Columbine RPG Creator Talks About Dawson Shooting is an interview with Danny Ledonne about Super Columbine Massacre RPG and the Kimveer Gill incident. Thanks to Robert’s comment on my previous entry for pointing to this.
I’m of two minds reading this interview. On the one hand Danny Ledonne seems sincere and thoughtful, on the other hand, he doesn’t really explain why he had to create a game about Columbine just because it was such an important event. Probably like most of us he had mixed intentions (and didn’t think to hard about them in the moment) and now is trying to justify what he did retrospectively. Ultimately, of course, all he did was create a game, not shoot anyone, so lets not confuse levels of responsibility. That said, it seems that everyone who wants to justify their creations resorts to claims about deeper messages that are overlooked.
I understand the feeling you describe, I am also a bit unsure about Ledonne’s original intentions, and how he describes his work. But you have to give him credit for being a thoughtful guy and understanding the implications of what he has done – at least now.
He is absolutely right, though, in what he says about the differences between books, paintings, and games. Take a look at the Wiki page on the Columbine massacre: this is a very detailed description of the events, the backgrounds, the weapons used, their clothes, etc. In places, it is really like being there. And there are enough tidbits (like the quotes) to identify with, if you feel like shooting your classmates.
So where is the difference? There is certainly a lot of ignorance about games, and the people pointing fingers are the ones that know the least about them. There is all the violence (and I, personally, don’t care about first-person shooters, they bore me to tears), the obsession with weapons and the typical macho stuff (guns, girls, cars). So games are bad, obviously. The same can’t be said for other media, because we tend to know much more about them. Violent literature isn’t bad, because there is also so much non-violent literature. Painting isn’t bad (despite the many bloody battle paintings), because there are so many non-violent paintings.
You just don’t need to know a whole lot in order to point a finger and make a lot of noise. And that is exactly the problem here. As somebody pointed out in the other posting, video games aren’t credited for good things, even though there is quite a bit of research done on using games in various types of therapy, for example. The reason is the same: in order to find something good, you have to know something. Blaming is so much easier.
And in the end, screaming and shouting will get you anywhere. Just raise a big stink a few times, and people will start talking about “a controversy”, and laws will be passed, etc. This is actually happening right now, see yesterday’s Penny Arcade comments and comic. There is really little to add to that (it’s not the exact same topic, but it’s closely related).