Inside the Sick Mind of a School Shooter Mod

[Shamanic Rhythm]

I'm afraid you're confused because a "blanket statement" is sort of the point of protecting expression and other rights.

"Art" is anything a person does that is not related to survival; a dirty song, a child's scribbles, stuff like that. "High art" is art that a majority of people think is "good" and hang it in galleries.

You don't want a bunch of schmucks determining on what's "Art" merely based on what a majority thinks do you? So yes, this mod is a form of expression and has artistic value by default. That's why porn is still legal, you know (unless ruled obscene by the miller test).

Read "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud, and you'll learn a thing or two about art and visual medium.

So you don't believe in any kind of objectivity in the criticism of art. Well, we're going to have to agree to disagree there.

Also, try to sound less patronising when you're recommending reading material. You don't have to imply that I know nothing about art simply because my opinion differs from yours.

 

[HobbesMkii]

This game would have been absolutely fine if his point was simply to highlight that many shooter games are, in fact, just about killing people for the heck of it, especially those that can't fight back. I'd be surprised if anyone had ever played through Rockstar's games without ever intentionally harming a civilian.

But if that was his point, he needn't have established it as being a school shooting. It could just be a murderous rampage.

Also, that he seems to want people to get legitimate enjoyment from playing this game bothers me as well.

 

[BonsaiK]

Checkerboarded Studios set out to make a game in which you shoot schoolchildren for fun and succeeded only in offending everyone.

Everyone? I don't think many people would have even known about this if not for this article. The Escapist has now given this mod quite a bit of free publicity, so to then stand back and call the mod "sick" is hypocritical. You might think you're saying "look at this, this is disgusting" but what you're really saying is "looks at this, look at this, look at this", which is exactly what the EA Dead Space 2 commercials do, and we all love those, right?

The guy interviewed has several good points anyway. A long-standing argument of pro-games people is that violent games are just for fun and shouldn't be taken seriously. They are, after all, games, and computer game violence can be cathartic. Congratulations to the guy for not getting up on some lame moral high-horse and instead being honest about his intentions, something which I feel that The Escapist isn't doing with this article.

 

[AnExquisiteGentleman]

Man, being an avid Gmod user i can't take this thing seriously when im shooting at Barney and Rebel models.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Not sure why, but I almost get the feeling this guy was hired to make this mod by people who make a living bashing games, or maybe by someone who really wants that bill in california to go through, or one of any other out of hundreds of reasons.

That, or he's just an asshole.

 

[GenericUsername123]

There is a huge difference between people talking about school violence in a forum and creating a medium in which someone can act out something like this. Of course he has the right to make the game, just like the West Lake Baptist Church has the right to picket the funerals of aids victims. That doesn't mean both groups aren't bat shit inanes though.
This game is honestly nothing more that a tool for this guy to get a rise out of people, and if you think this wont hurt gaming as a whole then you have another thing coming.

 

[Nurb]

I'm afraid you're confused because a "blanket statement" is sort of the point of protecting expression and other rights.

"Art" is anything a person does that is not related to survival; a dirty song, a child's scribbles, stuff like that. "High art" is art that a majority of people think is "good" and hang it in galleries.

You don't want a bunch of schmucks determining on what's "Art" merely based on what a majority thinks do you? So yes, this mod is a form of expression and has artistic value by default. That's why porn is still legal, you know (unless ruled obscene by the miller test).

Read "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud, and you'll learn a thing or two about art and visual medium.

So you don't believe in any kind of objectivity in the criticism of art. Well, we're going to have to agree to disagree there.

Also, try to sound less patronising when you're recommending reading material. You don't have to imply that I know nothing about art simply because my opinion differs from yours.

That's what I was saying

And honestly, I didn't intend to sound like a jerk. It's tough to get tone in text I guess.

 

[Jovip]

look guys, people are way to easily offended now a days.
look at any game we play ussually, it's killing human beings.
now sure this game is in a school, but on a battlefield it's no different.
just cause it has pushed your red offense button doesn't mean it is offensive, just means you personally believe it is.

This game is the same game as call of duty, just with the attempt of justification for the murders taken away. So let's just leave it alone. it's making a point. and i guess not everyone can see that. also just a fun game, releasing some steam. good stuff.

 

[Kopikatsu]

I...don't see why everyone has such a problem with this. Pixels are doing pixelated things to other pixels. That's some hard and heavy stuff right there.

Really, though. This mod sounds like something I would play, and the last time I saw blood in real life that wasn't my own, I fainted.

Anyway...I like how the articles title is 'Inside the sick mind of a school shooter mod'. Someone is just a tiny bit biased, no?

 

[markisb]

i think its disgusting. its just wrong. the only people that will play this is the people that suck at playing everything else.

 

[Ham_authority95]

Inside the Sick Mind of a School Shooter Mod

Checkerboarded Studios set out to make a game in which you shoot schoolchildren for fun and succeeded only in offending everyone.

Permalink

Nice job giving this thing free publicity. Now that you've made this article, a couple thousand more people now know about it.

And "Offending everyone" is inaccurate, since nobody would've been offended by this if it wasn't for you.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

So its okay to make games about soldiers dying, who I might add are just as much people as anyone else, but someone makes one mod about killing kids and all of a sudden they've "crossed a line"? Give me a break. We just like to fool ourselves into thinking there's a difference.
As The Joker in the dark night says:

Spoiler: The Plan

.

Not saying that making light of School Shootings by turning into a game is a great idea, but then again neither is a silly game about being in an army shooting terrorists and other soldiers.

 

[Bobbity]

I...don't see why everyone has such a problem with this. Pixels are doing pixelated things to other pixels. That's some hard and heavy stuff right there.
Really, though. This mod sounds like something I would play, and the last time I saw blood in real life that wasn't my own, I fainted.
Anyway...I like how the articles title is 'Inside the sick mind of a school shooter mod'. Someone is just a tiny bit biased, no?

I don't want to start an argument, but don't you find this at all distasteful? Would something like a flash rape game offend you? In not, why? Sure, logically it's a bunch of numbers, but intuitively/emotionally something else is going on.

 

[Seydaman]

Why did you say sick mind
That's rather mean
Very mean actually
Why'd you do that?
Jerk...
Edit: Looking at the screenshots, it looks like you can recreate the entire thing in GMOD without the snappy oneliners, there's even a suicide SWEP you can use!
1) Spawn bunch o' civies
2) Change your faction to combine using mod
3) Pew pew pew
4) Spawn dem rebels
5) pew pew
6) Rinse and repeat
Although I guess there's no score

 

[Bob_F_It]

Something like this speaks directly to the bullied teenager in all of us. Know what this game is? It's cathartic. Without mincing words, I fucking hated high school. I had no friends, and was picked on for fun by just about everybody because, being bigger than most and quiet, I make a good target. Hell, there was a month back in grade 12 where a group of people would follow me around at lunch and throw garbage at me. I never fought back, though. I just bottled shit up and turned it into pure hate and misanthropy. Even now, several years later, I keep up a shell and am always on the defensive. I keep people away because I quite honestly hate them now.
Why, may you ask, am I giving you lot my life story? It's on topic, not just because they both involve high schools. I have to say, playing a game like that would be cathartic. If I played this back in high school, it'd give me some sort of satisfaction. I couldn't strike back against my tormentors in real life, so I'd gun them down in the virtual world. It hurts nobody, no harm is done but to pixels.
To all of you saying "this is terrible, this is the worst thing ever, you need to die for making this!" think back to yourself at high school and how the people in it made you feel. If everyone was your best friend, then congratulations, you've succeeded in doing something that no other human in history has done. To the rest of you, however, remember how those people (you know exactly who I mean, EVERYONE has them) made you feel, and tell me taking your digital revenge wouldn't make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

That's not actually what's going on in this "game"; you're not fightingnback at those guys, you're being one of them, and worse than them on top of that.

In most violent games, the violence has some justification. Even if you shoot first, it's a "Han shot first" scenario, or it's intervention, or with "No Russian" you're trying hard to blend in and those guys would have been shot by the others anyway. The game is vile because unprovoked, unyielded, extreme violence that seeks to present mad gunmen as the protagonist.

And to everyone that tries to boil their support down to "he has a right to do it", try to understand that when someone exercises a right to the extent that the infringe on others' rights more than what they exercise, those rights are revoked. I technically have a right to impose "population control" for the sake of preserving the world's resources, but in reality I don't.

 

[Seydaman]

i think its disgusting. its just wrong. the only people that will play this is the people that suck at playing everything else.

Damn....that's a lot of people
No wonder Rockstar is so rich...

 

[Tdc2182]

Seriously? Inside the "sick" mind of a school shooter mod? I'm guessing you're slightly biased against this guy.

Now try saying that with a straight face.

OT: Well then... This certainly sets us back about ten years.

Reminds me loosely of Moviebob's political correctness video. You are not being a hero and martyr of free speech. You are just being a completely backwards idiot.

 

[MinishArcticFox]

You're right the Escapist, this is what is going to convince the public that games are "evil". Not EA and all the shit it's done, or people that stand on their soap box and preach the "evils" of the GTA series; it's going to be this, a low profile mod that, as the creator mentioned, has the potential to prevent shootings.

We've all saved and then proceeded to murder the entire unarmed population of Freeside, or take turns passing the controller around the room as we mow down sidewalks packed with civilians in Liberty City, but when someone puts that setting in a school it becomes worse than Satan. Everyone gets frustrated from time to time and I'm sure that many of us have taken out our rage on a game (me included) so why would a game that helps someone do that be bad? While tragic a relatively small number of people die in school shootings especially when compared to WW2 which the gaming industry has made plenty of games about.

Just because you find the concept offensive doesn't mean that it's not okay for someone to make a game about it. Plenty of people found putting the Taliban in a game to be offensive but many of you said that was fine this just crosses your morals so you don't like it.

 

[Merkavar]

i think anyone who plays that game should be removed from schools/arrested/therapy etc.

the game doesnt even look fun or anything like that, so the only reasons you would play it would be curiosity or if you were thinking about shoting up a school or your self.

i dont care about people and their free speech when it comes to this sort of crap. This serves no purpose other than to glorify school shootings and inpire more that end in peoples deaths.

Death out weighs freedom of speech.

I have no problem with violent games, but this isnt just a violent game this is a shoot up a school sim and im guessing it doesnt get rated by esrb or pegi and isnt prevented from being played by 8-12 year olds.

i wonder if in 12 months time were going to have another shooting done by someone who played this game 2 hours a night after being bullied all day at school

 

[feather240]

Well... AS long as it's fun.