Police arrested Luigi Mangione, 26, at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania on Monday and later charged him with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Information about him immediately began to circulate as the world clamored to know more about the divisive figure: in the aftermath of the shooting, the masked man was both celebrated and maligned, a reflection of reactions to the often cruel and cruel private healthcare system. broken, from the United States. One particular area that the media has latched onto is Mangione's online presence and his gaming history. After all, Mangione worked on a popular strategy game. Civilization 6 as an intern at Firaxis Games, where he fixed more than 300 bugs, according to his LinkedIn page. (A Firaxis Games representative confirmed to Polygon that Mangione was a former intern.)
Elsewhere online, Mangione's gaming history dates back to high school and college. In high school, he and a few others created a game called Pivot plane under a studio called AppRoar; The game was sold on the iOS app store. At the University of Pennsylvania, Mangione helped form a student game development club called the University of Pennsylvania Game Research and Development Environment, or UPGRADE. Mangione was the project leader for a game called University simulatorwhich is described on the UPGRADE blog as “a tongue-in-cheek and brutally difficult management roguelike that captures this attempt to find balance in college.”
On Monday night, NBC News published a report linking Mangione to the social deduction game. Among uscategorizing the activity as “play”[ing] “murderers.” “'Friend Recalls UnitedHealthcare CEO Murder Suspect Who Killed Killer in Video Game,' the headline reads. The story does not explicitly blame video games like Among us for Mangione's behavior, but the connection implies that there is some kind of relevance to the CEO shooting.
In reality, the history of Mangione's video games is very ordinary. In November 2020 alone, almost 500 million people played Among us. In fact, the game assigns one person the impostor marker, tasking them with silently eliminating the other players and trying to blend in with the rest of the group.
“We've been studying the uses and effects of games, with a strong focus on violent games, for decades,” research psychologist Dr. Rachel Kowert told Polygon. “There are no links between violent video games and violent behavior. In fact, when demographic factors (such as age, prior exposure to violence, frustration tolerance) are taken into account, media effects show no demonstrable impact on behavior.”
Among us Developer Innersloth has declined to comment. However, on December 10, X's official account simply posted “um.”
The rest of Mangione's gaming history, as seen on a Steam profile purportedly his, is also fairly common: The account lists hundreds of hours played in games like PUBG: Battlegrounds, Terrariums, rocket league, Civilization 6, Stardew Valleyand others. The account also lists eight hours played of Mr. President!a game where the objective is to stop assassination attempts on presidents. On an Xbox account linked to Mangione by Wired, the same thing happens: a variety of popular games. Mangione also frequently posted on Reddit, specifically the Pokémon Go subreddit, where the New York Times says it posted “enthusiastically” about the mobile game. He has a third generation Pokémon, Breloom, displayed on his X profile banner, next to an x-ray and a photo of himself.
We also take a closer look at games created by Mangione, such as Pivot plane. In a review published in 2015, Kevin Steinike said three high school students approached him to review Pivot planewhich he described as “sideways” flappy birdbut easier, and with a plane and not with a bird.” “It’s basic, but fun,” he said. The game is no longer available online, but a screenshot on social media shows its simplicity: a paper plane appears to slide down through a group of platforms, with a score of 69 on the screen.
University simulatorThe aforementioned “tongue-in-cheek management roguelike” has a description on the UPGRADE website:
Players will constantly have to make decisions like, “Should I stay up late tonight hanging out with my friends?” Even such a small decision could have far-reaching consequences. Relaxing with friends could offer the player a much-needed break and strengthen their friendships, leading to future social opportunities. At the same time, however, the decision could leave them tired the next day, causing them to fall behind in class or increasing their chance of getting sick.
None of this indicates whether Mangione was a violent person, explains his motives, or shows whether his alleged actions were right or wrong. Gaming and betting are, in fact, a reflection of society at large and deserve to be examined as such, including the medium's use of violence. But it must be considered in a deeper, more reflective way that contextualizes reality. Better clues about Mangione's alleged involvement in his chronic back pain that led to spinal surgery, reported by CNN, or in a manifesto expressing “ill will toward American corporations,” which has not been published, can be found. entirely by the police or the press.
“Humans are inherently lazy thinkers,” Kowert said. “We want easy solutions to complex problems and scapegoating the media has been a common means to that end. We have seen it on radio, television, movies and video games.”
Update: We've updated this story to add details about Mangione's interest in Pokémon.