An online video game was recently created by an Australian developer named Ryan Jake Lambourn that lets players be the shooter in the Sandy Hook shooting. The name of the game is The Slaying of Sandy Hook Elementary and it has caused anger and fury throughout the online community. When the player first starts the game, they are prompted to collect the guns that were used in the shooting. Then the player is prompted to shoot and kill their mother. FInally, the player is then taken to Sandy Hook elementary where they are meant to reenact the terrible tragedies that took place on December 14th, 2012.
The game has angered most people but Lambourn claims the game was meant to send a message about gun control policies. Lambourn claims the game has a strong pro-gun control message and was not intended to mock the dead or disrespect the families of the victims. Whether this game was intended to entertain or send a message about gun control, it brings up the issue of how far video games should be able to go.
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I just tried to play the game. The controls were clunky and slow. The objectives were boring and repetitive. The fact that it was based on a real event where so many young children were brutally murdered made it even worse. That, along with its color scheme, made it nauseating to play.
I understand that the creator was not trying to make a “fun” game. He was trying to get his message across. However, the violence found in the game feels too exploitative. Why does it have to be a shooting game? Why does Lambourn have to make a game that uses shooting at all? It feels like he chose the easiest way to comment on the Sandy Hook Shooting.
To make it at both times worse and better, he made a bad game. It is not fun to play and has very little entertainment value. While this does not encourage players to have too much fun, it also distils its value as just being about the Sandy Hook Massacre. That is all it is about, and in that way, it is disgusting.
I feel like this was a poor attempt on spreading awareness about gun control. Creating a game that is extremely similar to the event can just bring back emotions of that tragic day. I also played this game. It was a very poor attempt at a game. The controls were not designed well nor was it a smooth game. While I will not condone this type of game at all, I do like the fact that it makes you stray away from using a gun and understand the message that the game is trying to send. I also understand why people are angered by this game, but I feel that it is far from the actual event that it is difficult many parallels between the two.
I think with this situation, the person responsible for designing the game should place a warning or something on the case that mentions the brutality of the game and that it’s based on true events or something like that. I think having a more strict rating on those games like they do with movies in theaters would give the buyer a better perspective about the game before buying and playing it.