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'Columbine RPG' Creator Discusses the Dawson Shooting
Back in May, Brian Crecente of Kotaku and the Rocky Mountain News had a chat with the maker of the 'Columbine RPG'. Today, he talks again with game-maker Danny LeDonne about possible connections between his game and the Dawson shooting. From the article: "My very first reaction, frankly, was to head to my toilet bowl and throw up. I knew what was in the works and I knew the next week would be spent keeping my head above water while the press tried to bury me with guilt-laden questions and implications of complicity in murder. I also knew that this was no time to fold or get weak-kneed. I made a game. I believed in it. Now it was time to defend it. No one would do that except me."
I imagine this could happen to anybody who develops games based on historical events, than enact violence. I'm sure there's WWII games where you played on the German side. There's always video games where you play the bad guy. He shouldn't feel guilty because someone who enjoyed playing his game was also crazy. Maybe it's what pushed him over the edge, maybe it's not. I highly suspect that this kid was really messed up even before played the game.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Playing the Columbine RPG, any such sentiment would be creepy and morally wrong. "Yeah! That'll teach those innocent students!" I don't know the actual plot of the game, but I can't imagine it is as detached as playing a gangster, soldier or pilot etc.
Ah, you subscribe to the "if you think it, you did it" system of morality. Does it work the other way around? If I daydream about helping out in a soup kitchen or giving clothes to the salvation army it earns me brownie points with my local magic sky diety?
*sigh* Look, calling someone patheticly immoral does you no good. People like to simplify stuff like this, but it isn't so. The type of mentality and situation that result in people loosing it and going on a killing spree are NOT simple, and often much of the rage they feel has some real source. It does not simply come from nowhere, and the victims of the shooting did have a hand in creating the situation. When things get bad enough that you start blaming the structure as a whole, people who support and benifit from the system that is generating the abuse feel like ligit targets. They do not appear innocent, they feel at worst bystandards that let things get that bad. This is esp true when it is popular, protected people doing the abusing, since it is the general student population who GIVE them that power and then refuse to take it away. Does that make going postal the right solution? No, it doesn't. Not even remotely. (though your 'bring in the police' example is worrying since often in bullying, esp at the high school level, authority figures will generally not help you, and often dump even more blame on the victim with 'well, if you were normal then everyone would like you' BS, which amplifies the problem. in college unless it is a physical threat, they will just ignore you or, if they are on-campus police, might act much like the HS level authorities) But I find it equaly disturbing that instead of addressing the structural problems that lead to this, people just pull out the 'it was just one sick person' card as if that explains everything away and absolves everyone who had a hand, however minor it was, in the events leading up to it. It lets us protect the image of our darling children and friends (or any ingroup) because they 'can do no wrong' and externalize our problems to 'others' and continue to blame whatever one can as long as it never circles back. If we want to talk relative girlfriends. Mine went through significant amounts of 'outsider' abuse in both highschool and college (ended up snapping in college) and has had terrible memories and nightmares about that ever since too. And for every person who will have to live through the terror of _ONE_ day and it's memories, there are probably dozens of people who have to remember thousands of days of abuse and fear, and no one cares. They don't get support from their college, or other students, they usually either collapse mentally, kill themselves, or try to kill others. But in general few really care what happens to them and all the stuff that caused it is not considered immoral at all. They are just 'weak' or 'sick' people.
There is stupidity and the there is ignorance. I seriously doubt you have actually played the game or even tried to understand the basis behind its creation.
You mad
In this particular case, the shooter was a sociopath - no, make that a misanthrope. He hated the world, so some people in the world hated him back. He deserved that; he asked for that.
Not only that, he was 25 years old and a dropout. He had been out of school for years. He had plenty of time to go into therapy and buy scented candles to make himself feel better.
Face it: everyone, and I mean everyone, has shitty days in school, and feels like they are an outsider. Everyone. Learning how to deal with the people around you, including those who want to harm you, is part of the (informal) education you recieve at school. The difference between people who are good and those who are evil is this: the good people get over it, turn over a new leaf, and get on with their lives. The evil people only focus on the percieved slights they received and wallow in self-pity.
If your girlfriend is still having nightmares about being teased in school, she needs to get over it. Life is a really great thing, if you only see it that way. Shit happens; get over it.
Posting AC for fear of the mean ol' mods.
You don't see a WWII "extermination camp simulator" do you?
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/82899
almost the same thing
Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
nicely put ^_^ if I could mod you up I would. Therapy has backfired several times for her (it is amazing just how much damage a therapist who does not have the patient's best interests in mind can do) but we have explored trying to find a good therapist to work on it. Though it is amazing how many therapsists (publicly funded ones in this case, or ones who's paycheck does not come from the patient) also use the 'just get over it' line and then don't really help beyond that. And I have to take some issue with the previous person's idea that not 'getting over it' make her evil. Whole scale of abuse out there, from normal shitty day stuff, to an enviroment that really damages someone. Surviving the former does not give one the perspective to say that the latter should be just as easy.