On January 8, some German journalists spoke about what happened on New Year’s Eve in several cities in Germany: riots, attacks, and general chaos. Eva Quadbeck uses the age-old debate about violent video games as an explanation.
Who is the journalist?
- Eva Quadbeck studied history and has been working as a correspondent for Rheinische Post in Berlin since 2002. There, she rose to editorial director and deputy editor-in-chief.
- Since 2019, she has been working at the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland, which is responsible for national content, and currently leads the main editorial team.
- Quadbeck co-authored a biography of former German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and is frequently a guest on discussion shows in the media.
This is what the discussion is about: On New Year’s Eve 2023, riots occurred in various German cities. The two most frequently discussed are Berlin and Borna (Saxony).
In Berlin, 18 police officers are said to have been injured, one of them seriously, as reported by Der Tagesspiegel. According to the report, the fire department had 15 injuries, one of which required hospitalization.
In the capital, there are reports of attacks on firefighters with steel rods and firecrackers. Families and children are also said to have been injured in fireworks-related attacks, and there was increased destruction of property and shops.
In contrast, in Borna about 200 people reportedly walked through the city center, attacking police officers and emergency personnel “with firecrackers and rockets” and shouting “Heil Hitler” (via Berliner Morgenpost). There too, there was destruction, including damaged street signs.
The discussion took a strange turn towards video games with violence and “realism,” as Call of Duty exemplifies:
“Young men sit in front of these games and kill”
This is what Quadbeck says about it: In the discussion surrounding New Year’s Eve in the press club from January 8, 2022, Hasnain Kazim, Eva Quadbeck, Jasper von Altenbockum, and Ulrike Winkelmann talk about the reasons and explanations for the riots. The show can be watched in the ARD media library.
The arguments of the discussants are often very nuanced. In past discussions, according to Kazim and Winkelmann, some people quickly resorted to words like “foreigners” or “Nazis”.
According to the discussion, it cannot be denied that mostly individuals with a migration background committed the attacks in Berlin and that right-wing terms were used in Borna. However, this is only part of a larger picture. About halfway through the show, at minute 21:35, Eva Quadbeck throws in (via Twitter):
When it comes to the keyword disinhibition, I would like to add something. One must not overlook which video games are being played. And with what realism people slaughter each other there. And without batting an eye, especially young men sit in front of these games and kill and hunt others.
And also, at times, the reality is no longer seen when one is on the street, and then either confronts the police or emergency personnel, this could at least be an explanation. Not an excuse, but an explanation.
Where does the argument come from? Since at least the 2000s, the “killer game debate” has accompanied gaming. Above all, politicians repeatedly look for a justification for violence among young people in violent video games. However, recent studies have shown for some time that video games actually have the opposite effect.
Nevertheless, especially shooters are still used as scapegoats. In 2016, for example, the public broadcaster funk took up the discussion again and blamed “killer games” for rampages:
Even US politicians jumped on the discussion, who blame video games for part of the responsibility for rampages. Some politicians even go so far as to want to ban such games altogether.
Violence in video games was also one of the reasons why the Olympics decided in 2018 not to include e-sports. Quadbeck is now even revisiting this old discussion in 2023.
Gaming has long since arrived in the mainstream of society, and several studies have claimed that video games even promote certain skills. Research is still trying to establish concrete effects. We already spoke with 2 scientists about what actually makes gaming fascinating:
We asked scientists: Why do we play games? This is the answer
