Stranger 109

This week Keith Stuart from the Guardian Unlimited interviewed designer of last year’s most controversial title Super Columbine Massacre RPG, Danny Ladonne. After releasing the game online, Ladonne was met with a hail of criticism, citing his attempt at a social critique of the tragic shooting as unthinkably insensitive. Despite the mixed response, the title was selected as a finalist for the Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition at this year’s Slamdance film festival. But it was quickly pulled after the festival sponsors voiced concerns about endorsing such a controversial game. Lodonne is back in the fray thanks to the trailer for his upcoming documentary on his experience making the game and its tumultuous response entitled Playing Columbine.

I recently wrote a book chapter for the forthcoming Handbook on Effective Electronic Gaming Research in Education that examines this case study as a political application of the video game medium. In it I discuss how despite gaming’s new found acceptance within mainstream culture, it has yet to find a place of legitimacy as a means of serious expression. Whereas Bowling for Columbine was championed by many as an important reflection on the Littleton tragedy, SCMRPG was seen as trivializing the event. So the content of the game becomes completely irrelevant simply because it occurs within the context of a game. And this poses the biggest hurdle for games as political expression. If you have not had a chance to play through the game, I would recommend doing so. Play it not because it is enjoyable (because it most certainly is not), but because Ladonne consructs a text that forces the player to consider other possible explanations than Klebold and Harris were simply monsters. Whereas most of the negative responses suggest that the game celebrates the tragedy, playing through reveals a thoughtful engagement of what should only be considered as a complex issue.

Getting ousted from Slamdance was perhaps a blessing in disguise for Ladonne and established the perfect narrative backdrop to tell his story in the new documentary. Just so the math is clear: I’m talking about a documentary based on a controversial videogame based on an actual tragedy. According to the interview, Ladonne sees the response to SCMRPG as a larger systemic problem that we have with the videogame medium. But as more and more serious games emerge like Darfur is Dying, September 12th, and McDonald’s Videogame we will be forced to take games as a legitimate means of political expression. Hopefully for Ladonne and the many others who choose to use games as a political voice, the documentary will find an audience at film festivals and slowly shift how we think of videogames.