Fairly recently in the Netherlands, a counterstrike/call of Duty player walked into a mall armed
(...)
And there it is: The mistake the media does! Please don't do that.
==> Fairly recently in the Netherlands, a mentally sick person walked into a mall armed (...)
That's the way one should write it.
Because when somebody tortures and kill a cat and goes to prison you don't write "A Wing Commander gamer killed a cat" but you write "Some asshole killed a cat."
When someone drives too fast and has an accident you don't write "A Colin Mc Rae Dirt player had a car accident" either.
Everybody and their mother plays Call of Duty and/or counterstrike and/or a dozen other games. There are a lot more violent crimes by people who don't (those people are a minority in their age group normally), but nobody says "A person who didn't play video games at all murdered 10 people!"
So being a gamer is not the single most important attribute that person has. Naming it in that way implies it is. But it isn't. With that kind of sentence the media suggests this connection so it is linked in the brains of people who hear that regularly.
Imagine someone would write in a US paper: "A US citizen stabbed a cat owner yesterday in Hopkinsville, Kentucky". You would ask whether the cat or being a US citizen has anything to do with it. It hasn't. The journalist is a cat-lover and british though, so why does he write that? go figure.....
So basically that is just statistics and people misusing them.
EDIT: I have an even funnier example:
==> Fairly recently in the Netherlands, a soccer fan walked into a mall armed (...)
There is no reason to mention that, if he didn't at least wear a soccer-scarf or a soccer dress.
But if he played video games, OF COURSE that has to be the reason. What else... Why?
We call it the "Pornoblick" which means "porn gaze". The word describes the fact that if you want to want to perceive something as offensive then you will.