Outrage over Virginia Tech game

http://www.smh.com.au/news/games/outrage-over-virginia-tech-game/2007/05/16/1178995212668.html

A thousand dollars for an apology – that’s what a 21-year old Australian, Ryan Lambourn, wants from the global community.

Shocking, indeed, seeing as Lambourn is the creator of an online game, V-Tech Rampage, which is sadistically “modelled on the exploits of South Korean-born Cho Seung-hui”, an incident which requires no further explanation.

The price? $2000 US to remove the game, and with another $1000, the global community gets an apology – internet extortion at its worst. Lambourn made the game “because it’s funny”, and that it was “a joke”, but this is no laughing matter. Although this one-off incident does not say anything about the youths and young adults of today, it certainly raises some worries. The fact that someone could actually do this, and be allowed to do so by a games website, is repulsive. Is this really what society has become?

In some forum threads I checked, it seemed that a few people do feel sympathy for Cho Seung-Hui. From some angles, there’s nothing wrong sympathizing with a bullied, ignored, foreigner, but most people would agree that what Lambourne has done is simply abominable. If humans are supposed to have feelings like sympathy and empathy, then Lambourne is no more than a beast. If he indeed has any “sympathy” for the victims of this incident, he certainly doesn’t show it. Anyone with his head screwed on right would be able to feel for the victims, their families, and even more so those who survived that horrifying afternoon and who are still scarred and mentally traumatized by it.

Lambourne’s flimsy stance, that he feels remorse for the victims, but also for the perpetrator of these crimes, is quite obviously a blatant lie. He clearly feels nothing for those who have suffered, his online game being an obvious encouragement for further violence, letting the victim relive the psychological hell and shattering the pieces they’ve been trying to piece back together.

But the very worst he could have done was to try and extort money from people around the world, demanding two thousand US dollars to remove his piece of work, which should rightfully never have seen the light of day. The very fact that he does so is that he is simply doing this for his own gain, an abominable motive indeed. Could this really be what we have degenerated to? Hopefully not, or our society is lost. The presence of even one such person mars my view of humanity in itself. Even though my understanding is limited, I will not deign to disregard this act of utmost cold-heartedness.

And his defence? The commonly cited excuse of Freedom of Speech. Even though he does have Freedom of Speech, but when this freedom results in the mental trauma of others, does Lambourne still have this right? Surely Lambourne must realize that this is only a technicality, and nothing stands against the power of humanity.