Tuesday 4 November, 2008

At the end of my last half hour of playing Super Columbine Massacre, I reached the section that was supposed to represent hell. I suppose that was appropriate and is the only comforting part of the game seeing the two killers end up in hell where they most likely should end up anyways. Overall, the game was not as disturbing and scary as it could have been because the graphics were not extremely detailed or realistic. If this game had been paired with the graphics and realistic illustrations of Grand Theft Auto, it would have been significantly more frightening. Despite the lack of realistic graphics, the game still managed to have an upsetting effect because of the general content. The conversations between Dylan and Eric more than make up for any lack of realism involving the graphics. On top of this, throughout the game, pictures and slideshows appeared of pictures from the actual Columbine shooting. The graphics may not have been extremely realistic, but pictures from the actual shootings of terrified and dead students more than make up for the lacking graphics. Overall, it is not the visual aspects of the game that make it so disturbing but more what is being reenacted. The detail not paid attention to in the actual actions of your character is placed in the conversations between Dylan and Eric and the pictures shown throughout the game. Without these pictures and conversations, the game would not be the same and would probably be much more bearable to play.

Do you think the point of the poor visuals are used to move away from entertaining the player? Do the jarring images cause you to think about why these events happen, which seemed to be the developer's motive, to show why these boys did what they did, or does it seem like the developer wanted to be noticed for the subject matter of his game?