Alongside the tragedy of the V-Tech shootings there have been a lot of random flack flying from various anti-game sources, and this dredged up some of the old sentiment against things such as SCMRPG! with the creation of the Flash game V-Tech Rampage which edges on the actions of the shooter. Newgrounds, a site that hosts Flash content and movies, has decided not to balk at public pressure and has issued a statement to this effect.
While tragedies like this are terrible and cast injury onto the psyche of the community and the families of the victims, it is still important to reign in those feelings of ill will when casting about for relief. Attacking people who make commentary, make light, humor, or even games about the subject is not going to resolve anything. It is fortunate that much of the main stream media, during this past week, have done a good job of aiming criticism at the maker of the game rather than the video game industry itself, but it is our thought that the best reply to something published is to publish a counter—not to rally for censoring opinions.
This is a good time to reflect on what Newgrounds is all about. When Tom (Fulp) first started the site many years ago, it was a place for his personal creations, some of which were too “edgy” for the mainstream…
Many of his productions pushed (and occasionally pole vaulted over) the limits of “good taste”, but he published them nevertheless, and they found an audience…
It turned out that a lot of people didn’t really have an outlet for their not-fit-for-the-mainstream creativity – and Newgrounds evolved from a showcase for Tom’s work into a showcase for everyone’s work, free of the usual moral judgement and censorship…
Speaking only for myself, I think V-Tech Rampage is in poor taste. In terms of gameplay, it’s decent, but tying it to this recent tragedy is a bad idea, in my opinion.
Still, it’s not any one person’s job to judge the Flash that people submit to The Portal… As the saying goes, I may disagree with what [Lambourn is] doing, but I’ll forever defend his right to do it. Telling him that his game should not be allowed on Newgrounds goes against the principles upon which this site was founded…
Via Gamepolitics.
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