Columbine Game Pulled From Festival
Columbine Massacre RPG removed due to pressure from festival backers
The provocatively-titled game, Super Columbine Massacre RPG, has been removed from the Park City Utah-based Slamdance festival's line-up due to pressure from the festival’s financial backers.
The game, which was a finalist in Slamdance's Guerilla Gamemaker Competition, is the first ever to be pulled from the festival.
The title's creator, Danny Ledonne, was advised last night by Slamdance president and co-founder Peter Baxter that it has been pulled. Speaking to Ledonne, Baxter expressed the sentiment that the decision to pull the game was "deeply flawed" but necessary for the festival's survival.
In what looks like an attempt to have it both ways, however, Baxter also mooted that the initial inclusion of the game was "consistent with Slamdance's philosophy but somewhat naïve"†. Naïve in that he should never have allowed the title onboard in the first place? Or naïve in that he should have expected to leverage just a little more press coverage from it but didn’t?
The fact that the festival organisers included a 'Guerilla Gamemaker Competition’ but have not supported the Guerilla aspect has surely turned it into an 'Acceptably Beige Competition'.
Super Columbine Massacre RPG! is centred around the events of the tragic April 19th 1999 Columbine school shootings. Players take on the role of the two killers involved: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Ledonne stresses that the game is intended to generate discussion and insight into the killings, not to glorify them.
Ledonne has also put together a trailer for the game, which you can see below:
As we put this story live Ledonne is unsure whether to take further action. He said: "I don't feel like (festival organisers, Baxter and Roberts) ought to be vilified in this, I think they had the best of intentions to showcase this game."
To find out more about the game for yourself: www.columbinegame.com.
Is this a further worrying incident for freedom of speech in the gaming community (as when Rule of Rose was pulled from UK shelves)? Or is it just the festival bowing to good taste? Let us know in the Forum.
†Source: Kotaku.com
The game, which was a finalist in Slamdance's Guerilla Gamemaker Competition, is the first ever to be pulled from the festival.
The title's creator, Danny Ledonne, was advised last night by Slamdance president and co-founder Peter Baxter that it has been pulled. Speaking to Ledonne, Baxter expressed the sentiment that the decision to pull the game was "deeply flawed" but necessary for the festival's survival.
In what looks like an attempt to have it both ways, however, Baxter also mooted that the initial inclusion of the game was "consistent with Slamdance's philosophy but somewhat naïve"†. Naïve in that he should never have allowed the title onboard in the first place? Or naïve in that he should have expected to leverage just a little more press coverage from it but didn’t?
The fact that the festival organisers included a 'Guerilla Gamemaker Competition’ but have not supported the Guerilla aspect has surely turned it into an 'Acceptably Beige Competition'.
Super Columbine Massacre RPG! is centred around the events of the tragic April 19th 1999 Columbine school shootings. Players take on the role of the two killers involved: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Ledonne stresses that the game is intended to generate discussion and insight into the killings, not to glorify them.
Ledonne has also put together a trailer for the game, which you can see below:
As we put this story live Ledonne is unsure whether to take further action. He said: "I don't feel like (festival organisers, Baxter and Roberts) ought to be vilified in this, I think they had the best of intentions to showcase this game."
To find out more about the game for yourself: www.columbinegame.com.
Is this a further worrying incident for freedom of speech in the gaming community (as when Rule of Rose was pulled from UK shelves)? Or is it just the festival bowing to good taste? Let us know in the Forum.
†Source: Kotaku.com
Comments
Ditto 5 Jan 2007 11:56
1/4
The fact that the festival organisers included a 'Guerilla Gamemaker Competition’ but have not supported the Guerilla aspect has surely turned it into an 'Acceptably Beige Competition'.
...
Is this a further worrying incident for freedom of speech in the gaming community (as when Rule of Rose was pulled from UK shelves)? Or is it just the festival bowing to good taste?
...
Is this a further worrying incident for freedom of speech in the gaming community (as when Rule of Rose was pulled from UK shelves)? Or is it just the festival bowing to good taste?
There are some things you just shouldn't do, and in my opinion this crosses the line and deserves to be pulled.
The only reason I can see for someone wanting to make a game about these events is that they want media publicity, to get themselves in the spotlight and to start a needless argument.
TimSpong 5 Jan 2007 12:06
2/4
Adam M wrote:
There are some things you just shouldn't do, and in my opinion this crosses the line and deserves to be pulled.
The only reason I can see for someone wanting to make a game about these events is that they want media publicity, to get themselves in the spotlight and to start a needless argument.
My issue was with the title not the content of the game itself - that should indeed have been toned down. However, to say that the circumstances surrounding the event shouldn't be explored using the culture's most immediate and relevant media strikes me as a head-in-sand reaction.
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Smelly 5 Jan 2007 21:22
3/4
>There are some things you just shouldn't do, and in my opinion this crosses the line and deserves to be pulled.
Whereas I agree with you. I've just been thinking about it. Would a movie based on it be a bad thing? Would a book based on it be a bad thing?
Both have been done, and both are forms of entertainment.
Why is it bad for a video game to do what is okay for a film to do?
Whereas I agree with you. I've just been thinking about it. Would a movie based on it be a bad thing? Would a book based on it be a bad thing?
Both have been done, and both are forms of entertainment.
Why is it bad for a video game to do what is okay for a film to do?
Ditto 5 Jan 2007 22:06
4/4
Smelly wrote:
>There are some things you just shouldn't do, and in my opinion this crosses the line and deserves to be pulled.
Whereas I agree with you. I've just been thinking about it. Would a movie based on it be a bad thing? Would a book based on it be a bad thing?
Both have been done, and both are forms of entertainment.
Why is it bad for a video game to do what is okay for a film to do?
Whereas I agree with you. I've just been thinking about it. Would a movie based on it be a bad thing? Would a book based on it be a bad thing?
Both have been done, and both are forms of entertainment.
Why is it bad for a video game to do what is okay for a film to do?
I had the same thought actually.
With a videogame you have a level of control that you don't have in a film. In a film you simply sit and watch and the film takes a pre-prescribed route, whereas in a game you make decisions as to watch to do - presumably this means killing people in some form.
Secondly, it is insensitive to the fact that Columbine was blamed on games by some quarters.
Finally, I have no personal intention of wanting to watch any kind of human suffering being turned into a story by media companies for profit. A documentary is fine, but I personally don't want to go and see any film/game that glamourises death for pure profit (eg World Trade Centre).