V-Tech Rampage
Encyclopedia
V-Tech Rampage is a controversial amateur action
computer game that re-creates the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre
on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg
, Virginia
, United States
. The game was created by 21-year-old Ryan Lambourn from Australia
. The Flash
-based game first came to light when it was uploaded to Newgrounds
using Lambourn's screen name Master PiGPEN.
The previous prominent virtual school shooting reenactment, Super Columbine Massacre RPG!
, (SCMRPG!) is an RPG
and has received praise for artistic merit as well as condemnation. V-Tech Rampage was created to be offensive
without redeeming value.
, the killer, through "3 levels of stealth and murder!" in a slanted overhead view. In the first level, the player must walk across Virginia Tech campus to shoot Emily J. Hilscher, Cho's real life first victim, without killing too many other people or scaring Emily away. Emily's death is witnessed by Ryan Clark, Cho's second victim, who also must be killed. In the second, he must walk across the same campus while avoiding the searchlights of police investigators. This is the only section with appreciable challenge. In the third, he barricades the exit of a school building and must shoot everyone inside in 90 seconds before the police arrive to arrest him. During this level, a song of created by Lambourn plays while audio clips praise or laugh at murder, or scold the player for merely wounding. Liviu Librescu
is the only real victim to appear in this segment. The game finishes with Cho's suicide, which occurs when the player presses the shoot button.
Cho monologues about mission goals and can also speak to other characters, whose reactions differ depending on whether they're fleeing Cho or not. The game's dialogue has occasional grammar or spelling errors, and is riddled with obscenities, insults, racist terms, scatological references and offers of sex from female characters in exchange for their lives.
Lambourn later retracted the offer to remove the game, stating:
More recently, an "RIAA edition" was created, with the original tracks removed, due to copyright infringement with the RIAA. This has replaced the original version on Newgrounds, The original edition was until recently available on Lambourn's site, however it has since been removed due to further threats from the RIAA. Now the RIAA edition is the only available one on his site, with the title music "Hey, Hey, Hey, Fuck The RIAA" on a looped track. However the unedited version can still be found at http://gameswtf.com/2262/Virginia_Tech_Shooting_Game/Action_Games/free_flash_game.html and on the internet archive at http://web.archive.org/web/20070620234345/http://googumproduce.com/flash/vtech.swf . The MP3 of the music in question can also be acquired this way at http://web.archive.org/web/20070620234353/http://googumproduce.com/musicdl.php?n=kekeke
Observant players will also notice that Ryan Clark was incorrectly portrayed as Caucasian when the game was first created; this has since been fixed.
, creator of SCMRPG! posted a comment on Lambourn's website:
New York
State Senator Andrew Lanza, chair of the Senate Task Force on Youth Violence and the Entertainment Industry requested that the gaming community boycott the game. However, video game publications wrote of concerns about backlashes against video games and wrote that this game was created by an individual, not the gaming industry.
GamesRadar.com ranked the game as 4th in the Top 7 Most Evil Games.
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
computer game that re-creates the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre
Virginia Tech massacre
The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting that took place on April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. In two separate attacks, approximately two hours apart, the perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people...
on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg
Blacksburg, Virginia
Blacksburg is an incorporated town located in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States, with a population of 42,620 at the 2010 census. Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford are the three principal jurisdictions of the Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford Metropolitan Statistical Area which...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The game was created by 21-year-old Ryan Lambourn from Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
-based game first came to light when it was uploaded to Newgrounds
Newgrounds
Newgrounds is an American entertainment and social media website. Founded on July 6, 1995 by Tom Fulp, the site primarily hosts Adobe Flash animations and games, but also features a music-oriented page, along with an art portal...
using Lambourn's screen name Master PiGPEN.
The previous prominent virtual school shooting reenactment, Super Columbine Massacre RPG!
Super Columbine Massacre RPG!
Super Columbine Massacre RPG!, abbreviated SCMRPG!, is a role-playing video game created by Danny Ledonne and released in April 2005. The game recreates the 1999 Columbine High School shootings near Littleton, Colorado...
, (SCMRPG!) is an RPG
Role-playing game (video games)
Role-playing video games are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, using much of the same terminology, settings and game mechanics. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests...
and has received praise for artistic merit as well as condemnation. V-Tech Rampage was created to be offensive
without redeeming value.
Gameplay
The game is a one-person work released weeks after the Virginia Tech massacre. Its graphics and control are both intentionally and amusingly clumsy. The player controls Seung-Hui ChoSeung-Hui Cho
Seung-Hui Cho was a senior-level undergraduate student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University who killed 32 people and wounded 17 others on April 16, 2007, in the shooting rampage which came to be known as the "Virginia Tech massacre." Cho later committed suicide after law...
, the killer, through "3 levels of stealth and murder!" in a slanted overhead view. In the first level, the player must walk across Virginia Tech campus to shoot Emily J. Hilscher, Cho's real life first victim, without killing too many other people or scaring Emily away. Emily's death is witnessed by Ryan Clark, Cho's second victim, who also must be killed. In the second, he must walk across the same campus while avoiding the searchlights of police investigators. This is the only section with appreciable challenge. In the third, he barricades the exit of a school building and must shoot everyone inside in 90 seconds before the police arrive to arrest him. During this level, a song of created by Lambourn plays while audio clips praise or laugh at murder, or scold the player for merely wounding. Liviu Librescu
Liviu Librescu
Liviu Librescu was a Romanian-Israeli-American scientist and academic professor whose major research fields were aeroelasticity and aerodynamics...
is the only real victim to appear in this segment. The game finishes with Cho's suicide, which occurs when the player presses the shoot button.
Cho monologues about mission goals and can also speak to other characters, whose reactions differ depending on whether they're fleeing Cho or not. The game's dialogue has occasional grammar or spelling errors, and is riddled with obscenities, insults, racist terms, scatological references and offers of sex from female characters in exchange for their lives.
Events
Lambourn offered to remove the game if he received $2,000 in "donations." For an additional $1,000 he offered to apologize.
"Attention angry people: I will take this game down from newgrounds [the games website] if the donation amount reaches $1000 US. I'll take it down from here [his website] if it reaches $2000 US, and I will apologise if it reaches $3000 US."
Lambourn later retracted the offer to remove the game, stating:
…the donation thing is there as a joke against all the people commanding me to take my game down. I didn't think anyone would donate money to it and so far my paypal account has proven me right…
More recently, an "RIAA edition" was created, with the original tracks removed, due to copyright infringement with the RIAA. This has replaced the original version on Newgrounds, The original edition was until recently available on Lambourn's site, however it has since been removed due to further threats from the RIAA. Now the RIAA edition is the only available one on his site, with the title music "Hey, Hey, Hey, Fuck The RIAA" on a looped track. However the unedited version can still be found at http://gameswtf.com/2262/Virginia_Tech_Shooting_Game/Action_Games/free_flash_game.html and on the internet archive at http://web.archive.org/web/20070620234345/http://googumproduce.com/flash/vtech.swf . The MP3 of the music in question can also be acquired this way at http://web.archive.org/web/20070620234353/http://googumproduce.com/musicdl.php?n=kekeke
Observant players will also notice that Ryan Clark was incorrectly portrayed as Caucasian when the game was first created; this has since been fixed.
Impact
The game was compared to SCMRPG! due to the re-creation of a mass murder in which the player controls the killer through a video game. Danny LedonneDanny Ledonne
Danny Ledonne is an American film director. He is a 2004 graduate of Emerson College's film program in Boston, Massachusetts. He is known for creating the controversial video game Super Columbine Massacre RPG! that replayed the events of the Columbine High School massacre...
, creator of SCMRPG! posted a comment on Lambourn's website:
Inevitably, comparisons between SCMRPG and VTech Rampage are being made right now… For myself I wish to point out that SCMRPG was never a for-profit endeavor and thus I never posted statements like that which is on the VTR game’s homepage:
“I will take this game down from newgrounds if the donation amount reaches $1000 US, i’ll take it down from here if it reaches $2000 US, and i will apologize if it reaches $3000 US.”
This quote seems to indicate that Ryan has no intention of leaving the game up permanently or having a channel for discourse (as I have done) but instead has unfortunately chosen an artist’s statement that reads more like a hostage note…
I would like to ask bloggers to consider not whether a game about the Virginia Tech shooting SHOULD be made but how we might go about making a game that accomplishes more than VTR does with the subject matter.
New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
State Senator Andrew Lanza, chair of the Senate Task Force on Youth Violence and the Entertainment Industry requested that the gaming community boycott the game. However, video game publications wrote of concerns about backlashes against video games and wrote that this game was created by an individual, not the gaming industry.
GamesRadar.com ranked the game as 4th in the Top 7 Most Evil Games.