Sunday 22 February, 2009

Having never heard of this game before, I was shocked to hear that such a game existed, and also, that I would be required to play it for a class assignment. I felt sick to my stomach thinking about how I would have to download such a game, and would have to take part in the inexcusable behavior of mimicking a real-life, tragic, horrifying event by playing it. I even felt it immoral to download the game, contributing to the designer’s exposure and success. I even considered not doing the assignment, considering my strong objection to the game’s content.

After I read reviews of the game and the author’s intent, I figured I would at least take a look at the game in order to contribute to class conversation about it. Playing it, however, was a different story; knowing what was to come, I prolonged the inevitable as long as possible. I took way longer than I needed to read every single message that popped up on the screen. In addition to that, I’m not a very good game player in general. I was grateful for that inadequacy while playing this game, because my confusion over where to go next, what to pick up and how to do so prevented me from getting to the actual “massacre” part of the game during this 30 minute session. I dread playing the game next time. I do not want to play it any further.

That being said, I did it find it interesting that the game designer chose to include many “excerpts” of the shooters’ dialogue with each other, and diary entries. I am curious to know whether the shooters’ were quoted accurately over instant message, or what documentation the game designer was collecting his facts from. I am aware that the police released 950 pages of diary entries and “blueprints” created by the shooters, but I was unaware of specific dialogue records between them the day of the shooting. If the game designer took liberty with these records, and put words into the shooters’ mouth in the form of a video game, I find that to be in bad taste. Would these boys really have said such things? I am unsure of where the game designer found this information, but if ALL (and ALL means ALL) the messages were QUOTED directly from the boys, it does seem like information I would not have found out otherwise through news media. This may be the ONLY positive thing I have to say about the game so far…and it is resting on a very big IF.

Along those lines, I noticed the music playing in the background, considering I am a fan of both “Nirvana” and “Radiohead.” Were the shooters fans of this music as well? Or, is the game designer also making a comment on the nature of these songs being expressive of “teen angst” (specially Nirvana’s “Smells like Teen Spirit” and Radiohead’s “Creep”). The game seems to be sending some pointed messages in this fashion.

The game play itself is not very difficult, and for someone with more experience with video games it would be downright easy. I find RPG games to be especially hard because I am not sure what I am looking for, and where to go. I searched around easily enough to pick up “weapons” and search through the shooter’s music and car, but I found it extremely irrelevant. To make a social criticism of this horrific and painful event through this particular medium was NOT a good idea; video games have always been a form of entertainment, and should remain that way. Putting the player “in the shooter’s shoes” does not socially critique anything; it just makes the player feel uncomfortable, or, disgustingly intrigued.

One last note: what do you think the parents of the students and teacher that was killed would think of the creation of this game? Does anyone care about how they feel? I completely understand that this shooting changed the world in a painful way, and that because of this shooting, schools have had to create new safety measures and kids have been more closely monitored; however, this event did not happen TO us. It did happen to many people at Columbine, however, and I would be curious to know how they feel about the trivialization of this event as depicted in this video game.

"Were the shooters fans of this music as well?"

It is my understanding that yes. They liked all of the music in the game with the exception of Marylin Manson. However, I don't think the designer is saying "They listened to this music and see what it made them do", rather there is a commentary to the fact that "Hey, they listened to music that you may like as well. Does this say anything about YOU or does it say something about how the media presents these issues?"