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Final Fantasy blamed for suicides http://www.eurogamer.net/news.php?id=6021
Russian police are apparently blaming Final Fantasy for a series of six teenage suicides over the last four months in a town called Kstovo, according to a report in Pravda headlined "Video Game Killed 6 Teenagers". The paper's English translation is rather hit and miss (mostly miss), but it appears that law enforcement officers are investigating the possibility that the game has a "destructive influence on psychology", or even that there was "some code signal recorded on the CD game which made the guys kill themselves", after three teenagers hung themselves and another three jumped off rooftops.
Perhaps even more bizarre though is the fact that Russia last week became one of the first countries to recognise computer games as a legitimate sport. While groups in Europe and America have been campaigning for this for some time now, the Russians have even gone so far as to encourage schools to teach their pupils about computer games in physical education lessons, alongside more traditional sports like athletics and soccer!
Naturally Pravda sees this move as a terrible threat to Mother Russia though. "Dont you agree the new school subject is alarming in light of the recent events? Who will estimate the level of harm of computer games at school? Will the story that took place in Kstovo repeat itself in Russia as a whole?"
Russian police are apparently blaming Final Fantasy for a series of six teenage suicides over the last four months in a town called Kstovo, according to a report in Pravda headlined "Video Game Killed 6 Teenagers". The paper's English translation is rather hit and miss (mostly miss), but it appears that law enforcement officers are investigating the possibility that the game has a "destructive influence on psychology", or even that there was "some code signal recorded on the CD game which made the guys kill themselves", after three teenagers hung themselves and another three jumped off rooftops.
Perhaps even more bizarre though is the fact that Russia last week became one of the first countries to recognise computer games as a legitimate sport. While groups in Europe and America have been campaigning for this for some time now, the Russians have even gone so far as to encourage schools to teach their pupils about computer games in physical education lessons, alongside more traditional sports like athletics and soccer!
Naturally Pravda sees this move as a terrible threat to Mother Russia though. "Dont you agree the new school subject is alarming in light of the recent events? Who will estimate the level of harm of computer games at school? Will the story that took place in Kstovo repeat itself in Russia as a whole?"
