It appears the news we broke last week of Slamdance removing the Columbine game from their lists of finalists and why has created quite the shitstorm, for lack of a better word.

Ian Bogost reports over on Water Cooler Games growing list of reactions to the decision:

Kelee Santiago pulled Slamdance finalist and future PS3 title flOw from the competition in protest.

To hear that the game had been pulled was deeply discouraging. As a group, our opinions on the quality of the game itself range, but we can all agree on one thing: it deserved to be there.

We also agree that the act of pulling SCMRPG is one we cannot condone. But how best to protest this action? Going to the festival, at which prizes are awarded, only to criticize its organizers seemed unfair at best, and hypocritical at worst. Therefore, we have decided to withdraw flOw from the competition. We agree with Jonathan Blow:

Jonathan Blow, creator of finalist Braid, has also pulled his game from the competition.

The game lacks compassion, and I find the Artist's Statement disingenuous. But despite this, the game does have redeeming value. It does provoke important thoughts, and it does push the boundaries of what games are about. It is composed with more of an eye toward art than most games. Clearly, it belongs at the festival.

So, in protest of game's expulsion, I have dropped Braid out of the competition as well.

Raph Koster has spoken up on the subject.

Dismissing the game "on moral grounds" essentially argues that it is exploitative; yet we do not necessarily consider clearly issue-driven films or books as exploitative. Rather, the sensitivity of the subject seems to be what is pushing the needle here. Can games, which some allege caused Columbine, then comment on Columbine without being regarded as exploitative?

SCMRPG is no great shakes as a game in its own right. It doesn't even try to do something new on that front. Instead, it's incurring controversy based on artwork, content, and most importantly, the medium that it happens to be in. Were its RPG plot excised and written out as a book, would anyone raise an eyebrow? Probably not.

As has Slamdance Game Fest sponsor Greg Costikyan, of Manifesto Games. Costikyan, while continuing to support the fest, has created a permanent place for the game on Manifesto's site.

As gamers, and those who love games, our reponse to this game, and to the criticism of it, should not be to hide, or run away, or hope that it goes away. Instead it should be to say: You do not understand, nor are you attempting to understand. This is not a glamorization of the murderers, nor yet a trivialization of the tragedy; it is a work of serious artistic intent and accomplishment, based on considerable research, that in fact illuminates and reflects the horror of that day. Just as there are novels of the Holocaust, there can be a game of Columbine, and neither need trivialize a tragedy.

Andrew Stern and Michael Mateas, winners of last year's Slamdance Grand Jury Prize, have written an open letter to the festival, asking for the reinstatement of the Super Columbine Massacre RPG.

We give no judgment here about how successfully "Super Columbine Massacre RPG!" addresses its topic. However we feel it is extremely important that the game community, including high-profile festivals such as Slamdance, support such experimentation. Games, as a medium, are as fully deserving and appropriate as film and other more established media forms, to deal with such subject matter.

And how can we forget Newsweek's N'Gai Croal.

This is a recipe for the continued infantilizing of a young medium whose potential, for all of the compelling works already released, still remains largely untapped. We haven't played Super Columbine Massacre RPG, but from what we've read, it strikes us as a fairly serious and well-intentioned attempt to grapple with the shootings and suicides through an interactive medium. And while we certainly recognize that many will see SCMRPG as ghoulish, offensive and trivializing of a horrific event, we reject the premise that it is inherently so—any more than Art Spiegelman's "Maus" or Pablo Picasso's "Guernica"—and any attempts to paint Ledonne's game as inherently so should be firmly and loudly repudiated. For those of us who care about the future of videogames, this is a time to stand up and be counted.

If you have any interest in gaming besides the playing of them, you must read all of these links. Seriously. Artistic expression in video games is the most important topic that will likely be faced by developers, perhaps ever. The fact that the game that seems to be bringing this topic to a head happens to be one that many find repugnant is incidental to the bigger issue here.

To be clear: This is not about SCMRPG. This is about whether video games will forever be relegated to the position of mindless entertainment and child's play or whether gaming as an industry can make that final leap into artistry, expression and tackle topics that evoke something more than fun.

This is why I finally decided to become a games journalist. I enjoy writing reviews, but what finally pushed me to make that leap from police reporting to features writing is the chance to be covering a medium at the cusp of becoming something so much greater. Brian Crecente

Update: Jan. 9
Three more finalists have dropped out of the festival. Bringing the the number of finalists no longer in the competition to five, six if you count SCMRPG, or nearly half.

Once Upon a Time withdraws from the finals.

"We are very saddened by the news of Super Columbine Massacre RPG being pulled from the Slamdance Guerilla Gamemakers competition due to loss of financial backing.
Regardless of the merit of SCMRPG being a finalist in the SGG competition, having chosen the game and then only removing it when pressured by outside influences brings the impartiality of the competition as a whole into question. Who is truly judging these games: the Slamdance judges or their financial backers?
We unfortunately feel that we cannot be part of a competition that does not rank artistic expression and free speech as priorities and would therefore like to withdraw our entry of Once Upon A Time from the competition.
We thank you for your support of our game and wish you continued success."

Finalist Toblo withdraws from festival.

We cannot condone removing Super Columbine Massacre RPG! from the Slamdance Festival on moral grounds. Along with the developers of Braid and flOw, we are pulling our game from the Slamdance Festival. In the unlikely event that Super Columbine Massacre RPG! is re-admitted to the festival, we would be happy to participate.

Fest finalist Everyday Shooter withdraws

As you may have heard, Peter Baxter, the president of Slamdance, decided to pull Super Columbine Masscare RPG! from the competition.

I do not agree with his decision. His action is part of a the ball and chain that continuously represses the games medium from advancing beyond superficial entertainment. Because the Slamdance games competition now carries the sharp undertones of this sad repression, I am withdrawing Everyday Shooter from the competition.

Grand Text Auto Publishes Letter of Protest from Finalists

We object to this decision and strongly urge the festival organizers to reinstate the game in the festival. It is legitimate for games to take on difficult topics and to challenge conventional ideas about what video games can do. No game should be rejected for moral or other reasons after a panel of judges has found the game to be of artistic merit and worthy of inclusion in the festival. We find it very unlikely that a similar decision would have been made about a jury-selected film, and see this decision as hurting the legitimacy of games as a form of expression, exploration, and experience.

Grumpy Gamer Calls for Finalists to Put Up or Shut Up

Apparently some people in the game industry are pretty upset by this, but my question is: Why haven't the other finalist pulled out in protest?

Seems like it's for one of two reasons:

#1 - They agree the game should have been pulled.
#2 - They don't want to lose the chance of winning the award to stand up for something they believe in.

Lastly, but not leastly, our formerly very own John Brownlee breaks down the argument for both sides and asks for help writing his Wired piece on the subject. Go... help.

It's bleak just to look at those questions: perhaps I'm too cynical, but for me, it's clear that the progression there signifies the complete death of art as a medium of deep personal expression.

I need your help. I'd like you guys to help me brainstorm and bring alternate perspectives to the table. Questions and viewpoints I haven't considered. Maybe you can try to answer some of the questions and give me a better idea on what people besides me think the logical progression is. The intention is that you guys will help me think about this n a wider and more three-dimensional complex, which will hopefully make my story at Wired News richer and better thought through.

What do you guys think? Hit our comments and let us know.

The BBC has an interesting story up on the furor surrounding the release of Christian video game Left Behind: Eternal Forces. An alliance of liberal groups is trying to get Wal-Mart, among other retailers, to stop selling the game.

The story includes quotes Talk2Action, the Left Behind folks and me. I managed to stay above the finger-pointing, or at least tried to, and concentrated on pointing out that this is proof that games can deal with meaningful messages without trivializing them.

Mr Crecente, the games writer, has not seen Quest for Bush (also known as Night of Bush Hunting, the literal translation of its Arabic title).

But he says both it and Left Behind: Eternal Forces are part of an effort in the gaming world to deal with important issues.

"Whenever games take on something important, they are accused of trivialising the subject," he says.

"This shows that video games have gotten past the birthing pains. They are no longer just about amusing people, but about trying to send a message."

It's a short, though interesting read, if you have a second. Brian Crecente

Christian video game draws anger [BBC]

Ian Bogost points out that Super Columbine Massacre RPG creator Danny LeDonne, who I've written quite a bit about, was recently on San Diego public radio (KPBS) to talk about violent videogames.

During the show he explained his game and discussed other forms of violent games from Postal to America's Army. The whole thing can be listened to on the radio show's site.

Bogost also points out that LeDonne's Columbine-themed game is now a finalist at this year's Slamdance game festival. Brian Crecente

SCMRPG creator Danny LeDonne on violent games [Water Cooler Games]

Ian Bogost reports that his studio, Persuasive Games, recently inked a deal with Shockwave.com and Addicting Games to create a series of Newsgames that try to provide some level of analysis of current news through the medium of relatively quickly produced games.

The first game in The Arcade Wire series is Airport Security, a "critique of the absurdist changing practices in airport security. Try to keep up with knee-jerk policy changes and enjoy perverse prohibitions like toothpaste, pants, and pressurized cheese."

Check out Bogost's site to play the game. Brian Crecente

Persuasive Games Releases The Arcade Wire: Airport Security [Watercooler Games]

The New York TImes' Rob Walker put together a very interesting story that looks at subversive, anti-advergames. Yes, I know, that doesn't sound like that could be interesting, but Walker found a law professor who is writing a paper about people who subvert the messages of advertising to make them into negative messages. Fordham University law professor Sonia Katyal calls it semiotic disobedience.

As a term and a concept, semiotic disobedience is a riff on two earlier ideas. One, of course, is civil disobedience. The other is "semiotic democracy," a coinage of John Fiske, a media scholar whose 1987 book "Television Culture" described the ways in which audiences create their own interpretations of mass entertainment. Katyal's combination, then, refers to the reinvention or subversion of logos and other symbols of commercial persuasion as part of a battle to redefine their meaning in ways that are frankly oppositional. Her research, she told me, evolved out of her interest in the way certain artists alter billboards with antibrand or anticapitalist messages. While this practice (variously referred to as brandalism, subvertising, culture jamming, adbusting, etc.) has gone on for years, it's often dismissed as a nuisance, agitprop or, of course, a crime.

While Katyal's upcoming paper doesn't address video games, Walker does a good job of putting her ideas to work in explaining games like Ian Bogost's Disaffected. Brian Crecente

Gaming the System [NYT]

I admit it, I have a bit of a man-crush on Clive Thompson. But who wouldn't? He gets to write about video games for the likes of Wired Magazine and the Grey Lady and also churns out thoughtful introspective gaming pieces on his personal blog. He's like the Lester Bangs of video gaming.

His latest piece looks at the state of "serious games", aka persuasive games, aka agenda games. In it he touches on a number of our favorite thinking titles like Peacemaker, Madrid and Super Columbine Massacre RPG!
While the story does an excellent job of framing the questions (Can video games be art? Can they grapple with disturbing issues, or does the act of playing a game inherently trivialize things?) it doesn't really get around to answering them.

It's still worth a read, especially because it quotes Kotaku. Clive, who loves ya baby? Brian Crecente

Saving the World, One Video Game at a Time

A week after writing about Super Columbine Massacre RPG in the Rocky Mountain News, the game's creator was unmasked by a friend of one of the Columbine survivors.

Yesterday, I spent about an hour talking with Danny Ledonne, 24, of Alamosa, about his life and how the things that happened to him while growing up lead him to create the game.

There are two things that are interesting about this profile. First is the fact that Ledonne said he was headed down the same road as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold when their rampage at Columbine snapped him out of a downward spiral. The other is his reasoning for using a video game to explore his reaction to Columbine and the realization he came to that video gaming is not a proper medium for provocation.

"I have inside me the same interest everyone does in understanding the shooting, because it is one of the darkest days in American history," he said. "I just choose to confront it in a unconventional manner and that's hard for people to deal with, but it is important because I am reaching people my age and younger who do understand the world through video games." ... "I understood outright that if I wanted to write a book it would be pretty evenly accepted even if it contained some critical points, people would still regard it as an acceptable form of communication," he said. "But saying the same or similar things in a game is both so new and so outside of the context of what people are used to looking at a video game for.

"This is a medium in which people use to drown out a few hours of their life after they get home from work or something. This is not the place you turn to for a challenging, moral program."

I say with all humility that the profile is worth a read. —Brian Crecente

Gamers was on a deadly road [Rocky Mountain News]