Controversial

Benedict Arnold is considered by the Americans as ​the ultimate traitor. However, to the British, Arnold was loyal to the British Crown, the legitimate rulers of the colony, making him a hero. Hero or villain--depends on which side you're on. Similarly, while most games portray Arabs as terrorists, there are games that show them in a different perspective.

Under Siege is a serious ​game designed by Radwan Kasmiya about the Palestinian hardship in the Second Intifada, the second Palestinian uprising during 1999-2000. The game is a military mission FPS set in the Middle East. You play different characters that America or Israel might call terrorists. All the missions are based on events documented by the United Nations.

"Perhaps I should write about Up Against the Wall, Motherfucker!," I mused. "But of course they can't play this thing, since it's not only out of print but incredibly obscure, and basically no copies are available anywhere."

No problem; I emailed JFD and got his permission to put the game up here.

The Baron is a provocation, both in form and in content: in form, because it requires the player to choose not only actions but also an ethical philosophy; in content, because it asks what moral options remain for a person who recognizes himself as monstrous.

The design uses -- and takes full advantage of -- the text adventure format. Many parsed commands are followed by a multiple-choice question, asking us why we've made the choice we made. The motivation then colors the description that follows. Killing a small animal out of sadism is shown as a very different from killing it as an act of mercy.

A while back, in the wake of my article Why You Owe the Columbine RPG, I had the pleasure of being shat on by an old conservative game designer who was convinced that a) games that tackle uncomfortable issues are hurting the ability of upstanding game designers like himself to make entertaining product and market it; and b) I was shamelessly hogging the spotlight.

Why Is Super Columbine Massacre Controversial?

Super Columbine Massacre is controversial for one reason only: Because our culture continues to assume that games are "mere entertainment," that a game based on so horrific an event must ipso facto be in bad taste. Games are fun, Columbine was a tragedy and never the twain shall meet; a game on Columbine must by nature trivialize or cynically exploit the event. Q.E.D.

Yet we do not make the same assumption about any other medium: a documentary on the Columbine massacre, or a novel, or a New Yorker essay would, a priori, be treated with respect, at least until the viewer or reader had experienced it, after which a judgment might be made as to its merits. And if the work proved insightful, somber,and respectful of its material, the world would consider it unexceptional.