Ten years after the tragedy, Sirota says the United States' debate on violence remains rooted in easy scapegoats because the country as a whole doesn't want to take a closer look at why it is so conditioned to violence.

After each tragedy, it's the same thing. Liberals want us to wonder why gun laws let anyone access deadly weapons. Conservatives insist we question why video games supposedly turn down-to-earth kids into murderers. These queries satiate two desires. In a country that ascribes hubristic "exceptionalism" to itself and berates self-analysis as "hating America," we seek absolution via scapegoat, and so we upbraid boogeymen like firearms and Xboxes.

Among the more likely culprits, Sirota writes:

• A "winner-take-all economy." When it "tortures society, should we be shocked that a few lunatics go over the edge?" He cites reports of increasing domestic violence and extremist activity since the economic collapse of last year.

• U.S. militarism and a media culture that enables, glorifies or otherwise sanctions it.

His politics are very well left, so if you don't care for that, it may just piss you off. But the fundamental point he makes seems reasonable and apolitical to me. Games and guns are sort of pretend-cultural arguments about violence in America. No one is asking why we're dispositioned to carry it out in the first place. We're just looking at means or inspirations.

He says: "Ultimately, shouldn't we expect the deep alienation that may lead the occasional troubled kid to turn video-game fantasies into real-world terror?" That's reasonable. The game's not even a proximate cause of all this. If someone's life is so dysfunctional they spend hours in front of a screen divorced from reality, the last thing we should look at is what's on the screen.

Columbine Questions We Still Haven't Answered [Salon, thanks Kai]

I used to work with Jeff Kass, the author of the book, at the Rocky Mountain News and he was kind enough to send me some of the book's video-game related excerpts to reprint on Kotaku.

The excerpts unveil a more complex take on Harris and Klebold and their love of computers and gaming.

Both, Kass writes, enrolled in the school's computer programming class and Harris handled the web pages for the school's physics and science departments. They seemed drawn to computers and programming because of the total control over an environment it offered them, something highlighted in the famous 1986 manifesto The Conscience of a Hacker, later found Klebold's home.

The two would also, Kass writes, "embed themselves in violent video games." Harris enjoyed Postal, both, more famously, played Doom.

Harris even wrote a paper about Doom for school:

“Picture an Earth that has been obliterated by nuclear war and alien attacks leaving cities and military forces in ruins with only a lone marine as humanity’s last fighting force. Picture holographic walls, crushing ceilings, oceans of blood and lava, strange ancient artifacts, and horrible sour lemon and rotten meat stenches in the air. Imagine being trapped on an abandoned cold steel base floating in space for eternity, a leathery skinned monster roaming under a strobe light waiting for a fight, and astonishing weaponry designed to your special needs. All these places and ideas have been created and recreated many times by yours truly.

“To most people it may be just another silly computer game, but to me it is an outlet for my thoughts and dreams,” Eric wrote in his class paper. “I have mastered changing anything that is possible to change in that game, such as the speed of weapons, the strength and mass of monsters, the textures and colors used on the floors and walls, and greatest of all, the actual levels that are used. Several times I have dreamed of a place or area one night, then thought about it for days and days. Then, I would recreate it in Doom using everything from places in outer space with burned-out floor lights and dusty computers to the darkest depths of the infernal regions with minotaurs and demons running at me from every dark and threatening corner. I have also created settings such as eras of ancient abandoned military installations deep in monster-infested forests with blood stained trees and unidentifiable mangled bodies covered with dead vines and others that portray to futuristic military bases on Mars overrun with zombies that lurk in every corner. These places may seem a bit on the violent side and, I assure you, some of them are. However, many times I have made levels with absolutely no monsters or guns in them. I have created worlds with beautiful, breath taking scenery that looks like something out of a science fiction movie, a fantasy movie, or even some ‘eldritch’ from H.P. Lovecraft.”

Kass also talks a bit about Harris' mod of the game that used Brooks Brown's neighborhood as a Doom setting and Brown's house as the target. The mod, which took an estimated 100 hours to create, locked players in an invincible god mode and had dying characters yell out "Lord, why is this happening to me?"

Doom, Harris wrote, was the best way to show his creativity and intelligence.

Kass is clear to point out that while video games may have given the two "paths for their anger", with Postal providing potential inspiration and Doom a philosophy that helped inform Harris and Klebold's mentality, video games certainly weren't the cause.

"The video games did not cause their anger," Kass writes. "That came from elsewhere."

There were plenty of incidents leading up to Columbine that had nothing to do with video games. Among the first cracks in Eric’s psyche, Kass writes, was when Harris coated his head and neck in fake blood and lay on the ground next to a bloodied rock to try and shake up an ex-girlfriend.

The deeper issue, it seemed, was that the two failed to fit in, to be accepted as part of "team Columbine."

"Their computer skills were sharp, but could not vault them over the ruthless world of high school social popularity contests," Kass writes. "They didn’t have the right good looks, money or athletic prowess. Their social skills were hopeless."

The book is a reminder that the cause of such shootings are rarely as black and white as they initially seem. Columbine and the slew of school shootings that followed it are not the product of a single problem, but something endemic of a far more complex issue. A by-product, perhaps, of a society so rife with cultural taboos and niches that not fitting in can become for some a problem larger than life, literally.

Check out the full, three-page excerpts, first published anywhere, from the book here. And if you find it as enthralling as I do make sure to pick up a copy of the book, published by Ghost Road Press.

Jeff Kass

I also managed to squeeze a few minutes out of Ian Bogost, of Watercooler Games, to talk about the game's connection to the shooting. Brian Crecente

Q: What was your reaction to the news that the gunman in Canada liked to play the Columbine game?

A: A tragedy like this saddens and disturbs us all. Like most people who learned about it, my thoughts were and remain with the victims and their families. It was clear from the start that the media would latch onto the games Gill played, rather than the problems that drove him to this disturbing act.

Q: Do you think this "proves" that the game shouldn't have been made?

A: Gill was clearly a disturbed man. Should "Braveheart" not have been made because Gill also watched it? The tragedy here lies in the unfortunate, sad, unhappy life of this man, not in something inherent to the media he consumed.

Q: In retrospect, do you think that the game should have been made differntly or perhaps come with some sort of notice or paper that explained the issues the game's creator was trying to raise?

A: The creator did write an artist's statement posted on his website that explained his reasons for making the game, but like any artifact those who encounter it can interpret it as they wish. Games are art, and art can be dangerous. We can't put disclaimers on our culture, but we can offer support to our friends and family in need of it. Clearly Gill needed help he did not get.

The private diaries of Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold have been published on the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News websites as a 945-page PDF, and include references to inspirations ranging from Nazism, terrorist attacks, world wars and riots, to DOOM and Duke Nukem.

The video game references that I've read in excerpts (not having had time to consume the entire document yet) paint Harris more as an obsessive fanboy, period, than particularly driven by the game itself.

"My love for a computer game called Doom. Doom is such a big part of my life and no one I know can urecreate environments in Doom as good as me. I know almost anything these is to know about that game, so I believe that separates me from the rest of the world... Doom is so burned into my head my thoughts usually have something to do with the game... the fact is I love that game and if others tell me, "hey it's just a game" I say "hey, I don't care"

Verbatim blather from every con-trolling, cosplaying nutcase I've ever known (substitute any fandom for the word DOOM and you'll see what I mean), but this is undoubtedly going to be snatched up and trumpeted by every game-hating pundit in the country.

I have always sympathized with Harris and Klebold, all the way up to the point where they actually started shooting: when that happens, you cross the line, and you become one of them.

As a friend of mine once said when we were discussing the bitter urge for revenge, "Fuck the ones who snap." It is far nobler to survive and dominate, than to destroy. Eliza gauger

Columbine Diaries Contain Game References [GamePolitics]

As a follow up to my interview with Columbine survivor Richard Costaldo about Super Columbine Massacre RPG, I wrote a story about the game for the Rocky Mountain News.

The story includes more comments from Costaldo, some of the background and an interview with the game's creator Columbin. It's also interesting to note that the Rocky is trying to prevent the use of their Pulitzer winning photos in the game.

After reading the story, make sure you check out the full Q&A I did with Columbin and the Q&A with Columbine survivor Richard Costaldo.

Game reopens Columbine wounds [Rocky Mountain News]

Richard Castaldo, who was last paralyzed from the chest down after being shot in the arm, chest, back and abdomen by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold during their attack on Columbine High School, emailed me recently about our post on the Super Columbine Massacre RPG.

Castaldo, who hopes to one day work in the gaming industry as a sound designer, is a regular reader of Kotaku and wanted to let me know that he had downloaded the game and played it.

He was kind enough to agree to a short Q&A about his thoughts on the game.

What made you decide to download and play the game?
I saw it through Kotaku actually, and at first it just surprised me that someone would make a game like that. And I know most peoples knee-jerk reactions would probably be that it is horrible and disgusting and stuff like that. But, I just thought I should play it to see what it actually was. I didn't think it was necessarily bad, if i was done the right way, which at least part of it seemed to be.

What did you think of it?
It probably sounds a bit odd for someone like me to say, but I appreciate the fact at least to some degree that something like this was made. I think that at least it gets people talikng about Columbine in a unique perspective, which is probably a good thing. But that being said there are a lot of things that are har to play or watch. And it seems to partially glamorize what happened. It shows a stark-contrast between fantasy and real life in an interesting way.

I like the part in the game where if you go up to the water fountain theres a thing that comes up that explains that the water in denver is a little bit hard because it contains calcium and magnesium but is harmless. Answering the hypothetical question of "Was there something in the water, that caused this?" Clearly not, and the causes for this are not easily apparent.

Did the idea that you were playing as Klebold and Harris upset you?

It's all third person, so your kind of looking down on this thing as all of this horrible stuff is going on. It reminded me of the movie 'Elephant", because it showed a lot of stuff in cutscenes that they were doing that led up to that fateful day. It showed them doing a lot of stuff that supposedly influenced thei actions. TherLike it showed them being bullied, and how much they hated it. But, then the people they actually killed had nothing to do with that.

Do you think it glamorizes what happened at Columbine?

There is a part where after the character's representing the killers in the game die, and then the game shows an extenended real-life montage of what happened that day. And it shows their blood-soaked corpses, and isn't pretty. Which to me deglamorizes what they did. I've heard of some stories where some students try to make folk heroes out of these killers, which is very disgusting to me. I think people who have that mindset and then play this game and see that part it would make it real for them. As opposed to having this sort-of romanticized version that some people have.

But, at the same time there are some dialogue in the game that comes up after you kill the students that refers to you as being "brave boys", which i would hope was supposed to be ironic, because clearly what they did was not brave or heroic in anyway, it was quite the opposite. It has you killing students with absolutley no protection whatsoever. Which is what actually happened. So if the killers (or anyone else for that matter) thought that what they were doing was heroic in any way they were deeply fooling themselves. People ask me all the time, "Did you know them?" And my answer is of course no, i didn't. And, I didn't do a damn thing to either one of them. So, I think the game kinda highlights that. That there was no real rhyme or reason why specific people got killed.

Do you think the fact that it's a game trivializes the attack on the school?
I think that ultimatley a videogame is just another medium for artistic expression. But, you do end up killing literally hundres of representations of high- schoolers. But 'm not sure the ulitimate intention was to trivialize it. It seemed like the purpose was to expose people to what happened in a unique perspective. There are probably a lot of people that would find it and play it out of curiosity. And find out more about Columbine than they usually would have were it not in game form. And in this process learn that what they did was not glamorous in any way. There is a weird part after the school where you die, and then go to hell, which I suppose is appropriate. And it looks like that part kind of does make heroes out of them to some degree, because you're killing demons and such. Which is kind of an odd digreesion. I think its supposed to resemble the fact that they played violent games and such. Which is the primary audience of this game, people that like violent games. Which is why I like this game in a weird way, because if you are going to play games why not learn something important in the process? And in that process I think it might become apparent that what they did was not heroic in any way and shouln't be glamorized. But it is a mixed- message at best.

Does the game's use of low-res, 16-bit-era graphics make it easier to deal with?
That's the weirdest thing about it, that the graphics are so primitive by today's standards, but the subject matter is very serious. You play as these cartoonish little characters doing horrible things but the impact gets sort of lost afterawhile. Untill of course, you actually see what really happened, and it becomes real. Which I suppose was the point in making the game, to make people remember and also that if you were to glamorize this, you don't really understand what happened. I would be so bold as to say that the effect is very post-modern.

I understand you want to get into the video game business, what are you hoping to do?

Well, I know a quite a bit about sound and music. I have recorded and produced some bands, as well as my own stuff at my place And obviously I'm very interested in video games. So. I Have been trying to get an internship within the industry. I have a resume, and experience and all of that. I really enjoy the sound effects in games. And have made my own sound effects and incorporate them into some of my own music. When my old band was recording a demo here, I tweaked one of the guitar effects, and the guitarist said that it, "sounded like a videogame" so I guess that statement turned out to be prophetic.

How can people looking to talk to you about a job reach you?

I have a resume posted online at the blogger.com site.
I believe I could be a good addition to a team, and I'd be willing to start at the bottom.

So who knows?

With a name like Super Columbine Massacre RPG it's obviously not going for total, reverent solemnity, which is fine; I think we can reflect on murder and social pain without being maudlin, and a little bit of levity leavens the whole lump. But then again I haven't played it—give it a shot and tell me if SCMRPG treats its subject with enough care in the comments.

Download and Screenshots [Columbine Game]