Well-known Flash website Newgrounds is hosting a game based on the recent mass killings at Virginia Tech, called V-Tech Rampage.
Promising “3 levels of stealth and murder,” the game puts the player in the role of Seung-Hui Cho as he moves between locations on the Virginia Tech campus, attempting to distract police, mail a manifesto and rack up a body count.
Reaction to the game has been very negative, although a few comments on the Newgrounds site have praised the author for having the “balls” to base a game on such controversial subject matter, comparing it to last year’s Super Columbine Massacre RPG. Unlike Super Columbine Massacre, however, V-Tech Rampage is unable to raise itself above the merely tasteless, due to both its rawness (Super Columbine Massacre was produced six years after the actual Columbine shootings; the developer behind V-Tech Rampage didn’t even wait a month), and the fact it has absolutely nothing of value to say about the shootings or the events surrounding them.
It is less a game than a publicity stunt, and as a publicity stunt it’s not a very good one. Unfortunately, it’s also the sort of easy-to-judge nonsense that attracts the mainstream media, which in turn serves to cement the connection between videogames and random violence in the minds of those who don’t know any better. Despite shoddy, dull gameplay and source material even a Grand Theft Auto fan would find offensive, outrage and Jack Thompson will surely follow.
