DENVER (AP) - An online game based on the Columbine High School massacre is drawing criticism from relatives of those who died in the 1999 attack, including a father who says it trivializes the actions of the two teen killers.
The game, Super Columbine Massacre RPG, was posted on a Web site last year, but is becoming more popular now. It draws on investigative material, including images of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who killed 12 classmates and a teacher before committing suicide.
So, here we have an individual (as we will see later) who decides to program his own revenge fantasy game. He does some research, and uses pictures (without permission, I suppose?)
It is listed here as an RPG, or "role playing game," which is term that may or may not apply here. Perhaps "first person shooter" is a better description, horrific as that may be.
So, who is the master programmer behind this?
The site's creator, who identified himself in an e-mail interview only by the name ``Columbin,'' told the Rocky Mountain News he wanted to make something that would ``promote a real dialogue on the subject of school shootings.''
What does "Columbin" mean by his baffling, pseudoprofound statement about "promoting dialogue?" The ''subject of school shootings'' apparently means the motivations that people such as Klebold and Harris (and apparently this fellow) had to act as judge, jury and executioner for their treatment at the hands of their classmates. But what "dialogue" can there be, exactly? Apparently, as seen in his next statement, he is protesting against bullying:
He said he was inspired to make the game because he was in Colorado at the time of the attack.``I was a bullied kid. I didn't fit in, and I was surrounded by a culture of elitism as espoused by our school's athletes.'' He added that he considered the killers, at times, ``very thoughtful, sensitive and intelligent young men.''
Okay, to get this straight, Columbin was a bullied young man, like Klebold and Harris were, who didn't "fit in" with the school culture of elite athletes. And because of their treatment at the hands of these snobbish fools, Klebold and Harris decided that it would be right and just to kill them. Columbin apparently agrees, since he created a game that lets the viewer take the perspective of these two killers acting out their revenge fantasy on their fellow students.
I assume that by "dialogue" Columbin wants to discuss why his heroes did what they did, which apparently is bullying (leaving aside any questions of other cultural influences or even parental non-influence.) Columbin appears to be protesting bullying and wanting that to stop.
But how will this game do that?
Here are details about the game:
Players are told it is ``ultimately up to you'' how many people Harris and Klebold kill that day. Each time Harris and Klebold kill someone in the game, a dialogue box pops up that says: ``Another victory for the Trench Coat Mafia.''The game also includes crime scene photos of the killers and images of students running and crying, though it does not have photos of any victims.
If this is a role playing game, then clearly we are meant to be sympathetic with Klebold's and Harris's actions. Victory in the game means killing fellow students. One wonders if the player is also required to shoot himself at the end of the game (I suspect that most players are male, so I will use that pronoun at the risk of sexist language.)
``We live in a culture of death, so it doesn't surprise me that this stuff has become so commonplace,'' said Brian Rohrbough, whose son, Daniel, was among those slain that day. ``It disgusts me. You trivialize the actions of two murderers and the lives of the innocent.''
Clearly, Columbin feels that Klebold and Harris were also victims, and wants to draw attention to bullying. But I doubt very much that, as Rohrbaugh points out above, that trivializing or even celebrating the actions of these two who killed many others before killing themselves will stop the bullying. After all, it wasn't only bullies who died in the high school that day.
Richard Castaldo, who was paralyzed from the chest down in the attack, played the game after reading about it on a gaming Web site. He said it reminded him of the 2003 film ``Elephant,'' which follows students and others on the day of a school massacre without assigning reasons or blame for the bloodshed.
``It didn't make me mad, just kind of confused me,'' he said. ``Parts of it were difficult to play through, but overall, I get the feeling it might even be helpful in some ways. I don't think it's bad to discuss.''
An expert witness, apparently. Since he was there, Castaldo has extra credibility, one assumes. But what he says is useless as a defense of the game. He feels "it might even be helpful in some ways," but it is absolutely unclear on how this game will actually create a culture or an environment in which people will come together to put an end to the petty trivialities of high school.
This game is in bad taste, for certain, but taste is not important. I myself have played first person shooters such as Counterstrike, Doom, Quake, and so on. The difference is in evaluating the game. Evaluation of a work of art means that the creator's intent is weighed with what the art actually does. If this game is meant to reduce bullying by causing certain people to change their attitudes or actions towards unpopular people like Klebold, Harris and Columbin, then the evaluation is that this is unsuccessful.
But clearly Columbin is grasping at straws to try to justify his "work of art," anyway. I'll bet his game sees a sudden surge in downloads after this newsstory, and I don't think that bullying will go down because of it.
I don't suggest censorship, or prosecution, but I will argue that this is a self-serving, shallow piece of fantasy that has little value in the real world, where murder is more than winning a game.
