let's kill.
let's kill is one of my favourite games. the premise is simple: you are a psychotic serial killer, and you want to kill as many stick figures as possible as you prevent other opponents, who are rival serial killers, from making big kills themselves. the weapons range from traditional instruments of mayhem (chainsaw, ak-47, axe) to more whimsical choices (spork, home garden chipper-shredder, weed whacker and a pound of coke). i play this game with my friends at school a lot, and we draw plenty of horrified glances from students and professors alike.
one of the cards you can play on someone else to make their killings worth less is called "political scandal." this turns out to be rather prescient. the game is published by Atlas Games--and one of the people who runs Atlas Games, John Nephew, ran for the city council of Maplewood, Minnesota this year. the local paper ran an article a few weeks ago; the fact that his company published that game caused some public outcry. someone even distributed fliers to local residents under a sham organization name, criticizing Nephew for marketing violent games to children.
that criticism in a municipal election is so irrelevant that it cracks me up. let's kill is a hilarious game. it's violent, of course, but not in the way that a real-life fights is violent. the game is cartoonish and satirical. more importantly, the fact that his company publishes such a work has no bearing on whether he would be a good city councilman or not. i'm not intimately familiar with the local politics or issues of this suburb of the Twin Cities, but i can confidently say that until they discover that someone in the town has actually killed a Gassy Old stick figure [who is actually Elvis] in a taco restaurant with a pair of tweezers there is far more relevant muck to rake in the city council election.
how did it all turn out? scandal or not, he got elected. there were two seats open, and he and his allied incumbent won the election handily.
one of the cards you can play on someone else to make their killings worth less is called "political scandal." this turns out to be rather prescient. the game is published by Atlas Games--and one of the people who runs Atlas Games, John Nephew, ran for the city council of Maplewood, Minnesota this year. the local paper ran an article a few weeks ago; the fact that his company published that game caused some public outcry. someone even distributed fliers to local residents under a sham organization name, criticizing Nephew for marketing violent games to children.
that criticism in a municipal election is so irrelevant that it cracks me up. let's kill is a hilarious game. it's violent, of course, but not in the way that a real-life fights is violent. the game is cartoonish and satirical. more importantly, the fact that his company publishes such a work has no bearing on whether he would be a good city councilman or not. i'm not intimately familiar with the local politics or issues of this suburb of the Twin Cities, but i can confidently say that until they discover that someone in the town has actually killed a Gassy Old stick figure [who is actually Elvis] in a taco restaurant with a pair of tweezers there is far more relevant muck to rake in the city council election.
how did it all turn out? scandal or not, he got elected. there were two seats open, and he and his allied incumbent won the election handily.