A screen shot of School Shooter: North American Tour
Share
A new video game depicting school shootings, including the campus shootings at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, has drawn student outrage
online.
The free game, “School Shooter: North American Tour 2012,” places characters in the feet of a school shooter. The game is a modification of popular first-person shooter game “Half-Life 2.”
Players will be given weaponry similar to Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho and Columbine High School shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, according to the website of the game’s developer, Checkerboard Studios.
Several e-mails to an address listed for Checkerboarded Studios were not returned.
Players are scored based on the number of people they kill. The game ends when police kill the player. Developers have also said players will be able to commit suicide to finish their round, after “spouting a hilarious one liner.”
The modifcation was pulled by hosting site ModDb following public outcry surrounding the game. The game’s developers haven’t offered a release date for the game.
The game has brought strong opposition on Facebook. A event group for “BOYCOTT VA TECH/COLUMBINE SHOOTING VIDEO GAME” has 10,898 users listed as attending.
The group’s creator, freshman engineering major Casey Thornton, started it after learning about the game.
“I sent it to my Facebook friends, it got passed around,” Thornton said. “And it really blew up.”
Thornton, who graduated from high school in Colorado, said he questioned his credibility in forming the group.
“I’ve made it pretty clear it’s just not those direct families that were affected by (the shootings),” Thornton said. “Our entire nation was affected by this.”
Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski declined to speak about the game.
“This game is so despicable,” Owczarski said, “It’s beneath comment.”
A game developer, referring to itself as Pawnstick, said the game would not be taken down with complaints from the family members of school shooting victims, in an interview on EscapistMagazine.com.
“That would be like pulling ‘Call of Duty’ off shelves because the families of soldiers might complain that their loved ones died in
battle, ‘just like in the game,’” the developer said.
Wat Hopkins, a communication law professor, said while video games have been given some First Amendment protection, there is limited high court legal precedent. He said the Supreme Court will rule by June on a California law restricting the sale of violent video games to minors.
Thornton said the group wasn’t about censorship.
“What got me was a lack of sensitivity to the family of those affected by this tragedy,” Thornton said.
He stressed the difference between the school shooter game and other violent video games.
The game has drawn some comparisons to a level in “Modern Warfare 2,” where gamers playing as terrorists shoot civilians in an airport, along with “JFK: Reloaded,” which gave players the opportunity to reenact the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
“Games like ‘Grand Theft Auto’ are fictional games with fictional characters,” Thornton said. “This is a real situation ... this is a real occurrence.”
Gene Deisinger, deputy chief of the Tech Police Department, said violent games could “offer a safe rehearsal opportunity” to a small subset of users interested in attempting a school shooting.
Desinger said there was “so much more to the experience of being here at Virginia Tech than the shooting.”
“It’s one part of who we are as a community,” Deisinger said. “To see that constantly represented, as if that’s all of who we are, is disconcerting.”
A version of this article appeared in the May 4 issue of the Collegiate Times.
Leave a comment 52 Comments Write a letter to the editor
All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.
“This game is so despicable,” Owczarski said, “It’s beneath comment.”
----
But not a Collegiate Times article.
Reply to this Top
****
****
“School Shooter: North American Tour 2012”
“Games like ‘Grand Theft Auto’ are fictional games with fictional characters,” Thornton said. “This is a real situation ... this is a real occurrence.”
****
Not to defend the creators of the game... but, um. what?
The fact that Casey Thompson is mindlessly spreading the viral marketing of this game is sickening enough and it doesn't help matters when his quotes & thoughts on the matter are totally illogical.
Casey is a freshman. He was probably about as close to the 'real event' as most of us have been to a real 'grand theft auto'.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the game was depicting the 'real event', the developers missed the date by about 5 years.
Reply to this Top
Edit: I meant Casey Thornton in the previous post.
And, wow. After digging a little bit, It is pretty blatant that this kid has some serious attention craving issues.
On the FB page the article references, Casey quickly points out his ties to Colorado during the time of the Columbine shootings. What he fails to mention is that he would have been a 7-8 years old kid in Palisade, CO which is at least a 4 hour drive to Columbine.
Despite not 'really being here' for the 'real event', Casey is still willing to drop this gem in there:
I" have seen how the shooting has put deeply embedded scar on this school. Virginia Tech has developed a reputation mostly recognized for the tragedy of 2007"
Reply to this Top
I'm Casey. I'm the one you're talking about. Attention craving issues? I didn't even mean for it to spread. It was a personal opinion that other people shared.
Secondly, you googled where I live? I'm kind of creeped out honestly. What you DON'T know about me is the fact that there was a school shooting attempt at the school right next to mine in 7th grade. Several of my friends went to that school. The guy had a hitlist and guns in his locker. Thank god there was a tipoff and the guy was arrested.
Want more? There was another school shooting attempt on my high school last year. Kid brought a gun to school, tried to get a friend to "go columbine" on the school. The friend told on him. He got put in jail held for a 100,000 bond. I knew the kid that told on him personally. What could have happened?
Craving attention? Or trying to spread a message? I could care less if people know who I am, the article doesn't even spell my name correctly. Check your facts.
Top
Furthermore, just because I wasn't here in 2007, doesn't mean I haven't seen how it's affected the reputation of this school. How sick do you think I am, after telling people back home where I go to school, and I get the response "don't get shot." Also, because I wasn't here, doesn't mean I haven't seen how it's affected other people. It's called empathy. You may want to learn about it.
Top
Casey... You know what's ironic? I already knew (KNEW) about your 'close encounter' of being at a neighboring school where nothing really happened. I didn't have to Google you...
Post all you want to about yourself; just know that you're an ignorant, attention-deprived (and, in fairness, perhaps well intentioned) teenager who is ultimately spreading the twisted 'work' of a deranged individual.
And no... I didn't google anything.
Top
Care to explain how unless you're from Colorado, which I highly doubt, you knew Palisade (population.... 300?) is 4 hours away from Columbine? Oh I'm sorry, not google, Mapquest. Big difference. You knew about the close encounter in my neighboring school? Yeah, because the media covers things that ALMOST happened in a small town in Colorado across the U.S. right? Epic fail.
As for giving the creators attention, you obviously haven't read the FAQ section of my page, where I clearly state that the game is only an example of the insensitivity and lack of compassion for other people in our society. The game is not the problem, rather a symptom of the problem. It's about spreading a message of compassion, not about drawing attention to the game. I'm sorry if this article doesn't make that message clear, but I didn't write the article.
Top
I like how someone says how Casey is an attention-seeker, and then Casey posts about how many different shotting attempts he's almost had to go through. Keep proving the guy's point, Casey, haha.
Also, why don't you start a Vietnam veterans facebook group? My uncle was in Vietnam, so I'd be able to see how Vietnam affected people.
You had nothing to do with 4/16. Hell, I was here as a freshman and even I had little to no connection with it (a TA I had for one class was killed, but that was it). Just because you happened to come here several years later doesn't mean you're automatically affected by it.
Top
Casey - Epic fail? Seriously?
You accuse me of being creepy for knowing things that you posted publicly on the Facebook Event... Then, in your infinite wisdom, you proceed to accuse me of not reading the same section.
You can sit back all day long and think you're "doing good" by creating that event and bringing attention to it. You might have thought giving an interview to the Collegiate Times would only amplify that "good". And if you don't step back from the keyboard and think about this objectively, you'll continue to do so (and it goes way beyond this article).
In reality; you've made this about you... and managed to make yourself look ignorant in doing so.
You talk about yourself and things that have (not) happened that you weren't directly involved in.
And you know what makes it worse? You're broadcasting it to a crowd and a community who has lived through those things.
Top
Bill,
Casey may not be the best person to be spreading info or a message, Casey is at least willing to try and make a difference. You can criticize as much as you want, but I think Casey would be best served if you could give him advice instead of nonsensical bashing. I doubt Casey is out to be a media whore.
Top
I don't even know why I was trying to defend myself. It doesn't even matter. I acknowledge my own credibility in the making of the group: it's apparent in the article. I'm not saying I've been affected more than any other person. What I'm trying to acknowledge, is that OTHER people were affected, and as a student in the hokie community, I was trying to stand up for them. I could really care less if you have a problem with that.
Top
You're trying to "stand up for" the people who were affected? They have the entire country standing up for them. You're just trying to make your own little mark in that community.
Top
Actually what Casey said was he has seen the effects of what the Tech shootings have caused. All of us in VA have. I attend VCU and our security has increased 10 fold since the shootings. Funny how you would defend a game like this in a Tech publication...glad you're not a Ram.
Top
I always defend a person's right to free speech, and that's the situation here with this video game.
Top
Whoever anonymous is: Yeah, you're right. Making claims about my credibility only fuels Bill's fire. However, you can imagine my frustration when the point of the group is blindly ignored by some people, when they think I'm trying to make it about me. I'm trying to make it about EVERYONE. We need a little empathy in this world. I didn't get asked to get interviewed. Hell, I probably invited 50 people to the group. Like I said, it just blew up. And I hope that even a small percentage of those people were affected in some positive way. Bill, I'm not going to argue with you, I'll just let the message speak for itself.
Reply to this Top
The point of the slacktivist group is for you to get a little more popularity for taking a "strong stance with a serious issue". You say the group isn't meant to support censorship, but then what's the point of it? How are you standing up for other people's feelings when they're offended by the game, if you're just going to say "Oh, by the way, guys, I'm not gonna play it!"
Also, why don't stand up for those affected by war, and oppose all WWII and Vietnam shooters? I'm certain you have some family member involved in those, making it actually more personal.
Top
I'm a freshman who lived in England at the time of the shooting, and it was one of the few school shootings that made it to the news in England. It is a sick misuse of the first amendment when games like this can be created. It is a presents the freedom that America so proudly boasts as a method of a sick and gateway behavioral media.
I had the same "don't get shot" off hand comments made when people found out I was going to uni here. I fully support the creation of the boycotting group as without it I would never have known about the game's creation. I don't think making people aware of a sick game is a crime, it shouldn't matter where that person was from at the time of the shooting.
Think of how much more of an "attention whore" you'd say Casey was if he started a Vietnam awareness group as well as the other couple suggested. It wasn't like the page said "Hello my name's Casey and cause I'm so great I want you to know about this issue", in fact (as with most topics covered by newspapers) I had not been made aware of who had created the page until it was mentioned in this article.
Top
Creating the group and writing articles about a game nobody knows about in hopes of starting a boycott is ridiculous. You said so yourself that you didn't know about the game, and now you do, so you'll boycott it. Guess what? You wouldn't have played it ANYWAYS if you didn't know about it.
The only thing that writing about things like this game accomplishes is giving the game MORE media coverage, so it gets more popular, so it gets more people actually playing it.
Your "boycott" failed the moment you started it. Congratulations.
Top
'Checkerboarded' and 'Desinger'.
If you're not going to take the time to think about what you're publishing, at least take the time to edit it.
Reply to this Top
As long as there are sick people out there willing to play games where the goal is to kill other human beings, there will be sick people out there designing them. Yes, the makers of this game are despicable, but what about the guy down your dorm hallway playing similar games?
Reply to this Top
Hey! I resemble that remark. Annihilating my friends in a virtual battle is fantastic fun. A video game about a school shooting is sick and depraved. But thanks for lumping the two together, a very reasonable comparison. I'll probably go pop off some innocent bystander in a few right after I watch the latest Invisible Children video update. You probable don't have any idea what I'm talking about or even care about real world violence against children. You just want to sit up on your stool, looking down on everyone.
Reply to this Top
These games are games. You know, games? Not real life? Games. Video games. They're not real things, they're video games. So they aren't real.
Are you stupid? Is reading books that have violence in them bad? Watching movies that have violence in them? Let's just all read children's stories so that nobody supports this "sickness".
Reply to this Top
"Is reading books that have violence in them bad? Watching movies that have violence in them?"
Yes and yes. There's something wrong with a person that finds pleasure at another human's suffering - real or imaginary.
Top
So I guess there are, like, 10 books in the world that are worth reading. And they're all children's books.
Enjoy wallowing in your own ignorance towards everything.
Top
Why the CT would even put an article out about this is beyond me...you are giving this toolbag unnecessary attention and publicity for his stupid game
Reply to this Top
Why the CT would even put an article out about this is beyond me...you are giving this toolbag unnecessary attention and publicity for his stupid game
Reply to this Top
Why the CT would even put an article out about this is beyond me...you are giving this toolbag unnecessary attention and publicity for his stupid game
Reply to this Top
The developers of this game need to be publicly lynched.
This type of mentallity - profit off of blood is no different than the real gun
industry - it represents the worst of humanity, the worst of so called "Americanism"
its vile, vulgar, disgusting...this is not responsible in any way and I ASSURE YOU WILL
LEAD TO ANOTHER SHOOTING SOMEWHERE IN THE US ON THE SCALE OF VT. If that
happens these developers must be charged with first degree murder. What pathetic
scum.
Reply to this Top
New policy: end violence! Lynch the violators!
Reply to this Top
lol at somebody so against violence saying we should lynch someone for exercising free speech. Good job, bro.
Actually, video games don't lead to school shootings. If anything, the rise of video games has actually led to a decrease in violence among teenagers. You know what DOES lead to school shootings? Bullying and alienating people. That's what led to Columbine and 4/16.
Reply to this Top
I feel so sorry for youth today.
You are served steaming piles of sh-t daily by morons like this group.
You walk like apes, stooped staring into your little blue screens.
You have no ability to discern between the real and the imagined and thus
commit the crimes portrayed in games daily - how many school/university/
mass shooting have we gone through in the past 15 years in the states... two
dozen? three dozen? Best advice - log off, stand up straight, learn to speak
in full sentences, volunteer for something worthwhile and stop generating
this crap.
Reply to this Top
You really think kids can't tell the difference between video games and reality? You really think kids didn't commit murder before video games exsisted? BILLIONS of people, young and old play video games. If one in a million people commit murder have something in common you really think that's the link? Really? I love the excuses of people from the previous generations. They don't want to admit they've failed the young people of today. Thought it was a good idea to let the TV raise you kid and to ignore the completely broken education system for 40 years? Oops! Well, at least you have video games to blame.
Reply to this Top
Ugh! Disgusting. Fantasy is one thing, this is depraved.
Reply to this Top
It's a video game. It IS fantasy.
Reply to this Top
This game is pathetic.
Reply to this Top
You should play it. It actually has really witty dialogue, an emotion-wrenching, very moving story, and well-developed characters. It's the Godfather of video games.
Reply to this Top
Where is 4chan when you need them? They'll keep the Sony Playstation network down for how many weeks, but this goes unpunished?!?
Reply to this Top
Not your personal army.
Reply to this Top
Anonymous only targets things worth targeting. You know, like Australia when they were censoring everything. You're trying to censor something, so lol at expecting Anonymous to help you out.
Also, you do realize that, on 4/16, there were already jokes on 4chan about the shooting?
Reply to this Top
I hope somebody will stop this!!!!!
Reply to this Top
You all realize this is clearly covered under freedom of expression? They have the right to develop this game, just because it offends you doesn't mean you can stop them from making / releasing it.
Calling for violence against them is uncalled for as well, they are being non-violent.
Vile: "I ASSURE YOU [this] WILL LEAD TO ANOTHER SHOOTING SOMEWHERE IN THE US ON THE SCALE OF VT If that happens these developers must be charged with first degree murder."
You make me doubt the value of the education you have been given to this point. I have HUGE doubts that video games contributed to any of the school shootings. Violent people are going to find ways to be violent regardless of if it's by pulling the wings off of bees or not harming anyone by playing games. Personally I'd rather they leave the bee alone and scream at 12 year olds, but that's my opinion.
There are rules of law on when someone can be charged for the violence of someone else. For instance inciting a riot, calling for violence that then occurs immediately after the call etc. This is not one of them and I don't support changing the law to stop this one game from being released.
Most of the comments here are crazy. Am I going to play this game? No. Do I want it censored? No.
Reply to this Top
What amuses me the most about all the press coverage this game gets over it "exploiting a tragedy" is the LACK of coverage that WWII games ever got. Far more people with far less of a choice died in war than died on 4/16. At Tech, you chose to come here. In WWII, you were FORCED to go somewhere where you'd likely die. If you're going to weep over the victims on 4/16, you had better be doing a lot more weeping over the victims in WWII.
Oh wait, I forgot, that happened years and years ago, so we can pretend it never happened and move on, lol.
Reply to this Top
I just want to point out, for the people comparing this game to Grand Theft Auto, GTA’s purpose isn’t to harm innocent people, pick up prostitutes, etc. While the game has the ability for a player to do these things, it is up to the player to CHOOSE to do this, as the main story mode or object of the game does not direct the player to do these things. The design, and quite frankly the draw of the game, is the open city format where you can wander about a city like in real life. But to play and beat the game, you don’t do these “horrific” things. The game described in this article is different because it is actually directing you the player to act like a criminal and kill innocent people in order to win. In my opinion, these two types of games are worlds apart from each other.
Reply to this Top
Aaaaaahhhhhh! I see now. The murder and prostitution is OPTIONAL. That makes it all better now. @@
Reply to this Top
" But to play and beat the game, you don’t do these “horrific” things."
I don't know what game you're talking about, but all of the GTA main quests direct you to kill various people, no questions asked.
Reply to this Top
I don't get it, these guys make ONE game about school shootings and people all across America have made NUMEROUS articles about the shootings and not a single one of them was singled out.
Reply to this Top
I have to seriously wonder about the people advocating FOR this "game". What has society come to where you people....and I use the term loosely...will attack Casey for his standing up against this "game" but you won't stand up against the game itself?? Have you ever lost a friend or family member in a senseless murder? Stop and thing how you would feel if your best friend or sibling had been killed in cold blood in one of these shootings...would you be ready to advocate for a game that recreated his or her death.
Reply to this Top
Yes, I would. But I wouldn't play the game.
Also, I hope you never read, watch, or play anything that has anything to do with history, because you'll always be recreating someone's life.
Reply to this Top
Even IF (and I stress IF) someone actually decides to go on a rampage and blame it on the game, it still isn't the game developer's fault, nor is it the game. People blame games, tv, movies, etc, as the cause of their actions because they know what they did was wrong and don't want to go to prison. If games make people become killers then:
1) Standing in a garage makes you a car
2) Automakers and Breweries are accountable for every DUI related death
3) Playing Call of Duty makes you a soldier
4) Playing a racing game makes you a NASCAR driver
5) Playing Wii Sports makes you an athlete
Mental illnesses are over-diagnosed. Not everyone who is sad needs to be on anti-depression meds. Not everyone who has trouble focusing has ADD/ADHD. Adults need to grow up and take responsibility for their actions. Parents need to take control; you are responsible for raising your children, not the nanny, and not the tv.
Reply to this Top
Whoa, man, you can't go saying things like that. It's offensive. People might start to feel bad if you say they should hold themselves accountable for their actions.
Reply to this Top
This game is disgusting, vial, and extremely insensitive.
That being said, the 1st amendment wasn't created so we could talk about the weather. Censorship of anything is censorship of everything. Boycott it? sure. Ban it? no.
Reply to this Top
honestly i would buy this game. whats the difference between this and any other shooting game ex GTA. o wait i know it's based BASED off actuall events. who cares i don't understand the freaking outburst and critisism from people. my condolenses go out to the families of the shootings but that doesn't mean that every thing that deals with school shootings should be banned or critisized maybe the game was based of a movie. Toy Soldiers. people please if you don't want your kids to play it then don't let them buy it and if they do take it away. be resposible. (and yeah i know that some of my spelling is wrong) but don't let that change what this comment says.
Reply to this Top