Lets talk about the use of video games as a medium for sensitive topics.

 

First off, the very controversial game titled Super Columbine Masacre RPG!  which reenacts the events leading up to and following the Columbine Highschool incident.  The game uses the RPG Maker program with a very traditional 3rd person overhead view and retro 16-bit graphics.  The battle system, also, is similar to RPGs developed during the 16-bit era, with enemies appearing in first person view, just like Dragon Quest.  The game attempts to humanize and explain the actions of the two gunmen, Ed Harris and Dylan Klebold, through flashbacks within the game showing the bullying and torment they experienced.  Predictably, the reactions to this game were both mixed and extreme. 

 

At one end of the spectrum, gamers, sociologists, societal outcasts, and so-called media experts regarded the use of a video game to depict the psyche and motivation behind the two gunmen as vital and valuable. 

 

SCMRPG doesn't intend to validate the crimes committed, but tries to offer insight into why and what pushed two young men to deliberate, plot, and execute a bloodbath at their high school.  Through the use of an RPG, a Role Playing Game, the player is given options and possibilities that may or may not affect the outcome.  When we to say to ourselves "I refuse to put myself into the shoes of these monsters.  I refuse to understand why these two terrorists killed and hurt all these innocent children" we are essentially saying to ourselves that we refuse to understand the reasons why and what drives people to commit these acts of violence.  Personally, I find this kind of game to be a bit tasteless, especially the part of the game where the two gunmen are in Hell and converse with their favorite video game characters.  Did I just ruin my argument?  Still, video games is just a medium for a message.  Murder and crime can be attributed to video games just as much as violent movies, violent music, violent books, or violent .. sweaters.  The imagination and deliberation in controlling a violent character in a violent setting can be just as vivid as reading a well written violent story.  The experience is different for everyone.  Another thing to note is that the creator of the game, Danny Ledonne, was extremely meticulous in detail, which may not neccessarily mean the game play is unbiased, but offers an accurate retelling of the masacre from a different perspective.  Again, the last statement regarding accuracy does not carry over to the segment of the game set in Hell.  Fuck!!

One important thing to note is that in the end, SCMRPG! is just a game, albeit a game based on an actual event, but a game nonetheless.  The player always has the ultimate choice of turning the game off and telling themselves that they do not respect the story, the portrayal of history, or for any other reason, and refuse to continue their virtual experience, just like any other medium.

 

At the other end of the spectrum, everyone else. 

 

Family and friends who experienced loss or tragedy from the Columbine incident felt the game, at the very least, trivialized the tragic incident.  Super Columbine Masacre RPG!, to many, stepped over the line of proper moral judgement, respect, and would (at it's worse) motivate and educate the very same group of people who would be susceptible to acts of mass murder.  Afterall, if a serial killer is found with a copy of SCMRPG! or Grand Theft Auto, news outlets would be all over that like a certain ethnic group at a watermelons/fried-chicken/iced-tea-festival.  Actually, I hate this spectrum.  Fuck you, Conservative America!  If Grand Theft Auto sells 20 million copies, there should be 20 million little fuckers out there toting SMGs, stealing cars on a daily basis, killing cops, and flying helicopters into the Statue of Liberty.  The focus on the miniscule percentile of people who own Grand Theft Auto titles or have downloaded Super Columbine Masacre RPG! who also commit acts of murder is smaller than the probability of lightning striking twice in the same place without the use of a lightning rod or other metalic or tall structure.  Why do we blame video games for the few times we find a murderer who also happens to own a violent video game when we don't praise the other 99.999% of healthy, productive, and morally upstanding citizens who ALSO enjoy violent video games?  Shit, son.. Hitler enjoyed painting, but Van Gogh didn't hate Jews.  I'm not too sure about that, actually.  That last statement has no truth to it. 

 

Using a more subtle approach, Resident Evil 5 pits the protagonist -once again- into a hoarde of flesh eating zombies.  This time, however, our zombie-killing hero Chris Redfield finds himself in Africa, against waves of African Zombies.  The controversy of having a white zombie-killing hero killing an army of black zombies raised alarms in the West, though Japanese game designers failed to understand the problem. Masachika Kawata, the producer for Resident Evil 5, stated that "We can't please everyone. We're in the entertainment business - we're not here to state our political opinion or anything like that. It's unfortunate that some people felt that way," though there is inherently a political statement being made about a disease created by science that bites humanity in the ass.  Fuck it, I love killing zombies, no matter what race, gender, sexual ethnicity, or flesh-preference they have.  Thank you, Biohazard, for providing me the means to satiate my bloodlust for the undead!