Having played the X-files-ish computer game Deus Ex, I’m thinking they got their games mixed up (a major media outlet giving incorrect information about computer and roleplaying games? I am shocked – shocked!)
Anyway, does anyone know what RPG they might be referring to? I’m wondering if they’re talking about that weird computer game that came out awhile ago with the jive-talkin Ice-Cube protagonist, or else Kult or something like that.
I was stumped until I noticed that your quote from the NYT article in turn quoted a web site, thoughtfully providing a long string of text from that site. I plugged it into Google and came up with this.
Thanks, wu wei – that’s some smooth Googling on your part!
(The site doesn’t exactly look organized: the game Deus Ex seems to be identical to the game Divus Ex, also advertised on that Web site. Methinks some reporter considers herself awful clever with the search engine, not realizing that this game is a terrible example of a semi-valid point (i.e., that many roleplaying games do draw on Tarot symbolism – viz. Mage, Ravenloft, Lace & Steel, etc.)
The killer clearly isn’t a FPS video gamer: if he were, the message would have been “Policeman: I own you! You SUXX0R!”
I sometimes wonder if these so-called experts ever actually consume any popular culture: if they did, they’d realize that using a playing/tarot card as a signature for a crime is a book/movie/TV show cliche that’s as old as a hills. And if they read/watched any mediocre crime thriller, they’d run across the well-worn maxim that thrill-killers do it to make themselves feel superior to others. That seems like a much better explanation for the “I am God” line than some esoteric RPG.
