Video game goes too far by simulating Kennedy assassination
A game scheduled for released Monday will allow players to try their hand as Lee Harvey Oswald and assassinate a computer generated John F Kennedy.
The game, available for download for $9.99, allows players to take 3 shots from a virtual book depository at the presendential motorcade. Points are based on how historically accurate the shots are. You get points for shooting President Kennedy in the correct places, in the correct order. Points are deducted for hitting other people in the motorcade.
Shots can be replayed in slow motion, and players have the “blood effects” option. The bullets can be tracked as they travel through the air and through the digital Kennedy.
According to David Smith, a spokesman for Senator Edward Kennedy, “it is despicable.” Senator Kennedy’s office also claimed that the publisher is exploiting the late president. The games developer, Traffic Games, believes that “the only thing we’re exploiting is new technology.” They claim that part of the reason for developing the game was to disprove the conspiracy theories and prove that Oswald could have acted alone.
Ok, I don’t care what the game developer says; this game is being released for pure shock value. It’s bad enough to have fictional violence in video games. The suggestion is that the violence leads to kids being oblivious to violence. And, that suggestion is based on fictional violence. Now they are allowed to take part in historical violence. What’s next, driving the chase car behind Princess Di or flying a plane into the Pentagon? Obviously these are extreme examples, but so is being able to recreate an assassination.
WOW