Thursday 18 February, 2010

Before even starting to play this game I had an idea of what it might be like. Obviously, the name suggests that it focuses on the Columbine massacre. While I guessed that there would be a lot of aspects of this game that I would not agree with, I did not think that it would be quite as disturbing as it was. I cannot believe how realistic this game is. The fact that they used the names and photos of the actual shooters rubs me the wrong way. It is one thing to loosely base a game after a tragic event but it is another to model the game after it as much as Columbine has. I was especially disturbed by the conversations between Eric and Dylan. The fact that they are excited about what is going to be the biggest event of their lives, attempting to kill their entire school. I was shocked that at one point the directions instructed me to attack and have fun, as if taking the lives of my fellow students was somehow supposed to be enjoyable. I spent most of my first 30 minutes exploring the basement. I watched the movie, which demonstrated the need to kill without feelings, I saw Eric and Dylan discuss their possible futures of going to Arizona State and joining the Marines, and I saw them leave one last video. It seemed to me that Eric was much more innocent and remorseful than Dylan. The impression that I got from the video they left was that Eric feels bad about what he is about to do but is going to do it anyway because Dylan has convinced him of it. Eric takes time to apologize to his parents while Dylan simply states how all the people who have hurt him are going to pay for what they have done. After I picked up, read, and viewed all that I could in the basement I went back upstairs, left the house, and found myself in the parking lot of the school. I got the bombs out of my trunk just before my first session was over.

"The fact that they are excited about what is going to be the biggest event of their lives, attempting to kill their entire school."

However, doesn't that give you some insight to what kind of people those kids were because they actually were excited about it?