It’s become the worst kind of video game cliché: Some horrible crime gets committed and a group of fools somewhere hacks out a playable turd designed to get people clutching their pearls or snickering at their juvenile lack of empathy. Most recently, there was a Doom-style knockoff after former LAPD officer Christopher Dorner went on a killing spree in February. And now the Boston Marathon bombing gets similar treatment.
The latest entry in the shock game sweepstakes is Boston Marathon 2013: Terror on the Streets. It’s a crude platformer where you control a runner who has to jump over the same kinds of improvised explosives that injured hundreds and killed three people eleven days ago. People writhe in pain in the background and there’s random masturbation behind the action, too.
Look, people can make what they want. Free country and all of that. And I’m all for games that set out to be provocative with the aim of making larger political statements, like Unmanned. But a person who makes games solely to laugh at the suffering of others — or, worse still, who invokes that suffering to pull eyeballs in the direction of the fart noises on a website — ultimately proves themselves to be tasteless and lacking in empathy. Nothing’s going to stop this kind of exploitation from happening. That’s just a truth of the world we live in now.
Here’s the disclaimer on the site where the game is hosted:
The material on this website is not recommended for children or those easily offended. This website is a humour site and is not to be taken seriously. The events and material on this website are not a reflection of the opinions or activity of the site’s creators and we hold no responsibility for offence caused or the actions of anybody stupid enough to take it seriously.
Yeah? Well, what happens when your humour just isn’t funny? What, then, jerks?
[Via Boston Magazine]
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