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

good for them

[spykemail]

Good for them. When you give in to pressure from big business to censor you lose all of your credibility.

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:good for them

[abandonment]

Looks like 3 more have dropped out as well:

http://braid-game.com/news/?p=21

5 games in total have quit in disgust. Good on em indeed!

Speaking of Brokeback Mountain

[AssCork]

When the hell is that game coming out?

Re:Speaking of Brokeback Mountain

[Kreigaffe]

I hear there's already a LARP version

This is typical political correctness

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Of course, any game based on something as horrific as the Columbine shooting is at best bad taste, at worst shameless exploitation of the event to get in the press, and people should rightfully be angry, and the game should be pulled out.

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.

My grandfather died in WW2, I never knew him. He was fighting for the "good guys" (the allies), but that didn't prevent my dad from crying often when he thought about him. War simulation games make me just as angry as this stupid Columbine RPG, and people who get their pants in a knot over the Columbine game then go play the virtual soldier ten minutes later make me sick, because they're biased, politically correct idiots with short memories...

Re:This is typical political correctness

[spyrochaete]

And what of "America's Army" - an army recruitment game with no restrictions on who may play? The purpose of America's Army is to guide the player through basic training, siphon him into a regiment and specialty, give him a weapon and ship him out to hot zones. The game is as realistic as possible to best portray army tactics and day-to-day life. For all the games critics like Jack Thompson have dubbed "murder simulators", isn't America's Army the most literal definition? Where's the outrage from American taxpayers who fund continued development and distribution of this "game"?

Re:This is typical political correctness

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

In the case of war, the argument can be made that it is morally correct to try and overthrow Nazi's.

That's where you're wrong. War is morally wrong, period. That doesn't mean we shouldn't have gone to war against the Nazis, what I'm trying to point out is that exploiting the human misery that WW2 in a game 60 years later is no more acceptable that exploiting a bunch of kids getting machine-gunned in a school recently. Probably less so: WW2 is a world-wide stain on humanity, whereas Columbine is, despite all its horror, a local event.

Re:This is typical political correctness

[aicrules]

You obviously have no idea what morally even means. It would be morally wrong to not have gone to war to stop the Nazi destruction of Europe. It was not morally wrong to have gone to war in that case. Morality is not based on only one piece of information. It is based on all known information.

Well, okay, morality ends up actually being completely subjective to whatever person is deciding whether a particular thing is morally right or wrong for themselves. But you stated war was "morally wrong, period" as if it were a fact and not an opinion. It would have only been morally wrong to go to war to save Europe and ourselves if there was a way to stop the Nazis otherwise that would have guaranteed less bloodshed on both sides. There were certainly acts committed by both sides during the war that would be considered morally wrong by anybody, but the overall act of going to war was morally right.

Re:This is typical political correctness

[deinol]

dubbed "murder simulators", isn't America's Army the most literal definition?

Killing cops is bad, killing terrorists and nazi's is good! Don't you get it?

Why do you hate America?

Re:This is typical political correctness

[soft_guy]

Of course, any game based on something as horrific as the Columbine shooting is at best bad taste, at worst shameless exploitation of the event to get in the press, and people should rightfully be angry, and the game should be pulled out.

But for some reason I fail to understand, there are dozens of games glorifying PacMan, or simulating large scale eating of dots. Millions have died from binge eating, and hundred of thousands died from obesity and continue to do so. Yet nobody finds reasons to be upset when you incarnate a mindless yellow eating machine in a game. It's all perfectly normal to them.

My grandfather died from eating thousands of marshmallows; I never knew him. He was fighting for the "good guys" (fluffy-puff marshmallows), but that didn't prevent my dad from crying often when he thought about him. Eating simulation games make me just as angry as this stupid Columbine RPG, and people who get their pants in a knot over the Columbine game then go play the virtual bulimic ten minutes later make me sick, because they're biased, politically correct idiots with short memories...

Re:Makes me happy.

[spyrochaete]

I don't think that the SlamDance guys are bad for caving to the preasure (they do need corporate backers)

Slamdance invited SCRPG to participate in its event, voted it to be worthy of status as a finalist, and then kicked them out. That's irresponsible. Why pretend to host an objective contest when votes are for sale to the highest-paying sponsor?

Re:This is not censorship.

[kfg]

Why is it improper for them to have decided they don't want that RPG included in their competition.

Because, as already noted, they invited it and then declared it among the elite of the entrants before throwing it out?

KFG

Re:This is not censorship.

[illegalcortex]

People like to throw around the term censorship, but it's really only censorship if the government is involved.

censor:
"to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable"
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

censoring:
"1 a : the institution, system, or practice of censoring"
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Diction ary&va=censorship

Censorship can refer to goverment censorship, but doesn't have to. Anyone who has any power (including companies, contest judges, etc.) can censor.

As Carlin says "Try to pay attention to the language we've all agreed on."

MORE pullouts! Slamdance may collapse entirely!

[Alsee]

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.

-

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:Here's my two cents...

[Rob T Firefly]

The name of the damn contest is "The Slamdance Guerilla Gamemaker Competition." That would be "guerilla" as in "a member of a band of irregular soldiers that uses guerrilla warfare, harassing the enemy by surprise raids, sabotaging communication and supply lines, etc."

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.