MSP slams shooter game

School setting is‘unacceptable’

A computer giant has been slammed for the release of a new game which allows players to shoot up a school.

The game, titled ‘Active Shooter’, is due for release next month on Steam, a gaming platform owned by Valve Corporation, a video game developer based in Washington state, USA.

The game was developed by Revived Games, which plans to sell the game to players on the platform.

Mid Scotland and Fife MSP, Alexander Stewart, has condemned the morbid game, which features the shooter going into a school and gunning down anyone in their path.

In promotional material for the game, ahead of its June 6 release, the game is described as a simulation.

According to the Steam website, players can pick their role, “gear up and fight or destroy!”.

It adds: “Be the good guy or the bad guy. The choice is yours! Only in “Active Shooter”, you will be able to pick the role of an elite SWAT member or the actual shooter. Lead your team, extract civilians and neutralize the shooter.

“Your objective would be either to neutralize the target or be the target himself. Depending on the role, your objective might be to protect and extract or hunt and destroy.”

The game also allows players to utilise a variety of real-life weapons.

As a disclaimer, the platform adds: “Please do not take any of this seriously.

“This is only meant to be a simulation and nothing else. If you feel like hurting someone or people around you, please seek help from local psychiatrists.”

Mr Stewart said: “No one is arguing that computer games should never involve guns, as they’re clearly popular, but only when the game is played responsibly.

“The school element, however makes this completely unacceptable.

“People will wonder what on earth the developers of this game were thinking; not just in the context of Dunblane, but all the horrific incidents we’ve seen in the USA as well.

“A responsible games platform would – and should – absolutely think twice about allowing this to happen.”

Parents of slain students in the Parkland school shooting in Florida, in February this year, have also hit out at the developers.

Valve Corporation had not responded to our request for comment at the time of print.

The Steam platform boasts over 12.5 million users.

In 2018, there have been 23 reported school shootings in America where someone was hurt or killed.

In Parkland, Florida, a 19-yearold man gunned down students and staff with a rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing at least 17 unsuspecting students and adults.

Earlier this month ten people were killed in a shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas.