Active Shooter is a first-person shooter game being made for PC by Revived Games, and it is a political and moral firestorm waiting to happen. According to its description, the game “Only in ‘Active Shooter,’ you will be able to pick the role of an Elite S.W.A.T member or the actual shooter.”
This game, and its eventual release on June 6th, are completely unacceptable and blatantly irresponsible, not only on part of the developer but also on the part of Steam, which the game is going to be available on. America is currently in the throughs of a school shooting crisis, where more events such as those depicted in the game Active Shooter happen than anywhere else in the world. To think that the development of this game and the rampant violence in America are coincidental is foolish. This game was developed at a time when children are dying in schools and seeks to profit off those deaths.
Gaming is already seen in a negative light by many: there is a group of concerned individuals who think that playing violent video games can cause shootings like these to happen. I don’t prescribe to that baseless belief. I, along with the rest of the team at Sprites & Dice, are functioning individuals in society who also just happen to play games daily. Such a theory is simply insulting and uninformed. However, this game and its possible release, would do nothing but add fuel to the fire, and possibly prove this theory right. This game is a school shooting simulator, a simulator of the trauma that children in the U.S have had to experience. To possibly train someone in causing such trauma is disgustingly unethical, and also a way to spread negative press across multiple channels. CNN has already picked up the story, and they will not be the only ones to do so.
Of course, I love new games and want developers to continue developing games that challenge their respective genres. Splatoon 2 and Overwatch offer a far better direction for the shooter genre to move in than the direction that Active Shooter promotes. Splatoon doesn't even have what would be considered a gun in it! Those games are created for fun, without having to invoke such a terrible topic in such a terrible way. Active Shooter looks to be a quick grab for shock value and ironic purchases, but there doesn't look to be any fun in the game itself; just a complete lack of morality.
That is why I believe Steam should prevent this game from being published onto their marketplace. Making profit off the recent and ongoing deaths of children is absolutely unacceptable, and unless Steam believes that that is a practice they can abide, they should remove this legitimately dangerous game. Honestly, the fact that Active Shooter has even made it this far is mind-boggling.
To those that would argue that the game should not be pulled off Steam, I ask why? This is a morally bankrupt game seeking to profit off of the deaths of children, so why allow it to be sold? This is not an issue of freedom of speech, this is an issue of decency. If you believe that the violence in America should not stop this game from being sold in the rest of the world, tell me, where would this game be acceptable? Part of me wants to know why this game was made in the first place, while the other part is afraid to even ask.
To put it simply, Active Shooter is a disgusting game, seeking to take the deaths and memories of children killed in schools and make a cheap profit. Its developers, Revived Games, should be ashamed of their creation, and should pull their game off of Steam and throw it into the trash immediately. If not, Steam should do the deed themselves; as the effective distributing branch for computer games, Steam has the ability to make executive decisions about such things. Make no mistake, this game is a school shooting simulator, and should not see the light of day.
