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The Sandy Hook School shooting, the Colorado movie theatre massacre…was online gaming to blame?
Psychologists believe that engaging in violent virtual gaming desensitizes the player and dehumanizes opponents. When the division between what is real and what is virtual becomes unclear, the results can be catastrophic.
When forensic anthropologist Palmer Richardson is called to investigate an uncatalogued sarcophagus found in storage at the Royal Ontario Museum, he has his work cut out for him. Upon investigation, he discovers the mummy inside is that of a teenage boy and involves Detective Constable Michael Crestwood of the Metropolitan Toronto Police.
Their investigation delves into the world of online gaming, where losing health points in a skirmish could have serious implications for a player’s life in the real world.
Inspired by real-life headlines, The Mummy Wore Combat Boots highlights the growing divide between children who live their lives immersed in a digital culture and the adults tasked with raising them who live in the real world.
Buy The Mummy Wore Combat Boots on Amazon and wherever eBooks are sold.
The Mummy Wore Combat Boots in real-life
- Video game fanatic hunts down and stabs rival player who killed character online. (The Telegraph May 27, 2010)
“Julien Barreaux, 20, told police he wanted to see his rival player “wiped out” after his character in the game Counter-Strike died in a virtual knife fight…”
- Video gamer hunts down, stabs man who killed his online ‘Counter-Strike’ character. (New York Daily News May 27, 2010)
“Watch out who you kill in the virtual world, it may inspire someone to attack you in the real one…”
- When PlayStation turns nasty: Father, 46, tracks down and throttles schoolboy, 13, in revenge attack for ‘killing’ him on Call of Duty. (DailyMailOnline Sept 30, 2011)
“A middle-aged man charged round to the house of a schoolboy and throttled him after his online character was killed during a game of Call Of Duty, a court heard…”
- Chinese father hires virtual hitman to ‘kill’ son in online games – so he will get a job. (DailyMailOnline Jan 8, 2013)
Seems even online avatars are not safe. This one’s quite funny (and not a little bit ingenious) when you think about it. The father figured that if his son’s avatars were killed then he’d give up game-playing and get a job!
