Gamertell

There isn’t a day that goes by that doesn’t find someone trying to draw a link between video game violence and real world criminal behavior.

But where it is usually Grand Theft Auto, or some similarly violent game sparking the controversy, this time MMO World of Warcraft has been tied to a school shooting attempt.

The TimesOnline reports that a 13-year-old male student in France apparently planned to shoot his teachers for giving him poor grades.

The potential tragedy was averted when his parents noticed he had left early for school and posted a blog that said November 17, 2009, would be “the last day of his life.” The parents alerted police and, when the child reached Catholic private secondary school Saint Esprit College, police had already blocked the front gate. The boy panicked and dumped his father’s shotgun and 25 cartridges into a nearby field.

His father later found him at an Internet cafe. Under as much scrutiny as the case itself is the news coverage, with nearly every media outlet that covered the story playing up the news that the boy enjoyed playing WOW, with TimesOnline referring to it as a “violent online game.”

WOW‘s fantasy setting is legendary for sucking up hours upon hours of players’ time but lumping it in the same category as GTA seems a bit of a stretch. Rather than wonder what effect the game may have had, here’s a better question: How does a 13-year-old boy manage to wake up, go get his father’s shotgun and ammo, then head off to school with them as easily as he might pack a sack lunch?

Read [Times Online] Also Read [The Mirror UK]