Just less than two weeks after the Noblesville, Indiana school shooting, an active shooter video game is set to be released.
The game is called “Active Shooter — the Simulation” and was created by Revived Games. The game includes harrowing ‘objectives’ and a count for civilians and police killed.
The description of the game stated on the gaming platform, Steam, follows: “Active Shooter — the Simulation. Pick your role, gear up and fight or destroy! Be the good guy or the bad guy.”
“The choice is yours! Only in ‘Active Shooter,’ you will be able to pick the role of an Elite S.W.A.T. member or the actual shooter.”
“Lead your team, extract civilians, and neutralize the shooter.”
Following backlash from the media and online users, the game’s creator responded: “First of all, this game does not promote any sort of violence, especially any sort of a mass shooting.”
“Originally when this game started its course of the development, I have planned on having SWAT only based game-play. Then I thought about adding more gameplay to it by adding additional roles: of the shooter and the civilian. While I can see people’s anger and why this might be a bad idea for the game, I still feel like this topic should be left alone.”
“As I mentioned on steam discussion forums, there are games like Hatred, Postal, Carmageddon and etc., which are even worst compared to “Active Shooter” and literally focuses on mass shootings/killings of people.”
“I have wrote to Valve regarding this game and waiting for the reply. After receiving such high amount of critics and hate, I will more likely remove the shooters role in this game by the release, unless if it can be kept as it is right now.”
A father who lost his 14-year-old daughter in the February Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Ryan Petty, called the game ‘despicable’ in a post online.
https://www.facebook.com/ryanpetty/posts/10155407220687793
Mr. Petty wrote on Facebook: “It’s disgusting that Valve Corp. is trying to profit from the glamorization of tragedies affecting our schools across the country. [sic] Keeping our kids safe is a real issue affecting our communities and is in no way a ‘game.'”
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting marked the second-greatest loss of life from a shooting at a US public school. It’s also the deadliest mass shooting, according to The Gun Violence Archive. The shooting also surpasses the 1999 rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, where two teenagers killed 12 students and a teacher before taking their own lives.