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Slamdance Festival Loses More Entrants
Posted by
Zonk
on Wed Jan 10, '07 02:27 PM
from the should-have-thought-this-through dept.
from the should-have-thought-this-through dept.
In yet more displays of solidarity with the creator of Super Columbine Massacre RPG, additional Slamdance finalists have withdrawn. The incredibly creative Toblo, as well as the titles Once Upon a Time and Everyday Shooter have taken themselves out of consideration in protest of the Columbine game's removal from the competition. Only eight of the original 14 finalists are still in the competition, with several of those having gotten together to write a letter of protest to the contest's organizers. Danny Leddonne, creator of the Columbine title, has spoken with Ars Technica and Next Gen in recent days, and touches on both his controversial title and the hoopla that now surrounds it. Update: 01/10 20:21 GMT by Z : It doesn't end. Slamdance has now lost a sponsor over this.
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'Columbine RPG' Creator Discusses the Dawson Shooting 127 comments
Back in May, Brian Crecente of Kotaku and the Rocky Mountain News had a chat with the maker of the 'Columbine RPG'. Today, he talks again with game-maker Danny LeDonne about possible connections between his game and the Dawson shooting. From the article: "My very first reaction, frankly, was to head to my toilet bowl and throw up. I knew what was in the works and I knew the next week would be spent keeping my head above water while the press tried to bury me with guilt-laden questions and implications of complicity in murder. I also knew that this was no time to fold or get weak-kneed. I made a game. I believed in it. Now it was time to defend it. No one would do that except me."
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Columbine Game Kicked From Slamdance Festival 209 comments
Imaria writes "A Kotaku post has the news that Super Columbine Massacre RPG! has been kicked out of the Slamdance Gamemaker Festival. After reaching the finals, the organizers were forced to remove the game from the running to appease mounting external pressure. According to the post, this is the first time in the Slamdance Festival's 13 year history that they have removed either a game or film due to criticism. From the article: '[Game creator] Ledonne said that he bears no ill will toward the festival, but that the decision to pull the game does raise concerns about freedom of speech and video game development. "I don't want to paint them as the villain in this," he said. "I don't think the real issue is a couple of guys at Slamdance who decided to reject my game, it's the larger pressures placed on them."'"
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Columbine RPG Kickout Has Repercussions 118 comments
As a direct result of the removal of the Columbine RPG from the Slamdance game competition, two games (so far) have pulled out of the judging process. The Forge has extensive commentary on the first pullout (the game Braid), as well as the removal of fl0w from the competition. From the article: "Regardless of the artistic merit, the facts as I understand them are that Slamdance had actively courted the creator of SCM RPG! to enter it into the festival, which then judged it to be a finalist before bending over for the corporations and shredding their credibility by removing it from the competition. Imagine Dominoes Pizza deciding it objected to the theme of Brokeback Mountain and told the Academy Awards to remove it. Imagine them doing it after it was already a finalist."
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Slamdance Festival Loses More Entrants
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Shouldn't be pulling out...
(Score:4, Funny)(http://www.creimer.ws/ | Last Journal: Friday January 26, @01:40PM)
Re:Shouldn't be pulling out...
(Score:4, Informative)(http://philwelch.net/)
great
(Score:3, Funny)(http://go.away/)
USC Interactive Media Division Withdraws Slamdance
(Score:5, Interesting)(http://www.reasonistreason.com/)
Only seven left--
(Score:5, Insightful)The next game
(Score:1)Sun,urr,Slamdance...corporate sponsors...
(Score:3, Insightful)Mixed Feelings All Around
(Score:4, Insightful)It's hard for me to jump up and say, "Yeah! Way to go!" at the so-called honorable actions of other games pulling out of the Festival. Sure, it was stupid of Slamdance to allow SCRPG to enter only to disqualify them at the end. It's like allowing a drug using, girl-gone-wild type into a Miss America pagent only to disqualify her later because she's a drug using, girl-gone-wild type.
Er... wait... what?
Seriously, although I am not for disqualifying the SCRPG, how would you feel about a new FPS entering the contest called Maryland Sniper? Remember the guy who was sniping innocent people coming out of the parking lot or attempting to use a gas pump? Would that be an acceptable entry as well?
I mean, look, after all the WWII and Iraq Desert conflict style games that are out, let's face it, this SCRPG is not much different. Anyway you look at it, the fundamentals are this, one group of people waged war against another, took lethal action, and tragedy ensued.
So at what point does one feel that a violent video game has crossed the line? Grand Theft Auto, a game where the player steals cars, kills hookers (Vice City) and pretends to be a stereotyped Uncle Tom gangster (San Andreas), has pretty much been accepted as gaming norm. Ironically enough, brain drained politicians felt the hot coffee mod where two 3D animated sprites humping one another was far worse than shooting a prostitute in the gut, stepping on her face, stealing a car and running over pedestrians.
And what constitutes the 'line being crossed' scenario? It seems in this case, the "too soon?" cliche is what crosses the line, although that argument gets shot to hell when Iraq War games hit the shelves three years after the conflict began. It seems to me there is no line when it comes to video game violence. There is only pushing the envelope by displaying contextual scenarios and situations that happen to be violent. For example, a game where I can, with graphic results, shoot a hooker in the face, no problem, but if I bring her up to my virtual apartment and, with graphic results, dry hump her, there's a problem with that. If I shoot her in the face afterwards, serious, serious problems, but only because I dry humped her first.
See? It's baseless. There is no line. There is only the ability of players to understand the level of realism they are simulating. This is obviously just Slamdance making a really dumb decision at a very poor time. If they would have refused the game in the getgo, well, then they'd have to come up with a pretty good reason why and I think they didn't feel like doing so as it might impede on their slamdanciness, so to speak.
Here's a question: What if this were called Super Columbine Simulator, instead of RPG? Too Soon?
Re:Mixed Feelings All Around
(Score:5, Insightful)Seriously, although I am not for disqualifying the SCRPG, how would you feel about a new FPS entering the contest called Maryland Sniper? Remember the guy who was sniping innocent people coming out of the parking lot or attempting to use a gas pump? Would that be an acceptable entry as well?
Sure, why not? I'm not sure why you're disqualifying an entry because some people will be offended. There's a difference between what's socially acceptable (whatever that means) and what's an acceptable entry in a competition. If "Maryland Sniper" has some kind of redeeming quality and is a good game, why not? If it's a poor game, and just trying to be "controversial" then it's a poor entry.
As to your arguments about "where the line is", it's not really relevant. What offends people is different for each person. I'm offended by the idiotic "Left Behind" game. I'd never buy it, I think people who play it and take it seriously are religious wackos, but I don't really care if someone puts it in a competition. "Where the line is" only matters to someone trying to sell the game (which was never the goal with SCMRPG), and even then you can only define it in terms of a percentage of the population. Hell, I'm sure there's some nutjobs out their that think there's something wrong with pac-man because he's a glutton that's always eating and is never satiated.
As for SCMRPG, I've played it and found it to be a poor entry into the competition because it's a poor game. Not because it might offend someone, "cross the line", or is "innapropriate". Frankly I think it was included in the competition purely because it covers a controversial subject. Then someone higher up heard about it, and decided that "the money guys won't like it", so they pulled it. Pretty lame if you ask me.
Never has such a bad game caused so much hoopla.
(Score:5, Interesting)The interview of the game developer is pretty funny. He sounds like a freshman humanities 101 paper using phrases like
and gems like:
Sadly being kicked out of Slamdance is going to give this guy far more press than he deserves. No, not because he created something controversial.. but because he created a crappy game with no subtlety and just expected everyone to accept that "all forms of art can be valid tools for societal exploration".
Here's a clue to this guy. If you want your "art" to be accepted as a "valid tool for societal exploration", you just might want to create something that doesn't suck monkey-dick. Then that whole "it's art and changing peoples opinions of what a game is" thing might have a bit more validity.
Re:Never has such a bad game caused so much hoopla
(Score:4, Insightful)Look how worked up you are about it. It's more than you thinking "why was this worth consideration"?
I get pissed off at the moronic government of George W Bush too. Is he now "good art"? You seem to think I really care about SCMRPG. What pissed me off is the people trying to fool other people by dangling the word "art" in front of something, hynotizing them until their brains shut off. It has nothing to do with SCMRPG, and everything to do with the people who're in the "art above all" camp.
Art isn't easily defined. Just because you don't agree with something doesn't make any difference.
I don't care if it's "art" or not. Call it art, fine. Say it's not, fine. All I know is that it's a poor game.
My problem with the whole "art" defense is that it becomes the ultimate shield for some people. Say to such a person you think it sucks, and they come back with "Ohh.. well you just don't UNDERSTAND IT!" As if the given is that it's "art" and if you don't respect it in some way, you've "missed the point".
Seven
(Score:1)(Last Journal: Sunday June 13, @12:19AM)
There were 8 in the bed and the little one said...
(Score:1)(Last Journal: Friday June 11, @12:15PM)
And it looks like we're down to 7. [slamdance.com]. Nick Montfort's Book and Volume [nickm.com] is no longer listed with a brief statement here [nickm.com].
Nelson Muntz once said....
(Score:1)Equivocating?
(Score:3, Funny)I think that was meant to be "equating" not "equivocating".
An astute editor should have corrected it if it was not what was said, replaced it using square brackets to denote a substitution, or otherwise noted the error. As it stands, it isn't clear whether it is the interviewer's error or the interviewee trying to importantalize his statementarisms by inflaterizing his syllabilical count.
Gotta feel for the real victims here.
(Score:3, Insightful)Article in Wired
(Score:1)(http://www.bigmural.com/ | Last Journal: Friday February 02, @01:22PM)
Clive Thompson over at Wired wrote an article entitled "I, Columbine Killer"
http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,72491-0.html?
Re:Some other ideas for video games
(Score:2, Insightful)We used to call that game Burnout.
Re:Some other ideas for video games
(Score:1)(Last Journal: Friday June 11, @12:15PM)
But this is not what they're doing. The judges accepted the game. They played it and agreed that it was permissable. The reason for it beingejected seems to be for all the wrong reasons - groups who have not played the game, and implictely agreed not to interfere objected to it and had it removed. This changes the festival from an avant garde independent games and films event to a watered down corporate run promotion.
Re:Some other ideas for video games
(Score:3, Insightful)(http://www.pixelsaredead.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday August 18, @01:51AM)
All in all, the GPP's "suggestions" give the idea that they either don't understand or don't appreciate the "commentary" angle of SCMRPG, but they did nothing to frame their argument by discounting these legitimate facets of the game (legitimate as perceived and commented-upon by other posters, writers, etc.), instead presenting counterarguments that completely overlook this part, so the comment comes off as underinformed, underexplained, or a troll.