Looks Harmless, Doesn't It
A game such as this shouldn't be harmless. In fact this game isn't even your conventional video game. It is a browser based game played online through Facebook. Farmville is all the rage from kids to teens to adults and to grandpas. In it, you play a farmer tending to virtual livestock and crops. Who knew that this game had controversial addictive qualities to it?
The Killer Herself
In a Jacksonville Courthouse, Alexandria Tobias pleaded guilty to murder charges under atrocious circumstances. Her baby was crying while she was playing, and so she shook the baby, stopped to smoke a cigarette to compose herself, then she shook the baby again before calling 911. It was only after she was investigated and interrogated when she fully confessed. After the trial concluded, people started to flag Farmville as the secret culprit.
After interviews with Journalists, the creators of Farmville revealed that they have a behaviour psychologist on staff so they can purposefully engineer the game to be addictive. The purpose of this they insist is only to gain popularity and nothing more. This has garnered so much controversy simply because a game that simple can be so addicting. People are complaining that this game is stealing peoples lives, which is stupid, considering that common willpower is enough to stop playing a game with no other addictive qualities besides habitual game play. This game is addicting yes, but Alexandria Tobias is mentally unstable as well. No stable person in their right mind would kill their child for interrupting a game. The addictiveness of this game can be time consuming, but in no way is it life consuming. You can't blame an innocent game for making a mentally unstable person into a killer. You can however be smart and blame the fact that she is mentally unstable.
I do not play farmville so I don't really know the nature of the game itself but this is really shocking! I can understand being intensely involved with a video game but to murder her child? That is just mental...pun intended.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the lady should be the one to blame and not Farmville itself but I can't help but wonder how many other cases like to occur with regards to the game.
That is really unusual. Again with Hazel's comment, I agree that Farmville should not the one to blame. This is absolutely a joke that the neglect she directly inflicted to her baby is blamed on a simple Facebook game. Sure, Farmville can be addictive but so is Facebook or eating candy alot. But I don't see myself blaming my problems by blaming my addiction to candy for example. If I neglected to take care of my child, it isn't because I was addicted to candy, it's because I'm blaming the the object (an excuse) but not the person's own faults.
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