This has come up numerous times on my NewsFeed as well (particularly among my friends who go to Virginia Tech). I think what separates this game from the other social games we looked at in class (JFK Reloaded and Columbine RPG) are the creators. It seems like this new game’s creators are quite hostile and unsure of what they want out of their game, whereas the creator of Columbine RPG seemed to have some sort of purpose/mission behind his game.
I find it very interesting that in the Mailbag there are many people, whom claim to be teachers/principals with atrocious grammar, and large misunderstandings about how video games work.
I personally don’t see this as glorifying school shooters at all. If anything, I see it as making fun of the people who commit school shootings. This is evidenced by a line in the about section which reads, “You play as a disgruntled student fed up with something or other (We’re not exactly sure).” This implies that the creator of this mod does not really care about the deep implications behind why people start school shootings. He/they seem to view this as a rather fruitless act of rebellion.
Elsewhere on their site, you can see that metokur is a ring of sites dedicated to satire and troll humor. Specifically, the developers of the game call themselves Checker Boarded Studios. On their page (www.checkerboarded.com) they specialize in “satirical Half-Life 2 modifications.” Their statement on SS:NAT2012 here makes it much more apparent that they are making fun school shooters. Not the violent acts, but the nature of the people who commit them. Statements like, “You are free do to whatever you want (as long as it involves shooting people in a school)” and “You must arm yourself with the same weapons as a previous school shooter” show that they see school shootings as very uninspired rather than a passionate means of getting back at society for what is has done to you.
He is trolling, but he is not just trolling. Take a look at the blog listed in the second link from the right on the top bar there. The author of that blog talks about trolling and activism.
This has come up numerous times on my NewsFeed as well (particularly among my friends who go to Virginia Tech). I think what separates this game from the other social games we looked at in class (JFK Reloaded and Columbine RPG) are the creators. It seems like this new game’s creators are quite hostile and unsure of what they want out of their game, whereas the creator of Columbine RPG seemed to have some sort of purpose/mission behind his game.
I find it very interesting that in the Mailbag there are many people, whom claim to be teachers/principals with atrocious grammar, and large misunderstandings about how video games work.
I personally don’t see this as glorifying school shooters at all. If anything, I see it as making fun of the people who commit school shootings. This is evidenced by a line in the about section which reads, “You play as a disgruntled student fed up with something or other (We’re not exactly sure).” This implies that the creator of this mod does not really care about the deep implications behind why people start school shootings. He/they seem to view this as a rather fruitless act of rebellion.
Elsewhere on their site, you can see that metokur is a ring of sites dedicated to satire and troll humor. Specifically, the developers of the game call themselves Checker Boarded Studios. On their page (www.checkerboarded.com) they specialize in “satirical Half-Life 2 modifications.” Their statement on SS:NAT2012 here makes it much more apparent that they are making fun school shooters. Not the violent acts, but the nature of the people who commit them. Statements like, “You are free do to whatever you want (as long as it involves shooting people in a school)” and “You must arm yourself with the same weapons as a previous school shooter” show that they see school shootings as very uninspired rather than a passionate means of getting back at society for what is has done to you.
I heard from a friend that this is just someone trolling
He is trolling, but he is not just trolling. Take a look at the blog listed in the second link from the right on the top bar there. The author of that blog talks about trolling and activism.