Inside the Sick Mind of a School Shooter Mod

[realslimshadowen]

I don't have any problem with the concept of the mod or the mod itself.

However.

Judging by his answers to the questions asked of him, he is:

a) An emotionally stunted freak with no empathy, taste, or understanding or enjoyment of entertainment beyond instant gratification and constant increases in dopamine and adrenaline levels.
b) Twelve years old...but I repeat myself.
c) A troll.
d) Two or more of the above.

If I owned a store, and I knew who he was in real life, and I lived in the same area, I would pre-emptively ban him. And laugh when he stomped his feet and cried like a little *****.

However.

That's not my main problem. Morally-repulsive people can and do create enjoyable works. My main problem is that it is yet more ammo for the anti-video-game crowd. If Jack Thompson hadn't been discredited, disbarred, and something else that begins with dis-, do you have any clue what he could do with this and five minutes on Fox News? And he wasn't alone, and not all of his cohorts have been chewed to death by the consequences of their own stupidity.

At its best, this will be the video game industry equivalent of I Spit On Your Grave. Pointless, tasteless, given to causing offense in viewers/players, potentially damaging to its industry, and ultimately all but forgotten by diehards.

In other words...it is one big bag of FAIL.

 

[Axzarious]

Why would any sane person make a game that so clearly crossed the line from healthy entertainment into psychosis?

...Really? I'm sorry, this is the same website that just last week had as an highlight the positive review of Bulletstorm, a game that not only allows but extensively REWARDS the most psychotic and deranged behaviour you can possibly think of? A game that shows absolutely no traces of what's socially accepted as humanity or humane behaviour, and in fact downplays said traits in favour of encouraging channelling your creativity towards the most socially maladjusted attitudes you can conceive?

This is sounding like the whole "No Russian" controversy all over again. Hell, it's not even something "never done before". The Postal series allowed you to do that and much, much more, like using cats as living silencers, or getting creative with the physics engine and dismemberment. As mentioned in the article, this very kind of behaviour was one of the main attractions of the GTA series, ostensively one of the most accomplished, awarded, and successful gaming series ever released?

Games aren't always about being deep. Sometimes it's just about fun, and whether we like to admit it or not, death and destruction are cathartic. It's an evolutionary trait. We like killing, we like destroying.

That's all this game is about. The devs never claimed it was anything else.

Yeah, thats kinda the irony that I think the developer is trying to point out. Put the scenario closer to home, shift the setting slightly, take one part of a game and proceed to improve and make a game centered around that one part, and suddenly it becomes the most horrible thing ever.

 

[ethaninja]

It's Bully with a kick.

 

[Goldhawk777]

Dear God. Clearly this is the end of the videogame industry. If this goes any farther then just being a mod, F*** this is like Judgment Day for video games. The man almost seems like a plant for the opposition to justify making a game out of killing children. Hell, video games get enough flack for being too gory, too violent, but the reenactment of a national killing spree is wrong on every level of moral choices. Hell, are they going to make a flight simulator for 9/11? Bleh! This angers me because advocacy groups are just going to lump every violent game into the firing pit because of this smooth talking A**clown.

 

[Hijax]

Ok. Here we go.
On one hand, i'm not sure what differentiates this game from, say, GTA. Be honest here, how many of you guys thought the 'point', the most defining part, of GTA, was the shootouts with the police, the car chases, or the gang wars. I'll admit that i, for one, thought the best part was to shoot civilians, drive around the suburbs running people over, completely slaughtering an entire shopping mall. Why? How can i even think that's a fun thing? Because it's just a game. Just because a game lets, or makes, a player do something, does not mean it glorifies those actions, any more that Texas Chainsaw Massacre glorifies murdering tons of dudes with a chainsaw just because a central character engages in those actions. The point is, just because games can be reflective and deep artistic masterworks, it doesn't mean they have to. Sometimes they're just for fun.

On the other hand, this guy is clearly a massive douche. Seriously, i have the same feeling as him when he talks about how he feels the same about the school shootings as he does about the Haiti earthquake. Because that was horrible too! The way he says that games are only, ever, ever, about mindless funny shit, that makes me sick.

While i think this article is needlessly biased against the game, i think the title "Inside the sick mind of a School Shooter mod", fits this guy's mind totally.

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

Wait, I saw no children in the trailer and screenshots....is this like how some people argue characters are older than they look, but in reverse?

Looks boring to me. Tasteless too, and I hope it doesn't bring long-term damage from media attention, but if there was no given backstory like the one in that article, it could just be another mod where you shoot people. It doesn't seem to reinforce the story in the gameplay, judging from the moddb page.

The article makes it sound worse than it is, in my opinion. It's pretty much just a set of tiny survival-themed Half-Life 2 levels with some custom guns, that's all.

I say he has every right to make whatever mod he wants. This is tasteless, but it's not my job to force my values onto others. I'll leave that to the politicians.

 

[weker]

I cant understand any way which them creating this is good, it just seems unnecessary, its all fair if it had some artistic value like the dead island (children aren't immortal)
This is just silly another pointless boundary that someone feels they must break no matter all the hurt and pain they cause.
He made it clear he thought it was game play but its just not the case when he could have changed these people into just targets rather then people. This game is just for sick people as I feel anyone with a sensible mind will not degrade themselves by playing this game for anything but to see if the public is wrong about the game.

 

[Shjade]

In case he didn't notice, in the Good vs Evil type of moral choice game, people inevitably pick good. People actually like feeling that they're doing something right, correct. There is none of that when you're playing as a school shooter. I'm certainly going to avoid this mod.

In case you didn't notice, you don't speak for everyone.

Some folks are more interested in doing things in games that they wouldn't do in the real world. Would I want to play this particular game? Not really; I've played enough good first-person shooters to not have much interest in the sub-par or mods of games I've already played to death. But I know that in most games with moral choice systems I will "inevitably" pick evil first unless the evil choices cause such detriment to gameplay through whatever penalizing mechanics are in place that picking good is the unbelievably more reasonable way to play, or it's just more fun.

All things being equal, I go evil first; I can be good in the real world. I doubt I'm the only person who plays that way.

 

[purf]

Ok... uh... Carrie Anne Moss is kinda hot, so I want the Trinity badge and thus cannot really comment on this, but the lame dumbness of it is pretty fucking mindblowing.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were assigned to do this by some Jack Thompson think-alike

 

[gbemery]

kind of makes you wonder if some activists who are trying to get games banned might do something similar under a alias and make the most offensive games possible so that is disgusts people into turning against gamers/games...or is that to paranoid of me, or an interesting thought?

 

[Brad Shepard]

If you guys are so agenst it, they why are you complaining about it? This is a troll mod, plain and simple, and the more you guys complain, the longer it lasts.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

I shouldn't reply to this because we both know this isn't going to go anywhere....but whatever.

If someone's coming at you with a knife and you shoot them once or twice to take them down, that's justified self defense. If someone's coming at you with a knife, and you shoot them in each knee cap, then proceed to force feed them a live grenade before shooting them in the scrotum, so he bites the grenade, then set the corpse on fire and impale it on spikes... That's not self defense. That's murder of the highest degree. Self-defense is using just the necessary amount of violence, be it deadly or not, to defend yourself.

Bulletstorm isn't about Self-defense. If i directly said that, I apologize, because I'm wrong. I said self-defense was one of a few justifications games provide. Bulletstorm is about murdering Hostile Mutant thingies to serve some purpose or get entertainment (depending on whether you look at it with or without context, respectively).

Some OTHER games have portions that relate to Self-Defense, however. Like the very beginning of games like Bioshock, where the plot has not exposed itself and your job currently is to stay alive. There, you're often equipped with the bare minimum weaponry and must incapacitate enemies just long enough to escape.etc. THAT'S what I mean by self-defense.

Another extremely important element in "murder" is one that also doesn't exist in self-defense: Pre-meditation. In a self-defense situation you're forced to act a certain way to defend yourself. You didn't go in expecting to do it, it just happened. If you force the situation yourself, it's not self-defense. You can never argue self-defense over a videogame because you put in the disk, or load up the game, conscious and unequivocal of what you're about to do. And that's exactly why you do it. You want to murder people. NOBODY is playing Bulletstorm unaware that they have to kill people, and absolutely no one is playing Bulletstorm for anything else than the unapologetic cathartic mass murder. You can't claim self-defense if you put yourself in that situation, in fact you paid for it, could walk away from it at ANY time but didn't. You're not there to defend yourself, you're there to kill anything that moves, and have the most fun you can with it.

Why do you play games? I play games for Escapism. I play games to immerse myself into the role of a character I've never seen before and experience the trials and tribulations of that character. And when a madman charges at that character with knives, forcing him/her to pull out a gun and shoot off the assailant's kneecaps because doesn't want to get stabbed....IT'S SELF-DEFENSE.

My character didn't load up the frikkin game, I did. I, on the other hand, Didn't just shoot a guy; I told my character to do it. I value escapism just as much as the next gamer but there IS a difference. I am NOT my character. I am just interacting with a virtual world doing virtual things, in the GUISE of my character. So, no, I call BS, there is such a thing as Self-Defense in video games. And it is a common (and the best undoubtedly best) justification for the violence we make our characters cause.

In wars, it's perfectly acceptable for Soldiers to gain catharsis from murdering enemy soldiers. It is NOT acceptable for said Soldiers to burn down villages for the same "kicks". Similarly, If you feel good, by murdering innocent people, you're playing (and thus connecting, on an emotional level) with a psychopath. It doesn't necessarily make YOU a psychopath (look above) but if you can connect with an individual like that....there is something wrong with you. That's all I have to say about that.

 

[ksn0va]

I hope Valve doesn't get pulled into this.

 

[matrix3509]

Seriously, the people who are making this game need to be committed. Everything that guys said are all classic examples of sociopathy.

 

[reiem531]

Sooooo... killing innocent civilians in GTA is perfectly fine, but shave a few years off the ages of the mindless constructions of ones and zeroes and suddenly we've crossed a line?

 

[Meestor Pickle]

I really dont mind if he makes this.
Countless people died in World War 2 and in other global conflicts yet games that glorify war are perfectly OK. I understand how this might affect some people but from a personal point I dont mind.

 

[Lieju]

Wow, that guy sounds like he is doing his best to sound like an immature douchebag.

School shootings, of course, like any other subject matter, could be handled in a game, but this is just a stupid way to do it.

And it's obviously just an attempt to get attention.
Not to say he doesn't have the right to do it, and sound like a douchebag, but usually it's just best to ignore people like that.

 

[Caliostro]

I shouldn't reply to this because we both know this isn't going to go anywhere....but whatever.


Bulletstorm isn't about Self-defense. If i directly said that, I apologize, because I'm wrong. I said self-defense was one of a few justifications games provide. Bulletstorm is about murdering Hostile Mutant thingies to serve some purpose or get entertainment (depending on whether you look at it with or without context, respectively).

Some OTHER games have portions that relate to Self-Defense, however. Like the very beginning of games like Bioshock, where the plot has not exposed itself and your job currently is to stay alive. There, you're often equipped with the bare minimum weaponry and must incapacitate enemies just long enough to escape.etc. THAT'S what I mean by self-defense.

My point is that there is never such a thing as self-defence in a video game. The only perfectly legitimate self-defence is to NOT play the game where you know you'll have to murder half the population of a small planet worth of living things to progress. You never NEED to play it, you play it knowing you have to kill people. That's not self defence. Even if the whole murder isn't the main purpose of the game (which, more often than not it is), you're playing it knowing you have to kill people, and accepting it. I'll put forth the motion that the murder is also why you play. I don't think you'd be playing Bioshock if there were no enemies in the entire game, would you? Exactly.

Why do you play games? I play games for Escapism. I play games to immerse myself into the role of a character I've never seen before and experience the trials and tribulations of that character. And when a madman charges at that character with knives, forcing him/her to pull out a gun and shoot off the assailant's kneecaps because doesn't want to get stabbed....IT'S SELF-DEFENSE.

My character didn't load up the frikkin game, I did. I, on the other hand, Didn't just shoot a guy; I told my character to do it. I value escapism just as much as the next gamer but there IS a difference. I am NOT my character. I am just interacting with a virtual world doing virtual things, in the GUISE of my character. So, no, I call BS, there is such a thing as Self-Defense in video games. And it is a common (and the best undoubtedly best) justification for the violence we make our characters cause.

In wars, it's perfectly acceptable for Soldiers to gain catharsis from murdering enemy soldiers. It is NOT acceptable for said Soldiers to burn down villages for the same "kicks". Similarly, If you feel good, by murdering innocent people, you're playing (and thus connecting, on an emotional level) with a psychopath. It doesn't necessarily make YOU a psychopath (look above) but if you can connect with an individual like that....there is something wrong with you. That's all I have to say about that.

It's not self-defence. You play the game knowing it's going to happen. How many games have you ever played where you had to fight someone unexpectedly? Where you never expected to fight anyone in the game, and then bam!? It doesn't happen. When you buy a game, you look for these things. In fact, I'd bet money you look for games with combat in them.

Here's the thing, the idea of "self-defence" in a videogame is just a matter of comfort. It's one of the many we use to excuse what we otherwise consider inexcusable. "Oh, he has a gun!". You knew he had a gun. You he'd be in the game, and you were fairly certain that you'd have to shoot him. Yet you played the game, and considered this event a positive part of the game. That, means you have that little evolutionary bit in you that accepts that killing is part of life.

We all have a little bit of a psychopath in us. It's just a matter of admitting it or being a hypocrite about it.

 

[Dogstile]

What an absolute son of a *****. I can't believe he doesn't seem to understand what he's doing.

Can you imagine if you had lost a sibling in say, Columbine, and you browse Moddb and this shit comes up? Because this asshole obviously can't.

This makes me sick.

The whole world shouldn't have to stop because some people might be offended by it. I think he understands perfectly well what they're doing, he just doesn't care.

If we all stopped doing what we want just in case somebody was offended, we'd never get anything done.

I don't agree with his game because, to be perfectly honest, its likely going to suck, but i'll at least defend his right to make it.

Hm.

You seem to be saying the exact opposite of what I agree with now. People like you need a swift reality check. Freedom of Speech is a dirty whore who stopped giving a shit about what was right back in the American Revolution.

The only people who use it nowadays are the internet Trolls and Sick assholes like this person here.

Like I said earlier (even to YOU, how taint). You aren't a big hero of Free Speech by letting this guy continue this sick project. You merely are someone who is sitting back and allowing someone to make a game about school shootings.

I love how you assume I think i'm being a hero by defending his right not be told that he can't mod a game in his own free time.