In the mid 90s, it became clear that video games weren’t just for kids anymore. If Mortal Kombat and Wolfeinstein 3-D made that statement, then games like Doom and Eternal Champions placed an exclamation point at the end of that statement. Politicians, right-wing talking heads, talk show hosts, and lazy parents soon discovered that (read: scapegoated) video games, along with gangsta rap were the same satanic evils that comic books and rock ‘n’ roll were during the 50s and 60s. To temporarily ward them off if nothing else, a rating system was established. With that in place, developers were given a free pass to test the limits of what’s appropriate for a video game, although it was clear that some lazier developers were simply putting blood and guts into video games for their own sakes. Thus, for every Duke Nukem and Samurai Showdown, we got a dozen more Time Killers. In 1997, one game, more than any other signified the worst fears of every parent/teacher group, congressman, and clergyman: Running With Scissors’ shooting game, Postal. What makes this game even more disturbing is how eerily close it is to certain real-life events that tragically still go on today.

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