Some Stupid Gamer Behavior

As much as I'd like to celebrate my finishing Halo 2's campaign mode, I won't. For one thing, not because it's bad (in contrast, it's probably one of the best single player experiences out there), but because Bungie and Microsoft have singlehandedly ensured that at least several million gamers out there will have their cash primed for the release of the Xbox 2 (or Next, or Xenon, or whatever it's gonna be called). Yeah, it's that good.

The second reason is this:

"ONE of the world's best-selling computer games was the inspiration behind a terrifying random attack on a Sydney family that left father Josef Logozzo dead, the Sydney Supreme Court heard yesterday.

Sophear Em was so fascinated with the game Counter-Strike that he and an accomplice dressed in black fatigues, balaclava and ski goggles to emulate characters from the game.
They then allegedly armed themselves with a pistol and a rifle and went to the Cecil Hills home of the Logozzo family and waited for them to return." (Link)

Obviously, these two perpetrators lack a fundamental ability that any gamer has: the one that enables them to distinguish gamespace from meatspace. It is people like these (and their compatriots here) who through their inability to differentiate those two different environments harm not only people's lives, but affect gamers everywhere.
It's a sad day when a medium that is meant to promote competitiveness and fun, is used as an inspiration for murder. Some people just never learn, and the backlash this will incite will serve as more fuel for future legislation that in the end makes things harder for the rest of us.

What a world.