JFK game OTT?

A Scottish company is getting a lot of criticism for its new game called "JFK: Reloaded," and for having offered a $100,000 reward up to the person who can most accurately recreate the three shots which stuck and the president. Link

This is causing a fiasco within the video game industry, parents, and the Kennedy family. The two Kennedy senators have denounced the game, and justifiably so -- I wouldn't countenance a "game" predicated on such a tragedy as the assassination of one of my family members.

I have to wonder about the Scottish company's sanity on three levels: 1.) For having actually made a game where you re-enact the political assassination of perhaps the greatest visionaries of this centrury, 2.) For having named it in the style of a movie sequel (Matrix: Reloaded), and 3.) For having marketed it in the U.S. They must have been banking on the knowledge they'd be pissing off a lot of people.

Generally speaking, I scorn the way government deals with these kinds of issues. Remember back in about 1993 when the Senate had hearings about Mortal Kombat? I remember them being so ridiculous -- they were talking about the first game when the second one, which was even bloodier, had already come out. At about the same time, there was the Beavis & Butthead issue. A five year-old burned his house down, and his parents blamed MTV. Among other things, they had to promise never to say "fire" on the show again.

As for "JFK: Reloaded," I feel the same way -- involving government is about the worst way to deal with it.
The best ways, I believe, for parents to handle it are 1.) Don't let your kids have the game, and 2.) Pressure video game dealers not to sell it. Let the realities of the market (low return on investment) be their own punishment.

I shudder to think what other games foreign companies could come up with. Assassinating current American leaders? Creating a home version of that one game Sniper, complete with infrared rifle? Eesh.