Columbine RPG Kickout Has Repercussions

As a direct result of the removal of the Columbine RPG from the Slamdance game competition, two games (so far) have pulled out of the judging process. The Forge has extensive commentary on the first pullout (the game Braid), as well as the removal of fl0w from the competition. From the article: "Regardless of the artistic merit, the facts as I understand them are that Slamdance had actively courted the creator of SCM RPG! to enter it into the festival, which then judged it to be a finalist before bending over for the corporations and shredding their credibility by removing it from the competition. Imagine Dominoes Pizza deciding it objected to the theme of Brokeback Mountain and told the Academy Awards to remove it. Imagine them doing it after it was already a finalist."

Comments

Re:good for them

[Rob T Firefly]

Indeed. I wish I had a game in the competition so I could withdraw it now, and I'd like to go on record as being newly motivated to check out any games by people with enough integerity to stand by their fellow designer and stick to their beliefs even though it means losing a shot at this particular brass ring. That action earns my respect far more than any "I won at Slamdance!" blurb could.

Re:This is typical political correctness

[a.d.trick]

But for some reason I fail to understand, there are dozens of games glorifying WW2 combats, or simulating the Iraq war. Millions have died during WW2, and hundred of thousands died in Iraq and continue to do so. Yet nobody finds reasons to be upset when you incarnate a G.I. killing German soldiers in a game. It's all perfectly normal to them.

The primary reason I hate (real) war as much as I do is from my experience in video games about war

I do not think that all war games are good and health, but as a whole I think that the games out there about our wars are a Good Thing. Westerners these are losing site of what war is like. We haven't been involved in a serious war since WW2 which happened before most of us were born. The Korean Conflict, Vietnam War, and those little excursions in the Middle East have all been fairly low-key. While the media has done a lot to demonstrate the ugliness in war, it hasn't been enough. We still wear our poppies every November, but we've forgotten Hemingway's words:

They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason

We don't see our friends come home with missing arms or legs. We don't have to be careful when walking in 'that' field because it might still have land mines. Anyone whose suffered from Agent Orange poisoning is either dead or too senile to say anything. We're completely guarded from the horrors of war, and as bad as it sounds, our movies and games are about the closest thing we get to understanding war (hardly anyone reads these days). What we need is not less war games, but ones that show our kids what war is like: where good people die, where you lose 4 buddies (forever) because the American fighter jet thought your training operation was enemy fire, where civilians are fire-bombed because some guy whose been awake for 3 days straight makes a small mistake.

The more I think about it, the more it seems like it was just about 100 years ago, before the 'war to end all wars'. A handful of optimistic, large powers interested in spreading their domination and a population that doesn't understand war.

Re:This is typical political correctness

[gstoddart]

But for some reason I fail to understand, there are dozens of games glorifying WW2 combats, or simulating the Iraq war. Millions have died during WW2, and hundred of thousands died in Iraq and continue to do so. Yet nobody finds reasons to be upset when you incarnate a G.I. killing German soldiers in a game.

Because, gloryfying WW2 in films and TV established the precedent. Collectively, WW2 has become part of both American and world psyche and mythology. GI Joe is a recognizeable concept (and I don't mean the doll) throughout the world. The sheer number of movies and TV which have depicted the gung-ho/ragtag/sacrificing group of GIs as being the hero is huge. That and the cowboy movie almost define the collective American self image. (OK, it's obviously more complicated than that.)

Games in which you play a WW2 soldier (or, I guess an American soldier in Iraq) allow you to delve into that mythology and be a participant to it. It's considered acceptable. Hell, how many movies about Vietnam etc came out in the 80's? For a while in the early-mid 80's, it was Vietnam mania from what I recall.

Now, I have no idea how Germans feel about games in which they get to be perenially cast as the bad guys. I know that both contemporary German and Japanese societies have tried very hard to distance themselves from past events, while collectively admitting to it and expressing remorse. But, I suspect they don't always like being in the crosshairs of games they play. And I doubt, for example, Germany would be open to a game in which you played the Nazis, and played to win.

However, I also won't dispute even a little bit that the Columbine game is a shameless exploitation. Still, we unfortunately have to live with people saying controversial things if we want to preserve such things as free speech. You're allowed to be shameless and tacky, as well as noble and good.

Cheers

Re:Makes me happy.

[iamhassi]

"If you don't cave to sponsors, you don't exist."

But there needs to be some kind of limit. What if McDonald's was a sponsor and complained because a game about the Burger King was a finalist and Burger King wasn't a sponsor? Who really deciding which games win, the sponsors or the judges?

The judges should have told the sponsor that complained that the judges decide which games win, not the sponsors. Of course the sponsors will complain, that's what they're suppose to do, of course they're going to watch out for their own best interests. Shame on you judges!

Now, who wants to submit a 9/11 game where players can hijack a plane and crash it into the towers? Anyone?

Re:MORE pullouts! Slamdance may collapse entirely!

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one am going to send all these developers nice thank-you emails for doing the right thing. Also I'm going to check out their games.

Re:Makes me happy.

[Al Dimond]

Yes, the limit is howmuch they can do with out financial backing. Yup, it sucks, however this is the real world. What the latest action shows, however, is that they have legitimate pressure from both sides. They need corporate money to be what they want to be, but without the support of the community and developers they won't have an audience and thus won't be worth sponsoring anyway. The community voice checks the corporate voice, and tells Slamdance that they'll have to take a harder line with the sponsors if they want to matter. Slamdance has to listen to both groups.

Does anyone else find this ironic?

[Dysson]

The maker of Cultivation has this tagline on the of bottom of his page, but has yet to pull out of the competition:

For those who do not fear sacrifice:
your souls will burn bright trails in the night sky.

Just a note to all critics commenting....

[Premo_Maggot]

I can totally tell that none of you have played this game and you're totally bashing on it. You're doing exactly what the media does with games like Grand Theft Auto, etc. This game glorifies nothing about Columbine, but gives insight into what happened that day. Also, the game costs nothing, you can go ahead an download it for free. http://www.columbinegame.com/download.htm Just my 2 cents, stop hating without being educated about what you're criticizing.