Friday, May 16, 2008
The controversial video game "JFK Reloaded" plays to our inner sociopath. But it also shows how government scandals fester in the national psyche until the truth comes out.
Nov 30, 2004 | "JFK Reloaded," the controversial video game that reenacts the assassination of President Kennedy, is a reminder that the events of Nov. 22, 1963, remain, 41 years later, a wound on the American body politic that is only partially healed. The Scottish software engineers who created the game, surprised at the widespread revulsion at their enterprise, protest that their purpose is "educational": to understand the Dallas ambush better by replaying it, they said. The game is now for sale, with a demo version available for $9.95. The Kennedy family is indignant at the notion of making the assassin's lair a place of entertainment, and who came blame them? Picking at the scab of Nov. 22 still hurts.
Despite the best efforts of governmental spokespeople and major news organizations, the causes of Kennedy's death remain popularly disputed. The sincerity of the entrepreneurs who hope "JFK Reloaded" will prove a lucrative teaching tool may be open to question. But the impulse behind their game cannot be dismissed as merely cynical and morbid.
The game speaks to a curious and questioning spirit among young people who want to know more about this murder mystery that obsessed their parents. The undeniable appeal of "JFK Reloaded" is that it enables the curious citizen to peer yet again into the brutal and enigmatic tragedy of Dealey Plaza and ask: What really happened?
The creators of the game, it is important to note, have an anti-conspiratorial bent. They want to vindicate the U.S. government's original official story: that Lee Harvey Oswald, seated in the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, fired all of the shots at the presidential motorcade. They say they hope to convince a skeptical public that the much-maligned "single-bullet theory" is correct.
In this theory, first developed by young attorney (now senator) Arlen Specter, Oswald fired a first shot that missed, a second that sliced through President Kennedy's neck and ripped through the chest of Texas Gov. John Connally, and a third that hit Kennedy in the head, killing him instantly.
The game is designed -- some would say stacked -- to prove that the Warren Commission is correct and the conspiracists wrong. The idea is to reproduce the three shots that Oswald allegedly fired. The closer you get to what the creators regard as historical truth -- the Warren Commission's scenario -- the higher your score. As an argument, "JFK Reloaded" has a brutal simplicity. As a game for the millions who love to entertain themselves with violent digitized imagery, it is a natural. As a teaching tool, however, its usefulness is limited.
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