Now here's a valid question (you guessed it, it's that thing I do -- the side of the table that's not being heard):
Is this an authentic email, or just someone writing to claim **** to further a pro-game agenda?
It's a possibility that a video game or the media affected the child, and it's a possibility that it didn't, but I don't just automatically trust any source, especially not one claiming to be a stepmother, mother, father, or best friend unless it is verified and/or verifiable.
Of course, everyone just automatically trusts this source, because, it's in our favour. That's a double standard. Just like you distrust their sources, so too should we distrust ours unless we can verify it.
Alright, so now the other side of it (where we assume this is a trustworthy source):
Is it true that this is not the fault of the parents? Who ****ing knows. We can't prove it was, and we can't prove it wasn't. That's 15 years that we aren't privy to.
She says they let him draw and/or read in his room, in which case, they weren't grounding him very well anyway. The idea is to deprive him of EVERYTHING that may be interesting and leave him with time to think of what he did. Not hand him a pencil and some paper, and say "go draw, because that's the worst ****ing punishment we can conceive of."
Likewise, why didn't they simply send this child to a boarding school or a military school? There were so many things they could have done with this child to improve him as a person, and improve his behaviour, and they didn't do any of it.
So...
Of course, it's quite possible that there could be a happy medium where the two correlate. I don't personally believe that a video game is responsible, and I don't think that a movie made them do this, and I don't believe that music would taint someone's life.
I think it's a mixture of two sources, such as parents using video games as a babysitter, while ignoring the child. Perhaps it's a child lashing out because he felt parents didn't pay enough attention to him (or possibly no attention at all outside of punishment?).
So yeah, I don't believe this source unless she is verified. I don't believe his bull**** excuse that it was a video game. I do believe the thought that the kid was already messed up, but, I think that the parentage is heavily to be blamed.
And penny arcade is just crap...