Thought's on the Columbine Video Game?

[Zkribbler]

a truly sick idea for a game

about the over version which might be acceptable among civilized people is where the player is a student at Columbine and the goal is not to get shot--a first-person-run-away-and-hider. You lose points if your friends and siblings are shot, but of course, you have no control over that.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
a truly sick idea for a game

How is it any more sick than the massive carnage in any number of violent games? Shooting zombies so their heads explode? Body parts everywhere? Oh, but that's not sick because it's just zombies, right?

Oh wait, just because the theme is based upon something in reality, that makes this game worse than other games?

I can turn on the news and see stuff that is much more disturbing than this video game.

Also, what's funny, is that this game probably isn't very good, but just because it's about Columbine, it's going to create controvery and thus gain popularity.

Hell, I can open a book... any book... the "classics"... and read about things that are much more "sick" than this. Shakespeare is more disturbing than Grand Theft Auto... underage sex, murder, betrayal...

but ZOMFG, VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES...

I'm sick and tired of listening to people who demonize video games. The human mind is a much more sick and twisted device than a bunch of polygons could ever hope to be.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Sava
How is it any more sick than the massive carnage in any number of violent games? Shooting zombies so their heads explode? Body parts everywhere? Oh, but that's not sick because it's just zombies, right?

I can see a difference between engaging in fiction and fantasy and glorifying the mass murden of children.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


I can see a difference between engaging in fiction and fantasy and glorifying the mass murden of children.

What about the numerous games based upon World War II?

How many millions lost their lives in that war? The number pales in comparison to the number dead from the Columbine incident.


BUT ZOMFG SOMEONE MADE A GAME ABOUT COLUMBINE

HOW SICK

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
Well, one thing wrong with Rammstein is that they suck.

Nonsense!


PS at Thorn: Looks like you've not a happy childhood. You talk of not having enough social skills back then. Has that improved by now?

[Zkribbler]

How many WWII games do you see where helpless civilians are being herded into gas chambers? Such a game would be a better comparison.

[Wiglaf]

What about the numerous games based upon World War II?

How many millions lost their lives in that war? The number pales in comparison to the number dead from the Columbine incident.

most ww2 games are about shooting legitimate targets

ones that focus around psycopathically killying innocent people ..... dont see many of those, do you ?!!?!??!??!?! my GOD your post offended me

[Thorn]

Before you Jack Thompson these video games, I would like to remind you that the worse school shooting in America's history happened in 1927 when 40 died, I'm sure that it was caused by those violent games of stick and wheel....

[Wiglaf]

Originally posted by Thorn
Before you Jack Thompson these video games, I would like to remind you that the worse school shooting in America's history happened in 1927 when 40 died, I'm sure that it was caused by those violent games of stick and wheel....

a game can be sick without directly motivating someone to kill. . . . .

ROLLEYES ROLLEYES my god that is starting to grate.

[Thorn]

The game is not sick (least the way it was done) it is a bit disturbing though and there is a difference I think.....

[Gamecube64]

Originally posted by Thorn
I suppose that's why nobody made a Titanic video game, although enough people went to the movie not knowning the ending.... ROFLMAO!!!

There is a titanic video game.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Wiglaf


most ww2 games are about shooting legitimate targets

"targets"

You mean other human beings? A soldier is a human being... But it's glad to know you think the men who died defending our country against the Nazis and Japanese are just targets.

How many American flags have you burned today?

ones that focus around psycopathically killying innocent people ..... dont see many of those, do you ?!!?!??!??!?! my GOD your post offended me

And the video games that about World War 2 totally glorify the experience of the war, but yet, how many innocent people were killed, by both sides?

If anything, the lack of killing innocent people in those war games smacks of blatant revisionism and paints an inaccurate picture of what the war was really like. I think games should be more immersive and realistic so people can get a greater appreciation for the grotesque nature of violence and war in general. The problem with society now is people think violence is fun. If people have more realistic experiences with it, they will see it's really not... and maybe... just maybe, it will allow everyone to think about the use of force as a last resort instead of a first one.

If you shelter people from violence, if they don't know what it is... or worse, it you make it almost "cartoony", people won't respect it.

[Thorn]

Well if you are curious to know the intent of the game, and are too digusted to click the link here it is the official artists statement:

ARTIST'S STATEMENT:
A Meditation on Super Columbine Massacre RPG!
When I discovered a program called RPG Maker, I knew I had to achieve my childhood ambition of designing a video game. The question of what the game’s subject would be came almost instantly; a striking event from my own formative years tugged at my instincts to make the “unthinkable” game. Little did I know as I began to research the Columbine shooting on April 20th, 1999 that the subject never went away in the minds of many others, either. From Germany to Australia and all across the United States, thousands of websites devoted to providing information/criticism/critique of the incident came to my attention. The question at the center of the storm was an elusive one: “why did they do it?”


Thus far, video games have been relegated to escapist entertainment—an industry known best for little blue hedgehogs and plucky mustached plumbers bouncing about in fantasy worlds. There is little in the realm of socially conscious gaming—software that does more than merely amuse for a few idle hours. Yet while some low-selling games offer pedagogical education (in geography, math, etc.), games that genuinely challenge social taboos or confront real cultural issues are nearly non-existent. I wanted to make something that mattered; I wasn’t willing to put months of my scant free time into an easily forgotten adventure set in a mythical realm of dragons or spaceships.


I knew I had to be true to the events of the Columbine school shooting—as true as I could be while maintaining respect for the tragically deceased; it was a more delicate balance of personal morality than many of my detractors imagine I took. Since 1999 so many mistruths have been spoken and political postures have been struck in the wake of the shooting that I didn’t want to fall into the speculative pitfalls of much of the media’s coverage. The game had to be told from the perspective of the shooting’s greatest enigmas of all: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. They left behind many of their thoughts—some frightening, some deplorable, some comical, and some deeply enraged. I collected all of them and assembled them into a role-playing game aesthetically reminiscent of those I would play in my own youth. It only made sense, I thought, to make this game feel like a combination of reading, playing, and thinking.


The end result—now swarming the Internet from one download mirror to another, via personal file transfers on instant messengers and peer-to-peer programs—is a game that has been called nearly every hyperbole in the English language. Its creator, known for over a year only as the alias “Columbin,” has been described as a “genius,” a “sick human being,” a “real philosopher,” and even “the Antichrist.” The game’s success comes not from its technical accomplishments or engaging gameplay but rather the provocative polarization it elicits from audiences. One thing can be certain, though: ‘Super Columbine Massacre RPG!’ is a bit unlike anything already in the cultural canon and pushes the envelope as to what a video game can be.


The lingering question—that grand burning query so many have tried to answer—is one I believe this game allows us to at least access in a more honest way. Beyond the simple platitudes and panaceas of gun control, media ratings/censorship, bully prevention programs, and parental supervision remains a glaring possibility: that the society we have created is deeply moribund. This game asks more of its audience than rudimentary button-pushing and map navigation; it implores introspection. This is why the game’s forum is equally important to the SCMRPG project. Through it, people from six continents and all walks of life are discussing the game itself and the incident it is based on. Some of them confess childhood pain or share personal feelings on the shooting. Some of them sustain vulgar diatribes or accuse the creator of wrongdoing. Some of them discuss the game’s social implications in a broader context. At the end of the day, the understanding of the Columbine school shooting is deepened and redefined. That is the real object of the game.


Somewhere between April 20th, 1999 and September 11th, 2001, America entered into a new, terrifying, and desperate era. Citizens can no longer afford to believe the necessary illusions of modern society. In an age when hastily-formed scapegoats and false dichotomies of “good” and “evil” run rampant, SCMRPG dares us into a realm of grey morality with nuanced perspectives of suffering, vengeance, horror, and reflection. In the words of Harris’ friend Brooks Brown, there are “no easy answers” to such a socially indicting tragedy. As humanity teeters precariously on the threshold of collapse—politically, ideologically, and environmentally, the days of comatose media coverage and a subservient populace cannot remain. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, through their furious words and malevolent actions, can be understood as the canaries in the mine—foretelling of an “apocalypse soon” for those remaining to ponder their deeds. With ‘Super Columbine Massacre RPG!,’ I present to you one of the darkest days in modern history and ask, “Are we willing to look in the mirror?”

—Danny Ledonne, "Columbin"

I think he makes an interesting point, though I'm not sure if it is a good point, people get into certain modes when playing games, this is why people don't generally make games dealing with sensitive societal problems.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Thorn
Well if you are curious to know the intent of the game, and are too digusted to click the link here it is the official artists statement:

bleh

This turd just made this game because he knew it would be controversial and would create a firestorm. He didn't do it for any noble cause... just for his own selfish, attention-craving purposes.

[Thorn]

Sava more then likely he made the game playing out his fantasies but comes up with this kind of excuse so that he doesn't end up in jail......... so you are right in some respects....

Speaking of which I dunno if this is sick or not but I have all of the Columbine killers doom wads and have played them, does that make me a bad person?