Columbine Massacre Video Game
Disturbing Entertainment
I attended Chatfield Senior High, the rival school of Columbine High. I remember steady disputes with students from their school and ours; however, this situation brought us all closer together. I remember the day that one of my closest friends, who attended Columbine High, was worried about her little brother. No one had heard from him and the family was beginning to worry. The next morning Danny Rohrbough's motionless body lay on the concrete still clutching his backpack, while police investigated the scene. This horrific picture was on the front page of the paper and this was how all of us found out what had happened to him.
I remember the day after when all of us were terrified to go to school because there were people on the Trench Coat Mafia's death list from our school too. I couldn't understand how this could happen but yet I could. I remember the taunting of people in the halls; people who were wealthier or cooler had an advantage over the little guy or the freak. I was blessed that I had enough confidence to stick up for myself, being the only African-American in my graduating class. I had gained the respect of my peers but I know others who didn't.
For the rest of the month, I would have to share my school with Columbine students and I soon graduated.
I was completely disturbed this week when I opened up the newspaper and found that someone had made a videogame reenactment of the massacre. "Super Columbine Massacre RPG" is a popular Internet game that reenacts the horrific scenes of the deadly school shooting. Once the story was placed in the newspaper, the game gained extreme popularity, with over 8,000 downloads from the website in one hour and 30,000 total downloads after the story appeared in the Denver Rocky Mountain News.
The game greets players with the statement: "Welcome to Super Columbine Massacre RPG! You play as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold on that fateful day in the Denver suburb of Littleton. How many people they kill is ultimately up to you." The game goes on so that Harris can decide to use a gun or plant bombs throughout the school. Harris will then meet with Klebold outside of the school and begin killing students outside. When the shooters kill a victim a disturbing dialog box appears and says "Another victory for the Trench Coat Mafia."
I am very upset that something like this is made public for teens and younger children to have access to and also to gain the assumption that the massacre was ok to happen seven years ago. I get frustrated at how someone has decided to use this as a form of entertainment and are not really thinking about the pain and hurt that it sparks for people who were actually there.
"It's wrong," said Joe Kechter, whose son Matthew Kechter was killed in the library of the school. "We live in a culture of death, so it doesn't surprise me that this stuff has become so commonplace. When people glorify murderers, they make murder acceptable." Stated Brian Rohrbough, Danny's and my good friend's dad.
This makes me upset because this is what Eric and Dylan wanted. They wanted to be remembered and glorified, when the truth is that they should be labeled as pure murderers. I feel that they were wimps. If I could stick up for myself why couldn't they? They had advantages, they were smart almost brilliant to devise a plan like this, but they chose the wimpy road, to kill others and themselves.
In today's paper, May 24, 2006, the video game maker had a chance to speak out about why he made the game. Danny Ledonne, of Alamosa, Colorado, justifies his designing of the game because of the extensive bullying that he incurred from kindergarten to high school. He believes that making the game has been a way for him to deal with what he went through during that period of his life. He closes the article with a statement that is very interesting yet contradictory "This is not a game that advocates school shooting or glorifies Eric and Dylan." I am puzzled at how he can say this; however, I really do not know what is in this guy's mind.
I hope that children, teens, and adults realize that bullying is real and so is murder. Kids need to learn that dealing with their problems with violence is not the answer, but how many times have we all heard this. History will only repeat itself until we correct the present.
Published by Celin Childs
Born in Milwaukee in 1981, Celin Childs is a unique writer that has attended two historically black colleges and two community colleges. She is currently a Muslim who wants to persue her dreams of becoming a... View profile
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14 Comments
Post a CommentI also went to Chatfield and am still sorting out my feelings on the matter. I can honestly say that April of 1999 was the worst month of my life. I had a boyfriend and several close friends at Columbine and was very much entangled in the aftermath.
While I remember the sheer agony of that day and the following days, I also remember the schools. You say that you were strong enough to stand up for yourself... so was I, but that didn't make the situation any different. Chatfield and Columbine were horribly stereotypical schools. Any shallow, surface level portrayal of suburban high school is pretty much right on concerning both schools. Wealth and popularity made you regardless of how 'strong' you were.
Murder is wrong.
Harassment is also wrong.
Can you imagine the anguish, hopelessness, fear, terror, and pain they must have felt to act so extremely?
I can't even imagine... and hope I never can.
May all who died rest in peace.
It's unfortunate that you and much of the public misunderstood the game so dramatically. Ledonne was as affected as a Colorado student could have been at the times, and was disturbed that in many ways his experiences mirrored the Columbine shooters'. He decided to turn his life around and ended up graduating from high school top of his class. He made the game so many years later because he isn't a game designer by trade, but a filmmaker; he found a program called RPG Maker which allowed him to create a game with minimal programming.
I do not understand how you find his statements contradictory. Perhaps if you had played the game yourself, rather than relying on sensationalist news and other people's thoughts, you would realize that the game is less graphic than any video game today and any prime-time television show. Ledonne hardly glamorizes the shooters when after players kill Harris and Klebold's avatars, photos of their blood-soaked bodies strewn on the library are shown--the on
The fact that these brainless wonders can justify this game shows why games like this do damage. This was real, for some of us very real. I have an article here about my experience living in Denver then and I admire you writing about this. Obviously this was much more personal for you than for me ... I am sorry you had to experience that. I am outraged about this game and this idiots that think it's okay to leave these comments when you actually knew people that were killed. Violent video games are a bad idea, if you ask me, but this is not an abstract game. Jeffco Sheriff's Dept should never have released that tape either. There should be a level of respect when people's lives have been taken, and just because it's done somewhere else -- in some other game -- doesn't justify this.
Just imagine that you were on place of those unfortunate people.... Sick idiots.... Burn in hell
i would just say that its not ment for everyone
Every person who has said this game isn't a big deal is an IDIOT! I'm a student from Colorado and I knew people who were lost/injured in the Columbine shooting. How dare you all to make light of the situation. You must not know how horrific it was for us all. Before you play this game again look up the official report on Columbine so you can see how brutal it was for my peers. Shame on the person who made this situation into a form of entertainment and shame on you for playing it. Sure America is the land of the free and you can do what you want. But that does NOT make it right
fuck all u dogs ill kick ur heads in haha..
It's a game, get over it. People can make a game on whatever they please, that's the USA for you.. if you don't like it, you know what to do.
UM well, america is land of the free. if someone wants to make a video game of a real life event they can. so shut ur damn mouth. lol ive been trying to download this game for a while. cant seem to do it right. but im still trying. cant wait til it works =]
It is a game that was designed to show people what happned on the day of the shootings in the eyes of the two gunman. It is not fun to play through it makes you think. It is just another way to show a story no different from the documentaries they make about it. Get over it and just accept that the maker is not saying go kill people he is just showing you what happened.