ModDB Shuts Down School Shooter Mod

[Toeys]

You are a hypocrit if you think games are art, but still think this mod should be banned.
Intellectual or stupid, whatever the case, no medium has been moved forward without massive amounts of controversy.

Day in and day out the Escapist talk about stories in games and how shallow they generally are. This comes from developers being too scared of shocking the consumers away from their product(ye i know, some of them dont have a clue about good stories either). Then it becomes laughable to vocally banish a product of someones twisted mind just because it went too far.

 

[Korolev]

Well, it's their site. They have the right to take down whatever is posted on it, if they want to. Remember kids, the First Amendment only applies to PUBLIC PLACES and the GOVERNMENT. The site wasn't owned by the Feds or any governmental department, so they don't have to take into account the First Amendment.

I mean - imagine if you owned a site and some guy came on the forums and started posting images of Nazis and other horrible people, glorifying the WWII atrocities or denying the Holocaust. You wouldn't like that would you? You especially wouldn't like it if people started associating YOUR name with the content published by someone else! The people who ran that site have every right to demand that this modder take his mod elsewhere! Hell, it's what YOU would do! Especially if you started getting torrents of hate mail and dozens of press people calling you on a daily basis.

No freedom of speech right has been violated here. The mod wasn't destroyed, it was just removed. If you think this somehow violates the 1st amendment, then I would like to put up offensive posters on your house in the name of free speech and get very angry if you take them down.

 

[Harbinger_]

Now Jack will say that Newell told them to take down the mod and they did so and Jack won't learn anything!

*sigh* yea. I hate to think it, but you're right. Jack will see this a a personal victory and will honestly think that he was responsible for it's removal.

Maybe it'll encourage him to do something constructive with his super-troll powers.... Yeah, never mind, what was I thinking!

 

[Korolev]

And look, at the end of the day, it must be said that there is a red-line for everyone. EVERYONE. Everyone finds at least ONE THING in this world so abhorrent that they would not host it or wish to be even remotely associated with it. If you claim that "no, I tolerate ALL types of speech", I'm pretty damn sure you're either wrong or immoral. In any case, it wasn't your site, and you weren't getting hate mail. It's easy to criticize someone when you aren't in their shoes.

 

[Darkauthor81]

And ModDB crumbles under pressure.

I thought this too. Though I thought the game was sick and a lame ploy at attention I believed in his freedom of speech to create it. At least until I read his quote there at the end about who his target audience is: "Anyone who wants to be a school shooter, but is too big of a pussy to actually do anything." Now I think this may be the work of a deranged individual.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Now Jack will say that Newell told them to take down the mod and they did so and Jack won't learn anything!

*sigh* yea. I hate to think it, but you're right. Jack will see this a a personal victory and will honestly think that he was responsible for it's removal.

Speaking of which, is he going to shut up soon? He has to be getting old by now.

 

[captain underpants]

I'll never understand why some people choose to be offended by such things rather than just ignore them. See, I can tell just by looking at it, that this mod is not really for me. I don't need it to be removed from the site; I can choose not to download and play it. Is self-control really such a problem?

"Anyone who wants to be a school shooter, but is too big of a pussy to actually do anything."

Why are people getting offended at this comment as well? I seem to recall the old 'doing it virtually so you don't do it actually' theory being widely used as a supporting argument for violent video games.

Also, the whole mod seems like a pretty obvious troll. Keep feeding it, guys.

 

[GamingAwesome1]

There's a difference between having a right to free speech and to defend you work and then there is making something for the sole purpose of offending everyone for no reason.

Job well done ModDB.

 

[Zeetchmen]

And ModDB crumbles under pressure.

My thoughts exactly.

A bit of pressure and down they crumble

 

[CLEVERSLEAZOID]

Nice to see the minute something becomes too close to the bone, people crumble and buckle to the public 'outlash'

I -really- dislike the way the world works.

 

[Delusibeta]

Ultimately, my response is the same as Raynor's post: ModDB crumbled under pressure.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

I do believe in free speech and ideas...but that mod is just pushing the limits on what is acceptable. People continue to compare the mod to movies and books saying "Well there is worse stuff in movies", in my opinion...GAMES ARE NOT MOVIES. The difference between 'Seeing' and 'Doing' something is on completely seperate levels. Also in modern times a Videogame holds more influence than movies once did, I believe that FF7 had more of a impact on my childhood than any movie ever has.

 

[Quaidis]

That's better. It's good to know it wont be released on that one modder database.

The creator of the mod is terribly frightening in his thought-processes and choice of words. I think people don't understand that, while the mod maker has absolutely no conscience, the people who own the website realize that such a game is a liability that they don't want to deal with.

 

[GrimHeaper]

Put the elements of a school and shooting in a game for America and it gets banned...
Pretty much the rule people are jumpy these days.

Spoiler

http://www.columbinegame.com/

I would suggest watching the video on the webpage.
Honestly we kill people all of the time in games. Modern Warfare,halo,(insert shooter here).
Even small children at that in a game on the DS called Contact and possibly others I don't know of.
SO I don't see the big deal with this really, just people overreacting as always making things worse than they actually are. Scared is what they are.

 

[Traun]

Now I want that Californian bill to pass...
Make it so Supreme Court.

 

[awsome117]

Shame. Wasn't going to buy, as it sounded boring to be honest, but would have been nice to have the opportunity to. I'll never understand why there is so much more hate for this game than most other triple A titles.

Maybe I'm just missing something.

Oh well, time to play GTA 4 and murder about half of the population, then get five stars, kill all the cops, then kill myself with an RPG.

 

[oreopizza47]

I don't really have anything to say here, because I already did my venting on the ModDB page, but I would like to note that it's nice to see that this thread hasn't devolved into the utter hatred of anyone on the other side of the line by everyone, as happened on the mod page. Seriously, every comment is either saying that ModDB sucks for taking it down, or that the people who think ModDB now sucks should go jump off a cliff. It's quite depressing.

Well, some slight arguments here, but still over 9000% better than the mod page.

EDIT:

Put the elements of a school and shooting in a game for America and it gets banned...
Pretty much the rule people are jumpy these days.

Spoiler

http://www.columbinegame.com/

I would suggest watching the video on the webpage.
Honestly we kill people all of the time in games. Modern Warfare,halo,(insert shooter here).
Even small children at that in a game on the DS called Contact and possibly others I don't know of.
SO I don't see the big deal with this really, just people overreacting as always making things worse than they actually are. Scared is what they are.

I like the quotes on that spoilered page, it really just goes to show what this SchoolShooter mod could've been if the ban hammer hadn't struck. I'm torn between believing that a game like this is just flat wrong, wanting to try it on the basis of just a game to see what it's like, and wanting to try it on the basis of forcing thought to see how it stands up against other mods we take to be thought-provoking like Dear Esther and such.

Double EDIT: Random thought while reading more entries; does anyone remember how widely criticized the JFK Reloaded game was, and how it was attacked so badly that the makers gave up on it, and doomed it to a life of being freeware that no one remembers? Freeware that actually takes some work to find, seeing as it was buried under controversy and had to be hidden? Anyone think this mod will go the same way?

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Free speech and rights and all that is great and all. The Mods also have a right to remove it. My personal opinion is that they did the right thing. I also hope that the F.B.I. now has this man on its watch list and is keeping a very close eye on him. I'm honestly surprised no one's called the police on him yet. If I heard comments like that, I'd fear for my life.

EDIT: I forgot about Jack's threat. Didn't his deadline pass a few weeks back? And he did NOTHING. Or am I getting my dates mixed up?