Game Violence Actually Happens, Papers Get Right Info

Here’s a sad, mournful change of pace. A video game was inadvertently the cause of intense violence, and the papers got the name of the game right.

A 20-year-old UK man, Matthew Pyke, was found dead in his Nottingham flat. The Law believes his death may be related to the Advance Wars forum he maintained.

The police aren’t sure that this is the result of an Internet Fight!1 gone bad, but they’re not ruling out any links just yet:

“We are looking at all aspects of Matthew’s life as part of the investigation, and are following up a number of lines of inquiry. This will include computer-based inquiries as a matter of course.”

The article concludes by informing readers that Advance Wars, though based around armed conflict, is not very violent. Of course, what would a game-murder piece be if it didn’t contain some irrelevant fear mongering:

“Online games are frequently criticised for trivialising killing, but there is increasing concern that even non-violent games can harm young people by making them withdraw from the real world.”

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