New school shooting simulator slammed for being dangerous and highly offensive

A VIDEO game putting players in the role of school shooter has been called “dangerous” by critics who want it banned.

PARTICIPANTS are rewarded for how many students, teachers and police officers they kill in a controversial new video game designed to play as a school shooting simulator.

The game, known as Active Shooter, has been causing outrage since it became available for preorder on digital distribution platform Steam shortly after a 17-year-old killed 10 and wounded 10 others in a Texas school shooting.

“Pick your role, gear up and fight or destroy. Be the good guy or the bad guy. The choice is yours,” the unreleased game’s description reads.

“You will be able to pick the role of an Elite S.W.A.T team member or the actual shooter … depending on the role, your objective might be to protect and extract or hunt and destroy.

“Civilian survival mode will be added within first 72 hours of release where you will be able to pick a role of an civilian in a survival mode.”

The game also claims to feature a “variety of real life weapons” and “real life situations”.

The shooter getting game stats for killing cops.

A trailer of gameplay on the page shows a player running past dead bodies in the school halls and shooting at the SWAT team from a classroom window, with real-time stats tallying the amount of civilians and cops they have murdered.

Understanding the upsetting nature of the game, the developers have added a note warning people not to take Active Shooter seriously.

“This is only meant to be the simulation and nothing else. If you feel like hurting someone or people around you, please seek help from local psychiatrists or dial 911 (or applicable). Thank you,” the page reads.

Despite attempts to play off the game as light fun, it has been slammed by critics calling for it to be removed from the digital distribution platform.

.@steam_games I think it would be incredibly insensitive of you, and a slap in the face to the hundreds/thousands of students who have had to live through real school shootings - if you release your new 'Active Shooter' game.

— Randy Thompson (@ERDataDoc) May 27, 2018

I am disgusted to see that @steam_games is selling an “Active Shooter” game due to be released on June 6 for download. I am requesting that you remove “Active Shooter” from the Steam website & stop selling products that glorify the gun violence killing America’s children.

— flamenco (@4goofballs) May 25, 2018

@ValveCorp Seriously, active school shooter game??!!!
That’s disgusting and dangerous

— AnonyMouse (@artsymichell) May 25, 2018

That Active Shooter game that’s releasing on Steam (on the 6th I think) is a bad look. I’m all for devs making the games that they want but it’s an obviously shitty game that is looking to sell off controversy. It shines a poor light on my favorite hobby and gives ammo to critics

— Arsonall (@Arsonall) May 27, 2018

Hey @steam_games you need to get rid of the Active Shooter game or I'm banning my sons from spending money on your platform.

— Lara Freidenfelds (@larafreidenfeld) May 27, 2018

@steam_games Your “active shooter” game is not only dangerous, but also in very poor taste. There is something seriously wrong with someone that comes up with a game like this.

— Dragonfly63 (@Deborah00796667) May 27, 2018

Do me a solid if you have a Steam account. Go bitch about this "Active Shooter" game coming in June. Report it and such.

https://t.co/19fvhuOtvx

— b. (@BBrkdwn) May 27, 2018

Hopefully, Valve won’t sell any of their new game. I’m pro Sceond Amendment. I am also pro background checks to try to reduce the risk of people having guns who shouldn’t - like people who would buy the “Active Shooter” game.

— ScoreKeeper51 (@ScoreKeeper51) May 27, 2018

BOYCOTT Active Shooter game on @steam_games Revived Games has gone too far and it will reflect even worse for all of us designers who want to make great games.... Help me take out the trash, tell Steam we are not having this....

— John Ghost Bentley (@JRGhostBentley) May 27, 2018

The ongoing backlash has caused the developer to respond, although they shrugged off a lot of the concerns.

“First of all, this game does not promote any sort of violence, especially any sort of a mass shooting,” they wrote in a post on Steam.

“While I can see people’s anger and why this might be a bad idea for the game, I still feel like this topic should be left alone.”

The developer added there were games with themes of mass murder such as Hatred, Postal and Carmageddon already on the platform and said they had contacted Steam developer Valve Corporation for clarification.

“After receiving such high amount of critics and hate, I will more likely remove the shooters role in this game by the release, unless if it can be kept as it is right now,” they wrote.

News.com.au has contacted Valve Corporation for comment.

Continue the conversation in the comments below or with Matthew Dunn on Facebook and Twitter.

Originally published as New school shooting simulator slammed for being dangerous and highly offensive