In the final and very thorough report by the review panel commissioned by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, it was determined that video games were not a significant contributing factor at all in the April 16, 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech. Though the shooter Seung-Hui Cho's young life was marked by the difficulties of young immigrant, violent video games were not his forte.

"He was enrolled in a Tae Kwon Do program for awhile, watched TV, and played video games like Sonic the Hedgehog," reads the study. "None of the video games were war games or had violent themes. He liked basketball and had a collection of figurines and remote controlled cars."

The study goes on to make other observations about his later college years. Despite obvious access to either PC or video games, Cho was not seen engaging in gaming activities at all.

"Cho went to bed early and got up early, so his roommate just left him alone and gave him his space. The only activities Cho engaged in were studying, sleeping, and downloading music. He never saw him play a video game, which he thought strange since he and most other students play them. One of the suitemates mentioned that he saw Cho working out at McCommis Hall and saw him return to the room from time to time in workout attire. Cho kept his side of the room very neat. Nothing appeared to be abnormal -- no knives, guns, chains, etc.

"Cho's roommate never saw him play video games. He would get movies from the library and watch them on his laptop," says the study later. "The roommate never saw what they were, but they always seemed dark. Cho would listen to and download heavy metal music. Someone wrote heavy metal lyrics on the walls of their suite in the fall, and then in the halls in the spring. Several of the students believed Cho was responsible because the words were similar to the lyrics Cho posted on Facebook."

The full study can be read here. Thanks to GamePolitics for the tip.

Editor's Opinion: For myself (class of 2003) and rest of the extended family of Virginia Tech, April 16th was a trying day to say the least. It struck many of us to our core, not thinking something like this could be possible in the quiet town of Blacksburg.

It made the time more difficult on a personal level to read accusations leveled at gaming for being a cause, if not THE primary cause, of Cho's rampage. It was the latest chapter in the book written by certain social crusaders and mainstream media to tar videogames as the source of all hooliganism.

This study shows that there are so many flawed assumptions that come from the knee jerk reactions of blowhards like Dr.Phil, Lyndon LaRouche and others. Cho had many problems, feeling isolated and social withdrawn, while dealing with depression and driven to hopelessness due to perceived social pressures. What he felt motivated to do was as much a tragedy in this situation as anything else, and simply saying that it was driven by playing video games, listening to heavy metal music or watching violent movies is overly simplistic and unhelpful. The gaming industry will never receive an apology from those who falsely accused it of being responsible for this act, but we can only hope and pray that there will be a little more sense in the future when tragedies like this occur.