PRESS RELEASE
Finland School-Killer Played `Battlefield 2' Video Game Minutes Before Massacre
Nov. 9, 2007 (EIRNS)—The perpetrator of Wednesday's school massacre in Finland, Pekka-Erik Auvinen, went directly from playing the point-and-kill game "Battlefield 2," to the school where he shot and killed 8 students and the principal.
The manufacturer of the game, the Swedish IT company Dice, which specializes in violent video games, published the following on its blog website yesterday (www.bf2.se).
"There are many indications that this 18-year old, Pekka-Erik Auvinen, played BF2 under the nickname 'NaturalSelector89.' He has played 189 hours since March, which averages 50 minutes per day. At 10:47 A.M. yesterday [Nov. 7], immediately before the massacre took place, he played his last round of BF2. Among those murdered, there is a member of the multigaming clan eyeGaming, which you can read about in this blog. Naturally, our thoughts go out to all relatives of the victims of the tragedy in Finland."
The website also provides the statistics of "NaturalSelector89" since he joined the game in March 2007 (http://www.bf2stats.nl/player/94933011). The head of the information section of the Dice company, Jenny Huldschiner, confirmed these details to the Swedish daily Expressen, adding that "somehow, authentic war games, violent films, violence on TV, and all other kinds of violence that is drowning us, do have an impact on us."
However, after making this stunning statement, the information chief of one of the largest companies drowning youth under violent war games, said: "As far as I know, there is no research that confirms a connection between violence and war games."
Sweden, a neutral country, is one of the largest producers of violent video games in the world. Along with White Power rock music, violent video games are one of the growing and crucial exports of Sweden. Sweden is also the base for an advanced arms industry, which has now been almost totally taken over by British Aerospace Systems.
