In the wake of the Orlando mass shooting, dozens of politicians have made public statements offering their thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families, as they did after San Bernardino, Charleston, Sandy Hook and the long and depressing back-catalogue of mass shootings in the US.
But, a trio of game developers want to point out that thoughts and prayers are no match for assault rifles like the AR-15, which critics have called the weapon of choice for terrorists and mass murderers.
Players of the developers’ online game Thoughts & Prayers are invited to try and stop a sequence of mass shootings popping up around the country by either pressing “T” to think or “P” to pray. It’s a futile endeavor where, no matter how many thoughts and prayers are sent, no lives are saved.
There’s a third button that pops up part-way through the game which reads “ban assault weapon sales”, but it triggers a message saying you are “un-American”, “weak” or you are getting too much campaign funding from the NRA to do that.
“We’ve seen enough gun violence. Everyone gives out the same message and it’s got to the point of complete ridiculousness. Politicians are skirting taking action,” explains Brian Moore, who created the game with Mike Lacher and Will Herring.
The three developers built the game in around six hours and published it on Friday. Since then more than 310,000 people have played the game, Moore says. Many of those plays came via a forum for supporters of the AR-15 assault rifle. Moore decided to join the forum and introduce himself as the game’s creator. He was greeted with widespread derision.
“How hard were you dropped on your head?” asked one forum member. Another asks where the button is “for a concealed carrier to shoot” him.
Moore isn’t fazed by the reaction. “Mass shootings are at an all-time high. We love the idea of people having a debate over this,” he says. “It’s a very important topic to cover and some sort of action needs to be taken.”
Thoughts & Prayers is one of several games that Moore, Lacher and Herring have created under the banner of GOP Arcade, described as “an on-going series of lightweight games, designed to make all the hoopla surrounding the election slightly more enjoyable”.
Other games include Trump Toss, where you fling Mexicans over a wall to “make America great again”’, and Good Guy With a Gun, where you sell guns to “good guys” while trying to avoid selling them to “bad guys”.
