Slamdance Gets A Little Less Crowded
And now there are 8.
From Braid (the first finalist to pull out of Slamdance):
I commend the developers of these games for standing behind their principles. And I encourage you all out there to go download demos of these games and / or buy copies (I think the only game actually being sold right now is Once Upon a Time… Everyday Shooter isn’t publicly released yet and Toblo is free).
Looking at the Slamdance game competition page now, there are just 8 games there. Which is still enough to have a competition, but one has to wonder about the legitimacy of the results when 40% of the entrants have dropped out, and the dropouts are such promising games.
It's good to see others pointing their moral compasses in the right direction.
Update: Slamdance has this to say about their decision:
The Super Columbine Massacre RPG game has been withdrawn from Slamdance '07. While understanding the different positions people have already taken with the game, we want to express the struggle we had with ours. On one hand, a jury selected a game they believed merited programming, a decision that always leads to our organization supporting the creator's independent vision and freedom of expression. On the other, there are moral obligations to consider with this particular game and the interests and welfare of the Slamdance organization and its community. Ultimately, after much internal conflict and debate, we decided to pull this game and hope a choice like it will never have to be made again.
(Emphasis mine) In other words, please stop pushing the boundaries of creativity, because we hate having to make hard decisions, especially the decisions where the right thing to do is also the hard thing to do.
January 9th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Is there a support group, or orienteering class perhaps, for the rest of us?
January 9th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
This slamdance thing is getting more mileage than it deserves. One dumb decision (making the game in the first place) being followed by another dumb decision (removing the game from an award festival), followed by more dumb decisions (bandwagon protesters).
There is a remedial class for you and others in your condition Doc. Sadly few ever complete the course, because it’s too hard. It always has been easier to just do whatever you desire from moment to moment.
The first assignment is to watch Pinocchio 12 times. Let your cricket out of the box you have locked him in.
January 9th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
I have to say, I’ve never seen you quite this angry, Bug. It’s…it’s kinda hawt.
January 10th, 2007 at 8:37 am
This is something that kinda bugs me about self-censorship. People are so afraid of the Gestapo - and by Gestapo I mean any ill-defined but scary force whose attention you don’t want - that they’ll police themselves. And that’s what the ‘Establishment’ wants. They want you to think of ways in which you could be more normal, less offensive, less unique or daring.
No, you can’t make these games, or produce these movies, or tell those jokes, or think those thoughts, because those are bad and the scary people might come.
Fug thoughts like that, fug the Gestapo in our minds and fug the status quo.
I don’t think I would play Combine RPG, I do think it’s tasteless, and from what I hear, doesn’t really document the event either. That game where you had to shoot President Kennedy in precisely the same way he was actually shot served, for all its tastelessness, to prove a point about how unlikely the official story of his shooting was. THAT’S a tasteless game that DID have a purpose.
There’s this natural tendency to mix in with the crowd, but it’s the people who step out of the crowd who lead it.