|
gkelch's Super Columbine Massacre RPG (PC)
|
| [November 4, 2008 10:36:46 PM]
|
I had read that there was a "hell" level in this game, and my initial thought in reading that was, oh great, at least the game has some consequences. I was wrong. When you're in hell, you fetch cake for a googly-eyed satan who is congratulatory. The protagonists are happy to be there and enjoy it; it's ridiculous. It was difficult to play this game, I felt sick after a while because I know so much about the real events that unfolded and this game was not only based on them, it wasn't even saying they were wrong. I don't think mass killing is ever constructive in a video game media, but even less so when the main characters are wrongly identified as protagonists. I think the game is unethical in the moral statement that it is making (or lacking) and that it is misleading the player.
add a comment 
|
| [November 4, 2008 10:15:21 PM]
|
My second time playing Super Columbine Massacre RPG my experience was a little different, but my overall feelings about the game did not change. True, many video games contain tremendous amounts of violence, even more than this game. However, few games are based in reality and this one is. If a game is based in reality, it needs to serve the purpose of teaching a lesson or moral value. This game only glorifies detracts from the acts committed by these men. For example, the two laugh while killing, and count each murder as a victory for the trench coat mafia. But the game itself never makes a statement that what the two did was wrong. So it seems this game serves no purpose in terms of morals, just reenacting a violent crime and therefore is inappropriate.
add a comment
|
| [November 4, 2008 09:17:19 PM]
|
What struck me the first time I played this game was the contrast of the images of reality interspersed with the imaginary world of the game. The game begins with a famous photo of Harris and Klebold, guns in hand and mid-rampage captured by a security camera during the shootings, and then we see blurry pixels of color with backwards hats. While the characters continue through the game, we see the two talk to each other and when they talk we see the faces of the two real killers and they speak in language that sounds plausibly like what they may have said to each other, and not very different from the way we speak. It seems to me like this is playing it a little unfairly for the game makers, because obviously in having the killers as the main characters, they are portrayed as the protagonists. It's as though by making the two men less human and showing them as animated characters while they are killing people, the crimes are minimized. No blood, no screams, the victims just disappear. Then the game uses real life photos, quotes and excerpts from sources than inspired the boys, music they listened to, but only when it inspires pathos or empathy in the player. This seems to show the two men in not a harsh enough light perhaps, or that in fact they were not committing violent and horrible acts.
add a comment
|
