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'Disturbing' SkyTrain Game Depicts Massacre Of Passengers

Online Game Depicts Massacre Of SkyTrain Passengers

Transit Police in Vancouver are investigating a "disturbing" online game that allows players to shoot SkyTrain commuters.

Players in "Main Street Massacre" act as Mack, a working class guy who gets frustrated on his transit commute and decides to shoot everyone in his way. The game is won when all the other passengers are killed and the Main Street station ticket booths are destroyed.

Transit Police are currently reviewing the game "to determine if any police related issues come to light," according to a news release issued Wednesday.

TransLink, which operates Metro Vancouver's transit system, condemned the game that "appears to advocate violent behaviour against SkyTrain employees and passengers."

The Vancouver Regional Construction Association also slammed the inclusion of a construction worker in the game.

“The portrayal of construction workers in this video clip as violent individuals is highly inappropriate and does not reflect at all the professionalism of the construction industry," said association president Fiona Famulak in a statement.

UPDATE, August 14: The game's creator has been identified as Colin Palmer by CTV News. A construction worker in real life, he told CBC News that "it's such a frustrating thing working in construction. The last thing we need at the end of the day is SkyTrain delays, a station that's halfway closed down for, like, six months."

The game's first shooting scene includes the infamous Auschwitz WWII concentration camp sign "arbeit macht frei ("work will set you free"), as well as a sign that reads, "YOU SUCK."

Despite the aggression featured in the game, some argue that it's less about violence and more about airing grievances.

"Through the experiences he's had on SkyTrain, he wanted to find a way that he could use his voice to express his frustrations of the situation of riding the SkyTrain every day," Jason Lee Elliott, a game design teacher at The Art institute of Vancouver, told CBC News. "It just happened that games is his medium."

Many SkyTrain passengers have been upset with the system following two major break downs in the same week in July.

“I think it's designed to make a political point to gain publicity," media analyst Brent Stafford told CTV News.

Once you've completed Main Street Massacre, a page comes up that asks you to leave a "tip." "MSM costs money to run and I have many more things to build," says the message.

The game's creator is listed as Alexi Wildman of Wildman Industries, but both appear to be fictional. The domain is registered to a fake Vancouver address, said CTV.

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