Danny Ledonne created the controversion Super Columbine Massacre RPG! The game is sick and twisted, yet somehow it’s brilliant and engadging. Why? It explores the horrible tradgedy from alternate perspectives very much like Film.

People have made films about the Columbine incident and they’ve won Oscars and film festival prizes [most notably Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine - Ed.]. Clearly this is at least in part about the medium chosen and not the content of the work alone. I think, based on the subject matter, a videogame is a unique way to explore the subject in an interactive way unlike films or books. Ours isn’t a culture that has yet viewed videogames as an academic, scholarly, or truly artistic field and instead regards interactive electronics primarily as an innocuous plaything. I think Super Columbine Massacre RPG! challenges this.

I think this is a very good point. It’s a way of expanding our knowledge of an incident as well as applying some personal influence into it while we play the game. That is something that can’t be said for a movie, TV Show, or even a book.

Next Generation - Why I Made the Columbine Game

technorati tags:columbine, video, game, controversy

Exhibit 1: “Its popular and newly released Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has now been re-rated “Mature” and recalled by the ESRB because Take-Two and its co-publisher have been caught embedding nude figures and scenes in the game which can be unlocked with a code provided by the developer. This is not a modification or “mod” of the game by gamers. It is an unlocking of content that was put there by Take-Two with the unlocking code provided by the developer!”

What the FUCK are you guys talking about? There is no CODE. It is a 3rd party modification. Graphic models have a skin on them, and a lot of times it comes in layers to make it more realistic. Just like you have clothes over your own fucking skin.

Who lets these people put out this un-informed BULLSHIT. I think it’s time the video game community come up with a centralized group that regulates shit like this to the mainstream media.

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Gamespot has the scoop. For the most part they stand behind their ratings submission for Oblivion. They fully disclosed all that was in the game. This is what worries me though.

There is no nudity in Oblivion without a third party modification. In the PC version of the game only - this doesn’t apply to the Xbox 360 version - some modders have used a third party tool to hack into and modify an art archive file to make it possible to create a mesh for a partially nude (topless) female that they add into the game. Bethesda didn’t create a game with nudity and does not intend that nudity appear in Oblivion. There is no nude female character in a section of the game that can be “unlocked.” Bethesda can not control tampering with Oblivion by third parties. Bethesda is taking steps to ensure that modders can not continue to hack into Oblivion’s art archives to create partially nude figures.

On top of all this, the ESRB is really losing credibility by going back and changing ratings. Now they are making game developers and publishers as well as themselves look incompetent. Something needs to change at the ESRB, and they need to stop being such fucking pussies to political bs.

The ESRB has changed the rating of The Elder Scrolls: Oblvion from a T to an M.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has changed the rating assigned to the game “The Elder Scrolls® IV: Oblivionâ„¢” from T (Teen 13+) to M (Mature 17+). The content causing the ESRB to change the rating involves more detailed depictions of blood and gore than were considered in the original rating, as well as the presence of a locked-out art file or “skin” that, if accessed through a third party modification to the PC version of the game, allows the user to play with topless versions of female characters.

SourceÂ

Absolutely fucking ridiculous. This shit has GOT to stop. The ESRB apparantly doesn’t understand software or how it works. What locked content is, what a hack is, etc. Go to fucking hell ESRB.