And again gaming gets the blame! [CNN

#1 Well be that as it may, making a game about the Columbine Shootings is really just asking for
games to be blamed, whatever the realities.

#2 @ James-Unfortunately the media tends to sensationalize their reporting. Saying something like that allows producers to judge whether or not a "special" report can be made, thus creating more revenue.

#3 @Neo -

Is that like blaming a woman for getting raped because she was wearing sexy clothes and was "asking for it?"

#4 I read the article, and I felt that it didn't blame "gaming" at all, just showing the relevant facts. Here is the passage:

Quote:
He said on the site that he liked to play "Super Columbine Massacre," an Internet-based computer game that simulated the April 20, 1999, shootings at the Colorado high school where two students wearing trench coats killed 13 people before committing suicide.

Personally, I feel that it is a relevant fact that his favorite game is "Super Columbine Massacre", especially when he dresses up exactly like the columbine killers, and then commits a crime exactly like them.

#5 The guy was a goth freak, and clearly mentally unstable.
He frequented a Goth freak website where he wrote he hated "normal" people, and wanted to die young, would be known as an "angel of death", among a bunch of other insane stuff. Last year, a girl and another guy frequenting the very same website shot the girl's parent to death in Alberta.

Blame Goth culture, not video games.

Its a pretty crazy mood here in Montreal right now. While usually a very safe city, its the third school shooting in 17 years, and that event bring back lots of bad memories.

#6

Quote:Personally, I feel that it is a relevant fact that his favorite game is "Super Columbine Massacre", especially when he dresses up exactly like the columbine killers, and then commits a crime exactly like them.

Well said.

#7 @Jay:
I'm not sure where you get that from, all I was saying was making a game on an event that
was itself blamed on games seems a tad bitchy to complain about it if it is perceived along the
same old tired line. Not really commenting on the whole "blame the game" deal which has been
flogged to death.

~neo

#8 I don't know if I could adequately blame "goth culture" any more than "videogame culture" for such actions. Perhaps it is because I have known many people who have been in the goth scene from the early 1980's through today and have seen many different facets of it. Blaming a culture which allows collective individuality because we see it as the antithesis of romantic ideologies of how the world should be is like blaming the punk culture of the 1960's and early 70's for the ills of the world. It is similar to saying that people who listened to GG. Allin are not only misguided but potentially dangerous to our sense of propriety and standards.

I think that trying to find an easy answer, such as pointing the finger at violence or sex in poetry, novels, theatre, photography, film, television, videogames, or the internet is an easy out. These have all been blamed in the past and will be blamed in the future. But, though they may trigger or influence, they are rarely the root cause. In fact, it is often difficult to find a root cause to point the finger at whether it be family, environment, bullying, etc. The roots begin to seem a little flimsy because there is always more to the story.

I do agree with Jaimi about this instance. It does seem relevant that the style that he emulated (dress-wise, not--seemingly yet--calculation-wise) was present in a simulation of the Columbine murders which he enjoyed. This is significantly different than Harris and Kleibold using the Doom engine to make their own modification to plan attacks. It was not id's fault that their engine could be used for such a dire event and more than it is Genesis 3D's fault that neo-Nazi groups have used their engine to make FPS hate diatribes like Ethnic Cleansing. But in this case, his emulation of a previous event and his enjoyment of a virtual re-creation of that event is contextually relevant.

Which doesn't mean that it won't cause sensationalist anti-videogame waves, but I do find it relevant in this instance.

EDIT:
@Neo
People will create just about anything, whether it be a "good idea" or not. I don't remember how many requests/posts for the MS Flight Simulator mod which was released shortly after the first tower fell, that I deleted and smacked users for on GameFAQs on 9/11.

#9 If someone's a nutter it doesn't matter what they use as inspiration. I constantly bombard my wife and
friends with the fact that each day more and more outs are given to people to avoid blame and
move responsibity to external factors; no one accepts responsibility for anything it seems...

So lets spare this dead horse another flogging...


~neo

#10 Neo -

I wasn't saying you espoused that opinion, but I was pointing out that we shouldn't hang the stupid thing out to dry by saying that it somehow invited blame.

The developer CLAIMS that he intended the game to promote introspection and dialog about the Columbine massacre, to make people think about the real causes and how it can be prevented in the future. Now, whether that was just smokescreen, or if it was legitimate and he just didn't do a good job of it, we'll never know.

But we have to be free to make games that deal with serious, real-world topics like this. And we have to be free to write books about them, make movies about them, and discuss them in forums without getting blamed as being the cause of it. Well, at least I don't BELIEVE that kind of communication is the cause of it. And so that is the message that needs to go out.

I wrote a somewhat lengthy article about this earlier this morning, along with screenshots from the game and quotes by the developer (an indie!) - and a link to a review of the game by Amber Night:

Indie Game To Get Blamed For Shooting Spree

Yeah, the title's my attempt to look into a crystal ball - I certainly HOPE that a videogame won't get blamed this time, but I have a feeling that the media will latch onto this little fact and exploit it for all it is worth.

#11

Quote:But we have to be free to make games that deal with serious, real-world topics like this.

First of all, no one that I know of has claimed that this game was the cause--certainly no one in this thread.

Second, developers should take some responsibility in what they make. We can't make "Rape the Coed" where the player gets to run around raping sexy anatomically correct college women, then shrug our shoulders if someone decides to try it for real. On a side note, it would be very easy for a person to use the Super Columbine excuse and say it's to "promote discussion" (I mean, really: who actually believes there's not been a lot of discussion on school shootings?!).

Third, do we really have to get so defensive so quickly? Geeze... the dead girl's body is barely even cold. After all, these are just video games (even if my livelihood comes from them). She's gone!

#12 @Jay:
While I agree with most of what you say, creating a game based on real events, especially
traumatic, often senseless events, one has to take responsibility for it. And while I agree
that someone should be able to make any game they choose, the reality of our social environment
is that one will have to take flack for it. Thats just how it is.

Imagine making a game about 9/11 as seen from the terrorist point of view. Planning and
executing every last detail in game. For whatever reason I chose to make it I can predict
that the probability that I will have to take a ton of flack for it is quite high. So while I am
free to create such a game, I cannot then bemoan the outcries however lofty my goals.

So that is the slant to my reasoning, not whether games cause it, but that one does not
get special dispensation because it is a game. It's just like anything else out there.

~neo

#13 @Neo -

Okay, that much I can agree with. Freedom of speech doesn't mean I get freedom from being punched in the mouth by someone offended by what I say. You are correct. And I certainly invite argument when I say what I say.

And a crappy game deserves to be called a crappy game. Maybe the designer did have lofty ideals, and screwed it up. Or maybe he offered that as smokescreen later for creating an exploitive game that sensationalizes the events. Having not played it myself, I'm not feeling qualified to judge it. But if it was the former, I strongly support his right to say what he tried to say.

I know I'm perhaps jumping the gun on this, but I guess it comes from hard-learned experience. And the fact that one of my congressman has introduced a bill to congress that would make it illegal for indies to sell / distribute games without getting an ESRB rating. Thus maybe I am feeling a little on the defensive side.

#14 NEW: Alleged gunman once read a newspaper.

All newspaper reporters are obviously therefore the main cause for every killing ever committed.

#15 CNN and other news org's have balls blaming games. They really need to take a look in the mirror. It's tacky to post the video caught from a cell phone during the event.

#16

Quote:Third, do we really have to get so defensive so quickly?

As expected, CNN has changed the headline to, "Alleged Shooter Liked Guns, Columbine Video Game", and has highlighted the videogame connection.

Call it experience in a politically-charged environment. Serious suckage all around. Apparently this is the SECOND time a major shooting like this has occured in this school - the first was many years ago.

People are friggin' broken.

EDIT:Oh, and even better - looks like the Toronto Sun *IS* blaming videogames....

#17 Look, with all of the people on Earth, every now and then we're probably gonna get a crazy person who feels like killing people. If video games were the cause of all school shootings, there'd probably be one every week. I feel the only right thing to do is to educate people enough to make their own decisions so they don't become psycotic killers.

Anyway just my 2 cents.

#18 Sociopathic nutters have always existed, before video games, before 'news agencies', and even before the printed word, I'd wager. I don't think it matters who gets blamed for these crimes against humanity. The blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the psychotic assholes who commited them. Anything else is just sensationalist garbage. CNN and all the other news agencies are the ones guilty of making these murderers into celebrities. Maybe they need to be held accountable for their actions, just like the rest of us.

#19 Everyone wants something to blame. They're looking for answers... They just can't believe someone can really be that friggin crazy without some outside influence. It's just too easy to blame games, because games let you shoot people. Before games it was horror movies and music. Plus it makes the story seem more sensational when they blame it on something popular like video games.

#20 Media sensationalizing something? Never!