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johnschwarz's Columbine RPG (PC)
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| [March 28, 2014 03:51:40 PM]
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Round 3:
So we pulled the fire alarm, shot some more kids, grabbed Nietzsche’s book and then entered the library. After blowing up a few tables we decided to have a shootout with the cops, ended by a double suicide and a question: What a better world it would be if these boys only had their own tropical island together... free from the oppression of American culture?
However the island cut-scene shows them as confused and hypocritical. Sometimes they want fame are are massacring because they know their voices will be heard, but then they don’t bother to leave any last words because they believe they will be unread... because, you know - society.
The game does a decent job of portraying the boys as immature and in need of proper guidance, which can be said about mostly every teenager, but for some reason these particular two just went too far, or thought their suffering was great enough to justify their behavior(?). The games does not go beyond generic complaints and platitudes as to why they killed everyone, but then maybe the boys had no greater reason why either.
This moment of reflection is brought about by pictures of the dead boys and other victims, showcasing the aftermath and suffering... directly followed by a journey through hell.
I was mostly bored of the game by this point though.
In hell I took control of Vodka - the other boy.
He died after some exploration and the ending screen says “Suburban monotony lives on.”
I am not sure how I feel about a sarcastic ending. To some extent I agree - suburban monotony is a real thing; monotony in any culture or through any task is a potential side effect. I do not agree that the best and most effective way to fight monotony is through a killing spree, as the ending message might suggest. The more I play this game the more I think that it’s generally a poor attempt at deep reflections on a serious topic. I almost feel like we as a culture are giving the game more credence than it deserves, when it’s really much more simple and naive than interpreted. However I am glad it was created, because it did generate awareness about the shooting, and created a space where society can potentially consider the more meaningful catalysts for events like this, and it also builds the ‘art form’ of video games a larger foundation for greater comments, themes, and topics, allowing more serious games to be created...
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| [March 26, 2014 06:33:23 PM]
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Round 2:
I didn't realize that I needed to Manually retrieve the bombs from the trunk of my car… Once that was established the rest was a ‘cake walk’. We went in and rigged the cafeteria to explode around 11:17, and then had a meaningful moment overlooking the downtown sprawl of ‘Colorado’, reflecting on how dumb it is to lead a healthy and productive life - time to prove our theories the ‘fun’ way; we armed our car bomb and then sat back waiting for the strategic bombs to go off. But to our surprise we set the timers wrong and none went off. Being a sophisticated terrorist is more difficult than expected, or maybe we are just stupid… only time will tell. Not wanting to give in, we decided to go ahead with our plan and start the killing spree. With little resistance we cleared the parking lot, headed into the school and emptied out a few classrooms and hallways. At this point in the game I was hoping for more connection to the situation - perhaps if each encounter there was a little, random blurb about the student we were killing, such as, “Preppy Girl. Didn’t we have home room with her?” or more interaction between Reb and Vodka. I appreciated the encouraging words upon a critical attack, but if there was more interaction I would have been drawn into the situation more; after some minutes of easy killing I became bored and lost a lot of the initial disturbance the game provided. The first 10 people killed were off-putting and I cringed the whole time, but shortly after it turned into a game and I lost the connection to the situation. Upon entering the cafeteria Vodka suggested to pull the fire alarm to make it more interesting, but the gamer inside of me didn’t want to because I felt a need to make sure I ‘cleared’ the level before advancing further, so I left the cafeteria and continued down the side halls. This is where I stopped though.
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| [March 25, 2014 06:11:24 PM]
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First 30 minutes.
I was beginning to feel connected to the kids. The game’s characters and music offered me an escape to my suburban youth, while the narrative and interactions allowed me to partly empathize with them. I felt a sense of excitement and danger as we packed up in the basement and watched Marlon Brando’s soliloquy on the subject of judgement. Then we arrived at the school. I was thrown off by there being challenges. The first thing I did was get spotted by the security camera, then I tried to talk to a cute girl in the halls, but she made fun of me, and then a janitor told me to get out of the cafeteria. Eventually I learned the tricks of the game and was able to roam the cafeteria with little danger, but I couldn’t find the place to plant the bomb… I searched high and low, left and right, but spacebar had no effect, outside of pulling the fire alarm. I suppose I am not in a patient mood, because at the 30 minute mark I quit the session. I will probably check the internet to find out where the bomb goes.
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johnschwarz's Columbine RPG (PC)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Tuesday 25 March, 2014
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