I disagree with all three of the debaters on this topic (I do NOT think this filth can be defended on the grounds of free speech), but most especially with Jim, who I think here is both completely full of crap and either willfully ignorant or shockingly insensitive.
What's makes the School Shooter mod so different from Uncharted, Grand Theft Auto, Saint's Row or any other game where you casually slaughter massive numbers of people? How about the simple fact that while the latter games are escapist fantasies with little to no grounding in reality, the School Shooter mod is nothing more and nothing less than a spiteful, vicious celebration of a shockingly tragic series of real-life events that HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED and will QUITE PROBABLY CONTINUE TO HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE.
In real life, career crooks don't casually decide to go on massive destructive rampages slaughtering innocent bystanders for fun and causing massive property damage and death and destuction on a wide scale before strolling casually away after getting their car instantly resprayed. Anyone who DOES engage in such mindless orgies of destruction is either arrested and executed/sentenced to life in jail (depending on where it happens) or fatally gunned down by police while resisting arrest. GTA wouldn't be so much fun if every time the cops waste you your game saved is erased and you're booted back to the start of the game, would it? Uncharted is basically a cinematic adventure in the spirit of Indiana Jones- sure Nathan Drake is an asshole, but it's basically a mindless action movie experience.
On the other hand, school shooter incidents happen in real life. They're horrific. Tragic. They're meaningless and terrible, they cause many deaths each time and they will continue to happen. And the filthy degenerate who is making this indefensible trash thinks it's a good idea to make a game where you can reenact things like this
because it'd be fun. It even goes as far as replicating the shooters' suicides at the end of their rampages as a gameplay mechanic, making the last desparate act of a traumatised and disturbed individual into an objective that, if I remember correctly, gives you a better score or something. It's on the same level as making a 9/11 flight sim where you play a (succesion of) terrorists steering planes into famous buildings with your score determined by how many innocents you kill, with bonus points calculated for the level of national trauma you inflict over the long term (and don't anyone DARE say you think that sounds fun or you'd like to see that made). If you REALLY can't see any difference between this and unrealistic fantasies like Grand Theft Auto (like Jim apparently can't) then you're either an imbecile of the highest order, or there's something SERIOUSLY wrong with you.
Briefly getting back to my original point, I STRONGLY believe this filth should be banned. While I generally believe in freedom of speech for its original purpose (for preventing a government from silencing dissident voices or oppressing groups who disagree with policies) I have nothing but scorn for people who insist on universally defending ANYTHING people say or do without reservation. There should be a line drawn somewhere- there are things that just shouldn't be tolerated for reasons of basic human decency. If someone turned up to my mother's funeral, for example, and started shouting slanderous abuse about her, I'd beat him unconscious with my bare hands (or more likely any blunt object I can lay my hands on) without the slightest cosideration for "his right to express his opinions". There's a difference between "free speech" and "no standards of moral decency" and this evil game crosses the line without a doubt.
Continuity said:
Well I think James and bob are off on this one, it's exactly this sort of thing that gives computer games their unique artistic impact. If you think in terms of contentious modern art, it seems that anything that can provoke or elicit a feeling or a response or even just providing a perspective can be art... A sheep cut in half, a dirty bed, an extire exhibition composed of feces.... This game has that sort of impact that make you think about your judgements and perceptions plus it does it in for a contemporary subject.
Am I alone in seeing this?
Ok the creator may not be intending to Create art but that's not really relevant.
If you think this is art, you are sick. Sick, sick, sick. Seek help.
