Park City, Utah – A sense of moral obligation led Peter Baxter, co-founder and executive director of the Slamdance Film Festival, to pull the game “Super Columbine Massacre RPG!” from its 2007 Guerrilla Gamemaker’s Competition lineup.
From Jan. 18 through Jan. 27, the Slamdance Film Festival showcases games created by independent gamemakers. Ejecting a game from the festival was difficult, Baxter admits, and has polarized Slamdance staff members and gamemakers chosen for the festival.
Baxter reports that the makers of two games will boycott his festival in protest.
This is the first time in the 13-year history of Slamdance that any selected film or game entry has been expelled from competition, he says.
“I hope a decision like this never has to be made again, but I think it is important. You have to be responsible for the program as a whole,” he explained, adding that, contrary to rumors, he was not under pressure from sponsors.
“Have I been unfair to the jury? Yes. Have I been unfair to the gamemaker? Yes. There are some things that are more important in life than the festival or game,” he said. “In this instance, it was really important to consider the families (of victims of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting), and the fact that is hurtful because of the role-playing you are asked to take in this game.”
Unlike films, there is a more direct integration with what happens in a game, he says.
“Super Columbine Massacre” is a role-playing game that challenges players to walk in the shoes of the two high school perpetrators, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who opened fire and killed classmates and then themselves. The game’s graphics resemble the vintage hard-edged quality of video games in the 1990s.
According to creator Danny Ledonne, the game’s narrative is based on the “frightening, deplorable and comical” entries from the killers’ journals, as well as the documented chronology of events collected by investigators in the case. He spent most of a year researching the community and the shootings, he says.
“I wanted to make a game that was a satirical statement about our society and gaming and about how our society reacts to tragedy. I wanted to wind all these things together,” he said.
The game has been available as a free download online for a year via Ledonne’s site and has generated as many as 8,000 downloads per day, Ledonne said.
It has also received scathing reviews from parents of the victims of the Columbine shootings and some game reviewers. In its October 2006 issue, PC World magazine included “Super Columbine Massacre” in its list of the “10 Worst Games of All Time.”
The hype surrounding the game caught the attention of Slamdance programmers who encouraged Ledonne to submit his game to their festival, Ledonne said.
“They’re the ones who asked me to submit it,” he said.
