School shooting game created by parents of victim looks to promote gun reform

A hot potato: A game that recreates a school shooting has been released by the parents of a boy who lost his life in one of these incidents. The Final Exam tasks players with surviving an attack as they collect five gun-control bills.

The Final Exam is not designed for entertainment or to scare people, but is an educational game, said Patricia Oliver, whose 17-year-old son Joaquin Oliver was killed during the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Following the murder of their son in what was the deadliest high school shooting in US history, Manuel and Patricia Oliver founded Change the Ref (CTR), an organization that raises awareness of mass shootings and works to reduce the influence of the NRA and gun manufacturers.

In September, Patricia and Manuel Oliver launched The Final Exam (download it free here). Players are caught in the middle of a mass shooting at a fictional high school, where they have to hide from the shooter as they make their way through different areas of the school. It also features quicktime events where players have to control their breathing while they hide behind bleachers as the shooter walks past.

There is no blood or violence in the game. Instead, it uses audio of gunfire, screams, crying, alarms, and the protagonist's heartbeat to represent the real-life horrors of these incidents.

Winning the game not only requires escaping the building within 10 minutes – the average length of a school shooting – but players must also collect five hidden legislative bill proposals: an assault weapons ban, secure storage of firearms (Ethan's Law), a ban on high-capacity magazines, universal background checks, and a higher minimum age to purchase firearms.

"These halls represent the real-life horrors of hundreds of schools that have suffered mass shootings--places that were promised to be safe for children but were failed by our government," reads a portion of the game's official website. "In this game and in real life, gun-control bills are the key to survival. By surviving the game and collecting all the bills, you can demand change and help save thousands of lives in the real world."

In addition to pushing for gun reform, the game also aims to challenge the still-popular view that violent media, especially video games, is a big factor behind why people carry out mass shootings. Numerous studies have shown this isn't true, yet there are still calls for a ban on violent games.

As reported by the Palm Beach Post, Canadian criminologist Thomas Gabor states that residents in Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom spend more per capita on violent video games than Americans do, but have a fraction of America's gun violence deaths.

"The clock starts now," the game's site adds. "Let's pressure politicians to do the right thing: Stop blaming games and start taking meaningful action against gun violence."