Interview: Two of the Most Hated Game Creators Alive

By: Derek Yu

On: May 18th, 2007

Destructoid has an interview with Danny Ledonne, creator of Super Columbine Massacre RPG, and Ryan Lambourn, creator of V-Tech Shooting.

I find it interesting that Ledonne is very articulate and Lambourn is… well, he did it for the “lulz.” Neither game is a success, in my opinion, from a gameplay perspective or a social perspective. What they’ve proved is that games can create discussion and cause controversy… is that something that needs to be proven?

I find this screenshot from V-Tech Rampage to be extremely ironic.

(Thanks, Felan, for the heads-up!)

Posted in Interviews, Social Impact | Tags: DannyLedonne

Raincoatduck

Very interesting interviews. I haven’t played either games but it’s pretty clear that very different motivations went into them.

It’s stupid to criticize Lambourn for making a game that gives Jack Thompson fodder. Why is the gaming community using Jack Thompson as a barometer for whether something has gone too far? Thompson is fucking nuts and I think it’s pretty ridiculous for the gaming community to police itself for things that might be used by him.

Certainly one can come to their own conclusion that Lambourn’s game is a steaming pile of shit but for god’s sake, don’t hate it just because it’s going to make Jack Thompson angry.
Derek

Well said, I completely agree!
Shabadage

Oi’

Fucking /b/tards.
Zenith

Hey maybe we should all just laugh, since it was all just for the lulz, that’s what he wanted!
Jack Thompson included,
Jack: lol u guyz

>_<
Zenith

-_-
Derek

=_=?
negative zero

both games suck…and you don’t have to play em to figure that out. wat i don’t understand is why touch upon such tasteless issues, or should i say, represent such issues in a tasteless way, even for the sake of interpretation or art.

it’s like serving shit in a restaurant.
crackers

If a quick scribble on the back of a pack of smokes was considered a piece of art then both these games are art.
http://pixelrobot.net Dr. Rotwang

I think “V-Tech Shooting” is really successfully. Lambourn got a lot of attention, he pissed people off a lot and had lots of fun. He wasn’t even trying to do anything else. As an act of pure trolling you must admit he’s been really successful. He probably got more than he expected.

Ledonne, on the other hand, failed because he tried to make something that exceeded his abilities.
penumbro

And here I thought they were going to interview Peter Molyneux and John Romero.
Rz.

if he did it for the lulz, then he is excused. Ledonne is just a moron.
Underwhelmed

I know that Ledonne says he did it for art, and Lambourn says he did it for attention, but really, Lambourn is the only one telling the truth here.

Both of these guys are attention whores, Ledonne is just a little more articulate and willing to pretend it was for some other reason.
someloser

So wait, if either of these guys got about 1/1000th of the publicity, lived in canada and made games about killing scientologists they’d get cops to their houses? If neither of these guys got cops up their ass in america I’d find it hiliarious.
Xenu Fan

Anybody who made a game about killing Scientologists just about anywhere would get some kind of legal trouble on their asses. If you don’t know why, you don’t know Scientology.
Zenith

yeah sorry, was trying to do a face emotic, =_= works
OrR

I liked Super Columbine Massacre RPG a lot. It made me cry. It wasn’t fun in the classic sense but it was a great pice of art. Up until the hell scene where I turned it off.
Sergio

It seems like Danny Ledonne has almost started a movement of sorts… crappy game tie-ins to tragic events may one day be as prevalent as crappy game tie-ins to big budget movies.

Although… Ledonne may not be the one who started this movement. But maybe he popularized it.
Radix

One of the commenters on the article has a good point in the suggestion that Ledonne probably made SCMRPG for very similar reasons to Lambourn, though without the superfluous *deliberate* offensiveness. The difference being that the Ledonne was always an arrogant fuck ready to play the “artist” card if things went the right way. When he starts saying things like
“the game is uncredited because I didn’t want the design to end with my authorship”
I start wishing firewalls came with bullshit filters.

Lambourn on the other hand never any such intention, though I doubt he has the maturity to pull it off. He’s been genuine from the beginning, and people knew what the deal was from his early 4chan posts (which I wish I’d saved, but I dismissed it at the time as ordinary newgrounds tripe). The guy doesn’t amuse me, but at least we’re spared the self-aggrandising essays.
Exthornt

So, Lambourn set out with the lofty goal of being a douchebag, and succeded extremely well.

Then again, it ain’t that hard.
http://www.xanga.com/thecube Cube

“I liked Super Columbine Massacre RPG a lot. It made me cry. It wasnâ€™t fun in the classic sense but it was a great pice of art. Up until the hell scene where I turned it off”

Holy crap I have a doppleganger.

Seriously, that’s EXACTLY what I was going to say.