Inside the Sick Mind of a School Shooter Mod

[TerranReaper]

I find it amusing how people will jump on this but not on other games such as GTA or Modern Warfare 2, which both gives you full capability to harm innocent people who cannot fight back. What makes those games any different from this one? Besides the fact that this "mod" looks like it hasn't even been worked on, there aren't any children in the mod currently. The guy has every right to make this game, and it disturbs me to see how people are always against censorship and how we should be able to express anything in video games and then suddenly, they all hate something like this. Although granted, the guy sounds like a complete asshole.

I also get the feeling that what would've been a mod fading into obscurity, is now overblown thanks to the "gaming media". Good job guys, for every attempt you try to make games look better, you sure don't have the insight on the effects.

 

[Wrds]

I stopped reading the interview. I was literally offended by his narrow minded, jaded view of games and gaming in general.

 

[ReiverCorrupter]

Hmm... The guy said he hopes the bill gets passed?

Has it occurred to anyone that he might have been payed by some ultra conservatives to make the game, just to create fodder for their campaign?

That wouldn't even be CLOSE to the most underhanded thing political groups have done.

 

[Laurie Barnes]

This is just... something my brain can't think of a word to describe.

Doesn't that fool realize how much he is hurting video games? The medium will never be taken seriously with morons like this peddling this sort of insanity. I've read the article twice and I still don't understand how a simulation of murdering unarmed innocents could be fun. At least there is no way to fully get away with it in game, either the cops get you or you do. This seriously tests my beliefs and loyalty to free speech.

 

[Joshic Shin]

Hmm... The guy said he hopes the bill gets passed?

Has it occurred to anyone that he might have been payed by some ultra conservatives to make the game, just to create fodder for their campaign?

That wouldn't even be CLOSE to the most underhanded thing political groups have done.

Ah, the old "Pay a group to act in an extreme in a video game context" tactic. I havE A feeling I've seen this before...hm...

 

[Madara XIII]

while i don't agree with what he made i will defend his right to make it

(sorry i completely forget the actual words for this quote)

"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it"
- Voltaire (Not the singer)

Thank you brainy quote

 

[DAJ_]

I'm all for free expression through games, but HOLY SHIT is this going to be a detriment to gaming as a whole. It's worse that this is being presented at such a sensitive point in gaming's development as a medium. We're still getting a ton of flack for much lesser offensive content in certain games. This is going to hurt gaming's remaining integrity.

Of course, you can't stop them from making this mod; they're well in their right to do it. It'd be great if we can make a counter-mod to this, where the player tries to STOP the shootings from taking place.

 

[Laurie Barnes]

Hmm... The guy said he hopes the bill gets passed?

Has it occurred to anyone that he might have been payed by some ultra conservatives to make the game, just to create fodder for their campaign?

That wouldn't even be CLOSE to the most underhanded thing political groups have done.

You know that thought actually crossed my mind too.

 

[Svenparty]

Why give it publicity? It was done much better in Super Columbine RPG which at least tried to show it as a bad thing alongside the ridiculous parts.

 

[MechaHeretic]

There is a point where free speech becomes a ludicrous suggestion and this is it. Yeah, I support free speech - to a degree. But I think it's a display of die hard extremism to say that under free speech we should allow people to run simulations of killing children.

All this talk of "killing children".... All the screenshots show adult models taken from City 17. Are they going to replace them with children at some point? If not, what makes this different from the Airport level in Cadoody, which itself was thinly veiled under the guise of "LOOK HOW BAD TERRORISM IS!!"?

 

[Psycho Cat Industries]

I would play it.Sounds fun and a good destresser

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

It affected me as much as hearing about the quakes in Haiti. Which is to say, not very much at all.

The most telling statement of all.

But then, Dead Island looks good, doesn't it? >.<

 

[AmzRigh]

More than the fact that the game was made, what really got to me (and someone earlier in the thread touched on this) was how myopic this guy seems to be. Not only does he not consider the effect context can have on a game (or any piece of media, for that matter -- such is the very soul of communication), but he presents as dictum that "video games shouldn't be particularly deep or insightful, and that they are most fun when [the player] can just shut off their brains and let their reflexes take over."

While that may be his personal opinion -- which he is certainly entitled to -- he does not seem to consider that people might play games for different reasons. (As a personal counterpoint, I'm not much of a fan of the GTA games due entirely to the gratuitous violence against innocents. When I play a game like that, I pretty much stick to the story missions.) Moreover, the guy either doesn't realize or doesn't care that, should his game garner sufficient media attention, it could significantly set back gaming for everybody who isn't him (or a gamer like him). At best, that makes him irresponsible, and at worst, a selfish bastard.

In short, I am offended not only at his short-sighted assertion that games should not carry any deeper meaning, but at his deliberate wounding (or attempt thereto) of the case for it.

[EDIT]

I find it amusing how people will jump on this but not on other games such as GTA or Modern Warfare 2, which both gives you full capability to harm innocent people who cannot fight back. What makes those games any different from this one?

The difference is the choice. In GTA or MW2, it is not the goal to harm innocents. That makes all the difference.

 

[Mooko12]

I don't really mind it. Gamers never really complained about the ability to shoot cops or civilians in Grand Theft Auto. Sure there may be children in this game but saying that it's okay to kill people that are adults but people that just happen to be born in a different year is kind of well, stupid.

 

[Tyro The Fox]

As a point of interest. I wonder how many of you would mind so much if it was shooting monsters for points before the big bad boss monsters killed you?

My Answer: Not a whole lot. These monsters are likely to be vague, barely characterised antagonistic targets your expected to shoot just because their coming for you or its the premise of the game. We've been doing it for years and it barely matters.

The difference is that these are supposed to be innocent people and your playing as a delusional nut-case that's looking for the ultimate in attention seeking thrills once the media drags out the news-story to further and further lengths. Your acting in a real and immediately upsetting scenario. Your brain is filling in the blanks for the targets you gun down, creating a catharsis. "These are YOUR schoolmates and they all deserve to pay" rather than, "Take care of the random jumble of polygons we've called a 'Monster'".

My offence comes with how close to dragging the whole industry backwards by giving fuckwits that have never played these computer games a stick to give Computer Games a sound whacking, this game is.

Wow...the Extra Credits video came in handy.

 

[seiler88]

Interesting read.

Now then what the fucking hell is wrong with this developer? I am all for shooting games and I love stuff like Halo. However, I am a firm believer in having a good point to my killing. I am the type of guy who can't bring himself to take the evil options in games. So why would anyone want to kill noncombatants?

Oh, and did I pick up on the fact that you are to kill small children in this mod?
RAGE *Blasts developer with a plasma cannon several times*

Messing with little kids is a major berzerk button for me. So while I also defend this fucktards right to make the game I also defend his right to be on the receveing end of an orbital bombardment.

 

[Popido]

Splendid! Good to see some people actually trying to push the limits of what can be shown and what can be seen. Take it as an horror if you will. Risks are what this art form needs if it wishes to be taken seriously.

On serious note. There are better mods that dont just look like Garry's Mod.

There is a big difference between advancing an art form with risks (like say Bioshock, Amnesia, Today I Die, or other out there games) and doing snuff work. This game decidedly falls into the latter camp. This will not make the gaming industry look more serious, this will make the gaming industry look like a place where seriousness is not taken at all, and that's at best.

I'll forgive you for using those games as an examples.

At this rate, I dont see much salvation to the gaming as an art form if it cant take a risk and be shunned for it. They need to be brave enough to stand on their own feets! And by that, I dont mean an publisher that realises that hes standing on a position of an drugdealer.

...
Games have been too repeative to me lately. People are even calling a game where you play as an space marine in a fallout scenerio with palm trees and shooting zombies - with three guns - and performing quick events while covering behind chesthigh walls as "a wind from the past". What the f-!!

 

[fulano]

My only issue with the guy is that he overanalyses the situation to make it seem as if people are always connected to their own "world" even though they are using escapism. Gamers don't hurt "innocent AI civillians" because they want to give a big fuck you to society, they do it b/c they're not supposed to in the game's world. Games have an immersive quality that transports people somewhere else, to a virtual world, where we can break said world's rules and feel like they can get away with it. Yes, there might be a number of people somewhere else playing a game because of cathartic reasons but those ought to be few and far between.

Honestly, I feel bad for the guy. Even though I'm against his choice of a questionable choice of source material, I'm not gonna go nuts about it since he doesn't have the resources to proselitize the way a bigger publisher does (I'm looking at you Ubisoft).

But the sole fact remainst that his mod takes something that you shouldn't do and makes it obligatory to function in the game's world, therefore removing its appeal, which in the end will limit the reach of his hard work.

Mark my words, his mod will tank.

 

[nuba km]

*mouths the words WTF* why? why would anyone think this was a good idea? I mean while stuff like bullet storm my be gory and violent at least they aren't actually being blandly offensive to a lot of people. O god what will fox news to with this? I think my head is actually aching from the sheer stupidity of this game.

 

[The_Echo]

So someone makes a mod--not even a game, just a mod--centered around school shootings. Yeah, they're a little off in the head. Yeah, it's going to be offensive. But it's something new, something a little fresh. Something the game industry is woefully lacking these days.

But my problem with the backlash here is that it shouldn't be offensive. Not when "World War II games" could practically be its own genre. We have countless games based around one of the world's most horrible events, and nobody really gives a flying shit about that. But when some virtually unknown modder makes up a school shooter mod...

"WHAT THE FUCK HOW COULD THEY DO THIS."

Alternatively, a triple-A game comes out based in Nazi Germany, and it'll sell millions.

"Dude, did you here about the new CoD? It's gonna be set during WWII!"
"Oh, fuck yeah, man!"

Seriously now? And don't give me that "you're killing innocents in the school shooter" bullshit. You know how many innocents died in WWII? How many Germans were forced into serving the Nazi regime against their will? Oh, but we're totally OK with killing them off. Dicks.