Poll: Should games like "Super Columbine Massacre RPG!" be allowed?

[inFAMOUSCowZ]

While this may be in poor taste depending on who you are. Games should be allowed to be about anything. If movies can be a bout the holocaust, then let games be about this.

 

[2xDouble]

Should it be allowed to exist? yes. Topics and subject matter shouldn't be shied away from because they're controversial.

Should it be supported? no. First, I can't see the game being very good. There's not enough actual story behind the event to pull out a complete narrative, and there is no challenge whatsoever to be had in experiencing those events. It's like making Schindler's List an FPS game, either ridiculous or outright stupid.

Second, there's pushing the envelope for the betterment of humankind, and there's pushing the envelope for the sake of pushing envelopes. Which do you think this would be? Let it die on its own for being crap, not because it's controversial.

PS: Non-artistic art (sometimes referred to as "pornography") is not protected speech. If this fails the Miller test, it no longer has any right to exist.

 

[Saulkar]

I would never play the game and without a doubt it is quite detestable if not out right a fucking bad idea but I will never stifle freedom of speech.

 

[RoBi3.0]

Should they be made? Morally I don't think so, but if someone chooses to make such a game I don't think anyone should have the right to stop them. Freedom of speech is more important then anyone's personal ethics.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Yes. It's horrible and tasteless but that's not a valid reason for censoring art. There is far worse crap (and I mean that literally) that gets made as art and not censored.

 

[Sjakie]

everyone who picked "No! It offends the families/victims of said events!"

and plays any military shooter is a hypocrit.

 

[Terminal Blue]

You can argue that it's an important narrative device, but there aren't any movies about Columbine (except Bowling for Columbine obviously, but that focuses on the effects and causes more than the act itself).

Elephant [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363589/]

Duck! The Carbine High Massacre [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0356561/]

Heart of America [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0279037/]

Zero Day [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365960/]

These films are generally fictionalized accounts though. They make no claim to accuracy or to depict a real event, rather, they use the structure of a real event to frame a fictionalized story. Still about the event though.

I don't think I'm prepared to answer the question of whether it should be 'allowed', that's a legal question and I don't know enough about censorship law.

However, I do think it's a really bad idea.


Go to 1:30.

The idea that Columbine has something to teach all of us about ourselves, or that people responsible deserve to be examined and looked at is a very dangerous one. The cultural obsession with understanding or gawping at 'evil' is not constructive, it merely teaches vulnerable people that they will be listened to and paid attention if they step into that role.

There are more deserving mysteries than 'why would frustrated young men with easy access to guns kill people'.

 

[Susurrus]

Speaking as a guy who played it (I made it to hell so far, doom monsters ftw) I'd say the game is a work of art that does a great job of telling the story from the perspective of the shooters. It's similar to how Letters from Iwo Jima tells the story from the side of the bad guys, should that movie not have been made?

If you're equating the morality of two kids going on a killing spree against unarmed teens with a war, fought between the soldiers of two superpowers then perhaps you've missed the point.

 

[Saviordd1]

Should it be allowed? Yes

Is it right?
No

Sorry but that's how I see it

 

[Realitycrash]

Is it a shitty game? Yes.
Should it be illegal to make and play? No.
Reason: Freedom of Speech.

Summa summarum.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Yes. Freedom of speech.

 

[conflictofinterests]

Almost no one who criticised the game played it, almost no one who comes on here to defend it will have played it.

It honestly makes it more than a little difficult to have a proper discussion about it.

The game itself garners no respect. That's true of the vast majority of crass, tasteless things, and people tend not to give a shit about the vast majority of crass, tasteless things, thereby condoning their presence without approving of their content. The only reason we're even having this discussion, instead of the majority of us ignoring it entirely is because it is a videogame. The fact that it is a videogame should not be sufficient to give credence to this piece of shit, and the conversation will be along the lines of agreeing or disagreeing with that statement.

 

[Realitycrash]

Would you agree though that the game shouldn't be made as long as it was never out right banned from being made?

My personal tastes and opinions, whether I loved or hated this game, what i think of the developers and my thoughts on the people who spoke out for or against the game itself are here, completely irrelevant.

It does not matter, in any way, whether or not I think this game should have been made.

Voltaire, whose writing got him chased out of his country, put it like this;
"I do not agree with what you say, sir, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

(By the way, the second amendment, the one that gives Americans the right to own firearms, that one is there pretty much specifically to prevent the government from infringing on the first amendment.

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
-Thomas Jefferson.

For realsies.)

Just a quick common-error correction; It wasn't Voltaire, it was Beatrice Hall.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Beatrice_Hall

 

[Techno Squidgy]

A friend of mine gave me a copy of Super Columbine RPG to play. I played it for a while and thought it was pretty cool. I got intrigued so decided to look it up and see where it came from. I wasn't even aware of the incident at the time. Through this game I learned about it. As such I feel these games deserve to exist, as I never would of learnt about it otherwise.
Also, fun fact : 'One victim of the shooting played the game and voiced reserved support, remarking that "It probably sounds a bit odd for someone like me to say, but I appreciate the fact at least to some degree that something like this was made." While he took issue with what he saw as glamorization of the shooters, he also believed it would help open a dialogue about the shooting"' (From Wiki).

 

[SideSmash]

I understand that it's bait for the critics of the industry, but they still exercise free speech. If those were banned, Westboro (spelling?) should be as well.

 

[conflictofinterests]

I understand that it's bait for the critics of the industry, but they still exercise free speech. If those were banned, Westboro (spelling?) should be as well.

That isn't a statement that's going to rouse many proponents of freedom of speech. lol

 

[Eldrig]

People make games about WW2 and the like, and they were faaaar more tragic (no disrespect towards the people affected by the shooting) so i really think this is making a big deal about something the game industry has been doing for a long time, though, perhaps not in such a personal way.

 

[Aglaid]

Sure, you should have the right to make games like this but that doesn't mean it is not completely demented and f**ked in the head. It's like politics and abortion, you should have the right to talk about it but you shouldn't bring up those subjects with a group of friends.

 

[joshthor]

they shouldn't be made. they should be allowed. personally i think the makers are assholes. but once we start restricting what people are allowed to create the censorship will get worse and it is a very slippery slope.

 

[wrightry]

Yes it shouldn't be restricted, but here's what it can't do: It can't glorify the killing of random people. The game only really works if the actions are demonized or experienced from a victims perspective. If the purpose is to be one of the shooters and violently kill other people then that's fucked up... that's practically the opposite of what this medium needs in order for it to be taken seriously as an art form. No other artform like writing or movie making would go uncriticized if this event was depicted from an unnecessarily brutal, playful perspective. If it's done right, it will have to be done in a way that demonizes the evil that was committed that day.