Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old charged with murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, once pursued a career in video game development. This raises many real questions, such as which Discord communities he attended, how gaming culture may have influenced his political beliefs, and whether he used multiplayer gaming's notoriously uncontrolled communication tools to share his plans with others.
That doesn't mean Among us turned him into a murderer.
This is a brief, heartfelt reminder to reporters unfamiliar with games to research the medium before covering it – just as they would try to research the details of their subject before publishing a story, be it a war abroad or a scientific breakthrough or the drama behind the scenes at City Hall. A reporter cannot be expected to be an expert in everything he covers; They can be expected to talk to and learn from experts.
Regrettably, mainstream reporting has largely failed to confidently report on video games for decades, particularly when it relates to real-world violence. In the late 1990s and 2000s, local and television news alike responded to the shootings by flooding televisions with stories of Doom training a generation to kill. Today, moral panic is often more subtle, although no less absurd, often suggesting a connection between gaming and violence without explicitly naming it.
It's also a reminder for media consumers to be skeptical of false or sweeping connections between video games and murder. According to research from, there is no causal relationship between violent video games and violent behavior in real life from Oxford University in 2019The American Psychological Association in 2020and the University of London in 2021.
The author of this third study, Dr. Agne Suziedelyte, said: “These results suggest that violent video games can upset children, but that excitement does not translate into violence against other people – that is the type of violence we care about most.”
Image: InnerSloth
Which brings us back Among us. Today, NBC News reported that a member of a Discord group Mangione participated in claims the suspect was gambling Among us. NBC News builds an entire story around this detail:
Luigi Mangione, who was arrested and charged with murder in the shooting death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, was once among a group of Ivy League players who played assassins, a member of the group told NBC News.
In the game called “Among us“Some players are secretly deployed as assassins in space, performing other tasks while trying to avoid suspicion from other players.
But context is key. Among us has been downloaded 500 million times and is popular with people of all ages – many (if not most) of whom are children. That's why Among us is a family-friendly game in which players use social deduction to discover a “murderer” who looks like colorful, anthropomorphic beans among their astronaut crew. It is very similar to the classic party games Mafia and Werewolf. Among us became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to its simple gameplay and cartoon aesthetic, which have more in common with Looney Tunes than military training simulators.
In the NBC News report, the Discord member pointed out the irony of a suspected assassin playing a game that involves assassination. And it's ironic. But it's not a national news story without more context, just like it's not a national news story if a corrupt landlord once played Monopoly.
Video games have currently become the dominant entertainment medium. Mangione's connections to the hobby will and should be part of the coverage of his identity. But like everything else – his upbringing, his schooling, his relationships, his politics – Mangione's gambling habits should be viewed as part of a larger whole.
It's not national news that someone just played one of the most popular games in the world. Even if they are accused of murder.
