The Super Columbine Massacre RPG Paradox
You want me to save the world,
I’m just a little girl
Get Your Gunn,
Marilyn Manson
Since I first talked about Super Columbine Massacre RPG, I did the thing I said I wouldn’t do, which was to play the game. You know me, I change my mind once a week whether I need to or not.
I am going to spoil parts of the game, so if that matters to you then do what you need to do. I’m going to start spoiling. Right now.
I played Super Columbine Massacre RPG right up until the point where your avatar winds up in hell. Yes, hell. Let me just say that this pretty much ruined any cred the designer had scored up ’til then. Going into the game you are implicitly asked to drop your preconceptions and judgments about the killers, and step into their shoes to get the full story. You’re asked to see Columbine through the killers’ eyes, not to judge them but to try to catch a brief glimpse of understanding about why they did what they did. Well throw all that the fuck out the window, because apparently none of it matters in the quite literal end. You have been judge-ed, and the Lord-uh has sentenced you to hell-ah, amen and pass the ammo. There is no understanding now, no insight. There is just damnation. In the context of what the designer is hoping to accomplish, it makes no sense. It reminds me of that goddamned Chicago song that’s going along fine until it inexplicably wigs out in the last minute.*
Ignoring for a moment eternal damnation, does Super Columbine Massacre RPG succeed on any level? Perhaps. If Columbine to you is simply 2 kids that went batshit one day and decided to go on a murder spree, then yeah, you might learn something in the form of oddly placed slideshows that sometimes go on far too long. But if you know anything at all about the issues that surround Columbine (gun control, bullying, peer pressure, game violence, movie violence, etc), then I don’t know what to tell you. It just didn’t do anything for me.
Here is perhaps an example of what the game designer was trying to get his audience to see: You, the killer, enter a bathroom where a kid is being bullied by some jocks. Your mini-mission is to save the kid and napalm the jocks. Through this exercise you learn that Kliebold and Harris themselves had often been treated as outcasts. Again, if you’ve been living under a biosphere for the last 6 years this might come as a revelation to you. But if this is supposed to connect me somehow, it’s just not working.
And that, to me, is really the problem with the whole experience. Moments of supposed insight come as slide shows, but the presentation is inelegant and factual, rather than thought-provoking. The creator’s attempt at thought provocation is lost–completely overshadowed by the game play, which is that you are a child whose objective is to murder as many other children as you can. Which might make it similar to many other games out there (killing is killing, right?), except that in this case there is a physical place called Columbine. It’s in Littleton, Colorado, 20 minutes south of Denver. It really exists, and this shit really went down. There is at this very moment a memorial standing where a library used to stand. Real children hid in that library, shot to death as they cried and begged their killers for their lives. There is a classroom at Columbine where, 7 years ago, a man bled to death as he gazed on a picture of his family, knowing he would never see them again. The students who comforted him in his dying moments lived with the uncertainty that at any time the door to the classroom might open. (Close your eyes and just imagine that kind of dread for a moment. These kids did it for real, for hours.) There exist survivors and families who have been left behind. Some of those survivors and families are broken beyond repair. Two of those families live with the knowledge that their very own child committed these atrocities. There is a web of sorrow, rage, bewilderment, agony, anguish, and emptiness which connects and binds those unfortunate enough to have been sucked into the cruel vortex that was the real Columbine massacre. The game does not capture any of this.
And yet, while I believe the execution to have failed miserably, I cannot help but wonder if the attempt was at some level worthy.
A couple weeks ago, Brian Green posted a challenge, asking if games can be art. I promptly hijacked the comment thread, and it was nice of Brian not to kick me off his blog for it. I did, however, learn a lot through the exchange, and can even say some of my opinions on game as art continue to evolve.
So I pose the Super Columbine Massacre RPG Paradox: Could it be that Super Columbine Massacre RPG had to be made, in order for us to understand that Super Columbine Massacre RPG shouldn’t have been made? A couple of weeks ago I thought I knew the answer. But as distasteful and poorly executed as I find the game, I just don’t know.
* Hard for me to say I’m sorry.
May 24th, 2006 at 11:20 am
Could it be that the holocaust had to happen in order that the world understands that gasing 8 million people because of their religious beliefs is wrong?
Some things are just morally wrong. Super Columbine Massacre RPG is one of them. No matter how the makers try to spin this 'game' it is still nothing more than an attempt to exploit America's obsession with tragedy to make a profit. What are these 'wonderful' people going to make next, the 9/11 Flight Simulator?
May 24th, 2006 at 12:16 pm
I think the point that you (very eloquently) made is that the issues of Columbine are many, many, many orders of magnatude more complex than anything that could possibly hope to be explored in an RPG, at least until feelies are invented. So the answer to the “paradox” is that no, the game did not have to be made to show it shouldn't have been made. It is self-evident that the idea is not workable.
May 24th, 2006 at 12:24 pm
Hola Amber, long time reader, first time commenter, bla bla. I REALLY enjoyr reading your site, and you always have interesting things to say. You are my morning coffee blog, that should tell you how big a fan I am, after I say what I am going to say.
I hope you don't take this personally, but WHAT THE FUCK!? Is this post a joke? After you already said the game is shit, and your description of just a few things that happened at Columbine, which brought a tear to my eye btw, your conclusion should have been obvious. But then you dropped the bomb, and weaseled out of what should have been a logical conclusion.
There are a lot of questions that can be asked, but Amber, this is not one of them because the asnwer is NO NO NO, this game shoudl not have been made, and shame on you for not knowing better. It's exploitive garbage, and I'm ashamed that you would suggest that it could be art. The Mona Lisa is art. This “game” is not art, its an abomination. This game mocks the memory of the victims, and glorifies the murderers. Esp being from Colorado, HOW can you even pose the question, as if it is something that should be thought about, and considered? The answer is NO.
I might have to re-think my subscription to Amber Night. I am kidding, but I will have to put you on probation for a while. I keep hoping its all a joke that I am not getting.
May 24th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
That's not really fair, Turlow. Nor is your question accurate. Columbine happened. So did the holocaust. She's not questioning whether or not /Columbine/ had to happen in order for people to learn that it's not nice to shoot people. She's asking whether or not the game should have been made.
Games about RL events should (and I believe can) be done, however, from an investigative point of view. Your job, as a psychologist or police person or whatever is to determine what it is that caused these people to do what they did. As you collect clues about the people you delve deeper and deeper into the complex web of issues that make this so dicey. The same thing can be done for 9/11, the holocaust or virtually any big event.
Did it have to be made to find out that it shouldn't be made? Perhaps to a certain mindset that still believes that you should do everything with games that you can in order to constantly push the medium, yes. They needed to be shown that even though you can do anything, that doesn't necessarily mean you should do anything. That's the biggest problem I've had with the 'games as art' movement. Artists belive they don't have to follow any rules.
For the rest of us, it's a chance to sigh and wonder why it is that certain people want to make video games look even worse than they already do in the light of the public eye.
May 24th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
I don't think anybody really argues too strongly that movies shouldn't be made about real life catastrophes and so on, or books. The reason for that difference? The execution of both. People have come to expect movies to treat events tenderly and artistically, and they accept the worth that a movie about the holocaust can have. There is no such expectation with games yet, because we still tend to hide stuff in breakable crates and so on. But there's very little difference in the ability of both media to make a worthwhile story based on true events.
And before people nitpick, even when people DO complain about a movie being made about a real situation, it tends to be a more specific objection. With the recent Flight 93, for example, people didn't complain that the movie should never be made, they simply asked if it was too soon. Even that would be a huge step forward for games.
May 25th, 2006 at 1:09 am
I'm in L.A., again, but this time I'm working. Don't have my login on this computer. :/
On one hand, I think the game has some redeeming characteristics. I think people rejecting it out of hand are doing so before really understanding the issues here. You don't have to like the game, but to say it should never have been made seems like an overreaction. On the other hand, the game does seem to be a bit sloppy, which affects how people view it. The major change of pace in the Hell levels, for example. Also, little things like attributing the song “Stripped” to Rammstein (who did a great cover) instead of the original group, Depeche Mode add to the perceived sloppiness.
Have fun,
Yeah, I've gotten to the same place in the game and I don't feel much urge to continue. The game changes radically at that point, and it just doesn't fit.
I think what happened is that the game developer had the idea for the first part of the game, then realized it was only marginally fun. So, he added the “Hell” areas to add more spice to the game. But, yeah, this part kind of negates a lot of the effort put into the first part of the game.
That said, I think the first part does have some insight, but it tends to be a bit subtle. Unfortunately, subtle isn't what works for most game players. I still mean to write a full review of the game sometime, but let me give a few things you might have missed.
During the cut scenes that do seem to last forever, a lot of things are quoted. Song lyrics, poems, a nice variety of media. This really reinforces the notion that many of us have been saying for a while: video games are just the latest in a long line of “threatening” media that the elders are afraid are turning our children into monsters. One cutscene quotes the poem “The Hollow Men” by T. S. Eliot. This isn't exactly a happy, cheerful poem about lollipops and fluffy bunnies. Dark, depressing images weren't invented by Marilyn Manson, even though that got a lot of attention and blame for the whole Columbine thing.
As another example, even the Hell areas have a bit of subtlety to them. The music played is the music from DOOM. Kind neat when you work it out. But, that doesn't make the Hell areas suck any less.
In the end, I don't think this will really change anyone's opinion. Sadly, the people who need this the most are the people who demonize games the most. So, they're unlikely to want to even try this game.
Some of my thoughts,
P.S. I haven't had to kick anyone off my blog, yet. Your questions might have been persistent and perhaps a bit repetitive, but at least you were contributing to a good discussion, Amber.
May 25th, 2006 at 8:51 am
Batten down your hatches. Just noticed that this review is linked on the official boards for the game. I won't link the site but if the population over there is any indication of what you can expect, even your yellow poncho might not be enough protection.
Here is what “columbin” the game's creator has to say about your review though:
Dave (someone stole my cool internet name)
May 25th, 2006 at 9:51 am
Bad analogy on my part Astarte. I wasn't trying to compare the holocaust to the events of Columbine but to Amber's question about whether the game should have been made. IMHO, games that exploit tragic events such as Columbine, the holocaust and 9/11 should not be made and I think running around as the killers exploits the situation. To me, this is morally repugnant. Others will not have my moral objections. But hey, that's what freedom of expression is all about.
PS. I'm not trying to imply my morals are better than other people's so please don't assume that. Morals are very subjective.