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Contrast the Washington Post's review with this very positive one from earlier this week. Looking at it as art, Wired suggests that it is a well-researched game that explores issues of bullying, responsibility, blame, and video games themselves.

I found this very telling from the WP article:

Ledonne, who turns 25 today, says he was bullied as a kid and might have headed down a road in life similar to Harris and Klebold's had he not found other outlets. "I wanted to explore who they really were, and I didn't have the funding to make a film," he said.

It's clear to me, based on this and other things the author has said, that for him the game is a mode of expression, much as a film might be, and a medium for exploring issues related to the tragedy. The game isn't being exploited financially (it's a free download), the artist/author has taken a personal hit for making it (at least according to the web site)... and it's not like it's a 1st person shooting "simulator".

I was also interested in reading that nearly half of Slamdance's other video game authors decided to pull their games in protest of the festival's decision.

Seems the game is much more artistic social commentary than it would appear at first.

...Roll over

And it looks like we're down to 7.. Nick Montfort's Book and Volume is no longer listed with a brief statement here.

It seems to me that anyone who thinks Slamdance made an idiotic decision ought to be contacting the producers of the seven games left in the competition (list is at the Slamdance website, and ask them why they haven't pulled out yet. The strongest comment on this sort of behavior will be made if they have NO games left in the competition this year.

Slamdance originally announced 14 finalists. They are currently down to 8 participating finalists.

Super Columbine was ejected.
Braid has pulled out.
Flow has pulled out.
Toblo has pulled out.
Once Upon A Time has pulled out.
Everyday Shooter has pulled out.

With nearly half of the finalists already gone, just a few more pullouts could cause a complete collapse of Slamdance this year.

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Slamdance originally announced 14 finalists. They are currently down to 8 participating finalists.

Super Columbine was ejected.
Braid has pulled out.
Flow has pulled out.
Toblo has pulled out.
Once Upon A Time has pulled out.
Everyday Shooter has pulled out.

With nearly half of the finalists already gone, just a few more pullouts could cause a complete collapse of Slamdance this year.

-

Who exactly are those sponsors that pulled the "plug"?
Because I surely will not give them MY money - never ever.

But since this info is not available, at least yet, I choose to boycott all the sponsors until futher notice.

The sponsor list can be seen here:
http://slamdance.com/2007/festival/sponsors.asp

But the truth is, these guys have made a truly offensive game that is super deliberatly made to be offesnive/controversial... and/or heartless.

If you could spell deliberately or offensive correctly, I might take you more seriously.

If you don't accept the author's assertion that he made the game as social commentary, then you simply have to accept that regardless of how it makes you feel, it is still a valid statement.

Its the devlopers free speech right to make the game, and thankfully its slamdances right to choose to axe it... and my right to choose to think slamdance did the right thing.

What you are apparently missing is that the slamdance festival actually chose to include the game in the competition but they disqualified it when it appeared that it might actually win. (The above link currently goes to a page that lists the Super Columbine RPG among the entrants.)

What this says to me, and IMO to any person willing to think logically, is that they included the game so that they would have the appearance of supporting freedom and free speech, but they are quite simply and literally hypocrites because they were unwilling to actually stand up with the courage of their convictions and keep the game in the competition. They were afraid that if it won, their reputation would be ruined (they'd be dragged through the mud for "glorifying the killers" as so many ignorant idiot slashbots have been saying here) and they were not actually willing to stand up for free speech.

Or in other words, they don't actually believe in the freedom of speech, and they are deserving only of our contempt. Of course, I've never actually heard of them before, so from my point of view they were pretty much irrelevant anyway.

In other news, you know about as much about art and social commentary as the pandas at the zoo, and you might as well go hang out with them and eat eucalyptus leaves all day.

FTA:

"but in gaming, we have no indie aesthetic, no group of people (of any size at least) who prize independent vision and creativity over production values."

Umm, yeah we do.

I think there is a lot more than this author admits to. Why do you think there exists open source 3D engines like Ogre3D as well as a ton of websites devoted to game design techniques , etc? Yes, the indie scene could be bigger, but it is by no means non-existant.

What are you talking about? I can name a class here for each of your parenthetical "fundamentals":

-CS280 - Data Structures
-CS330 - Algorithm Analysis
-CS250 - Computer Graphics II: 3D graphics engine creation with 3D math
-MAT250 - Linear Algebra: 3D math

All of those are in the first two years of school, more advanced versions of those classes and classes that build on those classes occur afterwards. In CS270 you make a linked list (in C, with recursion) and in CS280 you go over the O() notation (i.e. O(n) vs O(log2 n)) of using a list or an array, plus you also go over things such as optimization (like pre-increment vs post-). If you're getting people from DigiPen that don't know their shit, then they probably only graduated by brute force (i.e. throwing money at the school until they graduated).

Also, two DigiPen-made games are in the IGF student showcase, and one in the professional competition. Also, a DigiPen game won the Audience award at the BIG C competeition and the Jury Award winner Revolved is made by a company founded entirely by DigiPen graduates. They look like they have the credentials to me, but I'll let you judge however you want.

Speaking of, if you're going to be in Park City this year, the notorious Slamdance film festival (held simultaneously with Sundance) is showing some machinima on Sunday, Jan 23 @ 10am. They also have an Anarchy Online Competition, with 9 finalists you can watch in Real format.

Speaking of, if you're going to be in Park City this year, the notorious Slamdance film festival (held simultaneously with Sundance) is showing some machinima on Sunday, Jan 23 @ 10am. They also have an Anarchy Online Competition, with 9 finalists you can watch in Real format.

I spoke with the director about the way some webcomics and other online media outlets were giving away content to make $$$. For instance, I bought the Small Stories book, even though I'd already read Same Difference for free online. I thought giving away one of the vignettes from the website would be a do-able notion (especially with advance promtion somewhere like /., followed with a Bit Torrent to ease his bandwidth bills), which could then fuel direct DVD sales of some kind.

Bottom line, if this comes by you, see it! I can't believe a movie like this has been making the festival rounds for so long and has not been picked up by a cable outlet or some type of distributor. Heck, if SciFi has money to waste on some of its crap-tacular originals, I'm sure it has the money to buy up something this small-scale. Maybe a grass-roots geek agitation could help this deserving flick out!

MediaTrip.com has a great collection of short films, feature films (downloadable in multiple parts) and trailers for films in theaters and on DVD. For the more avant-garde, there are the entries in the Slamdance online film festival. See the films, and if you register, you're a judge.
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While it's true that going to a film festival is an amazing experience, it is usually either an expensive or exclusive experience as well. With our limited resources, Slamdance can only accomodate a few hundred festival-goers per day, and for only a few days a year.

Admittedly, right now the bandwidth isn't there for a rich online film experience, but by making due with existing technology, we can help indie filmmakers get their work seen by a potentially huge audience.

Not to mention, it didn't take a huge screen for South Park to catch on... A little 320x200 window can still convey brilliance and originality.

And speaking of originality, make sure to check out our initial selection of online short films at http://www.slamdance.com/anarchy/. Beginning on January 22, you'll be able to watch and rate 21 of the best shorts from over two thousand submissions. My personal fave is Graveyard Jamboree -- it is one of the best animated shorts I've ever seen.

While it's true that going to a film festival is an amazing experience, it is usually either an expensive or exclusive experience as well. With our limited resources, Slamdance can only accomodate a few hundred festival-goers per day, and for only a few days a year.

Admittedly, right now the bandwidth isn't there for a rich online film experience, but by making due with existing technology, we can help indie filmmakers get their work seen by a potentially huge audience.

Not to mention, it didn't take a huge screen for South Park to catch on... A little 320x200 window can still convey brilliance and originality.

And speaking of originality, make sure to check out our initial selection of online short films at http://www.slamdance.com/anarchy/. Beginning on January 22, you'll be able to watch and rate 21 of the best shorts from over two thousand submissions. My personal fave is Graveyard Jamboree -- it is one of the best animated shorts I've ever seen.