There will be a panel at Slamdance (the alternative festival to Sundance) next week on the Slamdance Guerrilla Game Competition controversy-- by Joyce Schwarz, blogging at www.hollywood2020.blogs.com, in fact one week from today on January 21, 2007 @ 5 p.m. We confirmed that the panel is indeed happening by talking to Danny Ledonne. the creator of "SUPER COLUMBINE RPG" who has been invited to be on that panel.
RECAPPING SEQUENCE OF EVENTS AT SLAMDANCE GUERRILLA GAME COMPETITION INVOLVING COLUMBINE RPG:
Yes, Danny Ledonne, is the guy who 1) created the Columbine RPG game 2) Then was invited to submit the game by the Guerrilla Gamemakers Competition 3) Then was named a finalist 4) Then got kicked out of the competition in the past week or so by the director of Slamdance. 5) Then got invited by the director of Slamdance to be on the panel on January 21 @ 5 p.m. at Slamdance to discuss the game/controversy etc.
WHO HOLLYWOOD2020.blogs.com has talked to about the Columbine RPG this weekend -- recap:
As you know from reading our previous blogs (links above) this blogger Joyce Schwarz has calls into Slamdance (whose offices are located in Los Angeles) and Slamdance's PR agency.
So far because of the weekend, we have reached only voicemail. However, we have talked directly via phone to: a) Tracy Fullerton, assistant professor at USC's Interactive Media Division who was a sponsor of the competition and has withdrawn sponsorship b) to Danny Ledonne, himself -- and more on him in our next blog c) we have been in email contact with Richard Costaldo who is a Columbine survivor who has played the Columbine RPG game and was interviewed about it in Kotaku.com last May -- and we posted links to that story.
SLAMDANCE OFFICIAL STATEMENT and notice about the panel at Slamdance:
After Danny Ledonne pointed it out to this blogger, we did notice that the official Slamdance statement did include a specific time and day - but no location for the panel that they have said they are planning about these events. Here is a cut and paste of that statement from the Slamdance website:
The Super Columbine Massacre RPG game has been withdrawn from Slamdance'07. While understanding the different positions people have already taken with the game, we want to express the struggle we had with ours. On one hand, a jury selected a game they believed merited programming, a decision that always leads to our organization supporting the creator's independent vision and freedom of expression. On the other, there are moral obligations to consider with this particular game and the preservation of the Slamdance organization and its whole community. There are always legal checks and balances with any Slamdance program. Specifically with the subject matter of Super Columbine Massacre Role Playing Game Slamdance does not have the resources to defend any drawn out civil action that our legal council has stated can easily arise from publicly showing it. Though the organization annually takes on legal matters in support of the independent artists in this case such an undertaking could mean the end of Slamdance. Altogether, our decision has been extremely hard to make and hope a choice like it will never have to be made again. This is not a case of Slamdance lacking courage, sponsor disapproval of showing Danny's game or wanting to control freedom of expression. Simply and practically, Slamdance can't afford to take on the scope of this potential loss by showing the game to the public. And now this decision must be faced head on.
We are planning a panel event at Slamdance on Sunday, January 21 at 5 pm where the different positions and the public exhibition of this Game can be heard and openly discussed. It is our goal that all interested parties can learn something from this event and most importantly offer some contribution toward the advancement of independent Games. Please join us and open up this whole matter. (Blogger note, it appears that it is open to the public, we have not confirmed that it is free nor did Danny Ledonne know the exact location of the panel.
WHO WILL BE ON THE SLAMDANCE PANEL: According to our chat with Danny Ledonne, the creator of the Columbine RPG game, the panelists at this point will include 1) Danny Ledonne, 2) Peter Baxter, Slamdance president (who pulled the game from competition 3) an attorney that Peter is trying to locate (according to Ledonne) and 4) another developer (Ledonne was not sure if that other developer would be one of the ones still in the competion of one of the six or more finalists in the Slamdance Guerrilla Videogame Competition who have voluntarily withdrawn from the compettion in protest. (See link to MTV story here:) Columbine Game Yanked From Slamdance Festival Amid Controversy ...
MTV.com -
Six other game developers have pulled out of Slamdance Festival in reaction to dropping of 'Super Columbine Massacre RPG.' ...More Slamdance Finalists Withdraw
And a link to an earlier story in NEXT GENERATION:
Next Generation, CA -
Three more finalists in the Slamdance Guerrilla Gamemaker indie competition have withdrawn their games in protest of the dismissal of the controversial ...
WHO ELSE WILL BE ON THE SLAMDANCE PANEL?
At this point, Hollywood2020.blogs.com has no other information on who else will be on this Slamdance panel, nor if it is open to the press, or open to the public. Nor if it will possibly be webcast, videotaped or Podcast live or in archival format. We strongly suggest all of those>
ARCHIVE THIS PANEL PLEASE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR NEXT SUNDAY -- just about this time PST 6:20 p.m. -- the panel should be in full force!. We will followup with additional pre-panel coverage/interviews and post-panel event recap.