Slashdot Mirror
Columbine Game Kicked From Slamdance Festival
Imaria writes "A Kotaku post has the news that Super Columbine Massacre RPG! has been kicked out of the Slamdance Gamemaker Festival. After reaching the finals, the organizers were forced to remove the game from the running to appease mounting external pressure. According to the post, this is the first time in the Slamdance Festival's 13 year history that they have removed either a game or film due to criticism. From the article: '[Game creator] Ledonne said that he bears no ill will toward the festival, but that the decision to pull the game does raise concerns about freedom of speech and video game development. "I don't want to paint them as the villain in this," he said. "I don't think the real issue is a couple of guys at Slamdance who decided to reject my game, it's the larger pressures placed on them."'"
I know all our immediate reaction is to say "censorship!" and "oppression!", etc...
But the truth is, these guys have made a truly offensive game that is super deliberatly made to be offesnive/controversial... and/or heartless. Note that these descriptions are all my "feelings" / opinion... and therefor the government should have no place or right to ban such items... as that would be a transgression of free speech.
But that doesnt mean i have to listen to or play their game, and it doesnt mean slamdance has to admit their game or allow it in their contest.... and it also means slamdance can at their descretion change their minds on the admissibility or PR of a game.
If someone made a game called "nigger killer" that placed the gamer as a Klan leader... or Jew Burner where you follow the exciting role of a Nazi Furnace operator... guess what... chances are no matter how well developed that game was... 99% of people wouldnt want anything to do with them... and free/private gaming organizations would likely reflect those views by choosing not to entertain those games.
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.
THAT is free speech and freedom.
--Idiots, Every single one of YOU, A flaming mass of conglomerated morons, hey wait a second, isnt that how RAID works?
I think the game is wrong. Something like this should never be produced. Never. But you're right that stifling creativity is generally wrong. Usually, people will do that with their $'s. But often times it doesn't work. Often times you get your Tim Robbins and your Susan Sarandons and other relatively mindless do-gooder's trying to save the world promoting crap and the mindless drones that follow them are perfectly happy to accept this too. I only mention Tim and Susan because they scare the shit out of me when they appear together, like Lord Vader (Sarandon) with the Emperor(Robbins) silently standing behind watching. If they ever got elected to office.... woah...
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
From the game's site:
DESCRIPTION: This game delves into the morning of April 20th, 1999 and asks players to relive that day through the eyes of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, those responsible for the deadliest school shooting in American history. Preview pictures can be found below.
Yeah, you get to play 'the killers'. They feed you a lot of crap about them being instrumental in opening the eyes of the world, but it's just sick.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
I'm pretty sure that after elementary school, judging a book by it's cover is not a bad thing. I don't understand why people tout this juvenile, cliche concept in mature discussions. Welcome to the real world, first impressions count here. If your writing a book, make a cover that adequately describes the content, don't just tack on something ridiculous for shock value alone. If the game was a tasteful discourse on the Columbine shootings, and it was named "Tasteful Discourse on the Columbine shootings," that's reasonable, but with a title like that, what else could you expect about the game other than an offensive piece of garbage. Once again, not saying it is one, but from the title and a realistic perspective, that's the impression that I get. A "cover" in any sense of the word, is a window to your content, and people need to grow up and start using them effectively.