>Well, I guess i'll point out the obvious and say the primary difference
>involves passively watching a factual account of an occurrence, versus
>taking an active part in the recreation of the occurrence, ultimately
>affecting its outcome for entertainment.

In this case however there is massive controversay about the act.  Could it 
have been done by one man?

Making the reenactment interactive does seem a possible way to answer that 
question (and I'm really not defending the game here - just the idea that it's 
"worse" than other similar things).

The interactivity serves the point of "proving" that one person could perform 
the actions attributed to them as a passive reacreation can't. 

>Ray posted the news item about the mom who cut the arms off her baby. You
>sit and watch a news item on that bit, maybe you say to yourself "I can't
>believe someone could do that". Wouldn't you say that is quite a bit
>different than playing a video game where you play the role of the mom, and
>recreate her act? Aren't you basically saying "Ok, now I want to pretend
>that I'm doing that".

This doesn't seem to be in the same league at all.  There's no controversy that 
this mother could, physically, perform the act.  There's no reason to prove it 
"doable" or controversy about the timing.

Also, while definately big news for a short time, this case is clearly unlikely 
to approach the levels of popular discourse that the Kennedy assassination has 
generated.

A better example might be (for lack of anything better) the "OJ" trail - there 
was questions in that case about the timing of things.  Creating a "game" (I 
would say "interactive simulation") modeled after real-world physics and 
capabilities might show people that the events were indeed plausible.

As far as I've heard the Kennedy game itself doesn't glorify the event in any 
way (although the company is offering a cash prize for the "best" run through) 
and models events as realistically as possible.

That being said I'm still not defending the game - but at the same time I find 
it hard to beleive that it is simply a publicity stunt.  There are hundreds if 
not thousands of dedicated Kennedy researchers and theorists focusing on these 
few fateful minutes - this game seems to me to be a pretty predictable 
extension of that obsessive mania.

Jim Davis

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