Harris still poses threat to DOOM community

A letter to id Software discovered amongst the journals of Columbine killer Eric Harris is somehow inexplicably being used by political extremists on both sides of the spectrum to again suggest oppressive censorship of video games.

The letter contains nothing violent or disturbing or suggestive of psychosis by ANY standard, and is simply a suggestion to id that they make a Doom 3 game. How this in any way justifies the new wave of criticism that's headed for DOOM is unexplainable, but then, idealistic despots never needed logical justification for their actions. Be very afraid.

I took a look on the conservative life boards and they have nothing on it that I could see.

I think a roundhouse kick to the face could solve the problem. Chuck Norris 08!

HEY LETS ALL GET WORKED UP OVER NOTHING

Tell that to the people in Washington that keep trying every 3 months to find a new excuse for censorship. They'll take anything they can find and distort it to their cause.

Hmm, so what you're saying is that they found a letter written to id software saying that should make Doom 3? That's it?

Well, that's a damn shame for the kid. He shoulda waited 5 more years for his wish to be granted. But no, he decided to shoot up his school and kill himself. He shoulda stuck with making Doom wads and mods and killing hellspawn to vent his rage and anger.

Regretful.

let's see this letter. The people reporting it are probably overreacting like that zombie story some student wrote.

Lizardcommando said:

Hmm, so what you're saying is that they found a letter written to id software saying that should make Doom 3? That's it?

The police publicly released a pdf containing something like 800+ pages of eric harris's personal writings, school work and other assorted shit of his. There are some funny things in there, including a bunch of print-offs of doom 2 wall patch names for some reason.

Quasar said:

Be very afraid.

Yeah right. Nothing will come of this, so who cares?

Quasar said:

Be very afraid.

Be afraid that they will stop making the same old rehashed violent FPS games?

OH NO!!!!!

They will never stop making mounds of lousy FPSes.

I think Germany is a good example of how banning and censoring video games doesn't work. Almost every censored PC game released in Germany has fan-made patches that restore the original content of the game, sometimes even adding modified content to make the game even MORE adult than it was (not always). It just wouldn't work in this day and age. If you look hard enough, you can find HUMAN BEINGS FOR SALE on the internet, I don't think that finding "uncensored" patches would be very hard at all. If the government can't stop human slavery, child pornography or even the sale of tax-free cigarettes and booze, then I doubt that they could truly censor the game industry, most of all the PC game industry.

I don't think it matters whether or not users can patch something if it's still illegal to make or sell it in a given condition in the first place. That's still censorship and it's still damaging to a free society. And who knows, they could make legislation crazy enough to affect mod-making, or even the distribution of free open-source games that would otherwise be rated M. They've passed crazier laws.

You have to stand against the principle of the thing. Even if you don't like violent FPS games, you should realize it is wrong to restrict freedom of expression, especially based on the flawed, bullshit psychology paradigm that's emerged in the past two decades that places blame for all individual flaws on external stimuli. Harris was an outcast with psychotic and anti-social behaviors. Anybody who thinks this guy shot up a school because of a movie or a game is not only a damn fool but is also in complete denial.

Naked Snake said:
If the government can't stop human slavery, child pornography or even the sale of tax-free cigarettes and booze, then I doubt that they could truly censor the game industry, most of all the PC game industry.

Agreed

Quasar said:

Anybody who thinks this guy shot up a school because of a movie or a game is not only a damn fool but is also in complete denial.

Tell that to just about any anti-video game lobbyist like Jack Thompson, Hilary Clinton, Joe Lieberman, etc. and they'll think the total opposite (or something like that).

Quasar aren't you far too old to be acting like a dork over what people may or may not theoretically be saying about Doom.

All id employees should hang! This act will surely stop media violence.

Linguica said:

Quasar aren't you far too old to be acting like a dork over what people may or may not theoretically be saying about Doom.

They can blame it on Doom if they want. It's the repercussions of bad legislation that I'm concerned about.

Quasar, you didn't provide a link to anything to explaining how this letter is "inexplicably being used". You should probably do that or it's very easy to assume you're being paranoid again.

I'd like to know what, if anything, the fact that harris wrote a letter to id has to do with censorship, doom or the doom community aside from the letter being about a then hypothetical doom movie and game.

Some content from the journal:
http://gamepolitics.livejournal.com/320331.html

However, I must concede that I'm not finding a lot of kneejerk reaction to this yet. I assumed because of the email I was sent that it had started up again. But I still say we should be on the lookout for it to start up again. There's plenty in there that could be twisted to fit an agenda.

Looking through that BFPDF, there were two things that struck my mind:

Those doodles.
Map Schematics.

Those doodles were hilarious. I used to draw shit like that all the time in high school and junior high. Although not as crude and not have any of the nazi propaganda... Still, there were some crazy shit in there. Oh and there were a ton of crudely drawn DooM logos. How funny. I remember drawing crappy Doom logos and Quake logos while taking notes in my statistics class in my Senior year in high school. Fun times.

Look at pages 112-122 and check out those map schematics... It looks as though he was planning on making more maps, perhaps for his UACLABS wad? Maybe that was really supposed to be a megawad. Or... maybe they were just more random maps. Meh.

Found on page 426 of the PDF file:
Put everyone in Doom 1 see who can pass at least level 1.

I bet he sucked ass in DM.

EDIT: Lol, page 580 of the PDF file has a picture of Doom 2's MAP01 on it!

Page 931 has a copy of a TXT file for an unreleased wad called TIER. Oh and he doesn't seem to mention REALDOOM.wad in the TXT file, either.

Quast said:
The police publicly released a pdf containing something like 800+ pages of eric harris's personal writings, school work and other assorted shit of his. There are some funny things in there, including a bunch of print-offs of doom 2 wall patch names for some reason.

Indeed... I couldn't find the letter there, though. But such a letter adds nothing to what we see in the compiled notes; that he considered DOOM mapping one of his favorite hobbies. And that is not news. There are map sketches and a wad text file print out, among other things, particularly for a DM level called Tier, plus the DOOM specs by Matt Fell.

I wish they would have released those maps he had made with his dead school mates in them. If the stories are true.

Technician said:

I wish they would have released those maps he had made with his dead school mates in them. If the stories are true.

They aren't, at all.

And if they were, why would you want to see them? That's pretty fucking weird, if you ask me.

i like what he says about hanson on page 869

This is the stupidest thread ever. Jacko thompson will never succeed .

Naked Snake said:

They aren't, at all.

And if they were, why would you want to see them? That's pretty fucking weird, if you ask me.

What's the difference between playing the boys Doom maps and reading his thoughts. Maybe games should be censored. Ok I'll just be satisfied with a marine fucking an imp.

I always had a suspicion that id took their orders from dead murderers...

I can't believe that this guy actually wrote an essay on guns in school.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0707061columbine1.html

I've been thinking, maybe instead of blaming musicians and video games people should instead blame all the famous outlaws and gangsters who America has a romantic obsession with, like Bonnie and Clyde, or Al Capone or any other person who became popular by being bad and killing people. I mean, honestly, in the end a massacre is a massacre yet people pick and choose which ones will be deemed righteous and cool, and which will be deemed evil and sick. Thats fucked up in my opinion. America is a violent nation, but not because of R rated movies and gory games. Idolization of gangsters, both old and modern day (The Sopranos) and romanticized war views. Tell me, why do people idolize the mafia as being a "respectable gang" and yet when the crips go out and another child dies in a ghetto in LA in the crossfire of a drugwar its "Sick". Is it a race thing? Is it because of popular culture? I'll be frank, the mob is just another gang no matter how many times you watch the Godfather, and trust me its made up of some really sleezy fucked up people. This is just another example. People idolize one thing and shun its twin. It makes no fucking sense.

insertwackynamehere said (but in one huge, annoying block of text):
I've been thinking, maybe instead of blaming musicians and video games people should instead blame all the famous outlaws and gangsters who America has a romantic obsession with, like Bonnie and Clyde, or Al Capone or any other person who became popular by being bad and killing people.

I mean, honestly, in the end a massacre is a massacre yet people pick and choose which ones will be deemed righteous and cool, and which will be deemed evil and sick.

Thats fucked up in my opinion. America is a violent nation, but not because of R rated movies and gory games. Idolization of gangsters, both old and modern day (The Sopranos) and romanticized war views. Tell me, why do people idolize the mafia as being a "respectable gang" and yet when the crips go out and another child dies in a ghetto in LA in the crossfire of a drugwar its "Sick".

Is it a race thing? Is it because of popular culture? I'll be frank, the mob is just another gang no matter how many times you watch the Godfather, and trust me its made up of some really sleezy fucked up people. This is just another example. People idolize one thing and shun its twin. It makes no fucking sense.

I think it has to do with individuals, you're still trying to place the blame on outside influences, when, in reality, they don't have that much of an impact on normal people, fucked up people take shit the wrong way and get twisted, that's all.

Also, Jesus Christ, did you get to the part in English where you learn paragraphs, or is your return key broken? I think, as one block of text, you're lucky even I read it. It almost killed my buzz.