On the six year aniversity, a young man, then only known as “Columbin” but later revealed to be an aspiring game developer named Roger Kovacs shocked the world by creating a video game where you play as the infamous “Trench Coat Mafia,” that was responsible for the Columbine Massacre. Needless to say, the game did not receive a warm reception.
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The key argument that was made against this game is how it glorified the act of slaughtering innocents and how it trivialized the deaths of the students and teachers.
I am going to stray from defending or condmening this game for a moment, and let’s say that there is something to what everyone is saying, that our culture is a tad on the obessisive side when it comes to tradgedy. I mean, let’s take a look at the top grossing film in the U.S., which grossed over $600 million, Titanic. Also, what are some of the most frequently produced works of literature? The classics of literature usually involve tragedy and comedy. Does this say our two major interests are laughing and crying? What is it about disaster and tragedy that moves us so? Some would say that we watch others in pain to make ourselves feel better, or only through pain do we truly feel alive. Others have gone to say that only in crisis does one find personal truth.
Regardless of which, it is safe to say that tragedy and disaster transcend culture and permeate our very beings. They are very human events and can be understood by anyone. That being said, does it cheapen the moment when an individual decides to express their feelings about this event in literature or another form of artistic expression? Noah’s Ark is a powerful story of how God chose to save his worthy creations from destruction, but does this love become trivialized when Steve Carell portray’s a modern day Noah?
What about man-made disasters and tragedies. What if I create a film about a young World War I veteran, struggling as an artist in a broken Germany. This sounds like it could be the kind of film that tugs at the heartstrings and keeps popcorn popping. But what if this young starving artist, is named Adolf Hitler? Have I just trivialized the entire Holocaust and two world wars, by stating that this future monster was once a human being?
Depictions of tragedy show us a side of humanity we may not want to see, but should indeed be looked at and considered. These are human moments and make us wonder, “what would I do?” For some, it concretizes a foundation of our core beliefs, while in others, shakes those same foundations and makes us look at ourselves more objectively. Yes, this man may have been a monster, but what led to that? Could it have been avoided or was he redeemable?
So far, these kinds of moments only occur in more traditional forms of media, mostly print and film. However, this is the digital age, and as the Internet and video games become accepted forms of art and entertainment, we will see stories of real life tradgedy invade this realm. The concept is not totally alien, for most video games involve an element of tradgedy. Indeed, vengence, justice and saving the princess are a staple of this industry.
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Where does a game that puts you behind the trigger of a murder suicide offer a unique perspective on the human condition? I cannot speak on Kovac’s reasons for making this game, but I can only make my assumptions based on having played his game. The game is chilling and distrubing. I noticed no glorification of these murders, only a sense of doomed sadness. I personally identified with the story, having been exposed to school violence in many points in my life and from having friends affected by gun violence. Kovacs spent a lot of time on this game, incoporating as much real life material as possible and attempting to portray this game as objectively as possible. It was his own way of working out his demons, as he also related to what had happened.
Of course, many did not see it this way, but that was the point of this project too. Contraversy is a great thing to bring ideas out into the open. Why does this game bother people? Further more why does the idea of this social incident still impact our lives to this very day, over seven years later?
I think the answer to that scares us more than the question.
