School-shooting simulator game by the name Active Shooter on the Steam store raises concerns among activists

The action game called the Active Shooter is listed on **Steam** video store and has been given the release date of 6 June, 2018. The **video game** is set up in a school environment and has the software that allows players to “slaughter as many civilians as possible”. The game has been described as “appalling” by an anti-gun violence charity. [caption id=“attachment_4481289” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Image credit: Reddit[/caption] According to a post on Reddit, the description given for the game is as follows: The player is allowed to pick up any role. The player can either be a good guy which is the role of an elite SWAT team member or the bad guy, which is to be the shooter. According to the BBC  report, the video has been posted by an independent developer on the Steam store who has been previously charged for selling of “asset-flipped” games, which is to take third-party game engines and graphics, and repackaging them for selling with very less or no changes made to them. Charity Infer Trust, an organisation in the UK which provides advocacy, advice and information to Valve, the company that owns the Steam game store, has called for a take-down of the title before its release date on 6 June. The developer of the video game recommends including 3D models of children to shoot at. Also, the game is described as “realistic” and “impressive “. While speaking to BBC, the creator of the game stated,“Please do not take any of this seriously. This is only meant to be a simulation and nothing else.” A spokeswoman for Infer Trust while speaking to BBC said that the video game is in extremely bad taste and is appalled by it. Recalling the 22 school shootings that took place in the US since the beginning of 2018, she posed the question of how could a violent game of this sort be marketed in the first place. One look at the video trailer on Steam is enough to set off alarm bells, keeping in mind the school shootings that have become so commonplace in the US. There have been several complaints raised by the gamers against the Steam moderators who have removed games that feature nudity, but aren’t deleting a game which is a school-shooting simulator. According to a report in Slate, Steam was also accused of fostering 173 groups that glorify school shootings and were active on the platform.