He's taking up the call made by 2K Marin designer Steve Gaynor to "express through interaction an experience that the player will find meaningful— something novel, poignant, interesting, personal, or enlightening."

I wish to explore that feeling of togetherness and understanding of what it is like to go through the grieving process. I present my design, titled Bereavement in Blacksburg, and hope that it is a step in the right direction to expressing such feelings in an interactive medium. I fully admit these thoughts aren't fully fleshed out, even after I attempted to build this game for months, due to the difficulty with exploring these emotions and the scope that I felt it would take.

Heir's concept pits the player as a Virginia Tech student waking up the day after the shootings and trying to cope with the emotional impact. A hidden "grief score" tracks how the player deals with with his character's girlfriend and other students on campus following those terrible events. Heir acknowledges that his ideas are rough. He's looking for feedback.

Read a much more detailed description of Heir's concept at his blog.

Call to Arms: Bereavement in Blacksburg [The Design Rampage blog, thanks N'Gai]

HH: NBC ran the Virginia Tech killer tape on the day they obtained it. Steve Capus, Brian Williams made that decision. Did they make the right decision?

TB: Yeah, they did.

HH: Do you not think it's going to incite other people to try to do the same thing?

TB: No, I don't. I think...to get back to something we were talking about earlier in general thematic terms, I don't think we're doing a very good job about talking about violence in this country, either. You know, Virginia Tech went away. We didn't have any ongoing dialogue in our communities or on the air about the corrosive effect of violence. It was not what he, what people saw of him on the air that will drive them, it's what they read in blog sites, and what they see in video games. It's that kind of stuff that I think is cancerous. And I'm a free speech absolutist, but I think that at the same time, we have to have free speech in some kind of a context. And part of that context is a discussion of the possible effects of it.

One might wonder, in light of Omaha mall shooter Robert Hawkins wishes to "go out in style", boasting in his suicide note that "just think tho I'm gonna be fuckin' famous", that the promise of having one's life dissected on broadcast television might have been influential on Hawkins interest in murdering eight people before his suicide. Hey, that's just me speculating. Perhaps if I had were a bit more of a wrinkly, silver-haired dinosaur, fumbling through a world I don't understand, like many video game critics, I'd be able to better understand the "context" of the situation.

Sorry, but there's little more I can add without letting loose with a string of expletives and looking forward to the passing of a generation of confused Luddites who divert blame from some of the world's genuine problems.

Ultimately, though, if Brokaw's right, the lot of Kotaku readers are totally screwed, basking in the carcinogenic rays of video games and blog posts. Sorry for causing you to die early, dear readers, if so.

Tom Brokaw: Airing VA Tech Killer Videos Okay, But Blogs, Video Games "Cancerous" [Game Politics]

Persuasive Games: Designing For Tragedy [Gamasutra]

ATTENTION ANGRY PEOPLE: I will take this game down from newgrounds if the donation amount reaches $1000 US, i'll take it down from here if it reaches $2000 US, and i will apologize if it reaches $3000 US.

This of course is way above market value for an apology, and even that only applies to things we can't simply ignore, so it goes without saying that no one should give Captain Asshat of the Asshat Commandos here any money. I am however fully prepared to offer him, completely free of charge, a lovely game of hide and go fuck yourself. Michael Fahey

V-Tech Rampage Creator Demands Payment to Remove Game [GamePolitics]
Image courtesy of kittybuttons.com

In addition to pointing out dangerous games you've never heard of like Naughty America and Suicide Bomber as examples of why the world is going to hell in a handbasket because of Grand Theft Auto, the author throws in the obligatory mainstream press reference to the Virginia Tech shootings, despite having nothing to with videogames whatsoever.

This is an article so dumb, so alarmist, so disgusting in its misinformed slant that it requires reading. The only positive is looking to the future, when luddites and fearmongers like this will have gone the way of the dinosaur.

Thanks for the bad news, Anthony. Michael McWhertor

Video games head into risky future [Victoria Times Colonist]

Gaming community group Empire Arcadia in New York shares my outrage, and is organizing the Fellowship of the Gamers, a rally to be held in Manhattan's Bryant Park on May 5th at 1PM. Gamers are encouraged to come "protest, morn and show how real gamers play videogames peacefully and responsibly." Would be nice if we knew how to spell 'mourn' too, but this is not a time to nitpick.

The rally could serve to display gamers as something more than solitary shut-ins obsessed with their electronic entertainment devices. Even if that falls through, it'll still be an excellent place to trade Pokemon. Michael Fahey

Empire Arcadia: Gamers Unite [MySpace event page via GamePolitics]

Yep, despite the fact that he's a known liar, infamous for threatening fellow attorneys and judges and is on the cusp of (one would hope) losing his license to practice law in Florida, Jack Thompson managed to weasel his way onto Fox News to spew his own particular brand of hate and lies.

That's right, Thompson is trying to link the worst shooting in U.S. history, the one that occurred earlier today at Virginia Tech, to video games.

What I love about this is that just about everything he says on live television is blatantly not true, like blaming video games on the Red Lake High School shooting.

It saddens me that filth like Jack can get on national television to gloat and revel in the deaths of so many and try to put it off as education. Brian Crecente

UpdateHere's the video and a run down of all of the half-truths and lies Jack told.