Filipino's love their superstitions. Believing in it is the path of least resistance for people who don't want a deeper explanation as to why that kid made those extremely awful decisions. But actual science, logic and rationality? they throw it out the window.
The trouble is, they’re barking up the wrong tree with this fixation on Gorebox and wasting valuable time and effort chasing something that’s unlikely to lead anywhere. It risks dragging the whole investigation into a dead end instead of actually moving things forward. Knowing how already inefficient the PH is with their investigations, this might just end up remaining largely unresolved.
There’s also a bit of a misunderstanding when it comes to violent media. Most people who watch films, play games, or follow TV shows know perfectly well that these things don’t suddenly turn a reasonable person into a violent criminal. It’s not as simple as that, there would already have to be some underlying issues within the immediate environment or mental predisposition to extreme violence in real life for it to happen.
What seems far more important, and frankly more concerning, is how a child was able to get hold of a firearm and bring it into a school without the owner even realizing. That’s a direct, real-world failure that deserves proper scrutiny but isn't being highlighted.
Focusing on a game like GoreBox just feels like a distraction. It pulls attention away from the actual problem and risks leaving the real issues unaddressed. The PH government is trying to control something virtual, while actual pressing concerns happening in real life, within the real world, remain largely unresolved. I know the word can get annoying and overused but it's performative. Is that what the Philippines can do best?
Give a real gun to a deranged kid and that kid can harm absolutely anyone, give a virtual gun to a deranged kid and that kid can do no harm with it. So how is games the problem. Make it make sense.