New Video Game Recreates Kennedy Assassination 832
theodp writes "Lee Harvey Oswald-wannabes will be able to simulate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy when Traffic Games releases the $9.99 JFK Reloaded on Monday to coincide with the 41st anniversary of Kennedy's murder in Dallas. 'It is despicable,' said a spokesman for Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, the late president's brother."
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Heh... (Score:2, Insightful)
'It is despicable,' (Score:3, Insightful)
But thats in the past and doesn't matter.
Re:Whats wrong? (Score:5, Insightful)
Games about WWII: OK.
Games about shoveling the dead naked bodies of Jews into ovens: Not OK.
I guess the point is that some things just go beyond what most people think is appropriate/acceptable/good taste.
Re:I'm suprised to be agreeing.. (Score:1, Insightful)
Turnabout is fair play... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Whats wrong? (Score:5, Insightful)
More to the point, you get _points_ for drilling JFK just so with your rifle. That's pretty tasteless, and for a president who was liked pretty well (so I'm told) by most of the world, you'd think they could stay away from that...
-Erwos
The last I checked... (Score:2, Insightful)
I live in a free country. Namely, America. (Yes, I realize a significant number of /. readers do not, sometimes I wish I was among that number...) We have freedom of speech and expression the last I heard. If you think the game is in poor taste, by all means, do not buy or play it. To me, it just doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun, but I could care less about the subject matter.
Why is there not this outcry against Call of Duty, when it recreates the tragic deaths of millions during WWII? Is a historical simulation only wrong if someone FAMOUS gets hurt?
Too Soon? (Score:4, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Couple thoughts. (Score:4, Insightful)
Second, Could this be to prove that the 3 bullets didnt come from the same gun? No matter what you do, you can't recreate the assignation since the bullets come from different directions?
I thought it was proved when the home movie was finally released showing the driver getting hit, that there was a 2nd gunman.
Or is that damn Magic bullet bullshit true? Bounces around like ping pong ball. Hey, even snopes.com doesnt explain that urban legend.
other shooters (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't like that it only allows you to be oswald though. It would be much more intresting if you could also try it in the multiple shooter scenario. if this were an option, the game would be much more likely to "undermine the theory there was some shadowy plot behind the assassination" as the developer claims its purpose is.
Re:The last I checked... (Score:5, Insightful)
Those freedoms apply to the brothers of assassinated presidents too, yes?
Why can't anyone think of something original? (Score:1, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Let's see...It's not: (Score:4, Insightful)
While this is recreation of a historical detail for points, it's also recreation of a murder.
I imagine you would be extremely upset if someone created a videogame reenacting the murder of your sister or brother, asking players to try and mimic as perfectly as possible the trajectory of the bullets that exited your loved one's skull.
This isn't a history role-playing game, this is recreation of an actual murder.
There's definately more wrong than right in this. You should be able to see that.
that's not really responsive (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a historical event, and while all three things are probably true for many recountings of such historical events, I'm not convinced that video games should be treated differently from any other historical account. Certainly the game is there for entertainment, which makes it different from a documentary (for example), but not so different that it isn't still (at least implicitly) a narrative about an important historical event.
Re:Warren Commision. (Score:2, Insightful)
If it did, then THAT'D be a news story.
Re:Whats wrong? (Score:4, Insightful)
I would be more inclined to draw the moral line at the shooting of defenseless people, if I were going to draw one.
Fine (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm swear, I'm so fucking sick of others trying to force their morals and beliefs onto me. I personally would LOVE to play a game like this if it were an accurate historical simulation. Even moreso if the rifle and physics are very accurate. Frankly, I think we could use more games like this. How about one where you are a jew in a concentration camp and you have to try to escape?
What's that? That is evil and shouldn't be made as well? Well, as a jew who has spent serious time studying the holocaust, I'm ok with it, and since I'd be the one buying the game, IT WOULD BE MY FUCKING CHOICE!
God, I just wish that just once I could run into one of these evangelical morons, have them try to force their world view on me, and then beat the first amendment into them. Ugh. Don't they have anybody elses lives to worry about? Like their own?
Re:that's not really responsive (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Tens of millions of people were killed in WWII. The sheer number of deaths depersonalizes the victims. (Unfair as that may be) So you can't compare it. AFAIK most WWII games do not center on specific named individuals either.
2) Time, WWII was two generations ago, the Kennedy murder was one.
3) Morality. All but the strongest pacificts would agree that killing another armed man in war is one thing and murdering an unarmed civilian is another. WWII reenactment games usually center on warfare, not the Holocaust, for example.
I don't see that being a 'historical event' is much of a mitigating factor. So was 9/11, and I think most people would be quite offended if someone were to make a 'hit the twin towers flight simulator'-type game out of it.
And that would be because of the reasons stated above.
Re:"They Hate Us For Our Freedom!" (Score:3, Insightful)
When does freedom of speech = freedom to threaten another human life? Do you think someone has the right to make a video game about killing you personally? What about someone you love?
Would you suggest that a society where threats on life are accepted and protected, would in fact be more free? That sort of system of intimidation would only sacrafice our freedom to those who have the greatest ability to end our lives.
Lets say some very rich and powerful person were to threaten the life of the president, and for the sake of argument, there is nothing illegal about making that threat. What you would be left with is a weakened presidency, perhaps more likely to act along the idealogical lines of the man who has threatened to take his life.
The intimidation that comes with a threat makes it just as serious as the actual act of murder. It is control based on whoever is strongest. A society free to threaten its leaders is not free, but merely bound to the will of the entity best equipped to make good on its word.
Why stop there? (Score:5, Insightful)
Guys, read the site before you jump to conclusions (Score:5, Insightful)
Historians are always reconstructing the assassination. The Discovery Channel once ran a special where they ran a dummy by in a car and had an expert marksmen sharpshoot at its head as it drove by. It wasn't horrifying; it was supposed to be educational. This game is clearly an attempt to show just how implausible the official explanation for the JFK assassination is. I would love to see if any player actually achieves a high passing score.
Personal, I find the idea of this fascinating. The angle of "play as assassin and shoot JFK!" was given by Slashdot; that's not the intent. It's more of an academic exercise, and it will be very interesting to take part in this and see if the government's explanation for what happened actually plays out when you try it yourself. There's a reason they have the assassin's floor blocked off in the Assassination Museum--as Bill Hicks said, they didn't want thousands of American tourists going up there each year, pointing out the window, and realizing "There's no fucking way!"
Of course, all of this publicity is probably more than they could have hoped for. I doubt many people would have known about this sim otherwise.
Re:Couple thoughts. (Score:4, Insightful)
(I wouldn't. In fact, I'm going to go burn a U.S. flag now, because the flag symbolizes the freedom to do just that. :)
--
Re:"They Hate Us For Our Freedom!" (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, either you missed my point, or I didnt explain myself well enough. I am simply saying that the threat of violence can control people. This is good in the instance of Iraq and the middle east. Because of Iraq, Middle Eastern countries know that they cannot play the same game with the UN that Saddam did. This is why Libya surrendered thier arsenal. We are letting the international approach take its time in Iran. The only reason they are in talks with other countries is because the are afraid of the massive US army on thier doorstep. We also need to take the same course of action with North Korea.
We have the strongest army in the world, so when dealing with rational people we should NOT have to use it. They should realize they cant win against us, and scrap the nukes. We arent asking them to raise a US flag or start eating hot dogs. We are simply assuring that those countries who openly hate us do not have the capacity to kill us. Its harder in the case of Jihadists, but I think in North Korea diplomacy could work.
My whole point is this, a valid threat of violence can control people. If someone uses this threat to control a rouge nation that has said they want us to burn in nuclear flames, then that is good. If someone uses that to control a government via threats of assasaination, that is a bad thing.
Re:that's not really responsive (Score:2, Insightful)
Out of those, only Rommel died during the war, and that was after being ordered to commit suicide. He was a victim of the Nazis, not the war.
MS Flight Sim (Score:3, Insightful)
It's called "Microsoft Flight Simulator" and it's been around since the 1980s...
But that's all irrelivant/invalid (Score:5, Insightful)
Assuming that the WC's report is true and Oswald was the lone shooter he had one objective: Kill president Kennedy. So, to that end he was firing at the prsident until he was convinced he was dead. Most likely by a visual clue indicating a headshot. The first two shots were misses, as least as far as he was concerned. He wasn't trying to miss, he was trying to hit, however he failed to do so.
It's not hard ot take two shots and miss and hit with a third one, even at a moving target if you are an experienced marksman. That doesn't mean you can recreate the happenings perfectly. It will happen one way one time, another the next.
Also, no game can accurately model the physics of what will happen. Realtime physics engines in games are pretty primitive. They can deal with the basics like ragdoll simulation on bodies, falling objects, and simple destructable objects, but any real simulation is FAR beyond what we have.
Well, to accurately simulate a bullet impact, it takes some serious power. Bullets do NOT act intuitively, espically high power ones. Lots of people forget that the bullets fired were high powered rounds form a Carcano military rifle. Thos act quite differently from a 9mm JHP round. Their penetration is extreme, and you can easily shoot through 3 or more unarmoured people with one. TRying to say that a game can simulate the trajectory of a bullet through a complex structure like the body is just stupid.
Sounds to me like these people are really doing one of two things:
1) Trying to play up the consparicy nut angle saying "See, lots of gamers couldn't do it in our (highly invalid) simulation, how could it possibly have happened in rea life?" and thus "prove" their theory.
2) Make money off said consparicy nuts.
I see nothing here approaching valid or interesting.
Dont give this trash publicity (Score:4, Insightful)
Seriously, there are some fantastic games out at the moment, Half Life 2, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, maybe Pirates will be good even *cough plug* my own Starship Tycoon
Its always pretty depressing to see that you can get a million dollars worth of advertising just by ensuring your game is sick and tasteless.
Lets treat trash like this the way it deserves, and ignore it completely. there are plenty more worthy pieces of entertainmemnt out there that could be covered instead.
Re:Couple thoughts. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:But that's all irrelivant/invalid (Score:4, Insightful)
you sure were long-winded in replying for it to be not valid or not interesting.
An uptodate version (Score:2, Insightful)
Killing USA:s president is trivial, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
[Trivial, with money and manpower inside united states, and with some time for preparitions.]
Quicklist:
Someone inside does it with poison or something: blackmail, bribe, personal hate towards president etc...
Longrange rifles and explosive bullets 2 kilometers away from target...
Mortars 8 kilometers away from target... Best would be if you could get enough firepower to take down a building, if not then in the street right in front of it.
Bazooka trough a wall...
Burry explosives before hand to a location you know president will be at sometime future....
Best location would be a large bridge. Feed the sharks below the bridge before hand just to make sure...
Navy/airforce insiders... Well get missile, zero it to a building where president is. Hit the fire button. Or better yet. Use insiders to get it from armory, deliver it withing its range to the president and then fire it at the target...
Now none of the tricks are something you could get AWAY with actually, so there has to be something more important than persons own life for a motive to do it. Doing it isn't going to make anything better, you just get another dumb polition that does same mistakes, perhaps few additional mistakes os it won't solve a thing.
Re:The most despicable thing (Score:3, Insightful)
An appropriate time for the quote: (Score:3, Insightful)
Besides... if both guns and games were banned, which do you think would've been more likely to save Kennedy?
Re:But that's all irrelivant/invalid (Score:2, Insightful)
I recall hearing that one of the shots at Kennedy went through another person after it went through him. We now have to consider where the bullet goes after it leaves Kennedy's body and how much energy it has left before it goes into the next person's body.
If my understanding of physics (and the situation) is correct, it's not as simple as you make it out to be.
(Note: I am not a forensic scientist or anything. I am a 17 year old computer geek who enjoyed High School Physics in senior year. Take this all with a grain of salt)
Serious simulation (Score:3, Insightful)
While I appreciate that this must be painful for some of the family--as, most likely, are the periodic rehashing of the event in the news and documentary media--I see this as another part of the loss of privacy that is part of the price of leadership. The assassination of President Kennedy is one of the pivotal events of modern history. It is also uniquely controversial. What really happened is still being hotly debated decades later. Nobody seriously questions, for example, whether it was possible for a beginning pilot to fly a plane into the WTC, yet there are many people who believe passionately that Oswald could not have made the shots as described.
This project appears to be a serious attempt at interactive history, allowing people to investigate for themselves the plausibility of the "official" version of events. This is a unique way to breathe life into history; I hope we see more serious simulations of this nature
What Next (Score:1, Insightful)
But if you really want tasteless: A simulator where you play the commandant of a Nazi concentration camp and your job is to
Marine = good shot (Score:3, Insightful)
That Marine A calls Marine B a "lousy shot" is comparing B to the best.
That Marine B is a Marine means he's still a far better shot than the general population.
Who are "the people"? (Score:3, Insightful)