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One week from today, the gates of Gersten will be overflowing with students eager to see Michelle Malkin and Arianna Huffington rhetorically attempt to wreck each other. This exhibition of our constitutional right to freedom of speech is the kaboose of a week-long train of events highlighting the issue. Yet, there is another event that is equally, if not more relevant, to the theme of the week.
On Tuesday, Feb. 13 at St. Rob's Auditorium beginning at 4 p.m., LMU students will be presented with the opportunity to play "Super Columbine Massacre RPG!" At 7 p.m., they have the chance to discuss or criticize the immensely controversial game with creator Danny Ledonne.
According to the game's Web site, "This game delves into the morning of April 20th, 1999 and asks players to relive that day through the eyes of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, those responsible for the deadliest school shooting in American history." This description alone already begins to twist your stomach.
Mostly out of initial disgust, I decided to Google the game to get some answers. I could have easily asked my Loyolan co-workers, who surely had good reason to bring such a seeming atrocity to campus in the name of the paper-but I wanted to find out for myself. I stumbled upon the official Web site and discovered a free download link to the full version of SCMRPG. I downloaded and played it for about 15 minutes.
The actual button pressing is limited, whereas the story and imagery being portrayed is emphasized. RPGs (Role Playing Games) are more like "choose your own adventure stories" than a traditional video game. Except in this game, you carry out the actions of an "adventure" that you already know the ending to. From the beginning to the end, the game is factually accurate in all aspects including times, names, quotes, places, etc. The creator made it his focus to keep the game's content as uncomfortably close to the terror that lurked throughout those halls as possible.
To even begin to understand how this game can be used for good, we must push aside our traditional beliefs about video gaming. The enjoyment, fantasy realization or thrill that supply the arsenal of appeal for most video games are feelings that are completely non-existent in SCMRPG. Imitation and desire to experience being someone else (or at least perform their actions) aren't exactly the reasons players are meant to play this game either. Instead, what Ledonne has introduced is a novel concept -- socially-conscious video games.
Music, literature and movies have all been criticized in the past for "corrupting the youth." Blame has been heaved onto the shoulders of authors, producers and musicians alike following the Columbine shooting and other events packed with youth violence. Fingers have been firmly shoved into mass media entertainers faces by the likes of religious groups, parents and political figures. It appears that no other vein of this entertainment has been more heavily heckled than video games.
At the same time, it seems that a double standard is being used. Video games are most accused of damaging youth and least capable of social progress out of all mass media outlets. The idea alone of a socially conscious video game seems outrageous. Who would play a game about De Colores? Kids would rather race cars or fight dragons than build as many makeshift houses as possible in an allotted time frame.
Despite the overly dumbed-down music and television we are constantly drowning in, most of us are at least aware of socially-conscious songs and films. Somehow, video games have been placed into a special category from the rest, completely voiding them of packing positive messages into Playstations. SCMRPG is violently -- and with much resistance -- paving the way against the grain for socially-conscious gaming.
Whether or not the game is in good taste is debatable. The feeling I had when I was playing the game was much more uncomfortable and empathetic than usual video game exuberance. Perhaps this innovative method of analyzing this tragic event can provide us with a means to better understand not only why it happened, but how to prevent it in the future. The shooting shouldn't be something that is silenced and forgotten, as it slowly seems to have been, but instead remembered and used as a lesson.
The dispute about SCMRPG and other socially-conscious video games will and should rage on. Either way, the creation of a game like this, with the intention that it has, is an idea that many of us never imagined. Nevertheless, socially-conscious (and simultaneously controversial) video games may be the new frontier. Is a 9/11 game next? Are these games glorifying or horrifying such events? Check out www.columbinegame.com regardless of your position about the issue.
Everyone should make their way to see the poli-trickery from Huffington and Malkin next Thursday night. In the meantime I emphatically recommend going to St. Rob's Auditorium on Tuesday. It will be an extremely rewarding and thought-provoking event from an exploring free speech standpoint.
This is the opinion of Alex Dwyer, a junior communication studies and English double major from Brian Head, Utah. Please send comments to adwyer@theloyolan.com.
