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New Video Game Recreates Kennedy Assassination
theodp writes "Lee Harvey Oswald-wannabes will be able to simulate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy when Traffic Games releases the $9.99 JFK Reloaded on Monday to coincide with the 41st anniversary of Kennedy's murder in Dallas. 'It is despicable,' said a spokesman for Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, the late president's brother."
Let's see... It's:
1) disrespectful to the family of the victim.
2) morbid
3) a cheap ploy to get attention for a mediocre effort.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
If Mr. Kennedy thinks this one is despicable, just wait until he sees the sequel. You know, the one that simulates getting blitzed and driving off a bridge with your mistress, then leaving her to drown while you crawl home and sleep it off
Yes, as so was your boses behavior when he, while driving drunk, killed a woman.
But thats in the past and doesn't matter.
Where is the upcry when you have WWII games happening??
Games about WWII: OK.
Games about shoveling the dead naked bodies of Jews into ovens: Not OK.
I guess the point is that some things just go beyond what most people think is appropriate/acceptable/good taste.
.: Max Romantschuk
The problem is that people like Ted Kennedy will try to make a law banning this sort of thing. It may or may not be in poor taste, but companies should have the right to make games like that if they desire. Let the marketplace decide.
Just my two cents, of course, but with videogames like this, maybe the outrage at the lack of decency should be directed a little more broadly...
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Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
Shooting Nazis is generally considered good form, because they're universally regarded as evil personified and with damn good reason. You'll notice that this is the objective of 99.9% of FPS WWII games. Not too many games where you start off as an SS soldier out to kill FDR, some famous Jewish rabbi, etc.
More to the point, you get _points_ for drilling JFK just so with your rifle. That's pretty tasteless, and for a president who was liked pretty well (so I'm told) by most of the world, you'd think they could stay away from that...
-Erwos
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
I live in a free country. Namely, America. (Yes, I realize a significant number of /. readers do not, sometimes I wish I was among that number...) We have freedom of speech and expression the last I heard. If you think the game is in poor taste, by all means, do not buy or play it. To me, it just doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun, but I could care less about the subject matter.
Why is there not this outcry against Call of Duty, when it recreates the tragic deaths of millions during WWII? Is a historical simulation only wrong if someone FAMOUS gets hurt?
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
While I personally don't agree with the product, I certainly hope this doesn't turn into another campaign against video game violence. It may however, since that this comes out during a time when people still lived through the event in question, yet the audience is clearly a newer generation. Shameless, yes. Outlaw it? nope.
Good point.
I notice that games like Battlefield 1942 never include scenarios like being one of the Soviet troops who murdered the Polish officers in the Katyn forest massacre, or playing one of the SS thugs at Treblinka.
They all seem to be based on scenarios where the people you're trying to shoot can shoot back.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
One, You realize that at least we have the freedom to create this recreation. Many countries could ban this, or even worse put you in jail.
Second, Could this be to prove that the 3 bullets didnt come from the same gun? No matter what you do, you can't recreate the assignation since the bullets come from different directions?
I thought it was proved when the home movie was finally released showing the driver getting hit, that there was a 2nd gunman.
Or is that damn Magic bullet bullshit true? Bounces around like ping pong ball. Hey, even snopes.com doesnt explain that urban legend.
I don't like that it only allows you to be oswald though. It would be much more intresting if you could also try it in the multiple shooter scenario. if this were an option, the game would be much more likely to "undermine the theory there was some shadowy plot behind the assassination" as the developer claims its purpose is.
System.out.println(syynnapse.getSig());
This is a popular theme for comments. Only what, #3 or 4 to say the same thing?
Are reenactments of historical events disrespectful to those involved?
They certainly can be, and this game is one such example.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
You're missing the point.
While this is recreation of a historical detail for points, it's also recreation of a murder.
I imagine you would be extremely upset if someone created a videogame reenacting the murder of your sister or brother, asking players to try and mimic as perfectly as possible the trajectory of the bullets that exited your loved one's skull.
This isn't a history role-playing game, this is recreation of an actual murder.
There's definately more wrong than right in this. You should be able to see that.
This is a historical event, and while all three things are probably true for many recountings of such historical events, I'm not convinced that video games should be treated differently from any other historical account. Certainly the game is there for entertainment, which makes it different from a documentary (for example), but not so different that it isn't still (at least implicitly) a narrative about an important historical event.
You know, I've never really cared who killed Kennedy. Did the gov't lie about? Don't really care. If they did, add another mark on the "Lies told to me by the gov't" score board. If not, doesn't matter. It isn't going to bring JFK back to life.
If it did, then THAT'D be a news story.
stuff
I would be more inclined to draw the moral line at the shooting of defenseless people, if I were going to draw one.
Sigmentation fault - core dumped
I'm swear, I'm so fucking sick of others trying to force their morals and beliefs onto me. I personally would LOVE to play a game like this if it were an accurate historical simulation. Even moreso if the rifle and physics are very accurate. Frankly, I think we could use more games like this. How about one where you are a jew in a concentration camp and you have to try to escape?
What's that? That is evil and shouldn't be made as well? Well, as a jew who has spent serious time studying the holocaust, I'm ok with it, and since I'd be the one buying the game, IT WOULD BE MY FUCKING CHOICE!
God, I just wish that just once I could run into one of these evangelical morons, have them try to force their world view on me, and then beat the first amendment into them. Ugh. Don't they have anybody elses lives to worry about? Like their own?
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Um, Dude.
When does freedom of speech = freedom to threaten another human life? Do you think someone has the right to make a video game about killing you personally? What about someone you love?
Would you suggest that a society where threats on life are accepted and protected, would in fact be more free? That sort of system of intimidation would only sacrafice our freedom to those who have the greatest ability to end our lives.
Lets say some very rich and powerful person were to threaten the life of the president, and for the sake of argument, there is nothing illegal about making that threat. What you would be left with is a weakened presidency, perhaps more likely to act along the idealogical lines of the man who has threatened to take his life.
The intimidation that comes with a threat makes it just as serious as the actual act of murder. It is control based on whoever is strongest. A society free to threaten its leaders is not free, but merely bound to the will of the entity best equipped to make good on its word.
How many years until we have "September 11th, the video game"?
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
The game is intended as an "interactive reconstruction." The idea is to see how plausible the findings of the Warren Commission are. There's even a contest with a $100,000 prize if you can pull off the shots that Lee Harvey Oswald was supposed to have taken. The simulation is an attempt to be so accurate that you must miss with your first shot in accordance with the assumptions they have made in recreating the events. Read all about it on the FAQ page.
Historians are always reconstructing the assassination. The Discovery Channel once ran a special where they ran a dummy by in a car and had an expert marksmen sharpshoot at its head as it drove by. It wasn't horrifying; it was supposed to be educational. This game is clearly an attempt to show just how implausible the official explanation for the JFK assassination is. I would love to see if any player actually achieves a high passing score.
Personal, I find the idea of this fascinating. The angle of "play as assassin and shoot JFK!" was given by Slashdot; that's not the intent. It's more of an academic exercise, and it will be very interesting to take part in this and see if the government's explanation for what happened actually plays out when you try it yourself. There's a reason they have the assassin's floor blocked off in the Assassination Museum--as Bill Hicks said, they didn't want thousands of American tourists going up there each year, pointing out the window, and realizing "There's no fucking way!"
Of course, all of this publicity is probably more than they could have hoped for. I doubt many people would have known about this sim otherwise.
Well, I agree that the threat of violence shouldnt be taken lightly. Thats why, after 12 years of threats of violence, the US took action to carry out what the UN had tried and failed at for years. That is, of course, to insure that WMD were not in Iraq and that grevious atrocities were not committed. We carried out the threat made by the UN.
Also, either you missed my point, or I didnt explain myself well enough. I am simply saying that the threat of violence can control people. This is good in the instance of Iraq and the middle east. Because of Iraq, Middle Eastern countries know that they cannot play the same game with the UN that Saddam did. This is why Libya surrendered thier arsenal. We are letting the international approach take its time in Iran. The only reason they are in talks with other countries is because the are afraid of the massive US army on thier doorstep. We also need to take the same course of action with North Korea.
We have the strongest army in the world, so when dealing with rational people we should NOT have to use it. They should realize they cant win against us, and scrap the nukes. We arent asking them to raise a US flag or start eating hot dogs. We are simply assuring that those countries who openly hate us do not have the capacity to kill us. Its harder in the case of Jihadists, but I think in North Korea diplomacy could work.
My whole point is this, a valid threat of violence can control people. If someone uses this threat to control a rouge nation that has said they want us to burn in nuclear flames, then that is good. If someone uses that to control a government via threats of assasaination, that is a bad thing.
How many years until we have "September 11th, the video game"?
It's called "Microsoft Flight Simulator" and it's been around since the 1980s...
0 1 - just my two bits
The problem is that when people try to recreate something like this, they want to assume that what happened was precisely as was intended, and thus you have to recreate everything just as happened for it to be possible. Well, not so much.
Assuming that the WC's report is true and Oswald was the lone shooter he had one objective: Kill president Kennedy. So, to that end he was firing at the prsident until he was convinced he was dead. Most likely by a visual clue indicating a headshot. The first two shots were misses, as least as far as he was concerned. He wasn't trying to miss, he was trying to hit, however he failed to do so.
It's not hard ot take two shots and miss and hit with a third one, even at a moving target if you are an experienced marksman. That doesn't mean you can recreate the happenings perfectly. It will happen one way one time, another the next.
Also, no game can accurately model the physics of what will happen. Realtime physics engines in games are pretty primitive. They can deal with the basics like ragdoll simulation on bodies, falling objects, and simple destructable objects, but any real simulation is FAR beyond what we have.
Well, to accurately simulate a bullet impact, it takes some serious power. Bullets do NOT act intuitively, espically high power ones. Lots of people forget that the bullets fired were high powered rounds form a Carcano military rifle. Thos act quite differently from a 9mm JHP round. Their penetration is extreme, and you can easily shoot through 3 or more unarmoured people with one. TRying to say that a game can simulate the trajectory of a bullet through a complex structure like the body is just stupid.
Sounds to me like these people are really doing one of two things:
1) Trying to play up the consparicy nut angle saying "See, lots of gamers couldn't do it in our (highly invalid) simulation, how could it possibly have happened in rea life?" and thus "prove" their theory.
2) Make money off said consparicy nuts.
I see nothing here approaching valid or interesting.
This game wouldnt sell a single copy if the media didnt splash it everywhere as some kind of scandal. Its just like the game 'manhunt' which the media got pulled from UK stores recently. ;)
Seriously, there are some fantastic games out at the moment, Half Life 2, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, maybe Pirates will be good even *cough plug* my own Starship Tycoon
Its always pretty depressing to see that you can get a million dollars worth of advertising just by ensuring your game is sick and tasteless.
Lets treat trash like this the way it deserves, and ignore it completely. there are plenty more worthy pieces of entertainmemnt out there that could be covered instead.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
Ya know, they should consider doing a more uptodate version with the current administation... then homeland security could come arrest and hold them for making a terrorist training device... I would hate to be the game manufacture when the letters start pouring if from the sheep(the santified masses who oppose everything from beer nuts to gay marridge and would gladly pick the corn out of king georges floaters) This game could seriously generate some bad press...I hope they do well but It seem to me that since King george took over...His nazi's and others like the moral mojority sh*t heads and the religeous right wingers are ready to pounce... I say buy this game and check out all the subversive library books you can find! peace out...
Getting away with it these days is nearly impossible...
[Trivial, with money and manpower inside united states, and with some time for preparitions.]
Quicklist:
Someone inside does it with poison or something: blackmail, bribe, personal hate towards president etc...
Longrange rifles and explosive bullets 2 kilometers away from target...
Mortars 8 kilometers away from target... Best would be if you could get enough firepower to take down a building, if not then in the street right in front of it.
Bazooka trough a wall...
Burry explosives before hand to a location you know president will be at sometime future....
Best location would be a large bridge. Feed the sharks below the bridge before hand just to make sure...
Navy/airforce insiders... Well get missile, zero it to a building where president is. Hit the fire button. Or better yet. Use insiders to get it from armory, deliver it withing its range to the president and then fire it at the target...
Now none of the tricks are something you could get AWAY with actually, so there has to be something more important than persons own life for a motive to do it. Doing it isn't going to make anything better, you just get another dumb polition that does same mistakes, perhaps few additional mistakes os it won't solve a thing.
Emacs is good operating system, but it has one flaw: Its text editor could be better.
For everyone who is not a member of the tin-foil hat crowd, everything is fine. Oswald was the only shooter. He got whacked by a nut, who later died in prison. Justice was served as well as was possible, and the facts are there for anybody to see.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
"I don't agree with what you say but I will defend with my life your right to say it."
Besides... if both guns and games were banned, which do you think would've been more likely to save Kennedy?
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
From the web site, it is clear that this is not some kind of cheap, quickie game to reap publicity from controversy. They have invested a lot of time and effort into serious simulation--effect of gravity on bullet trajectory, bullet deflection by bone, loss of energy of bullets passing through various materials, etc. This is a lot more work than required to simply produce an entertaining video game. At the price, I question whether the project will even repay the development effort.
While I appreciate that this must be painful for some of the family--as, most likely, are the periodic rehashing of the event in the news and documentary media--I see this as another part of the loss of privacy that is part of the price of leadership. The assassination of President Kennedy is one of the pivotal events of modern history. It is also uniquely controversial. What really happened is still being hotly debated decades later. Nobody seriously questions, for example, whether it was possible for a beginning pilot to fly a plane into the WTC, yet there are many people who believe passionately that Oswald could not have made the shots as described.
This project appears to be a serious attempt at interactive history, allowing people to investigate for themselves the plausibility of the "official" version of events. This is a unique way to breathe life into history; I hope we see more serious simulations of this nature
I can see a whole series of assassination simulator games: Oswald, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and of course Abraham Lincoln.
... that's just too tasteless. I'll stop there.
But if you really want tasteless: A simulator where you play the commandant of a Nazi concentration camp and your job is to
Anyone in the Marines is a good shot - Marines are first and foremost riflemen.
That Marine A calls Marine B a "lousy shot" is comparing B to the best.
That Marine B is a Marine means he's still a far better shot than the general population.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
Everyday citizens comprised militias. They were not "armies," but ordinary people who could be called up wen needed. They supplied their own weapons. Hence the phrase "the right of the people." To say the second amendment does not apply to individuals is to say likewise of the first and fourth, which contain the same language--"right of the people."
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.