Students Urged To Stop Playing 'Assassin' Game
After the horrors of the Virginia Tech massacre, a popular game on campuses nationwide called "Assassin" is raising concerns and prompting warnings from police.
Officers in three communities in Illinois and Pennsylvania urged students to halt the games, which involve ambushing other players with sometimes realistic-looking toy guns or other objects, after the Virginia Tech shooting last week that left 33 people dead.
"Assassin," according to police and players interviewed this week, is a game in which players have the goal of "killing" or eliminating other players while avoiding similar attacks on themselves. Typically each player is assigned a target, who can be attacked with a designated "weapon" during certain times of day or night, usually outside of classrooms or after school. When successful, the player receives a new target; the eliminated player is out of the game. The "winners" are the last player standing and in some cases also the player who scored the most "kills." Often a pool of money is split among the winners. A typical game can last for days or weeks.
Police say they worry that players, mostly college and high school students, would be mistaken for real-life killers, endangering themselves and others. "Virginia Tech has heightened everyone's concern and alerted them to what's going on in the country," said Leland Grove, Ill., Police Chief Mark Gleason. "It's just terrible."
Students themselves in some instances have halted games in light of the Virginia Tech shootings. "Just out of taste we decided to cancel for this year," said Trey Keeler, a junior at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, who was overseeing the game played by more than 80 of the 1,060 students. "I hope it's just a localized anomaly," he said. "I don't think it will affect things in the long run. But definitely people will have to re-evaluate how they play the game."
Ryan Mulligan, a University of Illinois junior, runs an Internet site that manages and keeps records of Assassin games, www.campusassassins.com. He said the site is overseeing more than 50 games at college campuses in the USA, Canada and England and has seen "a downturn" in games on the site since the Virginia Tech killings. (USA Today)
· Dear Lord, how much longer will America and its youth continue it its demonic fascination with the demon of death? Please send Your Holy Spirit to invade our nation so that it can be released from this culture of death, and any other satanic fiery darts that are aimed at us to destroy us! May You continue to comfort all those who have lost loved ones in school shootings. · "For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you." (Isaiah 60: 2 NKJV)
