoon, his kids chattered in the background. He kept apologizing, but I told him I didn't mind.

When Adam Lanza murdered 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Conn. last week, Pearman, CEO of GamerFitNation, was understandably affected. "I know I would lose my mind if my child didn't come home," he told me. So he decided to do something about it: he called for all gamers to participate in an Online Shooter Ceasefire on Dec. 21, abstaining from violent games for a single day to show respect for the victims and their families.

[MmaFan-Qc]

sure...

btw, why the f KOTAKU isnt blacklisted form N4G yet?

[KangarooSam]

Same reason IGN gives such high scores. #paidoff

Joking, not really sure lol.

[FACTUAL evidence]

Those 50k people were wii grandma gamers.

[Godmars290]

Because people aren't voting it down in the link.

Actually they're rated at three stars.

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

I vote down every chance I get. Hate that "site" and its writers.

[CraigandDayDay]

I vote it down every chance I get as well. Sensationalist headlines get old.

Story: wtf.
Like: no

[blackblades]

I forgot where to vote down show nuff don't see it

[xursz]

^ Click the site name under where it says 'Read full story >>'

[360ICE]

I know. What a weird conclusion. Not only are violent video games not the problem. It's not even related. How about the sandwich union not visiting Subway for 24 hours? Huh? No, but of course violence in videogames CAN potentially be harmful, and the people who didn't play have their way of showing respect. Which is good, but I'd much rather just see a moment of respect, rather than what seems to be a diversion. Some idiots are bound to take this as a concession that violent videogames are to blame.

[Simon_Brezhnev]

they not blacklisted because its not HHG.

[ALLWRONG]

Kotaku's articles are no different than the ones people here write and they get posted all the time. I myself don't visit Kotaku but because I don't like the design of the site. 70% of all the stuff on the front page is the same kind of thing Kotaku writes. So if you're going to down vote Kotaku then you should be fair and start down voting the other sites as well. You can start with the sites that do nothing but Wii U doom and gloom articles. I'll give you a hint, most of the sites have Playstation in the name.

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

How about we start with Kotaku first and then work our way to the other crap sites. Because at least the others have some actual content, no matter how sensationalist it is. Kotaku is the website that compared an outdoor festival speaker system to Glados, they had a writer "write" how he got "laid" on a sonic bed, and another writer who made a 2 sentence article about that Big Game Hunting Game and how she's gonna "Go hug her dog now".

[geddesmond]

Video games had nothing to do with the shooting. So the dude who killed all those kids played video games but what about his up bringing or how did society treat him. What happened to this man that made him snap and go on a senseless killing spree. If they can answer those questions and we find out the dude had a great up bringing, was never bullied or alienated by society and seen his life going far well then I'd blame video games and boycott the industry for good.

Yep lets take the blame away from gun laws too and just blame violent video games because we need to blame something because we are afraid to look at the truth.

[Ashunderfire86]

The answer is psychotropic drugs. Adam Lanza was an autistic kid on meds. I think it's possible that those meds he was taking were psychotropic drugs that gives you hallucinations about killing yourself and makes you have violent rage. Watch this.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

This is the truth they don't want you to know. Parents need to stop schools from giving kids these pills. These pills are worst than the drugs the government calls illegal.

[DragonKnight]

Kraptaku voted down.

[fr0sty]

Yeah, had to be the games. Had to be the guns. He couldn't have just been a crazy piece of shit, it had to be something else.

[JD_Shadow]

How about people actually read the story first instead of going on and on about who reported it. I don't like Kotaku, either, but even a broken clock is right twice in a day.

Not every single discussion has to turn into a fanboy argument. This is WHY we gamers aren't taken seriously in the media, and WHY we keep getting dick sauce for bills in the Senate. Can we actually discuss the story instead of who reported it?

[showtimefolks]

I voted it do every chance I got but they are rated as 3 stars. That's a site only looking to do fanboy articles and only looking for hits

This and ign are the 2 worst gaming sites and 3rd is gametraikers only because shane is an idiot

[Blastoise]

Interesting. They actually both have a point. In a way it's nice to show respect by not gaming, and it shows that gamers care about this stuff just like anyone else but in doing it it could almost be seen as admitting that video games are at fault. Which they aren't.

[firelogic]

Since gaming had nothing to do with it, not playing for a day is meaningless. How about this one? In honor of the tragedy, I'm going to refrain from drinking coffee for a whole week. Or I'll stop eating potato chips for a day. Or I'll stop driving my car for a day.

And equating a videogame "ceasefire" with the 1914 xmas truce? Yeah, ok there.

[ThichQuangDuck]

Labeling Adam Lanza a monster rather than his actions monstrous is what leads to the continuation of these mass shootings. People want to demonize everything that he engaged in videogames, autism, etc. They do not want to question society or the real violence in the world so they target movies and video games. That plumber obviously is only a plumber because he saw mario do it. Our kids are obese after playing too much Pac-Man. Everyone takes 30 seconds to think than vocalizes a scripted response because of Mass Effect. Society needs to take responsibility for its own actions rather than blaming art.

[jon1234]

i wonder what people used to blame before videos games were around....

[prototypeknuckles]

books, movies, television, comic books

[Blastoise]

Rap music? lol

[kevnb]

Whatever the media says is to blame, that's the sad truth.

[lsujester]

I still blame rap music. I shot a guy yesterday because Lil Wayne told me to.

[AzaziL]

Before rap music became popular, rock music was taking heat. Even Elvis was hated by the parents who had girls shaking their thing like never before.

Then it was the hippy music, disco, 80s rock and alternative/grunge. In time, people will even find a way to blame dubstep for violence.

[rpd123]

They still blame those when video games fail. I play games, watch movies and tv, and read books and comic books. I must be the ultimate mass murderer...

[M_Prime]

@AzaziL

I still hate hippy music, i don't blame it for violence, just hate it.

I think we should also start blaming the sun, i mean whenever something this bad happens the sun is usually out, and if its not out then its reflecting off the moon so its still affecting the crazy people.

[Sp1d3ynut]

There will always be scapegoats for the evil that men do. I think in ancient Rome, the Gladiator Arena was blamed for most random acts of violence.

[lizard81288]

Comic books. Comics use to be huge in the 50's, but then some guy said it made children more violent, and then the Industry bombed. Then rock music, then rap. Now it seems video games are the go to source.

[Soldierone]

Very true, and that attack is starting to come back as well. I saw FOX do a story talking about how dark and violent new comics are getting (Mostly about DC's new 52) and some guy goes "not all of them are made for kids, look at the rating" and the Fox person went "Bu bu bu but!"

At the same time books were becoming a target as well (in the 50's) Just goes to show they will literally blame anything. They would probably blame board games or kicking cans if they could.

[shutUpAndTakeMyMoney]

WATCH THE FIRST 2:10
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

The news is the problem.

[jon1234]

woahh i thought that old man was gonna give some BS speel about these situations... and the guy hit it right on the nose!

[M_Prime]

That link was really good. It pretty much explains things how they really are. Thank man.

Also made me think, what if the next guy had an obsession with FIFA football games? will they try to blame that too?

[Mutant-Spud]

I'm old enough to remember the Satanist scares of the 1980's, every kid who wigged out was accused of Satanic leanings. There are those guys who spent about 18 years in prison for the "Satanic Murders" of two little kids and were only recently released and allowed a retrial because their original convictions were so badly compromised. If you want to know how nuts it got read "Painted Black" by Carl.A.Raschke,believe it or not this guy is still consulted and quoted on teen violence today.

[freezola75]

Hollywood.. Rap... is the blame smh

[NovusTerminus]

Dungeons & Dragons caught hell. Now it has just shifted from table top gaming to digital gaming.

[FreshRevenge]

so having gamers hold off one day from playing a violent video game is going to do what exactly? Respect. It wasn't video games that made this kid go on a shooting spree. It was his own mental problems that made him go into a shooting spree.

[dericb11]

Plus the fact that his mom had guns with 100's of round of ammo.

I guess video games magically gives you guns and ammo when you play to go on a real life killing spree. /smh

[DasTier]

Having the guns didn't "make" him do anything, they were just tools he used.

At the moment both the NEA & the Gaming world sounds as retarded as each other by pointing fingers in each others directions.

IMO neither were to blame, I feel the mother was completely at fault for:
A.) teaching an autistic child how to use the guns.
B.) letting said autistic child have access to the guns.
C.) obviously not raising her autistic son properly.

Banning either video games or guns would be retarded. Nothing would be solved from that.

[Baka-akaB]

not really . One of the two isnt a weapon to begin with , and should never have been stockpiled in any decent household to that amount.

I agree that people are the ones at fault here . But it shouldnt be that easy to access weapons , while some drugs and pharmatical products are under such scrutiny (for even good reasons ) .

That's just silly

[CoLD FiRE]

@ujean69

Enough with the blame shifting! The media has already disgusted me enough by trying to make this "terrorist" sound like an innocent angel who did what he did because society made him do it. It's really insulting to those little kids and adults who lost their lives because of this ugly excuse of a human whom the media refuses to address as a terrorist because he wasn't of a certain ethnicity or religion.

Autistic or not, he killed 26 innocent people (20 of which were defenseless children). If hell exists, I hope he rots there for eternity.

[Cam977]

She must've used this cheat:
R1, R2, L1, R2, Left, Down, Right, Up, Left, Down, Right, Up

I hope he rots in hell for his crime, I don't even want to type his name because the scum bag doesn't deserve it. I hope his body was destroyed then sent to the sun to be truly decimated.

[kevnb]

Whatever, Americans kill a bunch of kids overseas and screw over other countries. But when some random idiot goes crazy we are supposed to change everything we do. Screw off.

[hazardman]

I'm American and I haven't killed anyone the American government kills people not me prick..

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

lol

[wenaldy]

I'm Muslim and I haven't killed anyone the terrorist kills people not me prick..

[Reverent]

The media does such a wonderful job at making Americans seem like selfish a**holes and Muslims as terrorists. As for me, thanks to online gaming, I have friends from all over the world. Want to know the similar trait they all share? They are all exactly the f**king same.

[Kos-Mos]

But you sure have a high temperament which often result in dangerous behavior. Calm down mr.american.

[CoLD FiRE]

You know because the kids killed by American drones in other countries have less value than American children killed by an American terrorist. Oh sorry I forgot! The term "terrorist" does NOT apply when the act is committed by an American who doesn't match a certain criteria defined by color and religion!

What happened in Newton is just as bad as any act of terrorism anywhere on the globe.

Just for the record, one day after the NC shooting, 10 children were killed by US drones in Afghanistan but sure enough the media didn't give a f*ck and Obama didn't shed a tear (I'm not saying that his crocodile tears after the NC shooting worth much).

[Hicken]

We kill a bunch of kids? When? Go pull up an article about it.

This crap is seriously annoying: something bad happens, and America gets blamed. Even if we have nothing to do with it, people ALWAYS blame the US.

This dude was screwed in the head: he is to blame. So is his mother, who taught her mentally unwell son how to shoot.

They are both dead.

Guns are not to blame. Guns, in and of themselves, do nothing. What's needed is a person to pull the trigger. Without that person, a gun just sits there.

Games are not to blame. Games, apparently, cause a temporary increase in aggression, but that hasn't been shown to translate into physical action, as aggression can be something as simple as being irritated more easily. For games to influence a person to take action, something has to be wrong with them to start with. And only CERTAIN somethings. And even then, only certain individuals will respond. I've been clinically depressed since I was a child, and yet no violent movie, game, or show has EVER prompted me to do something violent.

That's because the decision- the actions- lies with me. It would be MY fault if I went on a shooting spree, or stabbed a bunch of people.

No game would have forced me to do it. No gun would have moved my hand.

It's not the American government, as incompetent as they may be at times. It's not our military, as controversial as our actions sometimes are.

I'm not even gonna get into the politics and crap involved in us taking military action in other countries. But I can assure you that people would be even more pissed if we stayed over here and were like, "Whaaat? Dictator committing genocide on his own people and the UN's hands are tied? Damn. Oh, well."

[Megaton]

Plenty of children on this list. American tax dollars at work.

https://twitter.com/dronest...

[dennett316]

How does abstaining from violent entertainment show respect to the deceased? All it does is ensure that this coward of a killer continues to have an impact on the world, even after death.
In these cases, I'm with the FBI guy in the Charlie Brooker video on Youtube....stop giving these psychos publicity. Do not broadcast their name, do not emphasise the number of victims....let's stop giving these unbalanced lunatics a target to aim for and a "hero" to aspire to.
I certainly wouldn't allow their actions to affect the country or world as a whole in the manner of affecting what we do for entertainment. Millions upon millions per year enjoy this entertainment with ZERO ill effect and ZERO negative impact on the lives of others....let's keep it that way.

[ronin4life]

A lot of people here don't seem to get what this really was...

It wasn't meant as a statement about gamings relation to the event, just a show of solidarity for other people. No one was forced into this or needs to do so to show support, it was just a way for people with a common interest to say goodwill to those who have suffered. It was in no way a political statement or anything more than a group get together... like a hand holding circle or a candle light vigle.

[StreetsofRage]

Terrible event, but why would I stop playing video games? Death is everywhere, big and small. That's life. I'm not going to stop doing something I like because somebody thinks it's violent or "it's just the right thing to do."

No matter how terrible an event is....life goes on.

[Sovereign59]

There is really no logic behind this.
It would be like... if there were a shark attack, you wouldn't ask Discovery Channel to cancel Shark Week out of respect for the victim.
I'm not saying this incident wasn't a tragedy, because it definitely was, but this really shouldn't even be talked about on such a widespread scale anymore. It's just helping to garner attention for the criminal. Unfortunately, the media thrives on tragedy and so we won't be finished hearing about this event for quite some time.
"Eye on the TV 'cause tragedy thrills me, whatever flavor it happens to be
Like 'killed by the husband,' 'drowned by the ocean,' 'shot by his own son,' 'she used a poison in his tea, then kissed him goodbye,' that's my kind of story
It's no fun 'til someone dies"
Tool's Vicarious is probably the most depressingly true song of all time. If you've somehow never heard it before, at least look up the rest of the lyrics.

[the worst]

oh well im firing up my call of duty now.
Fu$K kotaku and the NRA

[Griffin4871]

The truth about all this is simple. The killer is dead so everyone is looking for a target to blow steam at and they choose gaming just because the shooter happened to play games. Gaming once again has to be the fking scapegoat because they don't wanna focus on the real problem which is the public distribution of munitions.

[DasTier]

By blaming "the public distribution of munitions" you sound just a misguided as those who are blaming video games.

The offenders at fault are the mother and the son, no one else.

Why teach a mental ill person to shoot?
Why give them acces to guns?

You could even raise the point of why keep the mental ill people alive, if this kind of action is their contribution to the world.

[OccludedGamer]

Say that to the families living with mentally ill people who are stable and harmless and see how they respond to your close-minded attitude

[kingPoS]

What ever the media shines it's spotlight on gets attention for better or worse. Unfortunately whenever there's an agenda involved, undue attention is usually focused or directed elsewhere.

[young7yang]

Am i the only one that does not care!

people do really bad things and there is nothing we can do about it... what happened happened and it could not have happened any other way!

as a father i am pissed but i would never blame it on games. i am a vivid gamer and a teacher and while i have never played call of duty because it does not appeal to me i have played a number of games that can be labelled violent like ninja gaiden and dead space to name few.

some people are just plain heartless and can care less...

the media is F*&KED up for how that have treated this whole thing...

[Tetsujin]

I swear they need to vote Kotaku off this site entirely, and they're getting desperate for hits at this point; and using a national disaster for more site hits? F- Off!

[Orionsangel]

I wonder if these 50,000 people ever fired a gun or even had access to guns. I never fired a gun, let alone seen one up close. I ignore guns. I don't care for them, but in video games it's fun to pretend. I use my gamepad. I assume it's nothing like using a real gun. I figure if I ever have mental issues where I wanna hurt people. I won't use a gun. Because I don't even know how to use a gun. Let alone have a gun. So if a video game can influence me to kill people. How would I go about it? Get my point?

To use guns you already have to be a gun user. Why are kids using guns? Why are some kids who grew up using guns growing up to be nutjobs who do mass-shootings? Because they were already gun users who's outlet for aggression was using a gun. Again I ask, why are we raising kids to use guns? A violent video video game doesn't make you own a gun or teach you how to use a gun.

Even if a video game helped spark your interest in guns. The game didn't make you kill. If killing imaginary people in the virtual world was so damaging to a person's mind that it would make you kill people in the real world. Wouldn't it make a soldier killing people in a war a hundred times more damaging? So where are all the Vets doing mass-shootings? Folks, this a mental health issue and it just so happens that most of the people having these mental breakdowns and doing these mass-shootings were already avid gun users.

[Tundra]

Let's ignore the fact the guy had a severe mental illness and blame video games. Let's ignore the fact that the mother tried to get him locked in the crazy bin and that he didn't care for that too much. Another possible motive is that Adam believed she cared about her kindergarden class in Sandy Hook Elementary School more than him. But no let's blame an immensely popular form of entertainment instead of his mental disorder.

He was mentally sick and I have no sympathy for this formerly psychotic bastard due to the fact he willingly killed human beings who haven't even grasped the meaning of life and death. This has nothing to do with video games and I hope you're covered in gasoline when you're burning in hell Adam.

[kostchtchie_]

exactly, and by getting 50k people to stop playing video games is like saying it was the video games that killed them children not the shit way society fails mentally ill people, society failed them children, they are the reason they are dead, because they FAILED that mentally ill boy

[Swiftfox]

Kotaku,

You mentioned the casualty count. You mentioned that coward's name. Then you stir up rubbish for the sake of it.

Bad form, kotaku. Truly bad form.

[Captain Tuttle]

It's not just Kotaku talking about video games and this incident, it's the mainstream press, the NRA, Congressmen and women. Putting your head in the sand doesn't make it go away.

I don't get the Kotaku hate here, they do a better job than 99.9% of the fanboys who post here on N4G (including me).

[Swiftfox]

I know this is a very late reply so forgive me.

Asking them not to say the murder's name or the number of casualties isn't burying your head in the sand, it's asking a bit of dignity from the media to not sensationalize the events of that day into another tragedy.

My comments where not of hate toward Kotaku if that was your assumption. My comments were of disappointment. Disappointment that Kotaku would rather add to the overall problem than take the high road and curve this disgusting trend we see in the modern media.

[jakmckratos]

Let's have a day where Autistic people don't do Autistic things then.

[Megaton]

"CEO of GamerFitNation"

That's cute. Didn't know blogs had CEOs.

[HorrorGod]

I don't see the problem with what was being asked. It's just out of respect for the victims. A "moment of silence" type thing. Same reason my town asked people to leave their Christmas lights off for 1 night out of respect.
My town wasn't blaming Christmas lights for the massacre.

[armycore]

Why ANYONE is listening to Triforce is beyond me. The guy is a total attention whore and fairly crooked.

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

obviously gamers care there people just like everyone else.

[dee-ecks]

Meanwhile all the actual gamers called bullshit.

[madjedi]

Have the media stop making a celebrity out of the scum bags, ban all tv cameras from the court rooms and stop having worldwide coverage to glamorous the tragedy.

I don't bother watching the news anymore all you hear about is murder, rape, robbery or how a politican or government employee embezzling $100,000 - 1,000,000+ of tax payers money.

Same thing with the guy who killed the people at the dkr showing, he should have been executed within a week tops.

But since the tragedy and drama gets good ratings, i doubt it will change any.

But we live in a panzy ass country that reduced the death penalty for a deathrow inmate to life in prison because he is too much of a fatass for a lethal injection.

And to any of the fools screaming for excessive gun control, you still have knives, blunt objects and barehands to contend with. Unfortunetly the old saying were there is a will there is a way, applies even to that evil intent.

[RandomDude655]

Now to bring more relevant "news" than Kotaku

http://gifb.in/CGsV

[bozebo]

Do we also have to not watch films with shooting, not buy guns or bullets (this one... should be quite important), not read any books that may contain anything involving shooting, avoid basically all media that involves guns and shooting and real guns too? Or is it games' fault... and not... actual firearms?

Every time the media mention a school shooting they increase the likelihood of more school shootings (people do it to make an impression before they off themselves).

[TemplarDante]

Im sick of Kotaku..
Practice what you preach, if you hate gaming, quit covering it.
Or go join Oprah.
The blame game over videogaming is getting ridiculous.
The dude+his mom were loners+doomsday preppers.
Yesterday was "suppose" to be Doomsday, investigate that!
Why are people not investigating that link.

[Captain Tuttle]

And I suppose you could just avoid Kotaku articles. Save yourself alot of stress.

[isyourhouseonfire]

I also stopped playing.

Haha, yeah right, of course I didn't stop. There's been enough victims in this tragedy, why add myself to the list?

[Deku-Johnny]

Did u kno if everyone in the world stopped playing video games there would never be another crime involving guns again? Knowing is half the battle.

[CatXFlash]

And what do Video games have to do with a guy shooting up a school? NOTHING not one single video game that I have ever played has a guy shoot kids at a school.

Tell you what.. when the US takes the guns from the soldiers and the cops than we can talk about no weapons.. till than, leave the American people out of this we have every right to bare arms and watch any content we want.

Bunch of tools this is about mental health not guns.

[HorrorGod]

I've played ONE game where the main character shot at kids in a school. But he misses. And breaks down.
(Postal)
But that game didn't make -ME- want to go buy a gun and shoot at people. If anything, it prevented me from doing it.

[Karum]

I dunno why people are hating, admittedly Kotaku put a lot of garbage out and seldom do I like anything I've ever read on there but this was a pretty interesting article.

For those that didn't bother to read it the article is basically reporting on the points of view of he guy who arranged for gamers to have that ceasefire on Friday and that of that guy that changed his name to Tri-Force who disagreed and had his own event on the same day streaming games.

It quoted both for their reasoning and what they said to each other.

It was actually an interesting read to hear both points of view. One of the few Kotaku articles worth reading I thought.

[Soldierone]

Why are they making that guy seem like the bad guy? He hosted his own event with similar manner and respected the original cease fire event.... Yet Kotaku sits there saying he is a douche?

This shows gamers are kind. Try doing that cease fire thing with violent TV (news included) and movies.... won't happen at all.

[InTheLab]

to participate in the cease fire lends weight to the notion that violent games influences these psychos that do these mass shootings....

I'm with Triforce on this one.

edit: kotaku is shit and totillo is a tool.

[Ogygian]

precisely. We're not even slightly obliged to make a statement as the games we play are harmless.

[Ogygian]

Violence in games doesn't kill people: guns do.

In the UK we have access to all the violent games you have in the USA (our censors don't really touch anything) yet our murder rate is far lower and gunmen are unheard of.

Here, rifles and shotguns are owned only by a few farmers, and we have a murder rate of 1.2 per 100,000 people compared to the USA's 4.2.

Violent games are not the problem and need to be let off the hook, as there is no evidence they cause crime, whereas guns directly do!
The argument that people kill people rather than guns is rather weak as well - you wouldn't sell nukes or small bombs as "people kill people and they are harmless unless people decide to use them", so why not extend that logic to all weapons which don't have incredibly common non-violent uses (you can't ban knives as you need them to cook, but surely hunters can deal with a little extra regulation?)