JFK assasination now a video game

Check this out from CNN.com:

Quote:

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- A new video game to be released on Monday allows players to simulate the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

The release of "JFK Reloaded" is timed to coincide with the 41st anniversary of Kennedy's murder in Dallas and was designed to demonstrate a lone gunman was able to kill the president.

"It is despicable," said David Smith, a spokesman for Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, the late president's brother. He was informed of the game on Friday but declined further comment.

Kirk Ewing, managing director of the Scottish firm Traffic Games, which developed the game, said he understood some people would be horrified at the concept, but he insisted he and his team had nothing but respect for Kennedy and for history.

"We believe that the only thing we're exploiting is new technology," said Ewing, a former documentary filmmaker and senior executive with Scottish developer VIS, responsible for games like "State of Emergency." He said he sent Edward Kennedy a letter before the game's release.

Ewing said the game was designed to undermine the theory there was some shadowy plot behind the assassination. "We believe passionately there was no conspiracy," he said.

Traffic Games said the objective was for a player to fire three shots at Kennedy's motorcade from assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's digitally recreated sixth-floor perch in the Texas School Book Depository.

Points are awarded or subtracted based on how accurately the shots match the official version of events as documented by the Warren Commission, which investigated Kennedy's assassination.

Shooting the image of Kennedy in the right spots in the right sequence adds to the score, while "errors" like shooting first lady Jacqueline Kennedy lead to deductions.

Each shot can be replayed in slow motion, and the bullets can be tracked as they travel and pass through Kennedy's digitally recreated body. Players can choose to see blood by pressing a "blood effects" option.

Players can view the motorcade from a number of angles, including the perspective of filmmaker Abraham Zapruder and a view from the "grassy knoll" where some conspiracy theorists believe a second gunman was stationed.

The game will be available via download for $9.99.

Personally, this is just wrong. The next John Hinckley or Mark David Chapman will be found with this on their PC. I'm surprised this is being allowed to be produced.

I'm gonna wait outside the store its opening night ALL night if I have to get this game.

Quote:

The game will be available via download for $9.99.

Apparently someone ACTUALLY expected me to read that much.

not me

Quote:

jafabian said:
Personally, this is just wrong. The next John Hinckley or Mark David Chapman will be found with this on their PC. I'm surprised this is being allowed to be produced.

How can you stop its production? Yes, it's the height of bad taste, but those events are public knowledge. No one "owns" those events and so no one can control their depiction.

I'd suggest boycotting that company and certainly, not downloading the game.

There was an excellent documentary on UK telvision recently about the JFK assasination, which did a very solid job of exploding the myths that have grown up around the killing and deflating the conpiracy theories proposed in Olvier Stone's bullshit film.

Arguably there's a large section of the public who never watch documentaries and would be better serviced by some kind of educational computer game or simulation.

However, one only needs to look at the title of this game and the fact that it allows the player to shoot a digitally accurate re-creation of Kennedy, to see that it is in questionable taste.

Perhaps some kind of computer simulation where you could view the assasination from different angles, while not actually participating in it would have been better idea. That would have been no more than interactive documentary and would have had some educational value, without the added titilation of being able to pull the trigger and fire the shots.

I've always been rather uncomfortable around media like this, which attempts to recreate a recent event that resulted in fatalities or tragedy. That Son of Sam movie is one recent example that springs to mind. It must cause terrible anguish to the surviving families and I think that it's uncalled for.

Quote:

Personally, this is just wrong. The next John Hinckley or Mark David Chapman will be found with this on their PC. I'm surprised this is being allowed to be produced.

The possible effects that computer games might have on an individual's behaviour is a massive point of contention. There may well be cases of people being in some way influenced or inspired to perform violent or anti-social acts as a result of playing a particular videogame. What you have to take into account is that these are the same weak characters or mentally ill individuals who could just as easily be influenced by novels, films, music, television or a religious book such as the Bible or the Koran.

Related Links:

Video Games Under Attack Again

This is actually dissapointing. I was under the impression that you would be able to follow many theories such as LBJ, Nixon, Magic Bullet, the Soviets, the mob, Joe DaMagio, Majestic Twelve, Cubans, Republicans, Magic Bullet, multiple shooters and etc...but we only got the lone gunman book depostory bull which we all know is false.

It would have been nice to see how more than one of the theories could've been possible and have some mission selections were you just CANNOT accomplish and win to debunk (This would fall under the games that cheat category) and to be able to control multiple assassins and possibly Jack Ruby.

Maybe I should do this myself.