Super Columbine Massacre RPG!/Reception

Reception of *Super Columbine Massacre RPG* drew largely negative response amongst the mainstream media and those personally affected by the shootings. Upon revealing Columbine's identity as Ledonne, Kovacs said "One of the girls who died [in the shootings] was a friend of mine, Rachel. We were in the same church group. Anyone playing this game can kill Rachel over and over again." The father of one victim remarked to the press that the game "disgusts me. You trivialize the actions of two murderers and the lives of the innocent." 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.

*Super Columbine Massacre* was largely condemned by the press. Betty Nguyen of CNN labeled the game as an example of a subculture that worships terrorists. Newspapers called the game "exploitive" and a "monstrosity". *PC World* declared the game #2 on its list of "The 10 Worst Games of All Time." Even critics who were supportive of Ledonne's intent found the game hard to play; Ben Kuchera of *Ars Technica* said that he left the game "shaken", but that as an easily misunderstood game "the people who are most likely to gain anything from it will never play it." Crecente felt that the message of the game was obscured by the cartoon graphics of the medium. Ledonne has refused to alter the game as it represents his thoughts on the subject at a particular point in time, but has encouraged others to rework the game themselves.

The most positive reviews of *Super Columbine Massacre* came from critics who accepted Ledonne's intended message. *Wired* magazine writer Clive Thompson appreciated the game's attention to narrative detail, writing that "the upshot [of the game] is that Ledonne has done a surprisingly good job of painting the emotional landscape of [the gunmen]—whipsawing from self-pity to pompous grandiosity and blinding rage, then back again." Thompson called the game subtle, including jabs at the participants and gaming culture by using the language of games as a way to think about the killings. Writing for *The Courier Mail*, Paul Syvret's advice to those who found the game controversial and in bad taste was to "lighten up". Bogost summed up his review of the game by writing "this game is not fun, it is challenging, and difficult to play—not technically difficult, but conceptually difficult. We need more of that." David Kociemba, a professor at Emerson College, agreed with Bogost and commented that "the controversy should be that there aren't more games like *Super Columbine Massacre RPG!* that are as demanding and as artistically innovative." Dugan responded to common criticisms of the game, including that the game was made in bad taste, by writing a rebuttal on his blog:

> I think everyone who disses the *Columbine RPG* is gutless. Most haven't played the game, or have played it with such preconceptions that they're blinded to the genuis [sic], the honesty, the beauty of its social commentary. *Super Columbine Massacre RPG* is riddled with design flaws and has mediocre graphics by 1995, the maker of the game admits this, but it regardless is a work of art. It puts you in the mindset of the killers and provides a very clear suggestion of why they did what they did; they were enacting an ideological demonstration through a terrorist act, and the game shines light on this as an indictment of the American dream and way of life painfully close to the main nerve.
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After the Dawson College shooting in September 2006, when gunman Kimveer Gill killed one student and injured 19 others, the *Toronto Sun* wrote that Gill had self-reported playing *Columbine Massacre* on a web site. The story was picked up by media and reported widely. Upon hearing media reports of a link to the game one of the shooting victims at Dawson College contacted Ledonne and told him that "I just suffered multiple gunshot wounds and I think you should take this game down." Ledonne expressed his reaction to the shooting and renewed media attention towards his game in an interview a week later:

> If one is interested in making something for the public to view—be it a painting, a book, an album, a film, or a video game, should the POSSIBLE harm that may come out of this work be grounds for its suppression from society? This is, in a sense, pre-crime. If you believe in what you're doing and you want to express yourself, the expression should be primary and any interpretations that come after must always remain of secondary importance to the creation of the work itself. On another level, the entire correlation between the Dawson College shooting and my game is unfounded. [...] What else did Kimveer like? Black clothes? Goth music? Pizza? [...] If anything, the Dawson College shooting is proof positive that games like [*Super Columbine Massacre*] *should* be made; until video games are no longer among the "usual suspects" for homicidal rampages, the public needs to more carefully consider why interactive electronic media is somehow the manufacturer of Manchurian Candidates.
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Developer Ryan Lambourn created a flash game called *V-Tech Rampage* in 2007, which allows players to control the actions of gunman Seung-Hui Cho in the Virginia Tech massacre. Lambourn professed empathy for Cho, and said that he was a target of bullying in high school. "No one listens to you unless you've got something sensational to do. And that's why I feel sympathy for Cho Seung-Hui [sic]. He had to go that far", Lambourn stated. On the *V-Tech Rampage* site, Lambourn posted a statement that he would take the game off of Newgrounds if donations reached $1000; at $2000 in donations he would take the game down from the main site and for another $1000 he would apologize for creating it. Ledonne posted a comment on Lambourn's website after *V-Tech Rampage* drew comparisons to *Super Columbine Massacre*, calling Lambourn's statement tantamount to a "hostage note", and asking bloggers to consider "not whether a game about the Virginia Tech shooting SHOULD be made but how we might go about making a game that accomplishes more than *V-Tech Rampage* does with the subject matter." Ledonne stated that he emailed Lambourn sympathetically, but that the creator responded to his emails with profanity; he reiterated that the two games had different motivations and were not easily comparable in content.

### Slamgate and legacy

In October 2006, Sam Roberts, the Guerilla Gamemaker Competition director of the Slamdance festival, emailed Ledonne encouraging him to submit the game to the contest. Ledonne looked at the selection of the game as one of the competition's finalists in December as evidence that "all forms of art can be valid tools for societal exploration (even painful topics like school shootings)". The event's organizer, Peter Baxter, announced the removal of the game from the festival's "Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition" after its selection as a finalist. Several reasons for the change of mind were given, including threatened sponsor withdrawal, possible lawsuits, and "moral grounds"; Baxter denied that sponsor pressure caused the drop, instead affirming that "the shootings are still a very touchy subject, and rightly so. We have to be sensitive to [victims and their families'] feelings." An additional consideration reported was that unnamed parties might sue for copyright violations in the game itself. The announcement marked the first time the festival had pulled jury-selected content from the contest; the incident was dubbed "Slamgate" by the gaming press.

Following the announcement, USC Interactive Media Division withdrew its sponsorship of the festival. Seven of the fourteen finalist games were removed from the contest by their developers in protest: *Braid*, *flOw*, *Once Upon A Time*, *Toblo*, *Everyday Shooter*, *Book and Volume* and *Castle Crashers* (*Toblo* was later reinstated by the DigiPen Institute of Technology, who owns the rights to the game). Developer Jonathan Blow of *Braid* stated: "[*Super Columbine Massacre*] lacks compassion, and I find the Artist's Statement disingenuous. But despite this, the game does have redeeming value. It does provoke important thoughts, and it does push the boundaries of what games are about. It is composed with more of an eye toward art than most games. Clearly, it belongs at the festival." Blow and the other developers sent an open letter to the festival, encouraging the reinstatement of the game as keeping with the festival's "trailblazing" efforts. Despite protests, Baxter refused to change his mind, citing consideration for the shooting's victims and their families. Ledonne told the other finalists that he planned to go to the festival anyway and distribute copies of the game. Acknowledging that the withdrawal of six finalists compromised the competition, Roberts let the attendees vote on whether any prizes would be awarded; they decided not to.

Brian Flemming, director of *The God Who Wasn't There*, saw Ledonne's demo of *Super Columbine Massacre* outside the festival, and convinced two fellow Slamdance film jurors to award the game a "Special Jury Prize" for Best Documentary, an unofficial award not endorsed by Slamdance itself. The jurors intended to present the special prize alongside the award for best documentary. Shortly before the ceremony, Baxter informed Flemming that he could not present the award due to "music clearance issues", and refused to allow it despite Flemming's protests. According to Ledonne, Flemming tried to hold his ground, but eventually gave in to Baxter's request.

Ledonne produced a documentary film based on his experiences after the release of *Super Columbine Massacre*. Titled *Playing Columbine*, the documentary uses the controversy surrounding the game to investigate the large issues facing video games as a medium for artistic expression. The film premiered at AFI Fest in Los Angeles, California on November 7, 2008.

As a result of the controversy of his game, Ledonne became an unwitting spokesman for the games industry, facing the medium's opponents in debates and forums. The furor resulting from Slamgate was called out by Ledonne and others in the media as a sign that video games had not yet outgrown the traditional stereotype of children's games. Keith Stuart of *The Guardian* wrote that despite being confused and tawdry, *Super Columbine Massacre* "symbolizes a growing understanding that videogames have more to say than 'shoot the enemies and pick up health.'" Authors Andreas Jahn-Sudmann and Ralf Stockmann consider controversial video games such as *Super Columbine Massacre* and the "Hot Coffee" mod of *Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas* evidence of sociopolitical tensions present between gamers and older generations. The game and others like it continue to be at the center of the video games as art debate, and Gamasutra credited *Super Columbine Massacre* and Slamgate as having two highly positive and far-reaching effects; first, forcing print game journalism to focus on the issue; and second, the "evangelization of the notion that games can be as meaningful and important as other media, even if the example is offensive to the sensibilities of most Americans [...] To win is to lose, but to play is to experience an enrichment that cannot be scored."

## References

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