Yesterday, there was a German documentary shown on channel ZDF. It was realised by Rainer Fromm, a journalist who usually investigated skinheads and far-right extremist movements, until he wrote a book and made some reports and documentaries about "killer games", one in 2004, another in 2005.
These documentaries generate a huge controversy, and the German gamers' response was massive and harsh. This year, [URL=http://www.aquad.de/txt/players.ppt]their reaction was studied[/URL] by a German sociologist who previously made a longitudinal study on violent games and violent behavior. He dismissed "players of killer games" as irresponsible fundamentalists.
But actually, Rainer Fromm doesn't look like a "German Jack Thompson". He is rather a complex character who, on one hand, periodically blasts "killer games" (not only first-person shooters, but also some RTS games that he finds too violent), and on the other hand, praises gamers for being globally "peaceful" and depicted gaming in LAN parties as "a weekend without alcohol, drugs, and brawls" (in his 2003 book). A nuanced portrait of Rainer Fromm can be found [URL=http://xirdal.lmu.de/cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi/2005/09/14]at this address.[/URL]
So, his latest documentary is not only about "killer games", but also about horror movies, media violence in general, and its link with real violence. A summary of the report can be shown [URL=http://dokumentation.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/19/0,1872,1021587_idDispatch:8006135,00.html?dr=1]on ZDF's page (in German).[/URL]