Fury over Columbine massacre computer game

Relatives of Columbine High School massacre victims have expressed outrage over an internet game based on the 1999 attack.

The game, Super Columbine Massacre RPG, was posted on a website last year, but has become more popular lately.

It draws on investigative material, including images of teenage killers Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who killed 12 classmates and a teacher at the Colorado school before committing suicide.

The game also includes crime scene photos of the killers and images of students running and crying, but does not have photos of any victims.

“We live in a culture of death, so it doesn’t surprise me that this stuff has become so commonplace,” said Brian Rohrbough, whose son, Daniel, was among those murdered.

“It disgusts me. You trivialise the actions of two murderers and the lives of the innocent.”

The site’s creator told the Rocky Mountain News he wanted to make something that would “promote a real dialogue on the subject of school shootings”.

The creator, who identified himself in an email interview only by the name “Columbin”, said he was inspired to make the game because he was in Colorado at the time of the attack.

“I was a bullied kid. I didn’t fit in, and I was surrounded by a culture of elitism as espoused by our school’s athletes,” he said. He added that he considered the killers, at times, “very thoughtful, sensitive and intelligent young men”.

Richard Castaldo, who was paralysed from the chest down in the attack, played the game after reading about it on a gaming website.

He said it reminded him of the 2003 film Elephant, which followed students and others on the day of a school massacre without assigning reasons or blame for the bloodshed.

“It didn’t make me mad, just kind of confused me,” he said.

“Parts of it were difficult to play through, but overall, I get the feeling it might even be helpful in some ways. I don’t think it’s bad to discuss.”