SLAMDANCE VIDEO GAME COMPETITION'S FUTURE IN DOUBT & MORE

Headlines around the world are following the controversy in progress with the upcoming Slamdance's video game competion by Joyce Schwarz, blogging at www.hollywood2020.blogs.com.

JPEG of Slamdance Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition.

BEST NEWS COVERAGE WE SAW ON THIS TOPIC:

The best news coverage that Hollywood2020.blogs.com found on this topic was written by Jeff Vice, film editor for Utah's Deseret Morning News. We caught two different articles by Vice who covers the controversy from different angles. He reports that he believes that the future of the Slamdance Film Festival's video-game competition may be in doubt following withdrawal of supporat by a festival sponsor.

As Jeff reports, USC's Interactive Media Division withdrew sponsorship in protest over the decision by Slamdance to pull one of the video game finalists. Since that time, several game designers have followed and left the competion with about half of its original entries. The bloggers are having a field day and the headlines are now popping up in Europe too.

SUPER COLUMBINE MASSACRE RPG! news reports including Jeff's say that worries about possible lawsuits led Slamdance director Peter Baxter to pull "Super Columbine Massacre RPG! 'inspired by the Columbine High school killings. Blogger note the game had already been selected as one of the 14 entries in the Guerrila Gamemaker competion where the grand prize is $5,000. Here are links to the Deseret Morning news reports: Sponsor, Game Designers Withdraw From Film Fest, and Slamdance is slammed over game Deseret News

TRACY FULLERTON FROM USC SPEAKS OUT

JPEG of USC's TRACY FULLERTON BLOG on SLAMDANCE decision to withdraw sponsorship.

Hollywood2020.blogs.com Joyce Schwarz just got off the phone from talking with Tracy Fullerton whose blog post earlier this week features her official statement. Here is a link to her blog statement: Fullerton'sblog .

SLAMDANCE DECISION SURPRISES MANY:

When we asked Fullerton if she is still heading to Slamdance or neighbor Sundance's Festival, she candidly said that she is just trying to get through this week. Apparently, Fullerton, like many of us in the emerging entertainment and indy film biz thought it was 'just understood' that Slamdance had a rep for being on the cutting edge of next-gen media. Many bloggers and even one of the judges for that event seem to have been caught off-guard by the Slamdance decision to yank the game which some experts consider an experience in ART (see links below).

PANEL DISCUSSION AT SLAMDANCE ON CONTROVERSY? News reports have quoted Slamdance festival director Baxter as saying that he is planning to organize a panel discussion on the topic next week. As of this post, no time was set nor any date, so it seemed like a mute point to ask Fullerton if she was invited to attend.

ONLY VOICEMAIL -- no answers on panel at Slamdance:

Hollywood2020.blogs.com put in calls into Slamdance Melrose Ave office and got only voicemail saying contact them during office hours. A call to the Slamdance PR firm in the 323 area code reached only voicemail. Another call to reporter Jeff Vice in Utah reached only voicemail. So we have no answer about whether there really will be that promised panel disuccion.

WHAT WOULD A COLUMBINE SURVIVOR THINK OF THE GAME? That was the first question that came to the mind of this blogger Joyce Schwarz. And surprisingly a quick search online pulled up an interview with Richard Castaldo who is just that -- a Columbine survivor you may have seen appearing in the documentary BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE. We put a call into Castaldo and will report back when we hear from him.

Meanwhile -- check out some of the other press coverage on this situation including European headlines.

Columbine RPG Creator Slams Slamdance
Next Generation, CA - Jan 8, 2007
After having his controversial game Super Columbine Massacre RPG pulled from the Slamdance indie fest, creator Danny Ledonne tells Next-Gen "money still ...

Developers Leave Slamdance Following Columbine Controversy
Gamasutra, CA - Jan 8, 2007
Developers of the indie-produced titles Braid and flOw have announced that neither will be participating in this year's Slamdance Guerilla Gamemaker

Developers Protest Slamdance Game Festival
Kotaku.com, NY - Jan 8, 2007
It appears the news we broke last week of Slamdance removing the Columbine game from their lists of finalists has created quite the shitstorm, ...

Row as 'alternative' festival axes Columbine massacre game Irish Examiner

Slamdance Judge Speaks Out Against Censorship Super Columbine Massacre RPG pulled from Slamdance competition ... Ars Technica, MA - Jan 9, 2007 The backlash against Slamdance was quick and decisive: many other finalists have pulled their games from the competition. Opposable Thumbs had the chance to ...