NationStates Jolt Archive


Oh boy, This should piss some people off.

Drunk commies deleted
16-05-2006, 22:59
Somebody made a videogame called "Super Columbine Massacre". You get to play as Dylan and Klebold and shoot your classmates. So this is in bad taste, but I'm curious as to NS'ers opinions.


http://www.columbinegame.com/
Undelia
16-05-2006, 23:03
I'll just quote what somebody wrote in their forums.

1) Columbin shooting is an event that resulted in a death of 15people(incuding the shooters), alot more fucked up shit happans every day in the world. Hundreeds die from gunfire every day in the world, hundreeds of thousands suffer ever day in order for you to have the lifestyle you have, milions innocents died in wars that have passed and in wars that are raging to this day, over a BILLION people in the course of history that have been killed as a result of RELIGIOUS prosecution. SO if you are realy offened by this game you are a) a hypocrite b) have not a slightest clue on whats going on in the world.

2) So far every poster trying to insult the game or it's creator has only embarrassed themself by moronic, child like comments that address no real issues nor express are real point.

3) Columbin is smarter, faster, has more knowledge and facts then you. if you feel up to the task go ahead and engage yourself in an argument with him, you will only get OMGWTFBBQPWNT like the many before you.

4)If all you have to say consists of a sentence involving word "****" or phrase "you will burn in hell" and might just wanna hold out posting it, becasue belive me, all you will acomplish by making that post if embarrass yourself or/and discredit your religion.

also http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/feature/columbine-survivor-talks-about-columbine-rpg-171966.php
IL Ruffino
16-05-2006, 23:03
I feel.. like an asshole.. I'd play it.

But I find it to be really really really horrible.
Lazy Otakus
16-05-2006, 23:04
Haven't finished it yet. The font in the game is very hard to read.

Here's an interview with the game's creator. (http://blogs.rockymountainnews.com/denver/freePlay/2006/05/video_game_reopens_columbine_w.html#more)

Here's one with a survivor talking about the game. (http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/feature/columbine-survivor-talks-about-columbine-rpg-171966.php)
Kzord
16-05-2006, 23:06
Somebody made a videogame called "Super Columbine Massacre". You get to play as Dylan and Klebold and shoot your classmates. So this is in bad taste, but I'm curious as to NS'ers opinions.
I'm just disappointed that people would want to give the anti-video-game crowd more "evidence" to support their beliefs.
Bolol
16-05-2006, 23:18
Columbin shooting is an event that resulted in a death of 15people(incuding the shooters), alot more fucked up shit happans every day in the world. Hundreeds die from gunfire every day in the world, hundreeds of thousands suffer ever day in order for you to have the lifestyle you have, milions innocents died in wars that have passed and in wars that are raging to this day, over a BILLION people in the course of history that have been killed as a result of RELIGIOUS prosecution. SO if you are realy offened by this game you are a) a hypocrite b) have not a slightest clue on whats going on in the world.

...So are you saying I cannot get offended by a game like portrays the events of a shooting without being a hypocrite or a fool?
Infantry Grunts
16-05-2006, 23:21
Probably going to have bad graphics, poor play control, and no real reason to play or buy it other than shock value. However if it DOES have good graphics and good play control, I'd play it. Postal 2 is a great stress reliever for me.
Bolol
16-05-2006, 23:23
Probably going to have bad graphics, poor play control, and no real reason to play or buy it other than shock value. However if it DOES have good graphics and good play control, I'd play it. Postal 2 is a great stress reliever for me.

The NPCs in that game practically BEG to get shoveled (in the face).
Dinaverg
16-05-2006, 23:23
...So are you saying I cannot get offended by a game like portrays the events of a shooting without being a hypocrite or a fool?

Unless you spend all of your life dozens or hundreds or thousands of times more offended, no, you can't.
Bolol
16-05-2006, 23:25
Unless you spend all of your life dozens or hundreds or thousands of times more offended, no, you can't.

I can get more offended. But I just don't see where that particular poster was getting off. It just didn't seem quite right to me.
Dongara
16-05-2006, 23:26
That is fucking awesome. Just fucking awesome.
Dinaverg
16-05-2006, 23:28
I can get more offended. But I just don't see where that particular poster was getting off. It just didn't seem quite right to me.

okay, 15 people died there. Assuming you treat all human lives as equal, any offense you have to this should be multiplied many many times over towards all the other things that killed so many more people.
Bakamongue
16-05-2006, 23:33
I'm just disappointed that people would want to give the anti-video-game crowd more "evidence" to support their beliefs.To be honest, that evidence would be more relevant if it had come out before the act.

Is anyone saying that the Panzer General series, Medal of Honour Battlefield 1942, and Call of Duty are bad because they depict WW2?

So, on that point, some people are idiots.


But, on the other hand, the above are justified by game-play issues. If the Columbine game is little more than a fragfest (highly likely, assuming they don't equip all the 'regular' students with sub-machne guns, teachers with flame-throwers and the pinciple with a rocket launcher) then what's the point? There are seiously competative games and then there are 'rampage' ones.

For example, I liked Carmageddon (with both 'people' and 'zombie' pedestrian options, as available), but would I have though it worthwhile setting a level in a realistic model of my home-town? No. It's supposed to be a fantastical land. (Actually, the X-Box racing game with the streets of Paris, etc, have pedestrians wandering the streets, IIRC, but they seem cunningly able to avoid being run over, so avoid that sort of issue.)


Such an unstructred reply.... Bah!
Kerblagahstan
16-05-2006, 23:34
I'm just disappointed that people would want to give the anti-video-game crowd more "evidence" to support their beliefs.

Yeah, its like the anti-gaming politicians commissioned it or something so they would have something to rant about.
Kroisistan
16-05-2006, 23:35
Well at first I was bothered. Then I read the forums on the site, especially what was posted by the creator, and it doesn't bug me so much anymore.

It seems his intent was somewhere between free speech for its own sake, and stirring up discussion about that tenant, and of course about the incident. Plus he seems like a reasonable guy.

I'd feel too wrong playing the game, however, so I'll abstain. But I certainly am not going to get riled up about it.
Undelia
16-05-2006, 23:37
okay, 15 people died there. Assuming you treat all human lives as equal, any offense you have to this should be multiplied many many times over towards all the other things that killed so many more people.
Like the Catholic Church.
Ifreann
16-05-2006, 23:40
I think I'll wait till after playing to comment on the game. But this seems to exist simply for the shock value.
Bolol
16-05-2006, 23:41
okay, 15 people died there. Assuming you treat all human lives as equal, any offense you have to this should be multiplied many many times over towards all the other things that killed so many more people.

I don't know why, but that kind of seems like reducing people to statistics.

And yes, I would be equally offended, if not FAR more, about a game portraying the events of Beslan or Tienamen in a "comedic" light.
Dinaverg
16-05-2006, 23:44
I don't know why, but that kind of seems like reducing people to statistics.

And yes, I would be equally offended, if not FAR more, about a game portraying the events of Beslan or Tienamen in a "comedic" light.

*shrug* How did that line go again? One man's death is a tragedy, a million's is a statistic? If they're equal, one of them is less than two of them.
Bolol
16-05-2006, 23:47
*shrug* How did that line go again? One man's death is a tragedy, a million's is a statistic? If they're equal, one of them is less than two of them.

To be honest, I never liked that quote, or "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few". They seem so absolute in their thinking.
Dinaverg
16-05-2006, 23:51
To be honest, I never liked that quote, or "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few". They seem so absolute in their thinking.

Unfortunately, it's how people think. You get full news coverage on the one guy who gets killed, and then "In other news, an earthquake killed hundreds in California. And now the weather."
Bolol
16-05-2006, 23:57
Unfortunately, it's how people think. You get full news coverage on the one guy who gets killed, and then "In other news, an earthquake killed hundreds in California. And now the weather."

The media does tend to sensationalise everything they get their hands on, and unfortunately, people do not tend to care much about events that do not effect them directly. Thus in the minds of most:

Columbine > Beslan

Simply by virtue that most people haven't heard of it.
Xenophobialand
16-05-2006, 23:58
I think I'll wait till after playing to comment on the game. But this seems to exist simply for the shock value.

Sort of. According to Columbin, its an attempt to portray a very difficult subject through a videogame medium. My guess is that the ultimate attempt is to do what might well be impossible otherwise: have everyone walk a mile in Harris' shoes. I'm not sure how well this video game accomplishes that end, as to be honest, a game that involves Klebold and Harris' bullying might be more effective. But I do think that the creator has a point when he says that the Palmes d'Or in 2002 and 2003 went to Bowling for Columbine and Elephant, respectively, both movies on the Columbine massacre. If we reward those movies as serious art, why then can't we say the same thing about a video game that attempts the same?
Intangelon
17-05-2006, 00:06
Unless you spend all of your life dozens or hundreds or thousands of times more offended, no, you can't.
I'm sorry, but where do you get the authority to tell anyone else who or what they can be offended by? Nowhere.

If someone wants to get offended by a video game, then that's their lookout. I'm not offended that easily, but some folks are. The only thing worse that someone whose sensitivity knob is cranked full is anyone telling them what they have the right to be offended about. If you can't see why this game just might piss a few people off, you're as blind as those who see offense everywhere.

Personally, I find the game to be chidlish with just enough cleverness to scan with the gaming crowd.
The Black Hand of Nod
17-05-2006, 00:08
I'm just disappointed that people would want to give the anti-video-game crowd more "evidence" to support their beliefs.
I can imagine Jack Thompson Whipping himself up into a Frenzy right now. I bet he's downright Drooling now.
Dinaverg
17-05-2006, 00:10
I'm sorry, but where do you get the authority to tell anyone else who or what they can be offended by? Nowhere.

If someone wants to get offended by a video game, then that's their lookout. I'm not offended that easily, but some folks are. The only thing worse that someone whose sensitivity knob is cranked full is anyone telling them what they have the right to be offended about. If you can't see why this game just might piss a few people off, you're as blind as those who see offense everywhere.

Personally, I find the game to be chidlish with just enough cleverness to scan with the gaming crowd.

Oh, I didn't say they couldn't be offended. Just not without being a hypocrite or a fool, as suggested by the poster quoted.
Intangelon
17-05-2006, 00:19
*shrug* How did that line go again? One man's death is a tragedy, a million's is a statistic? If they're equal, one of them is less than two of them.
One man's death is indeed a tragedy if the one man is of consequence to you. Your quote is too absolutist to have any relevance -- tragedy is subjective. Do I think a million people perishing in an earthquake is a tragedy? Yes. Am I going to mourn them? In my own minor way, unless someone I knew was among them, or if the quake was local to my home. That doesn't make me cavalier, it makes me realistic. Surely you don't mourn every death on the planet -- hell, you're not even awake for at least half of them!

I'd say the intensity of a tragedy is related to its proximity first to your heart (loved ones, friends, relatives, et al.), then to your mind (people with whom you identify but do know know personally), and finally to your location (I'd be more upset if a million people in a part of my home state where my family and friends didn't live died than if it happened in Indonesia). This idea probalby has a name, like pragmatism, I'm not sure. But it's certainly more realistic than expecting someone not to be concerned with 15 high school inhabitants in his home country and to be more mournful over a thousand or more folks he's never met even the like of, let alone met at all.

So here come the "shame" posts that will call me all kinds of insensitive or whatever, but you all know it to be true, at least to some degree.
Kazus
17-05-2006, 00:19
1) Columbin shooting is an event that resulted in a death of 15people(incuding the shooters), alot more fucked up shit happans every day in the world. Hundreeds die from gunfire every day in the world, hundreeds of thousands suffer ever day in order for you to have the lifestyle you have, milions innocents died in wars that have passed and in wars that are raging to this day, over a BILLION people in the course of history that have been killed as a result of RELIGIOUS prosecution. SO if you are realy offened by this game you are a) a hypocrite b) have not a slightest clue on whats going on in the world.

Of course! Because the fact that theres more fucked up shit in the world makes all the "slightly fucked up shit" okay!
Intangelon
17-05-2006, 00:21
Oh, I didn't say they couldn't be offended. Just not without being a hypocrite or a fool, as suggested by the poster quoted.
And again, you judge. You can't call it hypocrisy because he (Bolol) never said anything like "all lives are worth the same" -- you assumed that. In fact, didn't you actually say "assuming all lives are equal"? I don't think the poster you rebuked assumed that at all.

EDIT: I can't find where you did...my bad. The OP in question was quoted from the game's forums, not here. My bad twice.
Dinaverg
17-05-2006, 00:24
One man's death is indeed a tragedy if the one man is of consequence to you. Your quote is too absolutist to have any relevance -- tragedy is subjective. Do I think a million people perishing in an earthquake is a tragedy? Yes. Am I going to mourn them? In my own minor way, unless someone I knew was among them, or if the quake was local to my home. That doesn't make me cavalier, it makes me realistic. Surely you don't mourn every death on the planet -- hell, you're not even awake for at least half of them!

I'd say the intensity of a tragedy is related to its proximity first to your heart (loved ones, friends, relatives, et al.), then to your mind (people with whom you identify but do know know personally), and finally to your location (I'd be more upset if a million people in a part of my home state where my family and friends didn't live died than if it happened in Indonesia). This idea probalby has a name, like pragmatism, I'm not sure. But it's certainly more realistic than expecting someone not to be concerned with 15 high school inhabitants in his home country and to be more mournful over a thousand or more folks he's never met even the like of, let alone met at all.

So here come the "shame" posts that will call me all kinds of insensitive or whatever, but you all know it to be true, at least to some degree.

Good for you. I generally don't mourn deaths at all, so I don't mourn a million deaths either. Treating 'em all equally, if you will.
Dinaverg
17-05-2006, 00:25
Of course! Because the fact that theres more fucked up shit in the world makes all the "slightly fucked up shit" okay!

It makes it negligible. Sure, electrons have mass, but wehn considering the atom as a whole, with protons and neutrons, the mass of the electron is negligible.
Intangelon
17-05-2006, 00:26
Good for you. I generally don't mourn deaths at all, so I don't mourn a million deaths either. Treating 'em all equally, if you will.
Right. So if someone you care about passes away, you do nothing? Go about your merry way as if everything was fine? Hey, if you do, that's your lookout, but forgive me if I have a hard time buying it.
Dinaverg
17-05-2006, 00:26
And again, you judge. You can't call it hypocrisy because he (Bolol) never said anything like "all lives are worth the same" -- you assumed that. In fact, didn't you actually say "assuming all lives are equal"? I don't think the poster you rebuked assumed that at all.

EDIT: I can't find where you did...my bad. The OP in question was quoted from the game's forums, not here. My bad twice.
Okay, so they're hypocrites, fools, or value some human lives more than others, don't much matter.
Intangelon
17-05-2006, 00:27
It makes it negligible. Sure, electrons have mass, but wehn considering the atom as a whole, with protons and neutrons, the mass of the electron is negligible.
Wow, that's a bad argument. Nothing happens without electrons. Absolutely nothing. Mass isn't the only factor. Just like death isn't the only factor in the other subject.
Dinaverg
17-05-2006, 00:28
Right. So if someone you care about passes away, you do nothing? Go about your merry way as if everything was fine? Hey, if you do, that's your lookout, but forgive me if I have a hard time buying it.

*shrug* I suppose so. Obviously it's not the sort of thing what'd make me happy, but eh. They died. People die. It's to be expected. And yeah, people close to me have died, so I can speak on this with a reasonable standard of past experience.
Intangelon
17-05-2006, 00:28
Okay, so they're hypocrites, fools, or value some human lives more than others, don't much matter.
So you say.
Intangelon
17-05-2006, 00:29
*shrug* I suppose so. Obviously it's not the sort of thing what'd make me happy, but eh. They died. People die. It's to be expected. And yeah, people close to me have died, so I can speak on this with a reasonable standard of past experience.
And you did nothing to mourn them? Your daily routine didn't change even one iota? Sorry. I don't buy it.
Dinaverg
17-05-2006, 00:30
Wow, that's a bad argument. Nothing happens without electrons. Absolutely nothing. Mass isn't the only factor. Just like death isn't the only factor in the other subject.

Eh? I was showing how when you've got A and B, and A has some value ridiculously above that of B, B becomes negligible. In the atom case, mass is the value, in this case, "fucked up shit".
Bodies Without Organs
17-05-2006, 00:30
*shrug* How did that line go again? One man's death is a tragedy, a million's is a statistic? If they're equal, one of them is less than two of them.

To be honest, I never liked that quote, or "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few". They seem so absolute in their thinking.

Just point out here that there is no evidence Stalin ever said the first.
Dinaverg
17-05-2006, 00:32
And you did nothing to mourn them? Your daily routine didn't change even one iota? Sorry. I don't buy it.

What would you have me do? Cry? Sorry, I didn't. Place a flower on a grave? Nope, don't think so. Lose motivation for life and sit in a corner wallowing? I'm thinking...no, I didn't. What are you expecting?
Dinaverg
17-05-2006, 00:32
Just point out here that there is no evidence Stalin ever said the first.

*shrug* Kay, good thing I didn't credit him. Regardless, the point seems to remain accurate.
Dinaverg
17-05-2006, 00:33
So you say.

Eh? That's what you said, that he mightn't value lives all the same as I assumed.
Soviet Haaregrad
17-05-2006, 00:35
Sounds fun. :mp5:
Mashi
17-05-2006, 00:41
Well... anyone played Hidden & Dangerous? Sure, it's based on real life events, truely sick events, but so are many, many other games in the world are based on real events too. Games like this are designed to be used as an outlet and to educate (not how to kill, but why real killing is not actually cool)... yes it's kinda sick... yes I'm going to have a look.

...I wonder if there's a Waco game?
Manvir
17-05-2006, 00:53
i think it's too soon give it 50 yrs like WW2
Bolol
17-05-2006, 01:24
I can just sum up my argument right here; people always react differently.

Take that as you will.
Dobbsworld
17-05-2006, 01:25
i think it's too soon give it 50 yrs like WW2
I'm flashing on a future where all the residents of a retirement home are glued to their game console, plugging away at Columbine kids... while giggling...
Bolol
17-05-2006, 01:27
I'm flashing on a future where all the residents of a retirement home are glued to their game console, plugging away at Columbine kids... while giggling...

I find that oddly...disturbing...
Im a ninja
17-05-2006, 01:36
1) Columbin shooting is an event that resulted in a death of 15people(incuding the shooters), alot more fucked up shit happans every day in the world. Hundreeds die from gunfire every day in the world, hundreeds of thousands suffer ever day in order for you to have the lifestyle you have, milions innocents died in wars that have passed and in wars that are raging to this day, over a BILLION people in the course of history that have been killed as a result of RELIGIOUS prosecution. SO if you are realy offened by this game you are a) a hypocrite b) have not a slightest clue on whats going on in the world.
Have you ever seen a Battlefield: Rawanda? You dont make video games aobut massacreing innocent people. While some hippe will argure that murder and killing someone in a war is the same thing, everyone knows that it is not. This is glorifying murder, while most glorify war.
Dinaverg
17-05-2006, 01:38
Have you ever seen a Battlefield: Rawanda? You dont make video games aobut massacreing innocent people. While some hippe will argure that murder and killing someone in a war is the same thing, everyone knows that it is not. This is glorifying murder, while most glorify war.

And in order to not glorify murder, we must not let anyone or anything mention it, and completely forget anything ever happened. Cuz, you know, talking about something glorifies it.
Native Quiggles II
17-05-2006, 01:39
I find it tasteless; though, if someone wants to buy it/ create it, he or she can, I suppose. It is still in horrid taste, though.
Dinaverg
17-05-2006, 01:41
I find it tasteless; though, if someone wants to buy it/ create it, he or she can, I suppose. It is still in horrid taste, though.

Indeed, far too bitter...Also, it needs salt.
Im a ninja
17-05-2006, 01:48
And in order to not glorify murder, we must not let anyone or anything mention it, and completely forget anything ever happened. Cuz, you know, talking about something glorifies it.

No, but we shouldnt make it out pastime. If your bored go to Youtube, don't pretend you are murdering innocent schoolchildren.
Bolol
17-05-2006, 01:49
Indeed, far too bitter...Also, it needs salt.

*passes out on keyboard*
Dobbsworld
17-05-2006, 01:52
No, but we shouldnt make it out pastime. If your bored go to Youtube, don't pretend you are murdering innocent schoolchildren.
What if you pretend you're... uh... what if you're pretending you're murdering guilty school bullies instead?
Dinaverg
17-05-2006, 01:52
No, but we shouldnt make it out pastime. If your bored go to Youtube, don't pretend you are murdering innocent schoolchildren.

It's a way of opening discussion through a not often ustilized art-form.
Dinaverg
17-05-2006, 01:53
*passes out on keyboard*

See, it's so tasteless in horrid taste it put him to sleep.
Katganistan
17-05-2006, 02:05
Somebody made a videogame called "Super Columbine Massacre". You get to play as Dylan and Klebold and shoot your classmates. So this is in bad taste, but I'm curious as to NS'ers opinions.


http://www.columbinegame.com/


Super bad taste, and may the programmers and distributors get their just karmic rewards.
Deep Kimchi
17-05-2006, 13:01
Super bad taste, and may the programmers and distributors get their just karmic rewards.
There's no accounting for bad taste. With the extra publicity, they'll probably make more money.
Kanabia
17-05-2006, 13:05
Eh, that shoot JFK game was better.

(i didn't actually bother downloading this one, it's just a cruddy RPG maker game. I made one of those once.)
Lazy Otakus
17-05-2006, 15:22
There's no accounting for bad taste. With the extra publicity, they'll probably make more money.

Unlikely. The game is free for download.
Unreal_Deathman
18-05-2006, 04:23
So has anyone here actually downloaded the game? It would seem that the download is down, the torrent is dead, and I can't find any mirrors. If you did manage to download the game could you tell me how you did it because I really want to play this game.
Teh_pantless_hero
18-05-2006, 04:27
They have been doing stuff like this for years on newgrounds. Hell, didn't Rockstar make a game where you played a school bully in a private school and the point of the game was to go around ruining the good kids' shit?
Dinaverg
18-05-2006, 18:33
Super bad taste, and may the programmers and distributors get their just karmic rewards.

Lo, the Hindu/Sikh/Buddhist/Jainist version of "burn in hell".
The Parkus Empire
18-05-2006, 18:42
It would be a TERRIBLE game if it were fictional. It really happened. Next thing you know they will be making: "Hitler's Adventure in the Holocaust." Kill as many jews as possible, okay GO!

It's a sick game, it's NOTHING like war.
Mashi
22-05-2006, 00:39
It's a sick game, it's NOTHING like war.

and war is ok?
LaLaland0
22-05-2006, 00:42
Huh... well, that's in really bad taste. I have an idea for the people who made that game, why don't they come out with a serial killer game, where you're the serial killer!!
Cannot think of a name
22-05-2006, 01:07
I'm not really going to weigh in on the game except to say in a lot of ways it's the same ol' same ol' with requisite self congratulation that exceeds actual accomplishment.

But reading through the forums where the back was patted on of the sycophants wrote this at the end of their posts and it made me chuckle:
Christ on a motherfuckin' cracker. You people couldn't get a clue if you stood in the middle of a clue field in the middle of clue mating season, wearing a clue costume covered in clue pheromones and shouting "Clue! Clue!"
I hadn't seen that one before.
The Gate Builders
22-05-2006, 01:51
Downloading now. Don't comment until you've tried it..
Lazy Otakus
22-05-2006, 05:21
There was some coverage on Gamepolitics:



Furor Over Columbine Game Builds

Video games rarely capture the attention of the mainstream press. When they do, it's usually a sensationalized story about violence or sex or some other hot-button issue.

So it is with Super Columbine Massacre RPG, a non-commercial game available only as a free download via the Internet. Thanks primarily to a story in the Rocky Mountain News, the mainstream press is all over this one. In addition to the coverage in the Rocky, the Associated Press has written about Super Columbine Massacre and the game has been linked on The Drudge Report.

The story has gotten such wide play in the last couple of days that there's really no point in regurgitating the facts here on GamePolitics. At this point, the public reaction to the game seems to be the defining part of the story.

Like many GP readers who track developments in the video game space, I became aware of Columbine Super Massacre about two weeks ago when word of the game began to make the rounds of video game blogs. I chose not to address it at that point. Perhaps I should have, but for me, Columbine remains an open wound - not in the sense that I knew anyone there, but along with September 11th, the trauma and tragedy of the Columbine shootings was seared into my brain by live television coverage. Both are generation-defining events. For me, the Littleton community seems very much like my community and Columbine High School much like the schools my kids attend.

It probably comes as no surprise that initial reactions to the game are negative. Families of Columbine victims, of course, were sought out by the media for comment. Necessary, I suppose, but somehow distasteful. What are the families to say? What would you expect them to say? If even a jaded gamer like GP is uneasy with the Columbine Super Massacre, it has to be an incredibly raw nerve for the Columbine families. And it is. The Rocky Mountain News piece quotes several surviving relatives:

"It's wrong," said Joe Kechter. His son, Matt, was gunned down in the school library.

"We live in a culture of death, so it doesn't surprise me that this stuff has become so commonplace. It disgusts me," said Brian Rohrbough. His son, Dan, was killed outside the school building. "You trivialize the actions of two murderers and the lives of the innocent."

"Columbin," the anonymous creator of the game, explained the reason behind his game to the Rocky.

"Columbine marked me deeply. I was in a Colorado high school then. I was a bullied kid. I didn't fit in, and I was surrounded by a culture of elitism as espoused by our school's athletes."

According to Columbin, reactions to his work have been almost totally negative.

"I'm routinely accused of being soulless, of being destined for an eternity in hell, and similarly colorful assertions. However, I cannot emphasize enough that there is a small fraction of the population who really gets it, who really understands why I made the game and how possible it is to escape from the polarized, dualistic thinking the Columbine shooting seems to (elicit) in most people."

Ian Bogost, a Georgia Tech professor who operates the Water Cooler Games website (GP includes his RSS feed in our news scroll), offered a more accepting perspective on Super Columbine Massacre

"While it is a challenging subject," Bogost wrote, "I think the effort is brave, sophisticated and worthy of praise from those of us interested in video games with an agenda. Super Columbine Massacre RPG is disturbing because it is meant to be. I've talked and written for some time about how games need not be fun to be worthwhile. This game is not fun, it is challenging and difficult to play - not technically difficult, but conceptually difficult. We need more of that."

For his part, Columbin questioned why games are held to a different standard than other forms of media. There have been books about Columbine, as well as T.V. documentaries. Director Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine was a celebrated film, as was the Columbine-like Elephant.

Columbine survivor Richard Castaldo, paralyzed from the chest down, was troubled by the game, but not condemnatory

"It didn't make me mad, just kind of confused me," he told the Rocky. "It kind of reminded me of that Elephant movie, but in video-game form. I think I get what he was trying to do, at least in part. Parts of it were difficult to play through, but overall, I get the feeling it might even be helpful in some ways. I don't think it's bad to discuss."

The public outcry stems in large part from the common perception of what a "game" is supposed to be about - entertainment. Some critics no doubt envision players reveling in recreating the horrific school shooting using today's ultra-realistic 3-D graphics. And yet, having looked at Columbine Super Massacre RPG, it's not very much fun. The "game" is more like a documentary. Perhaps it might qualify as a serious game, one designed to teach rather than entertain.

Nor is it the photo-realistic bloodbath some may imagine. Columbine Super Massacre is created in the style of an NES game. Its circa 1990 graphics are of the early Mario variety as opposed to a state-of-the-art modern shooter like Quake 4. What then to think about Super Columbine Massacre RPG?

It's uncomfortable, to be sure. The whimsical title chosen by its creator is unfortunate. And yet it's clear that Columbin's intentions did not include making light of the 1999 tragedy.

So color me conflicted. I believe I get where Columbin is coming from, although I don't agree with several of the points he makes, such as when he says, "What really frightened people about Columbine is that it confronted America's dark inner soul." What frightened me was much less complicated - that my own kids might become victims.

http://gamepolitics.livejournal.com/289083.html
The Gate Builders
22-05-2006, 05:24
It's actually just a poorly made RPG, nothing to get upset about.
Legendary Rock Stars
22-05-2006, 05:24
I played it, but I got stuck at the part where you had to find a key to unlock a door, so I quit and uninstalled it.
Zilam
22-05-2006, 05:50
I find it amusing that they used RPG maker from ASCII, which i am currently using to make the Nation States RPG
Legendary Rock Stars
22-05-2006, 05:53
I find it amusing that they used RPG maker from ASCII, which i am currently using to make the Nation States RPG

I used it to make some games before. I don't have the first couple I made (hard drive on my old computer fried), but I do have some working demos now. All I have to do is find some time to finish them off.
Santa Barbara
22-05-2006, 05:59
The game doesn't look like it'll have enough zombie action to satisfy my tastes.
Zilam
22-05-2006, 05:59
I used it to make some games before. I don't have the first couple I made (hard drive on my old computer fried), but I do have some working demos now. All I have to do is find some time to finish them off.


yeha for real. I have about 20% of the NS game done. i need to figure out the rest of my story for it..i have about....80% of the maps made...just need a story to go along with it. It takes forever at times..gott test everything so much...meh..not enough time in the day to do it all..