While families remember and honour those who have fought in the armed forces and died for their country, Active Shooter is facing major consumer backlash.
The fine line between weapons of battle and gun violence blurs in this case, especially in the wake of the Santa Fe High School shooting, which recently happened in Texas.
Active Shooter is a simulation game, where players can pick their role of being either the good or bad guy. Roleplaying as either an elite SWAT member or a shooter, they get the choice of gearing up to fight or destroying the lives of others.
The game is set to be launched on Steam on June 6, but it is already being met with concern and outrage. Stephanie Robinett started a petition on Change.org a few days ago, and as of now, over 20,500 people have signed it.
The petition asks for Valve to not launch Active Shooter, and describes the game as horrific. Robinett also notes in outrage that while the game is legally publishable, it is morally corrupt.
“How can anyone sleep at night knowing that they are profiting from turning deadly school shootings into entertainment?” wrote Robinett.
ACID, the publisher of Active Shooter, responded by clarifying that the game is a SWAT simulator.
“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,” ACID wrote.
“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.”
Other games such as Hatred, Postal and Carmageddon were then cited by ACID as “even [worse] compared to Active Shooter and literally focuses on mass shootings/killings of people.”
Liked this article and want to read more like it? Check out Nathan Shubert’s article on Trump and video game violence.
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