Inside the Sick Mind of a School Shooter Mod

[Shamanic Rhythm]

it seems to have no artistic value, it primarily lacks the undercurrent of parody that is rather crucial to GTA being more than a tool to vent your frustrations on passing civilians.

Somthing being a fictional representation of a person's thoughts expressed in any medium has artistic value by default.

Those obscenity laws were made for real life situations, not cartoons or video games.

I didn't say anything about obscenity laws. Your point?

Also, that's a ridiculous blanket statement to make about what constitutes artistic value. I'm not trying to say that your tastes are wrong, but what you have written is tantamount to saying that the scribblings of toddlers should be in the National Portrait Gallery. Artistic value does not arise simply from the mask of fiction: you have to use it to either make some kind of point, however subtly that may be, or to demonstrate your creative skill.

In the case of this mod, I can't see how it does either. There's little creativity involved, he's just copy pasted textures and models from Half Life 2. He himself describes the game as just being a fun way to shoot people, so I highly doubt it's going to be featuring any Dostoyevskian insights into the mind of a murderer.

 

[arcaneviper]

After reading the entire interview i can actually agree a lot with what the developer actually says. I especially liked the comment about Bulletstorm (a game i own and have completed). Bulletstorm is indeed all about rackibg up points by killing people in the most violent way possible. The game is seen as fine because it is entirely fictional, does not include children/real world places. The mod has the same "ideas" of racking up points (without the ott of Bulletstorm) but has racked up controvesy through it's subject matter. The way the developer talks of the game as having a certain "preventative quality" speaks to me very much of Freudian psychology. (ID, Ego and Superego concepts with the mod itself being the Superego (i believe) or compromise between ego and id) Also yes the media will most certainly use this as ammunition, (sadly...)

 

[Echo136]

Wow, not only is this the most offensive video game I've ever seen, they picked the absolute worst time for this with the topic of video games still being in the supreme court.

 

[Nurb]

it seems to have no artistic value, it primarily lacks the undercurrent of parody that is rather crucial to GTA being more than a tool to vent your frustrations on passing civilians.

Somthing being a fictional representation of a person's thoughts expressed in any medium has artistic value by default.

Those obscenity laws were made for real life situations, not cartoons or video games.

I didn't say anything about obscenity laws. Your point?

Also, that's a ridiculous blanket statement to make about what constitutes artistic value. I'm not trying to say that your tastes are wrong, but what you have written is tantamount to saying that the scribblings of toddlers should be in the National Portrait Gallery. Artistic value does not arise simply from the mask of fiction: you have to use it to either make some kind of point, however subtly that may be, or to demonstrate your creative skill.

In the case of this mod, I can't see how it does either. There's little creativity involved, he's just copy pasted textures and models from Half Life 2. He himself describes the game as just being a fun way to shoot people, so I highly doubt it's going to be featuring any Dostoyevskian insights into the mind of a murderer.

I'm afraid you're confused because a "blanket statement" is sort of the point of protecting expression and other rights.

"Art" is anything a person does that is not related to survival; a dirty song, a child's scribbles, stuff like that. "High art" is art that a majority of people think is "good" and hang it in galleries.

You don't want a bunch of schmucks determining on what's "Art" merely based on what a majority thinks do you? So yes, this mod is a form of expression and has artistic value by default. That's why porn is still legal, you know (unless ruled obscene by the miller test).

Read "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud, and you'll learn a thing or two about art and visual medium.

 

[Weaver]

Am i the only one who really isn't even at all offended?

 

[Nurb]

The mod author is cleary a douchebag. That was made clear by his apparently lack of any compassion with regards to real-life tragedies.

So you don't play any war games or GTA?

 

[WildSeraph]

I've always been really intrigued by real school killings (I looked up everything about Columbine and the Sasebo Slashing and such), and I pretty much agree with the developers: If you don't want this game to come out because children might play it or someone might be driven to massacre from it, they probably shouldn't be playing it in the first place.

Am i the only one who really isn't even at all offended?

I wasn't the slightest bit offended by the concept. I'm GLAD somebody's doing something so bold! We've always tried to hide our massacre fantasies under plot and character (I'm looking at you, GTA!) and I'm pleasantly surprised that they're just saying "This game is about killing EVERYONE. You win by killing things. Have fun."

Something about the game displeases me, though. It might be how everyone just sort of stands there as you shoot them (I'm assuming this will be fixed in the final version), or the fact that it uses HL2 graphics. It just feels like there's a problem with it that keeps me from actually wanting to play it... Am I extra-sick for wanting something like this in a more anime-style setting? And give me Rena Ryuugu's infamous knife! Big knife and a million schoolgirls, THAT would be fun to play around with! God, I'm a monster...

 

[itsausernamewhatofit]

This guy comes of as a world class troll. Just because you have the right to do something doesn't mean you should. The minute the media gets hold of this mod they're going to have a freaking field day. Glenn Beck may well die from excitement. They don't even have to over sensationalize anything with it, it's exactly what they want. After they're done with their coverage the image of the industry may well be set back a solid 10 years.

This guy and his game are an absolute threat to the industry as a whole.

I agree whole heartedly. It's great and all that he CAN make this but sometimes we need to stand back and look at the possible effects of what we are doing. With all of the negative press about games and the California case this is just incredibly destructive to the industry and what it is and is trying to be. a positive image for the game industry is like a sandcastle in that it takes a while to build but hardly any time to destroy. This guy clearly has his own beliefs but has no respect for the beliefs of many others and is willing to set back the game industry from the inside out to have his "fun".

 

[Of-the-Lion]

Will reading Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange" turn you into a sadistic, homicidal rapist?
Will watching Mary Harron's "American Psycho" make you an axe murderer?
Of course not. That's fucking retarded. By that logic, showing an episode of Care Bears on a jumbo-tron screen will create world peace.
Pawnstick has every right in the world to make this game. I am only disappointed that he would choose to release it now. Video games are at the two-thirds mark for becoming accepted as an official medium of art and entertainment to the masses. Releasing the game now may not only set gaming culture back a few years and feed FAUX News, but it is going to get terrible reception. If he were selling it, and I were his business consultant, I would be aghast at the idea of releasing the game at a time like this. Even though he isn't selling a product, his goal is to provide entertainment. He said this several times. And if you want people to be entertained by your product, you have to make them want it first. You can't release it when you know without a doubt that it will receive negative publicity form the start. It's bad business, and bad marketing.

Behold, The Great Wall of Text! (gong)

 

[Canid117]

God damn it.


*Bangs head on desk*

 

[AgentNein]

The mod author is cleary a douchebag. That was made clear by his apparently lack of any compassion with regards to real-life tragedies.

So you don't play any war games or GTA?

Are you trying to say that there haven't been critiques of the violence depicted in GTA or the various war games out there? There have, I'm sure you can find them if you look for them. Not just from anti-game wingnuts, either.

Either way, saying "well I didn't see you knocking A so you can't knock B" isn't a valid argument. It's a "just shut up" tactic.

 

[Jumplion]

Honestly, why is this news? I never heard of it, and I doubt many people in this thread have ever heard of it before, so why bring attention to it?

This could have been some disturbing, jerk-off's "free-speech, man!" mod hidden in the depths of the internet, and now it's going to be plastered over this website, and possibly more if this permeates to other sites.

Now, I bet a couple dozen or more people will check this mod out out of pure curiosity.

No such thing as bad publicity, amirite?

As for the game itself, I do admit that he has a few points, gamers are absolutely childish when it comes to addressing their opponents. However, what really bugs me is that somehow games must be only "fun", and he parades that in a disturbing manner. I am sick of hearing "Games are about fun, man! They're called games!" who the fuck says that "fun" and, I dunno, "integrity" need to be separate? Was Schindler's List "fun"? Was Pulp Fiction just "wacky"?

In my mind, as much as I'd rather it not exist, he can go ahead and make the mod. He'll just come across as the "free-speech, man!" jerk-wad who only wants to create noise for the sake of noise. There's no reason why a game cannot address a topic as serious as school shootings and not tackle the subject in a serious manner, but this guy is making it one big glorified mess. He says that most games that try to make a "point" are generally shit. One can only wonder what his "point" is.

 

[kikon9]

Why not put the same amount of effort into something that people will expect to be fun?

 

[Nurb]

The mod author is cleary a douchebag. That was made clear by his apparently lack of any compassion with regards to real-life tragedies.

So you don't play any war games or GTA?

Are you trying to say that there haven't been critiques of the violence depicted in GTA or the various war games out there? There have, I'm sure you can find them if you look for them. Not just from anti-game wingnuts, either.

Either way, saying "well I didn't see you knocking A so you can't knock B" isn't a valid argument. It's a "just shut up" tactic.

We're not talking Apples and Oranges here, we're talking about simulated violence on polygons.

 

[Jams]

Considering this topic has already hit 12 pages I think this mod almost certainly qualifies as modern art - it's definately more thought provoking than most of the stuff in the Tate Modern. Art is all about evoking emotional response and nobody could deny that this achieves that.

Do you believe that art can arise spontaneously without the author's intent? Or will this dimwit pull a "Shape of Things" on us and announce that we were all fooled by an art project?

Even though, by his own admission, his "game" is just a digital time-waster and he is just a modder. No art required, he says. Hmmm, artless tasteless dross spawns modern art, how poetic and most likely unintended.

I still think it would have more artistic merit than most work by Damien Hirst or Tracey Emin.

Edit:

No such thing as bad publicity, amirite?

I don't know, but you could ask Pan-Am.

 

[AgentNein]

The mod author is cleary a douchebag. That was made clear by his apparently lack of any compassion with regards to real-life tragedies.

So you don't play any war games or GTA?

Are you trying to say that there haven't been critiques of the violence depicted in GTA or the various war games out there? There have, I'm sure you can find them if you look for them. Not just from anti-game wingnuts, either.

Either way, saying "well I didn't see you knocking A so you can't knock B" isn't a valid argument. It's a "just shut up" tactic.

We're not talking Apples and Oranges here, we're talking about simulated violence on polygons.

Is that what you took from what I said? An apples and oranges argument?

 

[RAVENBOI22]

Bleh whatever. the developer of this mod is a childish troll. Trying to get attention 'cuz he wasn't breastfed or something.