Norway retailers remove violent video games from store shelves

Guns don’t kill people – it is people with guns who do. We have read about the Oslo killer being “trained” by the Modern Warfare 2 video game before he unleashed his trail of destruction that took so many lives, and this has once again opened the can of worms as to whether video games these days are too violent for the masses, leading an extremely small percentage to be swayed otherwise in real life? In a move that reflects the proverb “better safe than sorry”, several Norway retailers have already removed violent video games including (but not limited to) Call of Duty and World of Warcraft from their store shelves.

This was done in direct response to the July 22 terrorist attacks, where another 49 titles will also be removed. Danish gaming site Gamers Globe report that supermarket chain Coop Norden is championing this campaign, but it seems that this action has been limited only to Norway.

In a translation of a Norwegian newspaper cutting, Coop Norway’s director Geir Inge Stokke mentioned that “others are better suited than us, to point to the negative effects of games like these. At the moment it’s [appropriate] for us to take them down. I wouldn’t be surprised if others do the same.”

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gaming
Tags: Call of Duty, World of Warcraft