Sunday 21 February, 2010

I have been wondering around the school for awhile trying to find out where to go next. When my killing spree first began I would enter a class room and kill everyone. The battles themselves were not very challenging. The satisfaction I gained from this game was body count. I wondered if I could kill everyone. I wondered if anything special would happen if I did.

Each battle was with some stereotypical enemy. I would fight cheerleaders, jocks, pretty girls, and preps. In a way this is what people do to each other in high school. Everyone was put into groups and judged based on the labels people put on them. However there is more to people then the label you give them. But this game doesn’t let you look past the labels given to the characters and in a way this make killing them all a little easier.

There was one case where I entered a bathroom and a boy was being bullied by several jocks. After slaughtering them all the boy thanked Eric and Dylan and ran off. I felt a little heroic but the feeling didn’t stay. I quickly abandoned my goal of trying to kill everyone because the battles weren’t challenging, just repetitive. The character’s motives weren’t enough to keep me going and I was just tired of pressing the space bar over and over.

I finally walked past the window in the library and started a shoot out with the cops. I thought to my self I finally found how move on with the game. As expected Eric and Dylan both shot themselves and then a strange thing happened. I was shown their final thoughts.

What if? What if they found an island where they could be isolated from everything? Or what if they hijacked a plane and crashed it into a skyscraper? This 9/11 reference felt totally out of place. Both Columbine and 9/11 where national tragedies, but do the reasons for them tie together? Then news footage and pictures of the shootings showed on screen. I watched them for awhile and wondered. Should I really care? They showed the grave of both the shooters and the reaction of the victims. I didn’t know if I should feel bad for all the people I just killed or if I should feel bad for Eric and Dylan. I couldn’t decide in the end.

Then I found myself in hell. I descended down a long stairwell into the fiery pits of the underworld crawling with monsters. The game suddenly had a huge challenge. I didn’t know where to go and the enemies actually put up a fight. I wondered around in circles fighting one monster after another. But they did damage that could take down my health by one third with each hit. I died several times trying to find my way around. Before I got frustrated I wished I had killed more people in the school to level up.

" Or what if they hijacked a plane and crashed it into a skyscraper? This 9/11 reference felt totally out of place. "

Curiously, the Columbine killers had, in fact, entertained such an idea in their personal diaries. It wasn't a serious plan in any way, but it had occurred to then to hijack a plane and crash it into a building in NYC. Scary, but true.

More info here:
http://acolumbinesite.com/diary.html