Super Columbine Massacre RPG, the independently-made PC game based on the school shooting in Littleton, Colorado was yanked from the Slamdance Guerilla Gamemaker Competition a few days ago due to overwhelming controversy surrounding the title's entry.
In protest, several developers have yanked their games from the contest, including Jonathan Blow's Braid, Jonathan Mak's Everyday Shooter, and Kellee Santiago's flOw, and pretty much all of them have posted open letters to Slamdance on their blogs. Jonathan Mak says it best:
"The game lacks compassion, and I find the Artist's Statement disingenuous. But despite this, the game does have redeeming value. It does provoke important thoughts, and it does push the boundaries of what games are about. It is composed with more of an eye toward art than most games. Clearly, it belongs at the festival."
Danny Ledonne, creator of SCMRPG, states that his game exists to initiate conversation, present the events of Columbine from the perspective of the boys, and push the boundaries of what a video game can be. This sounds really great until you actually play the game and find it to be a more or less completely uncompassionate portrayal of the suffering that happened that day. Not to mention the entire second half of the game is one big joke that directly contradicts whatever artistic credibility the game may have earned for itself in the first half (after shooting themselves, the boys go to hell and meet Mario, Mega Man, and Pikachu. They then fight monsters from Doom and then finally Satan, who looks exactly like he does in South Park).
But even so, did the game deserve to be pulled? No. Regardless of how full of BS Ledonne's excuse for the game is, it does inspire a lot of discussion, it does successfully portray the events of that day through the eyes of Harris and Klebold, and it does redefine what a video game can be.
But what do you think? Comment.
[Via a reader tip from good ol' Ryan]
Contest:
12:45 PM on 01.09.2007
| 
By the way, I found out about this via <a href="http://tmmtlt.blogspot.com/2007/01/slamming-slamdance-for-its-slights.html">TMMTLT</a>.
http://tmmtlt.blogspot.com/
Slamdance lost a lot of credibility when they pulled the game and I'm glad to see people protesting it, particularly the fellow game nominees. It's great to see them support each like this.
Also Ryro, Dexter345 didnt say the same wasnt all about murdering, or for that fact, didnt say anything negative at all. Lock your hater keys and chill out.
Yes, it generates discussion. But _it's a shitty game_, especially compared to the other games in Slamdance.
B) Get stabbed in the face
C) Grow a brain.
You're like, Jack Thompson of D'toid.
My bad, for some reason I thought free will still existed and that people who think that imaginary things are real or imitate things they see on TV, movies, video games, or in music regardless of how insane or vehement those things may be are fucking retarded mental deficients who would do stupid/violent things regardless of where they got their 'inspiration'.
Sorry again about that, I was way off base there.
This mullet goes out to you:
And Dexter said "they shouldn't be censoring it just because it's a tasteless depiction of a tragic event." If you played the game, then you wouldn't say it was tasteless. So ya, STFU and play the game. This is like Jack Thompson and other loud mouths who tried to get Bully banned when it was surprisingly mild in regards to its violence. And why did they keep mouthing off, and reporting things that were totally untrue about the game Bully? BECAUSE THEY NEVER PLAYED THE GAME. SCM isn't about racking up frags you 'tards. It's twunts like the people commenting here who caused it to be pulled in the first place, regardless of the actual CONTENT of the game itself.
I get the whole let's not censor anything debate. In my opinion, MY OPINION, there's that line that gets crossed that just makes me say..."Alright, ha ha, you had your fifteen minutes now get the fuck out of here."
For every tragedy, there is someone that creates something like this. I don't think they are trying to open people's eyes. Do you think the people that created those Crocodile Hunter flash games were trying to inform people of the dangers of sea life? No, they were exploiting the death of someone famous to get hits to their game/website.
This guy wasn't trying to do anything else other than take a very controversial, sad, tragic day and turn it into publicity for himself. Can you imagine being one of the parents of a child that died that day? If I was one, I would probably find out where the designer of this game was, and shove the game up his ass.
Like Dennis Miller used to say, that's my opinion, I could be wrong.
Dear Ryro: that part sounds so tasteful. Pardon me for thinking otherwise earlier.
Well, since that would be illegal, there wouldn't be much room for debate there. If a snuff film was made, would that make it into Slamdance too? Of course not, because it's illegal.
Come back with something less absurd, as in something that wouldn't get you instantly arrested and I'll have this debate with you.
No, seriously, you bring up a good point. That's what is on everyones mind. I, on the other hand, am not a degranged psychopath, and my kid did not go to Columbine, nor did my friends. So in other words, I do feel remorse for that day , but as Dexter said : "they shouldn't be censoring it just because it's a tasteless depiction of a tragic event."
It's not tasteless, I think the big issue here is, they don't want it published.
ok one more time. =)
That being said, after they kill themselves, you are shown the actual death photos taken at the crime scene. Kind of consequential, but it's not something the author exactly created from scratch, as is the case with all the other uncompassionate stuff.
Or how bout. Jump jump 9/11. In this great game, you play the role of one of the victims stuck in the towers after they were struck by the airplanes. You have to jump to your death while dodging birds and other debris.
Do you see the very simple point I was trying to make? Are these new games illegal? I was trying to show, IN MY FUCKING OPINION, how trite a game like "super columbine Rpg!...don't forget the exclamation point." sounds. Good lord. Happy now....probably not.
Jump Jump 9/11... is it bad that I laughed at that????? Fuck.
(immediatly did apologize to ... whoever .. is feeling bad. Maybe my brain. Jump jump..)
Still, if someone wants to make a 9/11 game or a Jon Bonet game, I'm not going to say they can't do it, I'm not even going to say I don't think you should do it. I may not play them because they don't appeal to me, but if someone wants to make that game, I'm fine with that.
Maybe I'm just to apathetic, or maybe I just don't care about what other people choose to do in their free time (as long as it's not hurting anyone).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slamdance_Film_Festival
Apparently, there are now 5 developers who have pulled out of the competition in protest... bringing the total number of finalists down from the orginally annouced 14 to a mere 8...