However, I believe that people who do go off the deep end, that have played these games, are more efficient at the evil that they do.

I ended up get a nasty call from the Student Life Office about my signs being in violation of a rule about listing the sponsoring club.

After fixing that via sponsoship from the Gaming Club [I was, of course, the President], I was “invited” to chat with the Campus Police, who asked me to reconsider, and call it off. When I politely declined, explaining that I’d run these before [in my high school, no less], I was “invited” for a chit with the campus legal department.

What fun!

Should folks stop, in light od VA Tech?
well, I think it would not be inapropriate to take a break. Then pick back up after a while. Or maybe just don’t advertise so much. Stay low key while people are still smarting.

One of the more ingenious attacks against me involved petroleum jelly on the underside of my car’s door handle. Stuck to it was a note in a little plastic baggy that read, “Consider this contact poison. If your hands are bare, you are dead. Beneath your right rear tire is a rag for cleanup. Thanks.”

I used to play “Killer” (as the Steve Jackson rules book was called here in Spain) back in my first years of college. We wouldn’t intrude in ongoing lectures, libraries or offices, but aside from this I even remember one of our lecturers giving out “poisoned” handouts to playing students (he was assumed, correctly, that we wouldn’t expect him to try such a sleazy move).

Games don’t kill. Weapons do.

All-in-all, it’s simply a game. I can naturally see schools wanting to ban it if it gets out of hand by being disruptive, but most games I’ve participated in had a subtle quality to ‘em. Weapon choices that had to be allowed by a game moderator before use, no “witness” rules, “zen” games, etc.

Banning it simply because it simulates assassination is moronic and simply won’t work… kids playing the game will simply hide it better.

Besides, that kind of logic can be extended to even more moronic statements like banning football because it encourages aggressive behavior or classes on Criminology because it may lead to students thinking like criminals.

Gotcha/Assassin is simply tag with more rules. I don’t think the game has a subversive effect on those who would otherwise not harm their peers. Those who intend to commit violence on others certainly have many other ways to practice their intents.

However if it becomes a painful reminder of the recent past, I could understand that reasoning.