Popular live-action zombie game accidentally summons ghosts of school-shootings past

The idea of playing zombies is a popular one. But did a group at NCSU (not pictured) take it too far? Photo by Flickr user rodolpho.reis.

Last week, officials at North Carolina State University went on alert after two students reported seeing someone with a gun on campus.

The sightings happened during a game of Humans vs. Zombies, which took place on campus grounds. The campus did not go on lockdown. Also, nobody located the “gunman” or the item witnesses thought was a gun. Was it a toy weapon? Or did they mistake some other object for a gun? In a slideshow of HVZ games at the New York Times, some players are wearing and carrying toy weapons, so it’s possible.

According to the Humans vs. Zombies web site, the game was founded at Goucher College in 2005. It spread quickly, and is now played at more than 650 colleges and universities, high schools, military bases, summer camps, and public libraries worldwide.

The NCSU game was probably planned weeks in advance, but it had the misfortune to come off the day after nearby Wake Technical Community college went on lockdown after a man threatened a student there.

Still, the game’s leaders are sensitive to the fears surrounding school shootings. This Washington Post piece details some of HVZ’s groundrules in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings:

Weed and the other game organizers, who are known as moderators, or “mods,” turned serious. They’d called this meeting to make sure each player had signed two legal forms instituted in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, and to emphasize the most important rules of the game: Don’t shoot nonplayers [and] don’t use or carry guns visibly in academic buildings.

Of course, some will wonder why kids would want to play such a horrific game. Like any roleplaying game, HVZ lets people try on new roles and personalities — and band together to become heroes for a little while. From the HVZ web site, again:

Many players report that Humans vs. Zombies is one of the most meaningful experiences of their lives. The game creates deep bonds between players, instantly removing social boundaries by forcing players to engage as equals and cooperate for their survival.

The whole situation raises some interesting questions, and I’d love to hear readers’ thoughts on them:

Given the frightening gunman-involved massacres on college and high-school campuses, are students today right to be vigilant and report problems to authorities?

Should students playing games like “Humans vs. Zombies” forego using toy weapons in order to avoid frightening their peers?

Should students be able to tell the difference between a real gun and a Nerf weapon?

Is the media focus on gunmen becoming more responsible? Why I’m not holding my breath

What video games did Benjamin Barnes play? What music did he listen to? So far, the press is silent. And that’s just fine.

It was almost one year ago that Jared Lee Loughner opened fire on a crowd of citizens outside a Safeway in Tucson, injuring more than a dozen people and killing six. One year later, a January gunman may have been found dead in the snow near Mt. Rainier, where a park ranger was shot and killed on New Year’s Day.

So far, the press coverage of Benjamin C. Barnes’ life could not be more different. Articles have focused on his shooting spree during a New Year’s Eve party just south of Seattle, his escape to Mt. Ranier park, and the shooting of Margaret Anderson, a 34-year-old park ranger. Speculation about Barnes’ motives have focused on his service in Iraq, his trouble re-adjusting to civilian life, and threatening suicide a year ago.

With Loughner, reporters pounced on his “obsession with the occult” and his love of at least one heavy metal song. Did Barnes live a life devoid of these interests? Or is the press looking elsewhere for explanations and meaning?

Likewise, when Virginia Tech shooter Ross Truett Ashley killed police officer Deriek Crouse at the college last month — a crime that sent echoes of one of the worst college massacres in history through the school — little was made of his hobbies.

Are reporters finally focusing on violent acts in a more responsible manner, leaving violent-media speculation out of their coverage? Is it because these criminals are adults that we focus on their mental condition rather than their personal interests when looking for murderous inspiration? Given the coverage of such recent events as a Milwaukee meetup gone awry or a child rapist convicted of murder, my hopes are not high. But coverage of these gunmen is certainly a step in the right direction.

Did video games make him do it?

In the weeks before he stormed his high school with weapons, Alexander Youshock played “violent video games in which characters were often armed with pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails,” according to wire reports. Image from Call of Duty 3.

On August 24, 2009 — days after school started for the fall — teenager Alexander Youshock arrived for morning classes at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, Calif. Unlike his fellow students, he was armed with 10 pipe bombs, a chainsaw, and a 10-inch knife.

Youshock’s fate now rests in the hands of a jury, currently deliberating in a San Mateo County courtroom where Youshock stands accused on two counts of attempted murder and other charges. No one was injured in the attack; Youshock was unable to start his chainsaw, and the two pipe bombs he detonated weren’t close enough to harm anyone. If the jury finds him guilty of any charges, a second trial will determine his sanity.

Youshock is allegedly schizophrenic; he told the court he began hearing voices when he was in the eighth grade. In high school, he said he felt “singled out” by counselors and teachers who pushed him to participate in classes and do homework. His cracked state of mind may have motivated the attack on the high school, expert witnesses testified.

And yet, somehow video games get tangled up in all this: “In the months leading up to the Hillsdale attack, Youshock spent most days in his room playing violent video games in which characters were often armed with pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails. His ability to tell the difference between his violent fantasies and their possible consequences in the real world became obscured by his mental disorder, [psychologist Alfred] Fricke said.”

Once again, video games are dragged through the mud in a court case where it’s not apparent that a teen’s gaming habits — or even his mental stability — are to blame. Sure, it’s possible that Youshock has the very rare form of schizophrenia that can make some sufferers harbor violent fantasies and even act on them. Youshock himself said that his inspiration came predominantly from the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre and a 2009 school shooting in Winnenden, Germany.

But most people who learn about such shootings don’t bring bombs to high school. The same can be said of most schizophrenics, and most players of violent video games — even ones with pipe bombs in them. It takes a lot more than any of these factors — and more than these factors combined — to push someone this far. And, so far, we don’t know what leads boys like Youshock to attack their own stomping grounds. As long as we keep focusing on distractions like video games, we’ll never figure it out.

Parents, what are your concerns about video games like the ones Youshock played? Have you ever prevented your kids from playing them? How did that effort turn out?