Can Bad Taste Be An Excuse To Do What You Want?

Bad taste can be an art form, not necessarily when Peter Jackson does it, but it can make a point. However, you would think that for something in bad taste to be art it would have to be well thought out and have a point to it. To a degree, I would say that Jackson Pollock art is in bad taste. It has a point to it and it is, highly profitable. Pollock though is a one in a million. There are not many people who can make bad taste in to art.

However, just because you decide to capitalize on a tragedy does not make you an artist, nor the statement you decide to make, whatever that may be, to be valid. There are a lot of gaming websites now discussing the promotion of the Vtech Rampage game by its promoter. The site hosting the game now has the statement: "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 has created a torrent of hate messages and listings on gaming websites. They are outraged at the statement, which they should be, but have failed to pick up on statements which have been made by the creator of the Super Columbine Massacre RPG, Danny Ledonne.

Danny Ledonne is no better. While he may have been trying to make a statement with his game about what may or may not have caused the tragedy he was also involved in blatant self promotion. It is to easy to trivialize the reasons why these things occur when the US has such a love affair with guns. After the Virginia Tech shooting a local gun dealer was interviewed on the box. He claimed that if everyone at the school had a gun that the shooting wouldn't have happened. But I don't believe that any shooting is that straight forward. You are not dealing with trained military personnel you are dealing with people who have limited experience with guns. As soon as the shooting started there would have been confusion. I reckon if everyone there had a gun there would have been a greater casualty rate because no one would have known who was perpetrating the crime. These statements that more guns would solve these problems are absurd to start with.

Danny Ledonne has responded to the Vtech Rampage comments with his own critique of the game. "I just finished playing ‘VTech Rampage’ and have some mixed thoughts ... 1) There are elements of factual synthesis to the game. Creator Ryan Lambourn has a sense of humor (morbid, certainly - but not beyond the recognition of the guy who made Super Columbine Massacre RPG)". He goes on to say, "It would appear to me that Ryan has no intention of doing much other than making money and gaining immediate recognition after the Virginia Tech shooting." Which, given the statement whether tongue in cheek or not of taking the download down if he is paid enough money some credence. "For myself I wish to point out that SCMRPG was never a for-profit endeavor and thus I never posted statements like that which is on the VTR game’s homepage". It is nice to see that one of them appears to have some sense of decency. However, isn't this a bit like a serial killer telling his younger, less experienced trainee how to do things a bit better. To learn from the wisdom of the more experienced mentor. Especially, someone who has dealt with the media before. However, the mentor attempts to draw the line and take the high and mighty road from his younger apprentice, quoting himself from an earlier justification of his game, "Societies throughout history have dealt with pain, tragedy, and suffering with art in a multitude of forms and ours is no exception. There will be poems about this shooting, there will be books about it, films about it, paintings about it, and indeed I do not believe the medium of interactive electronic media should be excluded from exploring the sorrows and challenges of the human experience." This makes you think that maybe Danny was reasonably intelligent enough to understand the predicament of the pain and suffering that he must have caused by those who were personally touched by the tragedy. Because this is why these people are selfish. Their pursuit is one which is selfish. It ignores those who are truly suffering. The families of the victims are the ones who really deal with the hurt, pain and sorrow from these horrible events. Not some outsider who capitalizes on the tragedy for their own personal gain. "Now I am forced to confront my own words by asking if the VTR game does ANY of what I outlined as the “exploration” of “sorrows and challenges of the human experience.” I would like to ask us to consider not whether a game about the Virginia Tech shooting SHOULD be made but how we might go about making a game that accomplishes more than VTR does with the subject matter."

And the response from the creator of the Vtech Rampage, "the donation thing is there as a joke against all the people commanding me to take my game down. I didnt think anyone would donate money to it and so far my paypal account has proven me right (BUT I COULD USE SOME FUCKING MONEY THANKS!)" Here is a man who is making a statement. But it is not a statement about the high and mighty exploration of sorrow and pain. It is the statement that he is just using this as a means to make money.

Surely the two developers are definitely coming at this from two different points of view. But, you have to ask yourself the question. If Danny didn't get so much notoriety from his Columbine RPG then would the Vtech Rampage have ever been made. That both of these people have done this for two different reasons, but the end result has been that they both gain some form of credit for their actions. I find it interesting to note that the creator of the Vtech was doing all of this under a tag/pseudonym "PiGPEN" up until Danny publicized his name to the world. Therefore giving him personal notoriety. Danny goes on to say in a later post, "I quickly found out Internet anonymity is a thin veil and ultimately useless to someone who wants to make a statement. You, Ryan Lambourn, created "VTech Rampage." I, Danny Ledonne, created "Super Columbine Massacre RPG!" We are not aliases or anonymous figures in cyberspace. We are real people with real responsibilities. The very best thing you can do, as I have done, is to OWN your work. Defend it. Fight for its right to exist and articulate the importance you believe it has. If you cannot do that, your work has no place online or elsewhere and you don't have the conviction to stand behind it. You will never be universally appreciated - nor am I - but unless you can command genuine authorship of your work, it will hold virtually no validity in the eyes of any portion of your audience."

It is unfortunate that these people have decided to use games as a means to create their form of expression whatever they think their message may be. The problem with messages is that their meanings tend to get distorted no matter how clear it is you think you have made them. These people have only been providing ammunition for those anti-gaming advocates to fire off a few shots about the predominantly responsible gaming industry. As per usual we find that it is the minority who spoils it for the majority.