AfterDawn: Tech news

Norway terrorist used video games to train

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 26 Jul 2011 12:35 User comments (38)

Norway terrorist used video games to train Anders Behring Breivik, the 32-year-old psychopath behind this week's tragedy in Norway, has detailed how he used video games to train for the massacre.
On Monday, Breivik set off a bomb outside of a government building then shot up a labor party youth camp, killing 93 people (mainly teenagers) in his spree.

In a 1500 page manifesto, the terrorist explains his use of Modern Warfare 2:

I just bought Modern Warfare 2, the game. It is probably the best military simulator out there and it’s one of the hottest games this year. I see MW2 more as a part of my training-simulation than anything else.


The killer published the manifesto, in English, giving a view into his violent philosophy and the extensive planning that took place before the attack. Breivik was considered extreme right-wing in his political stance.



Adds Breivik in the manifesto (via ITP):

Once you decide to strike, it is better to kill too many than not enough, or you risk reducing the desired ideological impact of the strike.

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38 user comments

126.7.2011 12:54

Wonderful...so much for free speech in video games. A million things went into making this guy a twisted psycho...and I guarantee they will blame his "training tool" rather than trying to figure out why he would want to do it in the first place.

226.7.2011 13:20

Ok the guy admitted he learned what to do from a game. But he never said the game wanted him to do it. He had already wanted to commit an atrocity. He'd have learned what to do else where had he not gotten a game. Maybe from some camp in the middle east or whatever. The fact is there are so many other social problems that led him to that point and they all need to be blamed.

326.7.2011 13:30

Originally posted by KillerBug:
Wonderful...so much for free speech in video games. A million things went into making this guy a twisted psycho...and I guarantee they will blame his "training tool" rather than trying to figure out why he would want to do it in the first place.
I agree, more to blame on video games.
What about this quote
"I also used science books for building bombs"

426.7.2011 13:55

Ban science!!!1

526.7.2011 15:23

Quote:
Once you decide to strike, it is better to kill too many than not enough, or you risk reducing the desired ideological impact of the strike.
Someone has been reading Clausewitz.

626.7.2011 15:47

It's kinda sad that he didn't get 100 points. So close..

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 26 Jul 2011 @ 3:47

726.7.2011 17:27

Really??? That's part of his defense? How pathetic....And to throw gamers under the bus just because he's "unbalanced", to say the least.

826.7.2011 18:27

Quote:
I just bought Modern Warfare 2, the game. It is probably the best military simulator out there and it’s one of the hottest games this year. I see MW2 more as a part of my training-simulation than anything else.


the biggest load of bullshit if i ever heard it, nothing in MW2 is Simulated its an arcade shooter, you want military simulations go ARMA that's simulation.

this is one reason ill never be on the right side of the law, if i was doing the arresting he'd look like finely aged swiss cheese by the time i got em in cuffs

926.7.2011 18:49
ps3lvanub
Inactive

Originally posted by DXR88:
Quote:
I just bought Modern Warfare 2, the game. It is probably the best military simulator out there and it’s one of the hottest games this year. I see MW2 more as a part of my training-simulation than anything else.


the biggest load of bullshit if i ever heard it, nothing in MW2 is Simulated its an arcade shooter, you want military simulations go ARMA that's simulation.

this is one reason ill never be on the right side of the law, if i was doing the arresting he'd look like finely aged swiss cheese by the time i got em in cuffs
It wouldn't surprise me as the only reason it was his "training" was because of "No Russian".
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 26 Jul 2011 @ 6:49

1026.7.2011 18:57

DXR88

In almost all of Europe now we don't do death penalties.

For a psycho f***er like this POS it would be far to easy & quick.
He will have to spend his remaining years loathed and scorned for the deranged perversion of humanity that he is to all of his countrymen & the very Europeans he believed he was starting a war for.

Someday sometime he will get insights into what he has done & what he is and what we all think of him.
With luck some of the victims familys go & make sure he faces them and the consequences of what he has done.
Hopefully it happens again and again and again, over many years.

......and in 40yrs time when his infantile pathetic little delusions of invasion, cultural subjugation and all the rest of that childish ignorant evil horsesh!te have failed to come to pass he will still be having to live with his status as one of the most reviled & disowned Norwegians ever and by those he claims his own.

F**k him. I hope it utterly destroys him.
He certainly is going to have a long time to live with it.
It doesn't bring anyone back but I think it is far far better than the quick & easy 'solution' of an execution
(and it doesn't bring us down to his level either).

1126.7.2011 19:17

This guy has something wrong with him, video game or not if someone wants to kill someone with a gun or bomb they will seek the right place for info. This game does not show you how to operate a gun other then shooting at characters, even then you are using your controller you are not feeling the kick back or actually aiming the gun. This will now just be another nail in the coffin for video games and crazed people blaming everything else but themselves or people responsible for the bad crap going on in the world. People still killed people when there was no TV or video game violence. People that believe this crap are just as nuts as this guy is.

1226.7.2011 21:48
llongtheD
Inactive

Originally posted by KillerBug:
Wonderful...so much for free speech in video games. A million things went into making this guy a twisted psycho...and I guarantee they will blame his "training tool" rather than trying to figure out why he would want to do it in the first place.
Exactly.
Seems the only things the media wants to make a story about are things that get the sheep riled up to strip away a few more rights and or censor a few more things. Like so many stories they report, it's always someone or something elses fault, never the poor lunatic. Maybe they should report on this idiots extreme religious beliefs, more people have been killed in the name of religion than anything. That will probably never be on the table though.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 26 Jul 2011 @ 9:59

1327.7.2011 00:47

blame the game again guy is a pure lunatic.

1427.7.2011 04:36

I don't get this, not in my country anyway.
I don't see anyone "blaming the game", it's just more info emerging from that nutters own 'manifesto'.
It's merely a report that this deranged f**kwit claims he got some sort of 'training' value out of MW2.

(and which as Mr_Bill06 rightly points out can only be of themost basic 'learning to look the in the right direction & point' type)

1527.7.2011 05:43

Intestx - While the game probably didn't give him much training, that really does not matter. Old media loves to attack new media. TV news is old media, video games are new media.

Remember all the crap we heard after Columbine about how DOOM was used as a trainer in spite of the fact that you don't even aim vertically? It wasn't until a few years later that we all found out that the events that day were caused by gay-bashing christian extremists...it was all about "how", and the "why" was swept under the carpet and finally ignored when it saw the light of day. Do you really think they will handle this any differently?

1627.7.2011 08:03

I'm sorry for posting this b/c it might start a political conversation (argument) and I really don't like doing that on this site, but I believe the opposite and I felt I had to say so. This will be the last post I make to this article.

Originally posted by Interestx:

In almost all of Europe now we don't do death penalties.

For a psycho f***er like this POS it would be far to easy & quick.

You forgot an adjective there: effective. So, since you don't execute his a$$, he now gets a warm bed, three squares a day and medical treatment for free for life. How does this influence people to not follow in his footsteps? I think one of the most effective things that could be done as well would be to not make him a news story and give him all the attention he so desperately wanted.


1727.7.2011 08:26

I think we should try to avoid this discussion...neither side is ever going to convince the other side of anything.

You just have to accept that people have different standards. For some people being losing their freedom for life is a punishment worse than death no matter how nice the cell and treatment...for others it is as good as early retirement.

Honestly, if I had to chose between life in prison or death, I would welcome chose death. I like freedom and see little value in a life without it...but that is just me I guess.

1827.7.2011 11:05

I'll just chime in shortly (yeah, I know, tough chance of that right?) I know how KillerBug feels about the Right wing conservatives over here in the US are going to come out of the wood work & start howling about video games again. About how they're the bane of human existence & the devils newest tool of corruption of society... and I'll just leave my vociferation of the christian right wingers there...

Then I also feel for Interestx & the betrayal that must be going through his country at this time. I take that back... No I don't understand it. The US has had its share of betrayal & backstabbing. Our country was based on overcoming such things. The Norwegian folks (I am assuming & apologize up front) haven't really needed to do much of that.

I mean this pining, whining, blathering idiot had nothing more than a childish plea for attention & committed "the" epitome of shite fits in order to get said attention.

In order to try & keep this short: If this turd hunter wants attention one would say denial of such is the grandest punishment & the death penalty would be a grand display of such. But as Interstx said, that isn't going to bring anybody back. And even though I feel 3 hots & a cot is too good for this turd truffle, I do feel equal, cruel & unusual punishment that he has reaped upon the families should be shown to him as he has bestowed on the families.

Deny this idiot the very thing he craves... the very attention that he wanted. All of it. Limited or no human contact. Any time he writes something, burn it in front of him. No psychiatric help. Give him food & shelter & let him live it out.

I say enough of this "humane treatment" crap. Our societies are starting to execute ourselves into extinction by allowing these individuals to continue to exist because we continue to conceitedly believe we are above them. Once we get it through our heads that they believe the same thing we might just survive.

1927.7.2011 11:12

Quote:
KillerBug

While the game probably didn't give him much training, that really does not matter. Old media loves to attack new media. TV news is old media, video games are new media.

No I think you're misunderstanding me.
People are talking about this as if the media in other countries are talking about this and blaming video games.
They aren't.
I can understand some people worrying that it might turn out like that but so far I haven't seen anyone blaming a video game.
Like I said it has been general comment about his idiotic manifesto, certainly in the UK at least.

Quote:
dirtyash

You forgot an adjective there: effective. So, since you don't execute his a$$, he now gets a warm bed, three squares a day and medical treatment for free for life.
He lives a life with no liberty.
His regime completely in the hands of others.
If you really think that is a great life then why aren't you rushing to do what is necessary to do likewise then, hmmm?

You know this sort of talk is so silly, it's like the ridiculous tabloid commentary that pretends people who are black or unemployed or gay etc etc 'get everything'.
If it really was so why aren't those complaining rushing to get these benefits (ok you can't become black but you could choose to be unemployed or gay etc)?

The answer is obvious (and below).....

Quote:
dirtyash
How does this influence people to not follow in his footsteps?
.....because back in the real world 99.9999999999% of the rest of us cannot be "influenced" to become murders in the manner you suggest anyway.
We are just not, regardless of penalty or reward.
We could never treat other human beings that way.

It is not a matter of deterrence or persuasion or inducement and it is rather dumb to pretend otherwise.
But it is the typical constantly repeated if rather childish right-wing tabloid BS propaganda so I guess some people can't help believing it.

Quote:
KillerBug

I think we should try to avoid this discussion...neither side is ever going to convince the other side of anything.

Yeah, I suppose you're right.
I just find it truly amazing some people really do seem to see this sort of thing as a matter of choices based on 'what's in it for me' to not be a murderous POS.
Incredible.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 Jul 2011 @ 11:15

2027.7.2011 12:53

Originally posted by Interestx:

I just find it truly amazing some people really do seem to see this sort of thing as a matter of choices based on 'what's in it for me' to not be a murderous POS.
Incredible.
As sad as it sounds when you put it that way, this is the only reason why laws were created in the first place. If everyone was just good to each other all the time out of kindness, there would be no need for prisons, law enforcement, etc.

BTW...I don't think that right or left wing extremist are taking over the government. I think that the right and the left are virtually indistinguishable, and that they have had control since long before I was born.

2127.7.2011 13:50

Originally posted by KillerBug:
BTW...I don't think that right or left wing extremist are taking over the government. I think that the right and the left are virtually indistinguishable, and that they have had control since long before I was born.
If I might be so rude as to interject... I believe I was the jerk making the right/left wing comments. Or have I once again in a fit of narcissism thought the comment was indeed about me?
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 Jul 2011 @ 1:51

2227.7.2011 14:57

KillerBug

You're entitled to your POV but I think there are some things just innate to most of us.
Not being a mass-murderer being quite high on the list.
The law etc was for those that have marginal self-control (or in the case of this deluded moron a stunningly warped messianic narcissistic mentality).
I just do not believe most of us do not murder or rape or be routinely violent in wider society because of the penalties they bring.
Most of us just are not like that.

LordRuss, careful now, you want to watch that....

lol

2327.7.2011 15:37

Originally posted by Interestx:


LordRuss, careful now, you want to watch that....

lol
I was pretty sure they made meds for this kind of thing...

2427.7.2011 15:58

Quote:
I just bought Modern Warfare 2, the game. It is probably the best military simulator out there and it’s one of the hottest games this year. I see MW2 more as a part of my training-simulation than anything else.
Really?! A military simulator? since when did weapons sound like two ***s clacking each other, virtually have no recoil, and get kill streak rewards or kills...

I bet he was sucking his thumb when he realized that after 25+ kills no one gave him a nuke <.<, yea simulation my *** he rather spent his time playing paintball that way, he'd get some exercise and MW 2 is even faker than paint balling

2527.7.2011 18:35

His own dad wishes he'd just off'd himself & saved those poor families the despair he wrought.
He's an infantile selfish pathetic brat, no more no less, just one who took it about as far as you can killing over 70 decent people who never did him a moments harm.

He's just a c**t, to be permanently remembered as a c**t, except by other sad c**ts.
Woooo, the notoriety huh?

2628.7.2011 14:35

I remember after 9/11 there were reports that the hijackers might have used Microsoft Flight Simulator, more or less based on the fact that you could actually fly a plane into the WTC using the simulator. Of course, in actual fact, several of the hijackers just took flying lessons....

There seems to be a double-standard with any kind of video game vs. the real world. As somebody said earlier, people would be better off getting angry with books in this case as his extremism was fuelled not by video games, but by reading works put out by others.

You can't learn how to build a fertilizer nitrate bomb from Call of Duty games, and you certainly can't rely on it as a simulator for marksmanship in the real world either. And no research conducted has yet shown that a video game could turn an otherwise normal (mentally sound) person into an insane killer, or even just a more violent or bad tempered person than before.

In the same way you can't blame Marilyn Manson for the Columbine High School shootings, and can't blame the Beatle's Helter Skelter for the Manson family's killings, you can't blame video games for any part of Anders Breivik's massacre either.

2729.7.2011 15:19

a major retailer banning 51 games in Norway now I new it would happen.

2829.7.2011 16:08

Originally posted by brockie:
a major retailer banning 51 games in Norway now I new it would happen.
Folks are always blaming something other than themselves. Not that it's the Norwegian folks fault that this travesty happened, just that they're real quick to ban the violent video games rather than the 1000 other pages of Christianity BS he touted as being the more deep rooted basis for his attack. Needless to say, there won't be a ban on religious practices till this mess gets cleared up will there.

If it's a mad dog & no amount of love or medication is going to cure its ailment, so what do you normally do before someone gets hurt? I know he's being dealt with "now", but where was everybody when he was off his rocker to begin with? News reports already precluded this notion, so where was the help?

Nowhere. 'It's not my problem', 'it'll go away' or 'it'll solve itself' is no longer an excuse. When Frankenturd was dancing around singing "I'm a cookie, eat me" they should have dealt with him then. But negligence & a blind eye like we've all been doing with our judicial system, governing bodies & corporate moguls have now all gotten us in a bind that we're just about to a point of starting a cleansing fire to get it all solved.

Sorry, but taking some plastic & cardboard off a shelf isn't going to stop the madness. Stop lying to ourselves, get out of the denial, grow a pair and make EVERYBODY take responsibility for their actions.

"I've got a bunch of money" or "the law didn't say that murdering someone 'that' specific way wasn't illegal" doesn't cut it either.

2929.7.2011 22:16

100% agree LordRuss.

3030.7.2011 05:23

hang that bitch right in the open and let his corpse feed the birds

312.8.2011 06:23

Originally posted by LordRuss:
Originally posted by KillerBug:
BTW...I don't think that right or left wing extremist are taking over the government. I think that the right and the left are virtually indistinguishable, and that they have had control since long before I was born.
If I might be so rude as to interject... I believe I was the jerk making the right/left wing comments. Or have I once again in a fit of narcissism thought the comment was indeed about me?
Yes, that reply was to you...the candidates in my country are all either Nazi wanna-be bastards or Soviet wanna-be bastards...and in the end it is all socialist crap. Should we raise taxes while cutting services, or should we cut services while raising taxes? That is the argument that they fight...and in the end they always cut services while increasing spending and raising taxes. Just look at the debt ceiling debate...a whole month of pandering and the only thing they cut were a handful of public assistance programs that are only needed because of the mess they made of the economy. As for the half-dozen pointless, unwinnable wars? There will be no cuts, and no one has any intention of doing anything about the fact that the latest war was not approved by congress and is technically an act of treason on the part of the president.

Originally posted by brockie:
a major retailer banning 51 games in Norway now I new it would happen.
There is also a movement in Australia now...I predicted it, but I never expected that the Christians would be the ones bringing it...not when the guy's whole reason for the attack was Christianity-based hate, and when it would make more sense to ban the bible because of this than to ban video games.

322.8.2011 07:14

Quote:
KillerBug
.....and in the end they always cut services while increasing spending and raising taxes.
Yeah but only for 'the little people'.

The ultra wealthy & the businesses & corps keep on getting the tax-breaks, grants, & all the rest that makes up their version of welfare.

Meanwhile Fox et al have enough of those at the bottom & in the middle convinced that this is great & a defense of their interests.
Teabaggers funded to defend the ultra wealthy likes of the Kochs and yet convinced it's the regular guy they are helping.

Much as I accept that this pantomime about supposedly left & right is in many ways a sham (the business & rich people's party always wins) the current right-wing in the US is stunningly shameless in their manipulation of those who have so little (and even those who imagine they are doing ok are usually onlky a few paychecks away from complete destitution).

It's incredible but on & on it goes.

It would be funny if it wasn't so tragically pathetic.


332.8.2011 11:53

Originally posted by Interestx:
...the current right-wing in the US is stunningly shameless in their manipulation of those who have so little (and even those who imagine they are doing ok are usually onlky a few paychecks away from complete destitution).

It's incredible but on & on it goes.

It would be funny if it wasn't so tragically pathetic.
And then the left wing 'up & caves into the whims of right'.

Seems the presidency is a eunuch & money wins again. I hate to say it, but I really do wish something would happen that brings the whole economic classes back down to a level playing field again. Basically something completely out of these elitist snobs control that forces all of them back into some semblance of reality.

342.8.2011 12:04

LordRuss

.....you don't seriously think they are in any way truly 'left-wing' do you?
Slightly less right-wing would be a much more accurate description if you ask me.
Certainly by European standards the Dem.s are pretty right-wing, just not so much as the average Rep.....and a lot less than the barking teabagger gang.

352.8.2011 13:29

Originally posted by Interestx:
.....you don't seriously think they are in any way truly 'left-wing' do you?
Slightly less right-wing would be a much more accurate description if you ask me.
Certainly by European standards the Dem.s are pretty right-wing, just not so much as the average Rep.....and a lot less than the barking teabagger gang.
Everybody as a whole are MOR (middle of the road), which is why I stray away from political debates as a norm. people start to think they 'have' to take a side - debates get out of hand - mudslinging starts & nothing gets solved. So your interpretation is correct, with a bit of a snag...

Apparently a new psychic phenomenon in the US has caused the TeaBaggers to think they have more input than they should. If memory serves, they have almost less than 1% of anything in congress, but yet they seem to be making the biggest stink. They're the ones I believe to be full blown right wing (conservative to the point of stopping light).

Their scary, christian based, wealth oriented agenda is getting pushed & most of the American public is a bit a dumbfounded. The TBs are sounding just as radical as the religious zealots we we're supposedly going to war with, so why they haven't been dismissed as babbling idiots & chased with fire hoses is a complete mystery. We could speculate on their true agenda & who's pulling their strings for days, but then we just end right back in the same debate we left.

Voters 'could' change this cascade of insanity, but voting doesn't seem to matter when the election is preloaded with individuals left to fill a 'lesser evil' gap. This kind of observation ends up leaving folks throwing their hands up in defeat & figuring "why bother", which also plays into the hands of those seeking power & control.

My intention isn't to label anyone. Most of my comments are left with a "shoe fits" analogy. So if you conduct yourself (myself included, I'm not elitist) as a stereotype, don't come crying when you get labeled.

366.8.2011 00:48

It doesn't take any kind of experiance to go and blow away a bunch of unarmed young people, Iv'e read some posts on different sites he had a beef with muslim extremists something or other, and than he took it out on these people that had nothing to do with any of it, don't know if these stories are true or not, even it it was, than join some armed forces somewhere if that's your beef, but to gun down the innocent, damn gutless pig.

376.8.2011 01:26

Originally posted by KillerBug:
There will be no cuts, and no one has any intention of doing anything about the fact that the latest war was not approved by congress and is technically an act of treason on the part of the president.

There has not been a congressional declaration of war since WW2.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 06 Aug 2011 @ 1:27

386.8.2011 11:05

Originally posted by Azuran:
Originally posted by KillerBug:
There will be no cuts, and no one has any intention of doing anything about the fact that the latest war was not approved by congress and is technically an act of treason on the part of the president.

There has not been a congressional declaration of war since WW2.
I say screw it all. We will all end up being a part of China anyway by 2015, and there is nothing short of closing our borders, defaulting and going to war that could save us from it now. The government and it's practices over the last 4 decades have all but secured our failure. They are the sole reason we no longer export most of our usable goods, but instead import everything and consume all.

Russia and China got it right about the US being nothing more than a parasite that leaches from everyone else. Our economy is proof of that.

And to make matters worse, we have a socialist body of government...THAT WE ELECTED!!!!!
My family knows all too well the effects of socialism and it's policies. German born and raised, so you know. If I could, I would move back in heart beat!

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