i still dont think Colombine RPG should be a martyr in the cause of free expression. not because i dont think you had every right to make it, but becuase youre going to piss off alot of people who dont understand the media you used and turn them off entirely to the idea or thought of video games as a serious form of art.

and you cant honestly say you didnt want to exploit colombine then enter the "expressive media" into a contest.

I've been reading as many of these boards as I can find and I sincerely appreciate everyone's thoughts on this. Needless to say making a film that includes yourself is a difficult and complicated task because it asks you to think of yourself as an objective character when clearly you have a vested interest in presenting your own perspective. Years ago I saw Ross McElwee's "Sherman's March" and began to think about the personal yet impersonal facets of making a film that includes yourself (not as an actor but as a real person). Much of the footage of me comes from public speaking I have done so in this sense the footage arrives in the film as it would naturally have even if I myself were uninvolved in the project.

Inevitably some people will ALWAYS think I'm out to exploit Columbine, make a name for myself, or some similarly undesirable accusation. This opinion is welcome and understandable. While I am mindful of these critics, I regard them as less important than making a truly engaging film - one that will stand on its own regardless of where the audience is coming from or who happened to make it. One of my chief goals is to make this film as anyone sitting in the editing room with the same footage might - paying attention not to the personalities but to the substance of the story. I've been making films in various capacities for about ten years now but have yet to work on a project that is this personal yet also so large in scope. Thus I am very wary of some of the pitfalls it could encounter and will work to avoid most of them. I will be screening this film to many people over the next six months to gather feedback and sculpt the best documentary I can.

From an editing standpoint, I've found that ironically I hesitate to include myself in the film unless necessary. Pragmatically speaking, given that I shot nearly 80% of the film myself, I'm simply NOT on camera in most of the footage. In January of this year I sent an early draft of my treatment to Ian Bogost for feedback and was advised to make sure this story didn't lose it's personal side - to make sure the purpose and intent of SCMRPG carried through the larger story that the media has so often told. After all, this isn't a cold examination of the issues of videogame violence as 'Moral Kombat' seems to be; this is a film about specific game developers, specific students at Dawson, and a single festival brought under controversy.

I encourage everyone to view the cast page here: http://www.playingcolumbine.com/cast.htm

I submit to you that if the goal were simply to aggrandize myself, I would have wasted thousands and thousands of dollars to interview all these other people. Furthermore I make NO CLAIM to an "objective" film; this film is going to make arguments and is going to include the opposing point of view (such as Mr. Thompson) but in the end I want to make a film that is supportive of the future of games as an artistic medium. Indeed that was the inspiration for taking up the camera in the first place.

Believe it or not, I originally had no intention of thrusting myself this far into the gaming debate. Maybe you'll point out that I was "asking for it" but I could never have engineered all that has transpired since I put SCMRPG online in April of 2005. What has unfolded since is a complex and interwoven story that has been on countless websites, in many magazines, and on several national television and radio programs. I believe I have every right to present this story in my own way, as well. After all, I was a filmmaker far before I ever installed RPG Maker.

Presently, I'm about to move away from Colorado to attend graduate school and work on my MFA so that I may eventually make natural history films - a lifelong dream of mine (I just got back from a wildlife shoot in Kenya). Once I'm done with "Playing Columbine" I will have presented my case to the world and the world is free to blog endlessly about how much of a moron, a genius, or a nobody I really am. I grew up playing videogames and they were an important part of my childhood. As such issues surrounding games in the aftermath of Columbine were very important to me. I see this documentary as my opportunity to present all the arguments I wished people would have made as videogames and rock music were being vilified for the shooting. And much like SCMRPG itself, I certainly won't force anyone to watch this film.

If I recall sometime ago, a pest control company sued some kid that kept hacking their message board and trolling via proxies. It's on slashdot somewhere. I can't find it and dont' have the time to at the moment.

Honestly, I don't know why Dennis doesn't just add a filter to the boards that if the forum poster uses that name here, message is deleted as spam.

@JC

Nah I think we can judge him. He is some art student or something, that took RPG creator (which has been around on the SNES and PS), and a touchy subject and made a cut and paste game that looks like ass, and plays about the same as something 15 years ago.

This is why i think he was just shooting for his limelight and the controversy. Had he wanted to make a work of art, he would have picked up some friends, learned an engine, and actually attempted to make something engrossing and beautiful.

Instead he uses crappy old sprites, and bad dialog to make his 15 minutes.

Thats why he is a tool

@ Jack Thompson
ENJOY. There is an N there jackass. I know, you're so much smarter than us with your law degree and insanity, but think before you type and proofread after.

[...] GamePolitics.com has all the right links and information on this upcoming documentary about the video game Super Columbine Massacre RPG. [...]

wait a minute, wait a minute.
Jack Thompson posts a link that leads to youtube but the actual link goes through http://www.btunnel.com/
What is btunnel? It is an anonymizer. So Jack Thompson, the man who often calls people cowards for being anonymous online, uses a website that allows people to be anonymous...

Moreover, by posting a link with the btunnel url, I'm guessing that we now know how Jacko is getting around the ip ban...

@Cecil

Yes, it is. Last time his face showed up he sent to someone in regards about Paul Huck. http://gamepolitics.com/2007/07/26/yesterdays-gp-article-turns-up-in-jac...

Then he insulted me for not being fluent in legal-ese.

I watched the trailer again and again I cannot see what Crecente was talking about in regards to LeDonne making himself the center of the story. Firstly, it is a trailer not the movie itself, secondly they only referred to LeDonne once as a 25 year old Colorado man who made the game (seems pretty appropriate) and throughout the course of the trailer LeDonne himself only had three short sound bytes.

oh, whose idea was it give jackie another media outlet to spread the same old lies?

Jack, thank you so much for the link. The first brunette chick was kind of cute. There was some other crap in there that I sort of half-listened to, and once Grossman started with the blah-blah I guess I tuned it out entirely. Sorry about that, but feel free to link more good-looking women if you like.

On topic, I'm kind of looking forward to catching LeDonne's movie. Watched the trailer, and I'm not sure what Crecente is referring to in his comments. I didn't get the impression Danny was hyping himself.

on the video that JT linked, at about 4m:25s the host says "the first thing you shoot is the first human being you see" which is quite ironic considering the game shown is House of the Dead 2, where you lose life if you shoot civilians. Another interesting thing is that at the beginning, the "violent" GameBoy Color game shown happened to be Pokémon Pinball. Those guys threw all credibility out the window before they even started speaking.

In today's world, people are free to make themselves look as much of a jerkoff as they like.

@JACK THOMPSON, BAN-EVADING INTERNET TROLL
“I’m not suffering from mental illness. I’m enjoying it!”

Jack, ever read the Tell-Tale Heart?

I've had strong opinions on many articles & their comments on this site before, but never felt compelled to post them assuming a similarly outraged regular poster had already made my point (paranoid about email address too.) but I can't believe Kotaku or most of the comments here (so far that is, haven't finished reading all of them)

If Kotaku can run Video game blog, are we meant to believe he can't find Ledonne's statement about the game? His opinion on Ledonnes "speculated" reasons for making the game or documentary is something twix an Ebert grade idealisation of an artists integrity & a weasely attempt to distance himself & gamers from controversy he doesn't want. GPs extract didn't help matters, it makes it look as if Ledonne actually made the claims Kotaku decided he should have made.

I still haven't played his game properly yet but I've read enough to convince me it's not praising the shooters actions & encourages no other hate & that's enough for me to back it's artistic merit. That I get the impression that it's a genuine attempt to bring some kind of understanding to a difficult to understand event, purposely chosen to be controversial & to self righteously provoke unwarranted outrage is irrelevant. Making a movie somewhat along the same lines may well have been Ledonnes intention all along & more power to him, if he's even gotten gamers ticked at him about the games artistic merit, then maybe more needs to be said.

Show.

Sorry Jack, but the only proof you can give me that I'll accept is if an eagle scout who attends church weekly, was the valedictorian of his class, has a spotless record, and is an absolute pacifist comes out and shoots people after a single session of a violent game. Until then, you have nothing.

See, I can give impossible standards too.

@Jack
I shall be sure to look out for your t-shirt... By the way the thing you linked mentioned Dreamcast, and I'm quite certain none of those games mentioned were made after 1999, try and be a bit more current.

Yeah i haven't played SCMG either but at this point in time I definitely intend to, I very much look foward to this documentry coming out, the trailer looked quite good.

Everyone needs tos top and see that this is about the controversy sparked over not by the SCMG game but by the fear mongering the anti game crowded brought forth the most you can argue about SCMG is its in poor taste,I hope he can create a video that goes over the fact and emotions and all out lies brought about by the insane fear mongering surrounding the game and the events there after.

@The1Jeffy

I agree there'll always be a certain degree of self-promotion in a self-made movie about something in which you are intrinsically involved, that really can't be helped. It was good to see that at least the movie seems prepared to see the controversy from both sides, and are willing to present views both for and against the idea of using Video Games to deal with socially 'heated' items.

I'm the attorney from Miami in the movie. Ejoy the T-shirt I'm wearing in the traler which reads:

"I'm not suffering from mental illness. I'm enjoying it!"

Jack Thompson

It's funny how people grab their pitchforks and foam at the mouth about a online game that was intended to set a precedent. A precedent in which games can be expressed as a legitimate art form just as it says in the trailer. I am deeply sorry (and somewhat troubled) that this is hard to swallow for some of you.

http://www.btunnel.com/index.php/1010110A/6b2c7f52619a1c2400c1c354d26fb3...

The game and this documentary (just the trailer so far) has already achieved all it needs to- It sparked debate over some serious topics.

In the end, that's all SCMRPG really needed to do. And that's a good thing.

I’m so annoyed by this “controversy.” It’s protected speech, story over.

...And who ever suggested the game or the documentary should be banned? It's called criticism. One person does something, and another person calls it good, or bad, or stupid. Free speech has nothing to do with the matter.

He hasn't made a dime off of the game...

I'm so annoyed by this "controversy." It's protected speech, story over.

Delete the last message I posted before this one please, Gamepolitics did something funny and a weird half-paste got posted. here is my post:

First, the south park reference was how long until something is funny, not until they make a game about it, but a joke.

He didnt program the game he used an rpg creator program so by calling the game crappy is just my opinion.

RPG Maker doesn't necessarily mean the game is crappy, the fact that he puts work into something that is touch doesn't mean its crappy, some people don't agree with what can be 'crappy' as some people simply make crappy games with the idea that it sells, LeDonne had other reasons.

I played the game and with the exception of the soundtrack i felt it sucked. Had it not been named off a tragedy no one wouldve cared about it. You dont thonk this guy thought of that when he made it.

That's the thing is that people like you put so much *gasp* fear into something that is touchy that people are afraid to talk about such a scenario of it existing, and people similar to that just tend to get others to believe that such a thing is so horrible that society is going to shit because of it.
The name of it doesn't mean he had the idea of the name after the game to sell its information; titles do come later, but not the meat of its content.
Try to make a title about something tragic and see how easy it is.


It would be like if i made holocaust tycoon” then filmed a documentary about americas reaction twords it.
if I’m “detached” by saying a game Created for shock value to make a quick buck is in bad taste, than im glad to not be in your community
Actually it won't be now, since you're starting to do so out of spite than simply out of the blue.
This game didn't make a quick buck, it isn't even a commercial title so I have more reason to believe you're just like many other person's who simply say misleading information to get the point across that your view is the final word.
GP would likely disagree with me, but he has his own personal opinion on that, but they at least give proper opinions, but your words have this political spin on it as if they aren't even your own.

This definitely looks worth seeing.

This will be a hot topic for a long time, it's like the thread about 'Are Video Games Art?', to some people it does, to some people it doesn't.

Oh and....'Literally trained!!1!1!'

Concerning games based on actual events: How long ago does the event need to be before it's considered okay to make a game about it?
JFK: Reloaded was considered in poor taste, but nobody batted an eyelid about Titanic: Adventure out of Time or Black Dahlia.

How long ago does the event need to be before it’s considered okay to make a game about it?

22 years, according to South Park (specifically season 6, episode 2: "Jared Has Aides").

Remember in courts how it was referred to as “The Columbine Game”?

I thought it was Bully that was called "The Columbine Game", and none of them even knew SCMRPG existed.

This is quite interesting and I'm inclined to watch this film. Although, I do hope he talked with some academic experts on this matter like Craig Anderson or Henry Jenkins.

Seriously, is thos guy thinking that its a good idea to make a video about a crappy rpg he created about a national tragedy still in the headlimes? Its not a matter of if he can as he has the right to male a video or video game of whatever he wants, it is in bad taste and poor judgement that he does.
Its selfish as well concidering the heat the game community took for the actual game.

I'll be honest with you Danny.

When I first heard about your game, I was appaled. When I played it I still didn't feel right. (I couldn't even set the bombs right)

But after reading various commentaries and the defense by indie developers (like the Behemoth) and yourself, i've switched sides. I support the game, despite its content. And your right; how can other people/forms of media exploit the massacre and a bored game programmer can't? But I also think that the reason that people got so uppity about it is becuase you're playing as the shooters.

I didn't get far into mthe game but I did read about it more on Wikipedia. I think the idea of the shooters going to hell and fighting DOOM monsters is genius.

I need to see this movie. And anyone else who still thinks that games are the devil, not an artform, and jumps on the "games-made-him-do-it" bandwagon after every senseless slaying should see it too.

Also, I didn't read the cast closely, but what about Goo Gum Produce and his V.T. Massacre game? Any mention of that in the movie?

gps watches...

umm it really depends....