Virginia Tech Flash Game Ransoms Self

A homemade video game about the Virginia Tech shootings has surfaced on the Internet less than a month after the shootings, and it has drawn angry responses.

The game, V-Tech Rampage, casts the player in the role of shooter Seung-Hui Cho. The video campus and surrounding area includes a post office, Norris Hall, a dorm and students to shoot. The player can use the keyboard to make Cho walk, talk and shoot, and the game follows the general plot of the events of April 16.

The song "Shine" by Collective Soul, reportedly a favorite of Cho's, plays in the background.
"It's so contemptible it's beneath response," Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said.

-- Video game casts player as Tech gunman

I was well prepared to launch into my, "despite content it has some right to exist" style speech, until I read this:

In response to the negative reaction to the game, Lambourn posted a note asking for donations in exchange for taking the game down.

Addressed to "Angry people," Lambourn writes, "I will take this game down from Newgrounds if the donation amount reaches $1,000 US I'll take it down from here if it reaches $2,000 US and I will apologize if it reaches $3,000 US."

Newgrounds founder and CEO Tom Fulp did not respond to an e-mail request to comment on the game.

Some have compared Lambourn's notice with a ransom note, and he has since said that it wasn't meant to be serious.

Serious or not, it makes you into an ass. Ledone has at least been up front for his reasons to create Super Columbine RPG and none of them were provoking people out of cash to remove the controversy - in jest or otherwise.