Today I was doing research into violence in the media and for an assignment I choose to research into the Columbine Massacre as oppose to something like Grand Theft Auto. Those who know, know that the Columbine massacre sparked a flame war towards violent movies, violent music (Marilyn Manson was depicted as violent) and violent video games. And debates rose about how these forms of media effected the children responsible for the massacre. The mainstream American media bombarded anything to do with a slightly possible violent sub culture.
On the sixth anniversary, something even more controversial popped up. A game was made called: "Super Columbine Massacre RPG". Know most of you are either in shock or are laughing at such a ridiculous idea. However there is much more to this game then you may think.
Super Columbine Massacre RPG has the player playing as the two gunman on the day of the massacres where you wake up before school and actually prepare for the attack. You do many tasks which for this discussion I shall not name because all this may be confronting enough for those who haven't heard of this game but you can find a list of the various tasks elsewhere on the web. The second half of the game has the two gunman in an imaginary world of video games mostly made of Doom but has appearances by famous icons like Mario, Pikachu and Megaman.
Now alot of you may now be disgusted by even the idea of this game, it does exist but it is not a game that trivializes the deaths of the innocent people. The game's narrative is carefully laid out and is designed to get you in the mindset of the killers. It provides a very clear suggestion of why they did what they did; they were enacting an ideological demonstration through a terrorist act, and the game shines light on this as an indictment of the American dream and way of life painfully close to the main nerve. It provides great social commentary on American society. It is a game that makes you understand how people become like that because of bullying. The game's creator was also bullied and he made this game so other people can learn their side and show that they were not evil people (evil in the sense on 100% bad). It really shows how a bullied kid's reality is totally distorted. In short, its the story no one truely cared about, everyone else just wanted to pin blame.
So my question is what do you think of this game? You can find out more info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_columbine_massacre_rpg . Do you think that it is just insensitive to the victims or do you think it was one of those true rare games that tells an important story that everyone should know? If you think a book would do better I would disagree, an RPG is the perfect platform to voice a story like this and it really shows the distorted reality and mindset of these two young boys.
On the sixth anniversary, something even more controversial popped up. A game was made called: "Super Columbine Massacre RPG". Know most of you are either in shock or are laughing at such a ridiculous idea. However there is much more to this game then you may think.
Super Columbine Massacre RPG has the player playing as the two gunman on the day of the massacres where you wake up before school and actually prepare for the attack. You do many tasks which for this discussion I shall not name because all this may be confronting enough for those who haven't heard of this game but you can find a list of the various tasks elsewhere on the web. The second half of the game has the two gunman in an imaginary world of video games mostly made of Doom but has appearances by famous icons like Mario, Pikachu and Megaman.
Now alot of you may now be disgusted by even the idea of this game, it does exist but it is not a game that trivializes the deaths of the innocent people. The game's narrative is carefully laid out and is designed to get you in the mindset of the killers. It provides a very clear suggestion of why they did what they did; they were enacting an ideological demonstration through a terrorist act, and the game shines light on this as an indictment of the American dream and way of life painfully close to the main nerve. It provides great social commentary on American society. It is a game that makes you understand how people become like that because of bullying. The game's creator was also bullied and he made this game so other people can learn their side and show that they were not evil people (evil in the sense on 100% bad). It really shows how a bullied kid's reality is totally distorted. In short, its the story no one truely cared about, everyone else just wanted to pin blame.
So my question is what do you think of this game? You can find out more info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_columbine_massacre_rpg . Do you think that it is just insensitive to the victims or do you think it was one of those true rare games that tells an important story that everyone should know? If you think a book would do better I would disagree, an RPG is the perfect platform to voice a story like this and it really shows the distorted reality and mindset of these two young boys.