Kid Murders his Family, Assassin's Creed gets Blamed for It

Words cannot describe how hard I want to put my head against the desk right now.

Sao Paulo, Brazil: 13-year old Marcelo Eduardo Bovo Pessenghini murdered both his parents, his grandfather and aunt and proceeded to commit suicide. His father and mother were police officers, and most likely owners of the gun used by their son to kill them. This is indeed a very tragic incident but what does this have to do with video games? Before Marcelo's Facebook page was deleted, his profile pic featured Ezio Auditore da Firenze from Assassin's Creed 2.

This little fact alone was enough to send the entire Brazilian media into a uproar, declaring the game to be responsible for this crime and going back to that lovely little argument about "video games are making kids violent". In this popular news show, the journalist is holding a Assassin's Creed game and in his words "This was the game he played with. The game's title more or less translate to Assassino Convicto. This game is the new fad among the kids, a death behind another and is forbidden in many places".

This guy is inaccurate in so many ways it makes me nauseous. I could spend the entire blog post bitching andcorrecting him about the game, but that is not the point.

It's so much easier to judge a book by its cover than carrying out a criminal investigation. Who knows if the kid had a very serious personality disorder that should have been noticed earlier and treated before it was too late? He was a very disturbed individual too, according to his classmates, he always dreamed of killing his parents in their sleep and becoming a hitman for hire and he would invite his friends to do the same thing with him. He murdered his family at night then went to school in the following morning before returning home and taking his own life. This implies some early signs of psychopathy, but it can't be said for certain. The police is still carrying out the investigation while the media circus continue here.

My sincerest condolences for the family's friends and surviving relatives.

Wow!

Marcelo Eduardo Bovo Pessenghini is a huge name...

Also, they brought "Video games are making kids violent" argument back because a 13 year old boy was playing a 15+ year old game?

Great, just what we need... let's place another scapegoat so we can't blame people for what they do. Lovely.

Yeah Brazilian names are long like that :P

And lets face it, Assassin's Creed isn't exactly the game a kid this young should be playing either.

Don't you love when that happens? I wonder if what would happen if he had as Sonic avatar in his Facebook. Would they persecute Sonic the Hedgehog the same way too?

People should take into consideration that he might have found a liking to the character after he had that mentalitiy.

@theacidskull: We're talking about the game getting blamed because no one ever blames the kid or the family or whoever does whatever. They always place the blame on something else so they don't have to deal with humans being at fault.

Here we go again. Another stupid kid commits murder and videogames are at the center of the blame game. Also, one of my favorite games of all time is to blame. Great!

@theacidskull: It's already happened and there's no fixing it. Sure, it's terrible that it happened, but you should actually deal with the problem instead of attacking some game. That's the point, focus more on the problem and why it happened instead of just saying "You know what, it's the games fault. Case closed. Let's go out for lunch."

Let's be honest: The only reason the game is being blamed is because he's a kid.

Hilarious. Instead of focusing on the tragic catastrophe in front of them, they point their fingers at a game.

Yea, don't pay any attention to the obviously mentally unstable teenager, or the fact that he murdered his family. No, look at a video game.....

-10 faith in humanity, rest in peace family (teen excluding).

@theacidskull: This is most likely "in other news" type scenario.

That kid was obviously f*cked up in the head. Millions of people play Assassin's Creed, explain why there isn't a mass murder pandemic.

Something the pacifists failed to think about.

Good thing MasterJohn isn't here.

I think your using the term pacifist in the wrong context here

Ssh! No one knows!

I hate it when politicians or stubborn old people or goody good people place the blame on videogames. If they want to ban it and blame, then why not just ban and place the blame on every little thing. They won't look at the real problems, so they gotta ruin it for other peeps. You know what just ban high senator and rep salaries while you're at it, along with fatty foods, guns, cigarettes, pills, wars without purpose and people like ME who see this stupidity...*COUGH*.....sorry for the rant.

I was playing AC: Revelations when I heard it on TV, I felt (Kind of) offended, actually. >_>

I have yet to see Ezio kill random people just for the sake of it.

@the_lunact_and_manic: Well he can kill guards for the sake of it.

@monsterstomp said:

But guards are evil, they don't count :P

They're just doing their jobs! Jesus! XD

That's...true..but hey..they mocked an assassin..but..you can't just kill everyone who mocks you..unless you are Ezio..but that's wrong anyways..

Forget it, Ezio should go to jail.

I could just imagine Ezio walking the streets, approaching his target and then a guard calls him out in an offensive way, Ezio just drops his sh*t and kills the guard, meanwhile his target gets away. Lol.

You can make Ezio kill citizens but it warns you that Ezio didn't kill civilians and if you kill 3 innocents, the game desynchronizes you and you go back to the last checkpoint.

On topic, this is a terrible tragedy that should not be overlooked by the ridiculous game controversy which evidently isn't responsible for the kid's behaviour. May the family rest in peace.

Just because you can it doesn't mean you should e.e

EDIT: I just posted this 3 times without clicking post...what the hell comic vine?

I got 3 messages from you. It does that sometimes.

Oh great, one of these nuts. Can't people just understand that there really is evil in this world, and video games didn't spawn it? Especially not a fantasy game like Assasin's Creed?

Didn't a kid die "because of Naruto"?

It's so easy them to label these things as bad for kids. I've been playing violent games from I was 6 and I don't think about killing people.... much. I won't even attempt it or let it stay in my mind for that long. They just deny that these people have mental issues.

I'm sure there's alot of blame to go around here. The kid is in a stage of his life that WE ALL remember being a weird and difficult time for us. We don't know how life is living where the kid lived. His parents beig both police officers could have had an impact since his parents could have spend a lot of time away from the house. Could the video game had a impact? Sure but there's more important variables that could have affected this kids mind.

I agree that the game did have an impact. Is the game fully or even largely responsible? No. But it could have been the straw that broke the camels back. it definitely had an influence on him. He may have imagined himself being the character when he did it. Even fantasy violence is still violence. Most parents would never allow their child to watch a video game involving x-rated sex. But they have little problem with violent scenes.

What's up with brazil in general?

So like before video games were invented, was there like no crime or something?

yeah. there was violence in the world before video games even existed. Video games don't kill people. people kill people. :|

Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent

"I would not have drawn attention to us. I would not have taken the life of an innocent."

―Malik Al-Sayf at Solomon's Temple.

The goal of the Assassins was to ensure peace in all things. The Assassins believed that political assassinations and the death of the corrupt would bring peace and a true sense of security to the common people. Slaying innocents and civilian bystanders who did not need to die could spread strife and discord, in addition to ruining the name of the Assassin Order itself.

- from The Assassin's Creed Wiki

So in actuality, the games tell you NOT to kill innocent people.

Of course, video games are root of all violent crimes in the world /sarcasm

Criminal psychologists must be on short supply over in Brazil :l

Wow, first MK, then Quake and Doom, then GTA...now Assassins Creed..

Seriously, I think temporary insanity plea would do them more credit then blaming a video game...

A 13 year old kid is being allowed to play a 15+ game

Is said to have mental issues that for some reason are not being addressed

Has ACCESS to a loaded firearm in his own house

And was disturbed enough to want to take the lives of HIS OWN family

Nice going, Ezio, this is all your fault!

Last time I checked Ezio died happy with his family close by, he didn't commit suicide. Assassins Creed has nothing to do with what this kid did.

Stupid ass people like this deserve to die and burn in hell. Jesus don't want their dumb asses.

Wait, Assassin's Creed 2 is a new fad among kids? It was pretty popular when it came out, but now? Did Brazil just get the game? But anyway, that guy needs to play the game. Ezio loved him family and was destroyed by their execution. The game even will fail you if you kill three civilians because "Ezio didn't kill civilians." It's tragic what happened, but blaming the game is ridiculous.

It's the same argument people use with guns; for some reason our society would rather blame an object used by the person as the reason behind the crime rather than blame the person themselves who is truly responsible.

You can count the journalist above is pretty outdated and is jumping into conclusions. As far as he is concerned, its nothing more than a simulator with no story that lets you kill as many people as you wish. That is cause he is a sensationalist hack.

Blame the game, blame the music, blame the comic, blame the novel, blame the movie, blame everything except the murderer.

And sadly, that's what they do.

That's pretty much how most adult reporters think of video games, whether it's CNN, Fox News, or any news station, if it has anything to go with killing or simply turning on an Xbox of PlayStation it's instantly evil. People need to get with the times.

“Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock-n-roll.” - Shigeru Miyamoto