The most positive reviews of '' Super Columbine Massacre '' came from critics who accepted Ledonne 's intended message . '' Wired '' magazine writer Clive Thompson appreciated the game 's attention to narrative detail , writing that " the upshot of the game is that Ledonne has done a surprisingly good job of painting the emotional landscape of the gunmen — whipsawing from self-pity to pompous grandiosity and blinding rage , then back again . " Thompson called the game subtle , including jabs at the participants and gaming culture by using the language of games as a way to think about the killings . Writing for '' The Courier Mail '' , Paul Syvret 's advice to those who found the game controversial and in bad taste was to " lighten up " . Bogost summed up his review of the game by writing " this game is not fun , it is challenging , and difficult to play — not technically difficult , but conceptually difficult . We need more of that . " David Kociemba , a professor at Emerson College , agreed with Bogost and commented that " the controversy should be that there are n't more games like '' Super Columbine Massacre RPG ! '' that are as demanding and as artistically innovative . " Dugan responded to common criticisms of the game , including that the game was made in bad taste , by writing a rebuttal on his blog : I think everyone who disses the '' Columbine RPG '' is gutless . Most have n't played the game , or have played it with such preconceptions that they 're blinded to the genuis sic , the honesty , the beauty of its social commentary . '' Super Columbine Massacre RPG '' is riddled with design flaws and has mediocre graphics by 1995 , the maker of the game admits this , but it regardless is a work of art . It puts you in the mindset of the killers and provides a very clear suggestion of why they did what they did ; they were enacting an ideological demonstration through a terrorist act , and the game shines light on this as an indictment of the American dream and way of life painfully close to the main nerve . After the Dawson College shooting in September 2006 , when gunman Kimveer Gill killed one student and injured 19 others , the '' Toronto Sun '' wrote that Kimveer had self-reported playing '' Columbine Massacre '' on a web site . The story was picked up by media and reported widely . Upon hearing media reports of a link to the game one of the shooting victims at Dawson College contacted Ledonne and told him that " I just suffered multiple gunshot wounds and I think you should take this game down . " Ledonne expressed his reaction to the shooting and renewed media attention towards his game in an interview a week later : If one is interested in making something for the public to view — be it a painting , a book , an album , a film , or a video game , should the POSSIBLE harm that may come out of this work be grounds for its suppression from society ? This is , in a sense , pre-crime . If you believe in what you 're doing and you want to express yourself , the expression should be primary and any interpretations that come after must always remain of secondary importance to the creation of the work itself . On another level , the entire correlation between the Dawson College shooting and my game is unfounded . ... What else did Kimveer like ? Black clothes ? Goth music ? Pizza ? ... If anything , the Dawson College shooting is proof positive that games like '' Super Columbine Massacre '' '' should '' be made ; until video games are no longer among the " usual suspects " for homicidal rampages , the public needs to more carefully consider why interactive electronic media is somehow the manufacturer of Manchurian Candidates . Developer Ryan Lambourn created a flash game called '' V-Tech Rampage '' in 2007 , which allows players to control the actions of gunman Seung-Hui Cho in the Virginia Tech massacre . Lambourn professed empathy for Cho , and said that he was a target of bullying in high school . " No one listens to you unless you 've got something sensational to do . And that 's why I feel sympathy for Cho Seung-Hui sic . He had to go that far " , Lambourn stated . On the '' V-Tech Rampage '' site , Lambourn posted a statement that he would take the game off of Newgrounds if donations reached $ 1000 ; at $ 2000 in donations he would take the game down from the main site and for another $ 1000 he would apologize for creating it . Ledonne posted a comment on Lambourn 's website after '' V-Tech Rampage '' drew comparisons to '' Super Columbine Massacre '' , calling Lambourn 's statement tantamount to a " hostage note " , and asking bloggers to consider " not whether a game about the Virginia Tech shooting SHOULD be made but how we might go about making a game that accomplishes more than '' V-Tech Rampage '' does with the subject matter . " Ledonne stated that he emailed Lambourn sympathetically , but that the creator responded to his emails with profanity ; he reiterated that the two games had different motivations and were not easily comparable in content
Dawson College shooting
Dawson College shooting
Super Columbine Massacre RPG!