Inside the Sick Mind of a School Shooter Mod

[stefanbertramlee]

I think he should be free to make such a game

 

[Void(null)]

This is disgusting, making a game based on killing children for fun? I know its his right to do so but still... that guy is a massive insensitive douchebag and I hope the media hang him out to dry on this one.

Making a mod based on killing virtual people who do not really exist for fun.

It should not matter if they are Unbaptized babies, Highschool students or the Taliban... killing anyone is wrong. Fortunately in video games no one harms anyone and the only victims are little pixels on the screen who do not exist in meatspace.

There is absolutely no difference between Call of Duty and School Shooter in terms of morality.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Except we're not talking about the character are we? You might be roleplaying that character, but we're talking about the psychological effects on you, the player. Nobody cares about the "Psychological(or physical) effects on game characters". They're game characters. We're talking about the effect on you, the player. And you, the player, the only living being that might be directly affect by the game you're playing, are perfectly aware that playing the game means simulating murder. And you do it.

Otherwise, if you're that far off removed from reality that you can't tell what's real and what's a game, you're either schizophrenic or psychotic, cause you're just detached from reality, and you shouldn't really be playing any game with guns... At all.

Except I'm not talking about the Psychological effect on me or anyone else. I'm talking about whether or not Games can use Self-Defense as one of a few justifications for allowing you to commit actions that, in real life would be atleast a little morally justifiable.
To clarify this:

I'm killing Russians because they've invaded America! (arguably Self-defense on a national scale)

and

I'm Killing this Splicer with a lead pipe because he tried to take my Arm off!

is more morally Justifiable than

I'm killing this unarmed School Child because I can...

in real life, virtual life and everything in between.

It's not right, mind you, because you're still killing a person, but once you have a justification like that, where the enemy is an Ideological enemy whether they be real (Nazi's and commies) or fictional (Zombies and Mutants) you're just artificially fulfilling a natural primal urge, instead of a grotesque permutation of it.

It's analogous to the difference between watching normal Pornography (with consensual adults) and Child Pornography. Please tell me I don't have to clarify that cause I REALLY don't want to do that. Please?
And YES I did just compare this Mod to Child Porn.....and I'm not gonna take it back either. Deal with It!

By comparison, the school shooter mod awards you no points for anything. It doesn't reinforce your behavior in any way. There's no story to progress to, there's no flashy screen saying "OMG CONGRATS YOU KILLED A PERSON!" and it certainly doesn't emphasize and reward more the worse possible behavior.

I know this bit wasn't meant for me, but I had to point out that: uhhh, Yes it does. The game (as you say) has no overarching plot, structure or message. It's only "purpose" is to entertain you and see how far you can go before being gunned down by the police. It may not have flashy reward screen, but is does provide positive (shudder) reinforcement on a more subtle level. It provides the high of child slaughter.

In comparison, The "No Russian" level from MW2, where you also gun down civvies, actually HAD a purpose. It was a cornerstone of the story. That's not a Justification for it's immorality of course; That level was fucking Evil. It IS however a justification of it's EXISTENCE. By Having a point, it earned the right to exist. This game doesn't have that, because it has no point and doesn't try to have a point. Any point, even a cliched, worthless one like Bulletstorm's story.

 

[Mysnomer]

Wow, pretty sure he's at least partially trolling. The way he seems to be on both sides of the fence, I think he's just trying to rouse the ire of as many as possible. Whatevs, I may check the game out, but I don't really go for score based stuff. I think the real draw of chaos based gameplay is that you're violating some sort of taboo. Yahtzee is correct when he says that if a game tries to make you be bad, it just comes off as lame. I dunno, I guess it depends on the amount of player agency.

 

[FightThePower]

...why would you give these fanatics more ammunition to dismiss games as childish at best and harmful at worst?

Because that's exactly what games are.

Outstanding. He's an idiot as well as being emotionally dead. Apparently if something bad happens, so long as it doesn't happen to anyone you know, it's okay to not care!

To be honest I don't really give about a shit his mod. I think it's in extremely poor taste but I'm not going to bother making any kind of effort to somehow outlaw/discourage this mod, I'm just not going to play it.

 

[mxfox408]

Fox news is going to have a field day with this piece of vrap abomonation of a game, the creator should be hanged upside down and beat like a pinata.

 

[CommanderKirov]

BWAHAHAHAHA.

...

I'm sorry. What I ment was:

"With all the respect. Are you mad bro? ... BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

I can already see the insider reports in Fox news and world bandwagoning against it.

But than again, we have recreations of mass murdering in the theater of war. We do have games that put us into the mind of a serial killer. A fugitive from the law. And many many others. Heck there even were games where you played as a Natzi Scientist.

Just why should this game not be allowed to tackle the issue of what is happening in USA schools. I'm not saying it's doing it in a tastefull or thought provoking way. But it certainly has the right to do so.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I would definitely play this game if it became available to me. I've seen the trailer and, maybe there is another one that I couldn't find but, what I did see didn't really show children but full-grown teenagers which are NPCs that can easily be exchanged for avatars of the eldery, police officers, medical personnel, etc. Based on what I've read, I was expecting this game to take place in an elementary or, pre-school. I didn't see anything like that in the demo/trailer but as I said, I could have watched the wrong thing.

Based on what I've read, the developer doesn't sound like someone who cares about the games-are-art thing. He's making something that he sees as being fun and it leads me to consider another thread posted here not too long ago, 'when did 'games can be art' become 'games have to be art?''.

This game isn't art: This is to gaming what Ren & Stempy or, Celebrity Deathmatch were to animation. It isn't a step forward but I don't see it as hurting the medium. It does tarnish the reputation of gaming and gamers anymore than the last few EA commercials have but, I don't see that as being terrible. This game won't damn us or the medium just as those two cartoons didn't damn mainstream animation.

I don't see this game as being anything new though: It is more like a first-person version of the mall in Saint's Row 2. Limited in terms of areas and with greater limitations than the mall. All you can do is kill students and teachers. Somehow more damning than killing the scores of elderly in the aforementioned Saint's Row. Somehow more sadistic than shooting an oxygen tank being carried by an elderly man. Somehow worse than tossing grandma from the top of a parking garage.

Speaking of Mall Shootings. We all know about Columbine and we all know about VA. tech but who remember Wheaton Mall? Only the people who live close by. There wasn't a high mortality rate that I remember. The incident wasn't even involving students but another form of youth who doesn't even register in the eyes of those who make the news. It was a gang shooting after all. Nobody important got hurt: just stupid kids in petty gangs, not stupid kids sleeping through class.

Remember the torture game on Newgrounds.com? Neither did I at first. I went back and lost myself for a few minutes before leaving that page. This upcoming game is just another example of a similar kind of vaporware. Another little distraction before the next triple-A murderfest. Something to keep me occupied while I wait for Saint's Row 3 and Duke Nukem Forever.

This isn't a game changer: Just another game. This post could very well set me on fire but I couldn't hold it in any longer. I really wanted to get this out especially since almost every other post about this game is so negative. I would play this game though and, I would likely enjoy it for the first few kills. Then I would recognize the monotony and the boredom would set in. I admit though, that I would have fun with this game.

I'm done now: set me on fire. I'll be at the Ultor Mall of Stillwater, throwing old women to the first floor from the fourth as that is more acceptable than throwing teens from the roof of their school.

 

[DocBalance]

By comparison, the school shooter mod awards you no points for anything. It doesn't reinforce your behavior in any way. There's no story to progress to, there's no flashy screen saying "OMG CONGRATS YOU KILLED A PERSON!" and it certainly doesn't emphasize and reward more the worse possible behavior.

I know this bit wasn't meant for me, but I had to point out that: uhhh, Yes it does. The game (as you say) has no overarching plot, structure or message. It's only "purpose" is to entertain you and see how far you can go before being gunned down by the police. It may not have flashy reward screen, but is does provide positive (shudder) reinforcement on a more subtle level. It provides the high of child slaughter.

In comparison, The "No Russian" level from MW2, where you also gun down civvies, actually HAD a purpose. It was a cornerstone of the story. That's not a Justification for it's immorality of course; That level was fucking Evil. It IS however a justification of it's EXISTENCE. By Having a point, it earned the right to exist. This game doesn't have that, because it has no point and doesn't try to have a point. Any point, even a cliched, worthless one like Bulletstorm's story.

Just want to clear something up, I didn't say that, not sure why my name is on it >.>

snip

Oh...oh my God. You're one of those blokes who thinks that video games actually have any sort of effect on the psyche, that any form of entertainment can instill via conditioning something that isn't already there. Wow, okay. Sorry, I'm going to have to cut this off here. There isn't going to be anything productive from discussing this further.

 

[darkcommanderq]

Wow, these developers are kinda jerks. (Even if they are correct in many ways).

It would have made me feel better, if he had said "Games do not HAVE to be deep or insightful" rather than, "Games should NOT be deep or insightful".

If that was true, than such masterpieces such as mass effect or dragon age would never have been made.

 

[zombi2989]

Killing non-combatants as quickly as possible before armed enemies arrive is something you can do in Geometry Wars so there's really nothing new here as far as design goes. The setting makes this game a little disturbing, but it's not like you're asked to torture anyone like in the newest Call of Duty game. That disturbed me more than this does. What really upsets me is the clear bias Greg Tito delivers in this news article, he should remember that this isn't an opinion piece. It's not fair to ask Pawnstick for an interview just so he title the article "Inside the Sick Mind of a School Shooter". He owes Pawnstick and Checkerboarded an apology for that. But I guess there's no such thing as bad publicity.

 

[Boxinatorizore]

I don't like this guy.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Just want to clear something up, I didn't say that, not sure why my name is on it >.>

Oh sorry I misquoted you. That was suppose to be the other guys name up there, cause he said it. Fixed it now, never mind.

 

[Steven Glenn]

This isn't a big deal. Guess what? It's a Source:Mod. I've made them before, I have a zombie apocalypse game I made based off one. The fact that this guy is getting ANY publicity from it is sickening. This would NOT be an issue if people didn't give him attention. The Escapist has only helped in making the problem worse, even though their presented intentions were to the contrary. I don't even care about this /b/ troll, it's the media that will take this to the extreme. I'm fuming. The fact that they even acknowledge it being a game is stupid.

Upon further LOOKING INTO of the game, you're killing HL2 Citizen NPC's. *Expletive*, you're not even killing students. The only reason people give a nod to them being students is because the modder said they were, though they're obviously middle aged adults. The Escapist said you're killing teachers, children, and swat. This game is nothing like this. You fight HL2 Metrocops.

Also, this game came out years ago, they put a new name on it.
Mod:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/school-shooter-north-american-tour-2012
Vid:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/school-shooter-north-american-tour-2012/videos/school-shooter-gameplay-video-1

Second link is a video of the gameplay. How about we do some research Escapist? Nitwits.

 

[GothmogII]

There were two school shooting in my country very recently. If my mother finds out about this, she is going to hate video games again for a very long time. Crap.

If she does. Ask her if A Serbian Film makes her hate all films too.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

If you draw the line here, or anywhere, you're only putting up a barrier to free will and creativity. I'm not a fan of the Saw movies trying to justify some serial killer's heinous activities, but I'm not about to go and picket the theaters either. Just because something exists doesn't mean you, or anyone for that matter, has to vindicate it.

That being said, this game looks like crap. Tired premise that will appeal to rebellious teens at best, zero replay value; nothing new here.