Make a map, get arrested

[OrbWeaver]

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/05/02/1839251.shtml

 

I actually feel ashamed to share DNA with these ignorant scum.

[oDDity]

What kind of map was it though? An FPS where you could walk around his school and blow people away?

[OrbWeaver]

I can't read the article because it is Slashdotted, but I don't think the precise game has been specified. I think there was some reference to multiplayer action, so presumably something FPS-like.

[Komag]

I made a Doom 2 map of my high school about 14 years ago, filled with monsters and the biggest battle in the gym, and with a cyberdemon in the principal's office. It was my favourite map to play!

[Vadrosaul]

Hmm, a Chinese kid living in Texas. Not surprising in the least. What's more surprising is the commentary from those who condone this blatant overreaction.

[Crispy]

Some of the comments are pretty hilarious though. I don't think there is any sanity preserving response to this other than to laugh.

 

That, or c.url up into the fetal position and whimper for a few hours.

 

(Forum won't let me post c.url without the dot. Gnh.)

[Domarius]

Lol, someone arrest me, I tried to make a DukeNukem3D map of my highschool when I was in highschool. Oh wait, I'm not asian. Acually technically I have asian blood in me somewhere. Lucky I gave up on the map because of the limitations of the DN3D engine.

[Order of the Hammer Bureaucrat]

Well, I started making a map of my high school back in the days for thief. even starting to skin a physics teacher who was good at fencing, often fenced students with a ruler, and patrolled the hallways where students weren't allowed to go during lunchtime (old story about drug dealing) with a ruler - I thought he looks just like a guard.

 

This story just confirms that society at large is out to get the good people, and it's best to flee north america for some places with less paranoia.

[Domarius]

curl

[Domarius]

Actually now I can understand why you guys are so afraid of more laws coming in in the US... heh.

 

Making a map of a familiar place is just common practice amongst mappers. I've found maps online of people's houses, their friends houses, their favorite streets - way back in the day of DukeNukem that is. It's just fun, you want people to play it and go "Ah, I know where I am! Ah, here's the toilet, etc." hehe.

[Komag]

Exactly. One of the first things I made when learning Dromed way back was my crappy little apartment. I kept on not being able to get the dimensions to look right though, and it was ticking me off!

[Order of the Hammer Bureaucrat]

I started making a map of my hourse three years ago, measured every single thing, but couldn't get the dimensions right in dromed. Finally decided 1.23 is the best ratio and gave up. Now my little brother built the house using my measurements, and independently, he came up with 1.25 ratio, that is (dromed_units)=1.25*(feet_measured).

[Domarius]

I want to contact the people who expelled him and show them that simple fact. (About wanting to map familiar places).

 

Surely what they did is against the law? Where in the law does is say thou shalt not makes Quake maps of schools?

[rich_is_bored]

This is exactly the sort of thing that freaks me out about this country.

 

Who wants to try upping the ante and making a map of the White House?

[OrbWeaver]

Surely what they did is against the law? Where in the law does is say thou shalt not makes Quake maps of schools?

 

He was not charged or prosecuted though, just expelled from the school. I guess the school has the legal right to do that without necessarily having a full judicial process.

 

I too made a Thief map of my college in Cambridge, it didn't get very far but it was cool to walk through the main court hearing those Haunted Cathedral wind sounds in the background.

[oDDity]

I agree with the school expelling him if it was an FPS map with teachers and pupil characters that you could shoot.

[OrbWeaver]

I agree with the school expelling him if it was an FPS map with teachers and pupil characters that you could shoot.

 

Even if it had been, what purpose would expelling him serve? If he was a homicidal maniac, he wouldn't be any less likely to shoot up the school just because he was no longer enrolled there.

 

Actions should be based on a rational purpose, not just emotional reaction and "sending a message".

[oDDity]

Sure, that's what the prison system is based on

They don't just lock people up for a few years and let them out again unrepentant in order to show the public that 'justice is being done'.

If it's rationale you're after, then all sex offenders should be castrated, all thieves have their hands cut off, etc, That would have the rational purpose of making it very unlikely that they'll commit the same offences again, rather than putting them in a cushy room for a few years watching TV and mixing with other criminals.

[OrbWeaver]

We're talking about pre-emptive action here, not punishment.

 

1. IF there was good reason to suspect that the guy was likely to go on a shooting spree (which AFAIK there isn't), then immediate action would be required to prevent it. Expelling him would be completely ineffective in this regard, unless they are planning to also lock down the school and deploy armed guards to prevent him from entering.

2. If there is NO good reason to suspect that he is homicidal, then he is innocent and expelling him is totally unjustified.

[oDDity]

You can't work out if someone is going to end up going on a shooting spree.

As you say, whether he's expelled or not isn't going to make any difference to him going beserk, but it's justified punishment IMO (if the map was one where you could shoot teachers and pupils, if it was just a map of the school with generic monsters, then that's different)

[sparhawk]

but it's justified punishment IMO (if the map was one where you could shoot teachers and pupils, if it was just a map of the school with generic monsters, then that's different)

 

[OrbWeaver]

As you say, whether he's expelled or not isn't going to make any difference to him going beserk, but it's justified punishment IMO (if the map was one where you could shoot teachers and pupils, if it was just a map of the school with generic monsters, then that's different)

 

"Punishment" for what offense? Thought crime?

 

Who exactly is the injured party if he had created such a game?

[oDDity]

He's a mental case if he did. He should get taught at an appropriate school for the mentally disturbed, rather than a real school.

Of course, in this era, where every computer game and movie seems to involve some level of extreme violence and killing, kids can hardly be blamed any more, though making a game where you run around your school killing your teachers and fellow pupils is still mental behaviour.

[Macsen]

Remember that game School Daze on the Commodore 64 when you could name the teachers after your own teachers and fire slingshots at them?

[oDDity]

No.