A school shooting videogame made by the parents of a victim aims to change minds about gun control: 'This is not a scary game, it's an educational game'

Oof... Man, to live in the US. I don't envy you guys, though things aren't really going the right direction here in the Netherlands, either.
- I try, brother.
- Your perceptions about the experience of the average American are a long way from accurate. You might want to take a hard look at the media you're consuming.
  EDIT: I have now discovered that the fastest way to kick the Lemmy hornet's nest is to say you aren't living in constant terror of being mowed down at random. How do you people function out in public? Do you even go out in public? This place is a fucking hole.
  
  There's a child in my family who has monthly school shooter drills
  I'm american. Is my perception of the average American correct?
  
  Media bias is one thing for sure, but there are data showing that gun related death are much higher in the USA than whole of Europe (except, well... Ukraine).
  Gun related death per 100k inhabitants, in 2019: USA=10, Netherlands=0.5. Gun deaths by country - WorldPopulationReview.com
  
  They literally gave no details about their perception. They might just pity people with kids who worry about school shootings which is a valid thing to feel and a valid thing to pity.
  
  Earlier this month, I had a parent-teacher meeting with lots of parents and she had to explain to one parent to please stop allowing her 2nd grader to come with weapons. The parent kept putting a butterfly knife in the kid's bookbag and she explained that they are doing everything they can to ensure safety, but now when a 2nd grader has a knife.
  
  What, about gun violence? Are you saying the shootings are under reported?
  
  Anyolduser: You're all a bunch of pussies for being afraid to get shot in a country without reasonable gun laws and increasing political unrest.
  Also Anyolduser: People are disagreeing with me?!? "This place is a fucking hole"
  
  I left the fucking country because it was too dangerous for my kids. Fuck off.
  
  Honestly. For one the US is huge. Its like saying "living in Europe" as a shared common experience, two because of our news stations sensationalist stories are blasted 24/7 and on repeat.
  The day to day life isn't THAT crazy. No one I know personally had any personal experience with gun violence at school. 0. Out of about 100 people.
  Its still tragic that any kid has experienced violence in school. 1 is too many. Its just not the daily lived experience of most Americans.
  
  As an American I’ve never been a target of gun violence, but every once in a while (maybe once a year tops) I hear that telltale crack when I’m not in the best of places and I have to skedaddle. I’ve never been in a mass shooting, but I’ve mourned too many. I’m not living in constant fear of them, but I’m exhausted by how many happen.
  
  Lived in America for 30 years and left 2 years ago. Had an active shooter come into my office looking to kill a co-worker. Luckily he couldn't get into the inside secured door and left.
  My best friend had an active shooter in his daughters grade school. The guy was looking to kill a specific teacher but couldn't find him and left.
  It's very fortunate that your life is so innocent. It's not the case for all of us.
  
  Your perception thinking that your experiences make up the default "average American" experience is a long way from accurate. You may want to take an empathetic look at other people's lives.
  
  Yea, you would have to pay me an INSANE amount of money to move to the USA. Between your increasing facism, lack of basic human services like healthcare, and issues like school shootings... I'm shocked more people aren't fleeing.

It sound like most didn't read the article. You aren't playing as the shooter, it is a horror game where you are the victim trying to escape and/or hide from the shooter.
- I haven't read the article, probably won't, doesn't really interest me. But I thought the title pretty clearly implies you don't play as the shooter. I'm surprised others didn't interpret the same way.

I can't wait to see speed runners cheese it and completely miss its point :/
- TBF, generally speedrunners start speedrunning games because they love it to death (ie. have played it through several times already) and want to start challenging themselves in new ways.
  
  ...or the videogame is known to make views on youtube.
  Anyway, this don't undermine the intention of the developer.
  
  Yeah, I get that, but on the more aggressively short cut games, you could argue its not the same game anymore if all the story is now skipped. Still entertaining to watch, and I do occasionally, but it can get a bit silly.
  I'm still looking forward to the first:
  "Hi guys, today I'm going to show you how the locker skip works, you just run at this locker while tapping crouch, annddddd we are clipped through the ground, and can now run to the exit. Easy game"
  :D
- ? Why come up with a hypothetical outcome just to make yourself mad? Is there some trend of speedrunners ruining educational games I am missing?
  
  Its a joke, relax. Almost all games get speed run, no reason to expect this to be different. And any% speed runs often skip huge portions of the story, no reason to expect this to be any different either. There is nothing to be mad at, it'll likely happen, it'll likely be silly/funny to watch.
- No one has a record on speedrun.com time for me to get that world record!
  
  I beleive in you!
- I'm not mad, its a joke. There is nothing to be mad at.
- You can't really make a point about reality by making a game. A game is a list of rules. You can adjust these rules however you like to see which players perform closest to what you think is the best way to play, and you can also sit and watch as all of those rules are cheesed because there's no external factors to consider.
  The game is gonna prop up whatever the developers think is right and be completely meaningless in the grand scheme of things.
  Games should aim to be fun. I'm gonna get back to helldivers to deliver some managed democracy to alien scum!

No parent should go through what they have gone through. And they want to express that through a game. It is an incredible idea, especially because of interactivity of the medium. I always believe that art can help hold a mirror to the society and this game proves that.

- It is released, you can download it from their website https://www.thefinalexam.us/

Uhm, Columbine RPG anyone?

uh no, i think the point would be that it's a scary game. This isn't a fucking beavis bacon teaches you typing simulator game.
- Beavis teaches typing would probably be a riot
  
  that would most certainly make for an interesting experience.
  nice instance btw

From the trailer and article this looks and sounds well done. It reminds me of Amnesia, at least in that type of psychological horror.

- IIRC you never actually have to shoot any of the civilians in that level, but as players we all assumed that you did. IMO that level was the most interesting commentary that has been made in the COD series because it (somewhat sneakily) put the onus onto the player. Most of us just assumed that we needed to gun down the civilians without choice. In my opinion its one of the more poignant moments in the entire series for how it handled such a grim story beat.
  
  By any chance, have you ever played Spec Ops: The Line? I feel you'd enjoy it.
  
  Iirc in Germany the game was censored in a way that you lose the game if you actually shot someone.

This game makes me SMILE because it SHOWS me that TRANS KIDS EXISTING are WORSE then LITERALLY BEING GUNNED DOWN!
-Pro Life Republicans trying to Protect The Children!

I wish they'd share the crime scene photos of their kids.
Edit: why is this so unpopular? It will only be when Americans are forced to see the consequences of their votes that they actually confront them. Emmett Till's mother made sure the photos of his bashed in face were on the front page of the paper.

Where's the simulator where I can shoot back?
- In the "Fantasy" section.

This... Is special kind of stupid lol
- You play as a victim running from the shooter though.
  
  It's a 10 minute game, that at the end of it tries to convince the player to vote on new gun laws. Who is this targeting? Gamers that are into horror/terror games have played plethora of great games in that genre, have a hard time believing they'd even care to download the game for those 10 minutes.
  
  I can see modders getting their hands on this and...subverting the original intention say.
- Why? It sounds like haunting experience from what I've read
- More like you're just a run-of-the-mill moron.