Saturday 21 February, 2009

Yesterday I walked into the gamelab on the ninth floor on the CDM building with a "Can do, can kill my columbine classmates" attitude. I walked out knowing I could never be a killer. Bummer.

I started the game as one of the Columbine killers waking up the morning of the tragedy. I made a call to my sidekick, and went to the basement to collect my gear, which included bombs, anti depressants, and a Marilyn Manson cd. I then had what I assume was a flashback moment, when I was talking to my buddy about what we were going to do in the future. He got into a university and was planning to study Computer Science and I was going to join the Marines - but what did it matter anyhow? Life was hell, and it was going to end soon. The midi Nirvana song was a nice touch in this scene.

When I got to the school, I was told to "be cool," and every single hundred times that I was busted trying to make my way to the cafeteria, I was scolded for messing it up, and not being cool. I realized that I'm really bad at being cool about wanting to kill my classmates, and that that is not the right path for me in real life. Which is good. What's bad is that I spent like an hour trying to get through one part of the game, and never succeeded.

As far as the gameplay goes, it is not very realistic in terms of visuals. The dialogue, however, is almost chilling because it is representative of what was actually said between the two murderers. It's scary to think that a conversation of that nature once happened and that it led to the murder of 13 people with 23 others wounded. Also, while I have played the bad games in many games before, I have never played bad guys based on real bad guys who created a real life horrific event, and it's unnerving to be playing such a role.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will be able to plant bombs in the cafeteria before I get sidetracked and play Counterstrike, again. At least I know that in Counterstrike, the good guys regenerate once the game is over. It's comforting.

"As far as the gameplay goes, it is not very realistic in terms of visuals."

Given how unnerving you say the experience was, do you think that it was a good thing or bad thing the visuals were not realistic?