May 14, 2007 -
GamePolitics is sorry to report this morning that at least one game based on the recent Virginia Tech massacre has popped up on the web.Several readers notified GP in recent days of V-Tech Rampage, which is hosted on Newgrounds. The game (I spent about a minute with it) appears to be rendered in a documentary style, similar to that of the highly controversial Super Columbine Massacre RPG.
GP: This is one of those stories that, from a personal standpoint, we'd rather just ignore. But it's only a matter of time until news of this game crosses over to the mainstream media, where it will likely receive a highly sensationalized treatment.
As we've seen, some video game critics will cite fringe creations such as this to support generalized anti-game positions. But even beyond that, we just find such a game to be in extremely poor taste.
UPDATE: We note that U.K. site PC Advisor has additional coverage of this game. Destructoid has more, including info on the author, who is Australian.
Comments
I think I prefer Voltaire's point of view: "I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write." Ask some people from Argentina, Chile, North Korea, Myanmar, etc. what happens when freedom of speech is "taken away". (Hint: it ends up with people dying horribly, on a far larger scale than happened at VT.)
Many have given their lives to preserve such rights in the U.S. and Europe, among other places. Don't cheapen their sacrifice by throwing it all away to vent your indignation over a Flash game, however stupid and offensive that game may be. I don't think the people who died at VT want their memory sullied by being used as a lightning rod for suppressing free speech -- again, however detestable that speech may be.
Ryan Lambourn
Address: 8 Barossa Cl St Clair 2759
Tel +61(02) 9670 2947
Just in case someone would like to personally hand him a donation personally. Good luck Ryan i wish you all the best!!!
Please, out of respect for my fallen Hokie brothers and sisters, their families, and the Virginia Tech students and faculty, please remove this game immediately.
You guys do not play World War based games.......
Right??
It is not differnt from World War based games.
But...It needn't to intentionally make 'V-tech based game'
This is all bulshit, we are no longer a civilised society/culture : ^ / *shakes head*
That information is already publicly available.
@ news4u
Thanks for that. I hadn't seen it. Again, I'm entirely unsurprised by his simplistic outlook.
@ rigo
I have no idea what you said.
http://www.thenewsroom.com/details/308537/US
He's clearly insensitive and apathetic, but really there seem to be more important things.
...and you don't think people would be upset if someone made a game in which the goal was to kill Iraqi children?
I think you've completely missed the point.
We're upset not because the victims were American (many of the regulars here are from countries other than the United States), but because the game recreates a senseless tragedy in which many innocent people died and it does so without any valid purpose.
The author, as evidenced by his website, his comments here, and the very childish and self-centered way in which he conducts himself, proves beyond a doubt that he believes his creation to fashionably tasteless and that he's just too cool to care about consequences or the feelings and opinions of others. It's a teen-aged mentality that he'll hopefully grow out of.
(The above is in no way a slight against all teenagers; we have many mature, thoughtful young people in the GP community whose opinions I highly respect.)
dealt with by those that lost.
As I think this dumb asian kid should
not be glorified any more then he
has too, this game is the same as
GTA, Call of duty, Saints Row, ect.
If anything, market this game & put
all proceeds to getting guns off the streets.
just a thought.
...
JT: Game companies are mocking the dead and glorifies their murderers!!!
Games like this are gonna create hundreds of copycats all over the world!!!
Let's ban games, make me world president and rejoice!!!
What I'm more concerned about is the media reporting on it and treating it like a commercial game when in fact it is just some cheap flash game made by a bratty teenager.
And sadly, we'd have to defend it because if we don't, then we would be called hypocrites and then all hell would break loose ("M-rated games are no more in the USA! *shock!*"). I sometimes hate being a defender of the media, because you have @$$-holes that will just do anything for a shock or whatever.
first and second rules pal. know them.
Well Thompson would know something about mocking the dead wouldn't he?
Somehow I don't think this person even knew what a ruckus the columbine game made. I talk to all my other family members about whats going on with politicians using it and they have no idea what I'm talking about. but they are of a different generation. but then I thought what if this person does know how much guff that other game got and is doing this to get the same attention that creator did... then frankly I don't hold that person higher than JT because he does what he does for attention aswell. lets hope this person was just ignorant of the fact then. then my faith in humanity will be slightly restored ;)
I admire that he made the game and that it is "original" (since no one else has made it) but come on man, what the hell were you thinking when you made this. Did you actually think people would like it?
But I guess the bigger isue is what with JT say in courts "This game was made by T2 in order to sabotage our childrens mind"
But since he cant go after T2 I'll guess he will go after another fast food restaurant
Freedom of speech is an incredibly, vitally important thing. It's just such a hideous waste when people use that freedom to do idiotic things that will only backfire on themselves.
I mean, the moron who made this is presumably a gamer, right? It seems a very fair assumption. Well now thanks to his (or her, I guess) idiocy and desire to cause a sensation and be oh-so-cleverly controversial, the cycle of Blame-The-Games will just strengthen, so the hobby that is the *reason* they created this crud in the first place will be under greater threat than it was before.
Sigh. And who would want to make a game out of this anyway? I mean... God, sometimes I really despair for humanity in general, seriously.
I unhappily await the media firestorm that will come from this. Meh.
Time to call The Soup (ABC,CBS,CNN,MSNBC,ect.) and start damage control.
represent.
I find this idea stupid. I wish there was some way to distinguish flash and independant games from Professional ones in a way that will shut politicians up
Perhaps in the barrage of reports that will result from this game, the media will attempt to clarify and distinguish between the two ? I'm getting my hopes up, I know it....
Isn't that a quote from Penn and Tellers "Bullshit" ?
I would LOVE to see Penn and Teller handle videogames in one of there shows.
There's no background, no discussion of motivation, no exploration of thoughts, influences, and decisions.
I like Kotaku's take: "ree speech and free expression are great. Just make sure you've got something to say. Otherwise, it's noise."
Unfortunately, the media WILL lump this in with SCMRPG, because they won't know any better. Most reporters won't bother to play both, and so they'll assume they're the same, but it would be like comparing "Fahrenheit 9/11" with "Micheal Moore hates America". Yeah one is a pseudo-doc that has a bias, but the other is just a sniveley kid bitching.
Er... there is nothing hypocritical with condeming a poor taste game.
It would be like saying all move lovers should support snuff movies on principle.
It's important that gamers are mature enough to recognise when games have stepped across the line of decency!