JFK Reloaded: The Last Word

[Evil Avatar]

Gamecloud has an article on JFK: Reloaded (http://www.gamecloud.com/article.php?article_id=3274), based on a brief phone conversation with Kirk Ewing of UK game developer Traffic about the highly talked about simulation on the JFK assassination.

Ewing told Gamecloud that the idea behind JFK: Reloaded was to present a different kind of game that offered a more documentary and simulation tone that was designed to see if Lee Harvey Oswald actually could have shot and killed President Kennedy. A number of people still believe he could not have shot Kennedy with the rifle he allegedly carried, but according to Ewing 50 percent of the people who played the full version were able to hit the virtual Kennedy in the game. Ewing admitted that having the player in Lee Harvey Oswald's position was an "extreme" way to create such a game. Even so, he told us, "We did not expect that the game would have that kind of reaction."

[Zeal]

Tasteless.

[laggerific]

I think this is a very interesting way to do this...but I would like to know if they also simulate the bullet as it thrashes through bone after bone after bone and still comes out intact.

The Kennedy assassination and its investigation leave more questions than it answers. Especially, with the info we have now that we didn't have at the time of the Warren commission.

[fitbabits]

Tasteless.
How so? What about if you took control of one of Kennedy's security detail and had the opportunity to take out LHO before he got a shot off? Would shooting him have been in better taste. A life is a life.

[Rakael]

For once in all of eternity, I am in full agreement with Zeal. Who even thought this shit up?

[laggerific]

How so? What about if you took control of one of Kennedy's security detail and had the opportunity to take out LHO before he got a shot off? Would shooting him have been in better taste. A life is a life.

What security detail? weren't they scaled back? But it would be interesting if you could play with those sort of details...what about trying to recreate the shooting if Kennedy's path had gone down a more regular parade path. What if the secret service had been sitting on the limo. What would it look like if the shots actually came from the grassy knoll instead of the commonly held belief that it came from the book depository?

[Thenetcase]

Even so, he told us, "We did not expect that the game would have that kind of reaction."

Yeah... Right. Apparently this company is run by a bunch of crack whores and druggies who give nothing they do any forethought.

-TNC-

[Eric_T_Cheng]

I thought the Cigarette Smoking Man killed JFK? Don't tell me The X-Files lied to me...

[captainspankypants]

Is this game out? Has anybody played it? I was just thinking the concept has a lot of potential, but is probably being wasted as a cash-in on the shock value (despite what the developer says).

[hd1]

Requesting Franz Ferdinand:Reloaded.

[jacktion]

Tasteless.

I don't understand. If approached correctly this is just a new medium for education.

I suppose some people think a movie about a presidential assassination is tastless too, but they are mostly over 80 and not used to "this newfangled moving pictures".

This is a new era, gentlemen. Using Video Game Simulations to experience things we otherwise wouldn't be able to is a part of the present. This is reality. Just because you are hung up on the word "videogames" and still think of them as Pac-man and only for babies does not mean that is how the medium will stay. These are basically Interactive Simulations. The Kennedy Assassination is a highly controversial happening. I think it could be useful to recreate the actual distances and buildings in a Virtual Simulation and let people move around in them as events unfold. I don't think you need to have someone actually send a bullet through a virtual president but to be able to look through a scope from the window as Kennedy's car drives by could let people judge for themselves something that is highly charged in the political world.

This was also used to recreate the Swift Boat Incident of John Kerry. That game Kuma War had a mod to let people see the actual happenings, as near as they could, of what happened. It recreated the position of the boat, and the enemy soldiers firing. This can be really useful if done in a responsible way to let people experience something that normally would never be possible.

How long is it before the nightly news starts getting "broadcast" in a mod of Battlefield 2? Each day you can log into your game and see the actual events that occurred in Iraq that morning with photorealistic textures and real audio and GPS coordinates of all major firefights. This will happen. Who will want to watch a 20 inch image of something when they can virtually experience it? Which is better, to watch a talking head on CNN say "terrorists blew up a convoy in Iraq today" or to be able to fly a camera over an exact reproduction of the actual incident so you can judge for yourself?

Yes this is far off. But I think this will be the future of "games".
Now please tell me how stupid I am. Thanks.

[Nintendo Revolution]

This reminds me of the ytmnd page where Kennedy is being shot and the Unreal Tournament sound goes "HEADSHOT".

Both are great examples of how fucked up this can be. Whether or not the authors intent was to make this a simulation, it obviously offended a lot of people because this was a pretty tragic event to people who still live today.

It really is a hard pressed issue, but regardless, I think it's rather sad and cruel.

[PacerDawn]

Future upcoming games:

OJ : Reloaded - Pack the suitcases! Drive the Bronco! Wear the glove! " If the graphics don't fly, a new card you must buy!"

Michael Jackson : Loaded - Drink "Jesus Juice" while mastribating to "Home Alone". How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of his tootsie pop?

[Citizen Philip]

Back.

And to the left.

[DiBiddilyBop]

I don't understand. If approached correctly this is just a new medium for education.

Oh God, please don't give Jack Thompson that kind of ammunition.

[DirtyChimp]

just so you know, this game has been out for almost a year. it's a fun and addicting time waster if you ever get a chance to play it. the reason it's addicting is because the bullet behaves like a real one would. so no two shots are ever the same.

[Pnorcio]

What the fuck. There are some lines I think video games shouldn't cross, and making a simulation of a President getting assassinated is one of them.

But I think this will be the future of "games".

I hope not, because if so, I'm out of a hobby.

[RMan]

I don't understand. If approached correctly this is just a new medium for education.

I think that argument could be applied to an awful lot of things that the common person would call tasteless, such as the simulation of the Columbine shootings. It’s a subjective thing, so can’t really be argued as such, but perhaps a more commonly accepted description is disrespectful (which is how I’d describe it). When it’s a game based on the player shooting a REAL person, it’s kinda hard to think that some people won’t find that disrespectful, if not tasteless. I think it’s a clever idea, but hardly high-minded, and I personally don’t think it’d be a good simulation so much as an effort to use the event as a promotional tool.

[XxSATANxX]

I've stood on the grassy knoll, visted the museum in Dallas deicated to the event. Reloaded lives up to the challenge of creating a sim of the event. The fact that they launched it around the anniversary of the JFK killing and offered 10,000 dollars to "whom ever" could reproduce the event closest to the actual killing is in fact tasteless.

Why would they be surprised at the reaction?

[Citizen Philip]

Perhaps calling it JFK: Reloaded, like Matrix: Reloaded and then claiming nothing short of sensationalizing their product is what is annoying people.

[Abash Alarmist]

Its not like you are free to toll the streets of Dallas with a Chainsaw, Magnum, SMG, Automatic rifle, Sniper Rifle, and a rocket launcher; all the while hijacking cars, killing hookers, running innocent people over, or assassinating people for money...That would just be immoral and indecent and wouldn't sell more than 100 copies due to being tasteless...Oh wait...fucking hypocrits.

[Citizen Philip]

Its not like you are free to toll the streets of Dallas with a Chainsaw, Magnum, SMG, Automatic rifle, Sniper Rifle, and a rocket launcher; all the while hijacking cars, killing hookers, running innocent people over, or assassinating people for money...That would just be immoral and indecent and wouldn't sell more than 100 copies due to being tasteless...Oh wait...fucking hypocrits.

You're right, this game is about reliving something that really happened, the public murder of a president. It isn't a generic game that includes the military sending tanks at you in a Porche, humping hookers in the back of a car to get your life back, respawning after death, or emulating a genre or style of a specific time.

Heck while there doing that they should create a sidescroller about gassing innocent people and then incinerating their bodies! The faster you can get the chlorine gas cannisters from storage, the more points! And remeber folks, PITCHFORKS work great against dead people, when it comes to cleaning up fast.

[jeffool]

Ah Christ, this again? Come on people, isn't it obvious? We want video games to be 50 Cent: Bulletproof forever. If any game attempts to raise above the level of Madden, then we must tear it down and put it in it's place! Who do these people think they are?! It's only a video game, not a movie, album, painting, or piece of community theatre. God damn game developers need to stop pretending they can have opinions or stances on real world occurances and portray them in their games.

(Um, are you people serious, or just joking? Because, y'know, I'm thinking you were joking, so I played along...)

[Drinking_Buddy]

Coming in 2007, Aberham Lincoln: Revolution!

[Abash Alarmist]

I'm joking.

10char

[mister_slim]

Hey, what ended up happening with the WTC game?

[jacktion]

Ok, this was a tasteless execution (pardon the pun) of an idea but the basic premise has got to hold some intrigue for a few of you. Imagine a high school history class of the future. Only instead of an old man dryly describing what happened when Washington crossed the Deleware, all the students put on VR helmets and are suddenly in the boats among the soldiers in the foggy morning as they try to evade enemy patrols. Wouldn't that be better? A more engaging education for our youth? Ok, so actually being Oswald pulling the trigger is a bad idea, but what if you could run a simulation where you are in the building and can merely watch the car drive past in the distance? Just to get a since of history and scale?
Those of you who prefer to only learn about something by hearing someone describe it need to catch up. This is how communication used to be. A man sitting by a fire describing the flood of 1422. Now we have 3d movies that accurately recreate insane events. Do you think technology will stop here for you? You will be passed up as things progress. By the time our kids are our age they will have experienced more tragedies and horror virtually than you can imagine. Just like our grandparents would be horrified by the movies we watch on a daily basis. Society marches on and standards change. Our norms of right now will be antiquated and pathetic in a hundred years. People will accept these things and some say that will bring society to a crashing apocalypse and some say that is the natural progression of morales and culture.

[jeffool]

Well, if we're talking "wish-list," I'd want more than just a 3d movie. To stick with the Kennedy topic, I want the ability to become anyone there, and try to interact any way I could. Could you imagine being someone standing there and trying to run and take the bullet for the President? Could you make it in time, or would the secret service take you out? Would Oswald still get the shot off? What if someone modded it to give an alternative idea, that of there being a 'second gunman on the grassy knoll' and you were able to take him out?

But they didn't ask me what I wished for. They had an idea (that Oswald did it, and the lone gunman theory is possible,) and wanted to share that idea in the form of a game. Oliver Stone took the exact opposite idea and made a movie of it, and won a metric shitload of awards. (Yes, a shitload is a metric unit. Go metric system!) Because this guy makes it for a different artistic medium, we crucify him. So what if he wanted to cause a little controversy with it? You think Stone didn't?

And yes, it all builds up to the eventual reality simulation (and the unreality simulation,) and the limitless things that can be done within. But far before we get to that point, we as "gamers" need to acknowledge that games can be used to exhibit and share ideas/arguments, even if we don't like them, or their execution.

[LilAbner]

Future upcoming games:

OJ : Reloaded - Pack the suitcases! Drive the Bronco! Wear the glove! " If the graphics don't fly, a new card you must buy!"

Michael Jackson : Loaded - Drink "Jesus Juice" while mastribating to "Home Alone". How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of his tootsie pop?

LMAO. Comedy gold.

[laggerific]

Well, if we're talking "wish-list," I'd want more than just a 3d movie. To stick with the Kennedy topic, I want the ability to become anyone there, and try to interact any way I could. Could you imagine being someone standing there and trying to run and take the bullet for the President? Could you make it in time, or would the secret service take you out? Would Oswald still get the shot off? What if someone modded it to give an alternative idea, that of there being a 'second gunman on the grassy knoll' and you were able to take him out?

But they didn't ask me what I wished for. They had an idea (that Oswald did it, and the lone gunman theory is possible,) and wanted to share that idea in the form of a game. Oliver Stone took the exact opposite idea and made a movie of it, and won a metric shitload of awards. (Yes, a shitload is a metric unit. Go metric system!) Because this guy makes it for a different artistic medium, we crucify him. So what if he wanted to cause a little controversy with it? You think Stone didn't?

And yes, it all builds up to the eventual reality simulation (and the unreality simulation,) and the limitless things that can be done within. But far before we get to that point, we as "gamers" need to acknowledge that games can be used to exhibit and share ideas/arguments, even if we don't like them, or their execution.

this is what I want...I would love to see and visualize the situation, to be able to tweak with the details to see the various viewpoints possible. And to finally know who was behind the fence at the grassy knoll. I know it's not all that likely we could get something so deep and fascinating. The assasination of JFK is a riddle wrapped in an enigma and folded into an orogami lockbox.

[Neosho]

Neat. Talk about interesting takes on ideas for the future...go EvAv.

[Subbacultcha]

Michael Jackson : Loaded - Drink "Jesus Juice" while mastribating to "Home Alone".

It's ignorance, ignorance I tells ya!

[jwbxx]

I dont see the point in playing a video game where you try to assassinate the one man who saved the world from going to full scale nuclear war. What's so great in reenacting the assassination? Why would someone want to reenact first hand the death of a human being?

You gotta look at this from the point of view of the Kennedy family. Would you guys approve of a game where you could reenact the savage murder of your loved family member?

I'm all for freedom of speech and freedom from the government dictating what games are good play and what games aren't good to play. But playing something like this just destroys any self respect I have for myself.

[Drinking_Buddy]

I dont see the point in playing a video game where you try to assassinate the one man who saved the world from going to full scale nuclear war. What's so great in reenacting the assassination? Why would someone want to reenact first hand the death of a human being?

You gotta look at this from the point of view of the Kennedy family. Would you guys approve of a game where you could reenact the savage murder of your loved family member?

I'm all for freedom of speech and freedom from the government dictating what games are good play and what games aren't good to play. But playing something like this just destroys any self respect I have for myself.

Well then dont play it. This is not some game where you gun down JFK to bad rap music and get points for killing more people. This game is about unanswered questions reguarding his assination, which have been an issue ever sense his death.

As for his family, I guess they feel the same way about the game as they do about the movie.

[jeffool]

Why would someone want to reenact first hand the death of a human being?So, um, what games do you play?

[mister_slim]

You gotta look at this from the point of view of the Kennedy family. Would you guys approve of a game where you could reenact the savage murder of your loved family member?
Well, so much for those GTA games.

[jwbxx]

I guess i should have put I enjoy playing GTA games, but I dont enjoy reenacting the assassination of an american hero. Except for GI joe, because I'm a cobra.

[mister_slim]

I suppose I should point out that the drive-by shootings in San Andreas are modeled on the real deaths of real people, who probably had families.