JFK Reloaded

A Company called Traffic has released a computer game on the anniversary of JFK's death which recreates the assassination and puts the player behind the gun. The game is an attempt to dispel conspiracy theories by proving how easily all three shots could have been fired from Oswald himself.

Add to this, they're offering a $100, 000 contest to see who can most closely replicate Oswald's shots. Their site offers various 'tips and hints' on how to do this.

That being said, although I would have the temptation to download the game (which actually costs money- go figure) and examine it on a purely technical basis, there is no way in hell I would be able to point that gun. I can't even begin to describe the sort of sick, sick feeling such an image would give me.

And it gives pause for thought that although we have games about war, games about actual events that took place where people died; everybody has their limits. We can either look at this as a few developers that got a little carried away, or we can look at this as an example of how identification and sensitivity can have a huge effect on how we view these sort of video games.

This sort of simulation can be viewed as educational from an objective standpoint, and possibly an inventive way of putting to rest old suspicions and conspiracies; and it might even make people stop and seriously consider the people in the real world who aim those guns; but, I really don't think the developers seriously considered the people who would be 'playing' it. Who exactly is their audience?

Not me.