Poor taste, yea I guess so but I don't care.

The game itself just stinks.

At 5/15/07 04:54 PM, Ross wrote: You might have heard about this game V-Tech Rampage. In it, you play the person responsible for the April 16, 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, and it's your job to carry out the notorious events of that day. True to life, the game ends (and you "win") when you complete your mission and kill yourself.

This game's starting to get noticed around the Internet, and as you might imagine, most people don't think too highly of it. BlogCritics described it this way: "The game is riddled with embarrassing typographical errors, the ridiculous screens that follow failure are beyond pathetic, and the choice of music is sure to cause copyright issues. It’s a sad cry for attention, and a miserable use of a tragedy in an attempt to reach that goal." Kotaku.com says, "V-Tech Rampage doesn't bring anything more than shoddy, tacky game play to the table. Free speech and free expression are great. Just make sure you've got something to say."

Not content to stop there, the author, PiGPEN, has set up a page on his personal webpage stating that, if enough people deposit money in his Paypal account, he'll take the game down. Some of the people weighing in on this feel that we should pre-emptively take it down, especially in light of PiGPEN's attempt to profit from it.

Does this game have any merit, or is it strictly an exercise in poor taste? Are you offended by it? Did you enjoy playing it? Should it be taken down? What do you think?

Well... ya know what... im not offended by it, and nobody else is either. They pretend to be because they think they are supposed to. The world is a crappy place because nobody truly cared about that shooting unless they knew somebody in it. The reason nobody cared is because that stuff happens all the time. One review of that game said it was too soon for the game to be made.... wtf... too soon ehh? Time should not make a difference, especially since you never cared in the first place. Personally.... i didnt like the game, because it was boring and i couldnt beat it :( lol

This was on TV in Australia, and they said it was removed from his site, but can still be played on file sharing sites.

I was in a collab with this guy! :D

HI PiGPeN!!11

I don't really mind it, I think cho was a sick twisted fucker. If you're offended by this game, then you really have far to much sensetivity. It's just a damn flash game. it's not like he's cheering him on, he just made light of a morbid situation.

PIGPEN SELL YOUR GAME TO EBAUMSWORLD YOU WILL GET LIKE $900-1200 FROM HIM FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS

lol, USA is fulled with insane people thanks to bush
someday, USA will fall like rome...
huahura

Did anyone even try to go to this guys website. I guess that his webhost got pissed that he had that game up or something casue they suspended his web account. So that means he cant even be payed anymore. Unless someone knows the paypal account and is distributing that. Ya just hadn't seen anyone talkin bout that and I thought it should bring it up. Also that means his webhost thought it was a bad thing to do and suspened his account for the game. (just guessing thats why it happened)

At 5/18/07 09:46 PM, edylpagaza wrote: lol, USA is fulled with insane people thanks to bush
someday, USA will fall like rome...
huahura

Well, yeah it will if your family keeps jumping the border.

Take it down. Not because it's offensive, god knows most of the stuff on NG is offensive, but because the guy is trying to make money off of the idiots who are insulted easily. And if you consider the facts it isn't that unlikely that he made a half-assed game, posted it on his website and NG for the only reason of mooching money off of people who can't stand it.

To be honest, at this point, I say do nothing.

It all worked itself out really. I mean the kids going to have enough problems anyway... His site's gone, and now his name is out there. In addition he made no money off of it.

I would think it'll be mighty hard for him to find a job in the future, but I'm sure it was worth it.

I mean the only thing he got was his 5 minutes of "fame", but what is fame if all it brings is criticism and problems, and none of the good?

I've seen tons of people get their 5 minutes, but in good ways, and those are the people who prosper from it.

Well... ya know what... im not offended by it, and nobody else is either. They pretend to be because they think they are supposed to. The world is a crappy place because nobody truly cared about that shooting unless they knew somebody in it. The reason nobody cared is because that stuff happens all the time. One review of that game said it was too soon for the game to be made.... wtf... too soon ehh? Time should not make a difference, especially since you never cared in the first place. Personally.... i didnt like the game, because it was boring and i couldnt beat it :( lol

too soon eh? I wonder if the survivors of the titanic would shit a brick if they saw
THIS . go ahead and google "titanic slide" ...THAT i think is in poor taste.

i think that people do have the right to animate what they want, i think that the fackt that he is trying to proffit from it is horrible. it is almost as bad as making bets on things that involved the shooting. i think that if we do take it down though, suddenly newgrounds would have to get rid of everything that did something like that. then some retard would say that other flashes offended them in some way, and if those were taken down, then so should all those others, and we would have a spiraling deleting frenzy because of it. im not saying i like that game or think its funny, but there could be a big down side. it should be looked down uppon though..... there sould also be something done about him proffeting off of manslaughter.

maybe a bargain: take down that "pay me to delete it" thing and it can stay on NG but if he keeps trying it will be deleted. idk. im not some master on specifics about stuff. we cant really delete it but is there something that involves punishment, or something like that with his flash that doesnt involve copletely removing it. wade? admins?

possibly just let it stay idk. except we ignore it, and take it out of the "BASTARDS" group, because then it would draw less attention to it and then it will be forgotten (dont get me wrong im not saying we should forget the event, just the flash) if we can completely take public attention away from the flash, than it will just be another flash in the collosal flash archive which is NG.

opinions?

At 5/18/07 11:39 PM, JohnnyUtah wrote: too soon eh? I wonder if the survivors of the titanic would shit a brick if they saw
THIS . go ahead and google "titanic slide" ...THAT i think is in poor taste.

WOW

thats a bit over the top. o IDEA: srry i didnt put this in my last post, but maybe we could also give him a ban on flash submitting. im fairly certain that can be done too cant it? ban him for a certain ammount of time from posting flashes on ng, but as i said in my earlier post, we shouldnt delete it (read above if you dissagree)

At 5/18/07 11:39 PM, JohnnyUtah wrote: too soon eh? I wonder if the survivors of the titanic would shit a brick if they saw
THIS . go ahead and google "titanic slide" ...THAT i think is in poor taste.

I believe that design was in RC3 in the splash extension of the theme park game.

He created an offensive Flash game to get attention, then asks people to give him money for him to take it off his site. The best part is, some people supposably fell for it.

An asshole and a genius at the same time.

Anyone notice how that after people respond to Blommestein with the facts and the truth, that he completely shut the fuck up? LOL PWN3D. Blommestein is just a ignorant insecure piece of shit how tried to bring God into this so called "argument".

And fuck you to all of you Virginia Tech students here. Take some responsibility and take some of the blame, bitches.

PillowPenguinz learn to fucking spell. Secondly....HE ASKED FOR MONEY JUST TO PISS PEOPLE OFF, NOT TO MAKE A PROFIT. CAN'T YOU PEOPLE DO YOUR FUCKING RESEARCH!?

At 5/19/07 12:41 AM, ViperMask wrote: PillowPenguinz learn to fucking spell. Secondly....HE ASKED FOR MONEY JUST TO PISS PEOPLE OFF, NOT TO MAKE A PROFIT. CAN'T YOU PEOPLE DO YOUR FUCKING RESEARCH!?

i'm typing fast k? sometimes there are spelling mistakes, that doesnt mean that everything i have to say is completely void. and just because you're having some sort of pissy fit doesnt mean you have to yell at everyone alright? you could have just as easily said "He probably isn't trying to make proffit, just piss people off"

seriously its like everyone arround here has to have a douche-explosion one time or another in order to be satisfied...

Ive heard reports that people did try to be friends with him. Heck, he had a roommate who was somewhat friendly. And you can't blame every fucking student in VT because they didn't wnat to be friends. If he didn't want to be friends with everyone else, even after people tried, then its his own damn fault for fucking up his own life. Plain and simple.

I agree to take it off the Bastards collection, its still on NG, but it won't get much attention unless the people actually search and stumble on it. Plain and simple really.

It's getting attention because we have 5 million posts on this forum talking about it.

Why would you take it down NG is filled with this crap,i for one like this game even if it is a bit distasteful but it is fun and none the less most of you people who are saying "TAKE THE FUCKING SHIT DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" most likely say shit like "Fuck you you jew" when really you just go with a fad that jews are damn bad but to get the facts of this world you have to open your fucking eyes people, go against the popular preepy bitches and hang out with the less popular people get a life instead of calling this guy a bastard bitch.who made a point (which smart people get) he has the right to put it on the internet and he wont take it off unless he gets paid to do it.Take it off and well he could cause a strike which could rupture the whole NG embassy but im just talking out my ass right now.So dont take the game down it has the right to stay up in the portal like all the other shitty games that passed.

At 5/19/07 01:23 AM, finaleve wrote: Ive heard reports that people did try to be friends with him. Heck, he had a roommate who was somewhat friendly. And you can't blame every fucking student in VT because they didn't wnat to be friends. If he didn't want to be friends with everyone else, even after people tried, then its his own damn fault for fucking up his own life. Plain and simple.

I agree to take it off the Bastards collection, its still on NG, but it won't get much attention unless the people actually search and stumble on it. Plain and simple really.

Not his fault. When he was in VT he was too traumatized and too fucked up cause of what happen in the past. Check wikipedia. They told him to "go back to China". Doesn't get any more racist than that you ignorant fucktard.

At 5/19/07 01:47 AM, Ninjadude12 wrote: stuff, lol

Congratulations, you just made everyone who posted in this thread look like a genius.

At 5/18/07 03:40 PM, Ross wrote: How is V-Tech Rampage causing emotional/psychological harm? ...

... where do we draw the line? As soon as 50.01% of some group finds a submission to be done in poor taste, should it be removed?

... once we take PiGPEN's rights away, the whole thing comes tumbling down.

I don't think I need to argue that the game is causing harm, because I don't think that it is disputable that there are lots of people that feel hurt by it. If you want to argue that they shouldn't feel hurt by it, then that is something we can debate. But I would say that if they weren't offended and hurt, that it could only be because they weren't emotionally invested in the victims. The only way it could be wrong for them to hurt would be if it were wrong for them to care about the victims of the shooting, and I think you will have a hard time persuading me of that.

As for free speech, while PiGPEN has a right to speak freely I don't acknowledge that PiGPEN, myself, or anyone else has any "rights" on Newgrounds. And so I don't think that PiGPEN would be having his rights infringed upon by having that animation deleted. If you would like a better explanation of why I believe this then read the reply at the bottom of this message.

As for where the line must be drawn... I don't think that there really is a line, nor that we should pretend there is. What I think people need to do is be genuine in their comprehension of the world, which requires for them to vicariously experience or to equally regard the values of other people. I think that once a person does this that they will no longer be willing to do the vast majority of the harm they were previously willing to do. That is, the reason it is wrong for PiGPEN to do what he is doing is because I believe that he isn't being mindful of the victims. And if when he made the game he were being genuinely considerate of the victims of the massacre, then I don't think that it would be wrong for him to make a game like that. But I would think that he was insane.

And while he very well could be insane because making a game like that is pretty deranged, I have no reason to believe that everyone else on this site that is enabling him is insane. So I am pretty sure that somewhere along this line, and it seems to be quite a long line, that someone is morally responsible for chosing to disregard the value of the victims.

At 5/18/07 03:44 PM, Fora wrote: right. But once we take PiGPEN's rights away, the whole thing comes tumbling down.

I agree. But since when does PiGPEN have a right to use the Newgrounds server? If an individual (the owner of Newgrounds) refuses to use their resources to equip PiGPEN with a voice, would that really be stripping PiGPEN of his right to free speech? If I own a copy machine, and I don't allow you to use it to make fliers, does that mean that I am denying your right to free speech? I don't think that it is. I think infringing on a persons right to free speech would be locking them up for talking about ideas, or otherwise infringing upon their rights. I will defend PiGPEN's right to say whatever he wants, but I think it is silly to think that I am against free speech or pro-censorship if I don't use my own time and resources to help him get the message out.

And so as far as I can tell this whole "free speech" argument is nothing but a rationalization. I am not a fan of ad hominem red herrings, but the true motives of the producer and defenders of this game seem relevant as a second point - I don't think that anyone who is defending this game actually believes the arguments they are making. I think they are afraid and don't know how to cope, and so they are trying to distance themselves from the victims, and the mortality in which the victims represent, by identifying with the killer. One way to not take the reality of their frailty seriously, to not take it seriously how absolutely helpless they would be to defend themselves against a shooter, is to not take the entire issue seriously... to turn it into a game even. But to detatch from reality like that is only a sign of weakness, and so I'm really not impressed by the viciousness - it isn't strength.

I go to a University that is very close to VTech. Many students on my campus had friends that went there and so my school was absolutely terrified for the week that the shootings happened. It seemed like all that anyone could talk about was what they would do, and the most scared people always said confidently with subtly shakey voices that they would never "let themselves" be shot. Online the sort of subtleties that revealed their fear don't come across, and when we convince ourselves that our rationalizations are genuine we tend to carry them to further extremes... even so far that we inflict great harm onto others.

But what we shouldn't allow ourselves to forget is that no one can truly enjoy suffering, because suffering is by definition unpleasant. And so those who pretend to support this sort of thing are either insane, extremely stupid, extremely confused/ignorant, or extremely afraid. And I am giving them all the benefit of the doubt by attributing their behavior to fear... for PiGPEN it seems much more developed, and so I'm not so sure. I'm much more worried about him, but his well being would be yet another point. And so I shall stop here.

At 5/19/07 01:49 AM, ViperMask wrote: Not his fault. When he was in VT he was too traumatized and too fucked up cause of what happen in the past. Check wikipedia. They told him to "go back to China". Doesn't get any more racist than that you ignorant fucktard.

That's ashame, but he was obviously a sick person and his actions are not defendable. What's even more of ashame is that someone didn't put a bullet in his head before he did it to them :\

At 5/19/07 01:54 AM, DFox wrote:

At 5/19/07 01:49 AM, ViperMask wrote: Not his fault. When he was in VT he was too traumatized and too fucked up cause of what happen in the past. Check wikipedia. They told him to "go back to China". Doesn't get any more racist than that you ignorant fucktard.

That's ashame, but he was obviously a sick person and his actions are not defendable. What's even more of ashame is that someone didn't put a bullet in his head before he did it to them :\

That may be true, but the situation could of been prevented if people treated him better while he was still a kid.

I thought it was fun

Take it down? No.
To soon? Yes.

We saw it coming from a mile away. If you've heard about V-tech Rampage, a Flash game simulating the events of the biggest shootout in the U.S., you know that some lawyer from somewhere would stand up and say something against it - even if he has no idea what he's talking about.

Coming from New York, Senator Andrew Lanza came up to say something against the game. "There are certain things in life you don't make light of and should not be turning into a game. It's not a game, it's a tremendous loss of life."

We may share his sentiment, but we know more than asking retailers and manufacturers to shun the game. He even compared V-tech Rampage, a Flash game made by unemployed 21-year old Ryan Lambourn (Sydney, Austraila), to upcoming commercial game Grand Theft Auto IV.

As if unfamiliar to the gaming scene, he commented "You've got Grand Theft Auto where you murder police officers. To me, I can't imagine people marketing and distributing it, and putting it in the hands of kids, but it's happening." Apparently, he has no idea about Flash games that thousands of users create everyday, to compare it with actual commercial games and talk to retailers, manufacturers, and websites about it.
-QJ.net
Source of Article: http://blog.silive.com/advanceupdate/2007/05/
vtech_rampage_internet_game_sp.html

Well....I guess this was really bound to happen. Well, I would love a comment on this one from PigPen. :P Is this Mission Failed or Accomplished? :P Oh and I'm for keeping it on NG, after all, it's a Flash Game, there's always a little X button since no ones forcing you to play it.

ok jews do suck, but that is unrelated. the types of people who hate this guy are just following classic mob mentality. a couple hundred years ago he would have been burned at the stake. so, come on ca you really blame faceless idiots for hopping on the bandwagon of morality and political correctness? I think not.

At 5/19/07 01:47 AM, Ninjadude12 wrote: Why would you take it down NG is filled with this crap,i for one like this game even if it is a bit distasteful but it is fun and none the less most of you people who are saying "TAKE THE FUCKING SHIT DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" most likely say shit like "Fuck you you jew" when really you just go with a fad that jews are damn bad but to get the facts of this world you have to open your fucking eyes people, go against the popular preepy bitches and hang out with the less popular people get a life instead of calling this guy a bastard bitch.who made a point (which smart people get) he has the right to put it on the internet and he wont take it off unless he gets paid to do it.Take it off and well he could cause a strike which could rupture the whole NG embassy but im just talking out my ass right now.So dont take the game down it has the right to stay up in the portal like all the other shitty games that passed.