The NRA is an organization of lying hypocrites.

That was my first reaction upon seeing that the 501(c) organization had released an iOS shooter app in the wake of its own comments regarding violent video games.

But the finished product, NRA: Practice Range (by MEDL Mobile), is little more than a crude bait-and-switch (much like this article’s first sentence).

iTunes describes the app as the NRA’s “new mobile nerve center, delivering one-touch access to the NRA network of news, laws, facts, knowledge, safety tips, educational materials and online resources.”

NRA: Practice Range touts its educational benefits on the front page (of the iTunes site, anyhow). But it dresses this “edutainment” in the guise of a low-rent shooting game that serves as the proverbial “bait.”

One minor confession: I’m a gun owner and a supporter of the 2nd Amendment. I love taking my Smith & Wesson 1911 .45 to the local range. And the app’s gameplay won’t win any awards … to put it kindly. “Infuriating” would be a good way to describe NRA: Practice Range’s gyroscopic shooting action (the analog mode improves matters slightly).

I’m not concerned here with the morality of firearms or the objective or artistic merits of the app itself. I’m more interested in analyzing the app’s purpose (or lack thereof) when juxtaposed with NRA President Wayne LaPierre’s statement that “vicious, violent video games with names like ‘Bulletstorm,’ ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ ‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘Splatterhouse” led – in part – to the Sandy Hook shooting.”

The game portion of NRA: Practice Range places you in an indoor range, outdoor range, or skeet shooting and tasks you with mowing down targets with an assortment of weaponry ranging from an M9 to an M16. And that’s about it.

Each mode offers one free weapon (you may purchase additional guns for $.99). The gameplay – via gyroscopic or analog controls – is repetitive and downright annoying.

But the raison d’etre of NRA: Practice Range is the “Facts” and “Gun Safety Tips” that display during loading screens – much like the historical facts and quotes in a Call of Duty or Medal of Honor title.

Some of these “Tips” – like “Never use alcohol or drugs before or while shooting” – seem simple to the point of pandering. Others – like “Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot” – aren’t so readily obvious to those weaned on Hollywood’s lax depiction of gun safety.

The app also provides separate links to Gun Safety, NRA News, Hunting Season, Gun Laws, and gun-related Legislation on the NRA site.

These are all useful links and – for the novice shooter – afford a great primer on the basics of gun ownership and pertinent background info. And most of the “Facts” and “Gun Safety Tips” are at least somewhat illuminating (though anyone who’s picked up a firearm in their life should have internalized most of them already).

But I question the existence of the shooting game. With its derivative gameplay, what purpose does it serve other than a bait-and-switch for the educational portion of NRA: Practice Range? I’d have no problem with an app that educates about responsible gun ownership – but then, the “game” segment is right there in the app’s title. It’s fundamentally dishonest.

And what is the purpose of the shooting game? I can’t picture anyone tolerating the infuriating gameplay for longer than 5 or 10 minutes. And coming from an organization dubbed the National Rifle Association – dedicated to educating the populace on firearms and their responsible operation — NRA: Practice Range is surprisingly light on gun-related details.

To its credit, NRA: Practice Range gets some minuscule details right. For example, the M16 only fires in semiauto mode (civilian AR-15 models don’t reach full-auto). But at its core, the shooting game is simply point-and-shoot. You’re not shooting at living targets and your victims don’t spew blood and guts, so no one would (or should) accuse the NRA of hypocrisy for simultaneously criticizing violent video games and endorsing an app like this.

But the game portion of NRA: Practice Range serves little to no purpose. Unlike the popular iOS shooting App, i-Gun by Vanilla Breeze, you won’t even learn the proper way to load a weapon and cock the hammer (for revolvers) or rack the slide (for semiautomatic pistols). It won’t familiarize you with the basic layout of a range (mainly because you won’t have the patience to play for more than 5 minutes), and you won’t learn anything about the real crux of firearms – the wood and metal of the firearms, themselves.

NRA: Practice Range isn’t hypocritical. And unlike some of my contemporaries, I see no problem with teaching responsible gun ownership to young shooters (though the iTunes site, in fact, rates it “12+”, which clashes with earlier reports). But the app serves little purpose, the game portion is a transparent bait-and-switch, and interested parties would do better to browse www.nra.org for pertinent info.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Yesterday, I ran down some of the funny ways that developers use Xbox 360 Achievements and PlayStation 3 Trophies to tell players that they suck. Today, I’m getting a little more positive — if a bit morbid — with a bunch of virtual doodads that center around all the funny ways we can kill imaginary things.

Darkest of Days — “Horse Puncher”
Value: 100G
“Punch a horse in the face, killing it.”

Mongo from the film Blazing Saddles in the picture above isn’t the only person who refuses to take guff from any equine punks. Developer 8Monkey Labs’ time-traveling shooter Darkest of Days will add a hefty 100 points to your Gamerscore for sending a horse to blazes using only your mitts. We’re not sure what’s more confusing: that you can punch a horse in Darkest of Days, that you can punch a horse to death in Darkest of Days, or that punching a horse to death in Darkest of Days awards an Achievement comparable in size to the one you’d normally get for beating a game.

I’m just confused all over on this one.

The War of the Worlds — “3.711 m/s² != 9.780 m/s²”
Value: 10G
“Destroy a Drone using a pushable object.”

This Xbox Live Arcade-exclusive 2D platformer is mostly about avoiding and eluding attackers from the Red Planet, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t score a few points for Team Terra along the way. The Achievement’s title refers to the accelerations due to gravity on Mars and Earth respectively, the upshot being that one of our pushable objects sitting at the same height as a Martian one possesses just over two and a half times more potential energy. So between this and that whole “incredibly vulnerable to Earth bacteria” oversight, those aliens didn’t know what the hell they were doing.

Sleeping Dogs — “A Slap in the Face”
Value: 10G/Bronze Trophy
“Kill someone with a fish.”

Have you ever noticed how much fictional criminals like aquariums? You can usually tell how much weight a bad guy pulls by the number of fish he keeps in whatever club or restaurant he uses as a base. It makes sense, I suppose; aquariums are really relaxing, and even upper-level criminal masterminds need to unwind at the end of the day. Developer United Front’s open-world action game Sleeping Dogs turns this right around by allowing players to straight-up murder guys with these gentle stress-balls of the sea.

Just Cause 2 — “Follow Me!”
Value: 15G/Bronze Trophy
“Kill 5 enemies by dragging them behind a vehicle with the grappling hook.”

“Follow Me!” didn’t make this list because I think dragging people behind trucks is inherently funny. I’m just throwing that out there for liability purposes and so you don’t think I’m crazy. But it still makes me chuckle because of the earnestness of its title, which suggests a guy valiantly charging up a fortified hill or making his horse rear up before setting off on the path to adventure. Only, you know, dragging a corpse behind him.

Fairytale Fights — “Good for Your Eyes!”
Value: 15G/Bronze Trophy
“Kill a bunny with a carrot.”

I’m a huge fan of Entertaining Comics-style poetic justice, which is why this reward first appealed to me. “Yeah, screw you, bunny,” I thought. “At last, the carrot shall have its revenge.” Then I did a little more research and learned that the bunnies in question aren’t even enemies; they’re just random cuteness populating the Fairytale Fights world. You unlock the Achievement or Trophy by attacking an adorable creature who never meant you any harm, and which probably spends its last few seconds of its virtual life thinking, “Oh, look! Someone nice person is bringing me a carrot!”

I just made myself sad, but it’s still kind of funny.

The Incredible Hulk — “Let’s Do Lunch!”
Value: 10G
“Crush 10 enemies by throwing either a taco, an ice cream cone or a doughnut.”

“Let’s Do Lunch!” combines the enthusiasm of “Follow Me!” with the food-centric carnage of “Good for Your Eyes!” It’s basically the Achievement equivalent of a Reese’s Fast Break candy bar. It also makes me imagine the Hulk handing out business cards, which I imagine are the size of magazines and on which he has hastily scribbled his misspelled contact information with a giant Crayon. Plus, the idea of killing a bunch of guys with a comically large donut is, in itself, pretty funny … unless you’re one of those guys, obviously.

Splatterhouse — “Morbid Dismemberment”
Value: 5G/Bronze Trophy
“Kill an enemy with your own dismembered arm.”

Rick, the hero of developer Namco Bandai’s remake of 1988′s famously profane beat-’em-up Splatterhouse, is one of the most optimistic video game characters in recent years. You or I might lose an arm in a fight with a demon and think, “Oh, no! My Sandwich Hand! Also, why am I fighting this demon?” Rick, however, looks at his still-twitching limb lying on the floor and realizes that the demon has only provided him with a handy weapon (literally and otherwise). He has the luxury of knowing that his arm will grow back eventually, unlike ours, and he’s also a frightened college student wearing a sentient mask that grants powers in exchange for blood. It’s pretty much the ideal setup for keeping on the sunny side of that whole demon situation.

Borderlands — “My Brother Is an Italian Plumber”
Value: 15G/Bronze Trophy
“Kill an enemy by stomping on its head”

The Borderlands series is not afraid to cram as many references in as possible; it probably has as many nods to movies, TV shows, and other games as it does types of shotguns. So it isn’t really surprising that the first installment would contain an overt Mario reference. What really pushes this reward over the top, however, is that watching someone try to complete it is probably the funniest thing about it. Those head stomps don’t do much damage, after all.

Warriors: Legends of Troy — “Now That’s Just Mean…”
Value: 5G/Bronze Trophy
“Kill 10 fleeing enemies by throwing picked-up weapons.”

Sometimes, Achievements and Trophies encourage you to act like guys from action movies of the ’80s and ’90s; this is among their most important cultural contributions. Take another of Legends of Troy’s rewards, “There’s No Escape,” which unlocks after the first time you kill a fleeing enemy by throwing a picked-up weapon. It resonates in the same way as that scene from Predator in which Dutch throws a machete at a guy, pins him to a wall, and then takes a moment to say “Stick around” before he scampers away to spread his particular brand of joy elsewhere.

“Now That’s Just Mean…,” like a lot of Achievements and Trophies, asks you to do the same badass thing a bunch of times, thus evoking the Law of Diminishing Returns. The act of picking up things and throwing them at guys who are running away goes from awesome to boring, but then it crosses over into absurd when you realize that by all rights, the enemies should have stopped trying to run away after the fourth or fifth time they saw you do that.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II — “Poor Bob”
Value: 10G/Bronze
“Force Grip a Stormtrooper, impale him, zap him with Lightning, then throw him into an object.”

Well-planned Achievements and Trophies can get you to try things in games that you normally wouldn’t and teach you how to interact with the virtual world in new and interesting ways. Fable II, for example, has you kill a rabbit to demonstrate how the civilian-sparing “safety” feature works. “Poor Bob,” in addition to just being a funny thing to do, also incorporates all the game’s major offensive Force powers to show you how they fit together. It demonstrates two key concepts in the game: first, that you can build your own combos, and second, that if you so choose, you can just keep jacking up the same guy for as long as you want.

Warhawk — “That Was Some Bug”
Value: Gold Trophy
“Kill an enemy who is flying a jetpack by hitting him with any vehicle or aircraft.”

The jetpack is one of those things that people want even though they know that it would probably just get them killed, possibly hilariously. But video games provide a safe outlet for our ‘pack lust, which is why they’ve shown up in such disparate franchises as Halo, Red Faction, and Tribes, the marketing slogan of which should have been “This game is about jetpacks.”

The tactical value of strapping a few pounds of fuel to your back and lighting it is clear in games: You can get to where you’re going faster, more directly, and safer than if you were to take your chances on the ground with all the people trying to shoot you. But “That Was Some Bug” injects a sad bit of reality into happy jetpack time and then tops it all off with a name that mocks your silly little aspirations of flight.

I’m not actually sure if this is funny anymore. I really just want a jetpack.

Secret Service — “The Exact Opposite of Your Job”
Value: 0G
“Shot the man you were hired to protect.”

Secret Service is back with another Achievement that will not affect your Gamerscore in the least. I think the developers made the right call on this one, though; it would be tacky to award players points for shooting the President. But good on them for acknowledging that some players might just be that bad at games.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker — “You’re Pretty Good”
Value: 20G/Bronze Trophy
“Shot enemy right in the middle of the rear end.”

I’m not entirely sure that this Trophy belongs on the list, since I don’t have any doctors around to ask if a gunshot wound to “the middle of the rear end” is necessarily fatal. But I’m going to go ahead and assume that if it isn’t, the victim would wish it had been.

If you can’t get enough metagaming humor, be sure to check out the other articles in this series:

• Part One: Failures
• Part Three: That’s so meta
• Part Four: I see what you did there
• Part Five: And the rest

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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I’m a freelance games journalist. I write for some of the most progressive publications on the planet. I’m also a gun owner, supporter of the 2nd Amendment, and nominally inclined toward the National Rifle Association.

Strange, I know.

So when the NRA blamed the Newton, Connecticut tragedy on violent video games, it struck a raw nerve.

“There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people,” NRA President Wayne LaPierre said in a December 21st statement.

“Through vicious, violent video games with names like ‘Bulletstorm,’ ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ ‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘Splatterhouse.’ And here’s one: it’s called ‘Kindergarten Killers.’ It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?”

Those who associate make-believe violence with real-life violence (particularly the idea that video games make kids more proficient marksmen) don’t understand gaming, firearms, or both. Since the NRA – the preeminent defender of the 2nd Amendment – is sufficiently acquainted with firearms, I’d have to conclude that it knows jack shit about gaming.

I don’t question Lt Col Dave Grossman’s expertise in firearms and marksmanship. But when the former parachute infantryman and U.S. Army Ranger calls certain games “murder simulators,” I can’t help but think that he’s never played a first-person shooter (or any video game with guns).

Anyone who’s both shot a weapon and played a video game in the last 20-30 years can point out clear differences between the two activities. Proper marksmanship entails a variety of mechanical, psychological, and physical elements that video games cannot possibly simulate.

I straddle the fence between gun owner and gamer so these discrepancies seem readily obvious to me. For example, no FPS, no matter how meticulously researched and detailed, can possibly mimic the recoil of a real-life weapon (especially the heavier automatic weapons).

The Weaver shooting stance. You can observe it in movies or video games but can only learn it by picking up a real-life weapon.

I shot an M2 Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun (“Ma Deuce”) from an enclosed Humvee turret once, and my ears were ringing afterward. No video game recreates the tactile response and visceral reality of firearms.

Playing Call of Duty won’t improve your sight picture, breathing, or hand placement. Medal of Honor won’t teach you the “weaver stance” or how to absorb the recoil of a .45 1911 pistol. Putting rounds downrange is the only way to become a more proficient shooter and learn the mechanical skills for handling a sidearm.

This is a very old argument. Any reasonable person — the key word being reasonable – can sense the innate difference between holding a virtual weapon and handling the wood and metal of a real-life firearm.

But few people can exhibit a basic level of familiarity with both video games and marksmanship. And every school shooting prompts calls for tighter regulation of our industry, and “violent video games” has become an all-too familiar refrain. U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has already passed a bill to direct the National Academy of Sciences to examine the link between violent video games and real-life violence. My guess? The study is inconclusive, finding no causal link between virtual entertainment and school shootings.

The Newton, Connecticut tragedy is symptomatic of many societal ills — ills that would more befit our tax dollars. Violent video games are not among them.

I’m not a member of the NRA. I support their mission but am generally adverse to large organizations. If I were, however, I would cancel my membership forthwith. Instead of launching a probe into the systematic failures that led to the Newton shootings or merely expressing their condolences, this influential lobbying group has cast aspersions on the least likely culprit.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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It’s been a week since the tragic mass murder at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and the United States’ most powerful pro-gun organization came out in defense of weapons and put the blame on video games and the media.

The National Rifle Association’s press conference, led by its chief executive officer Wayne LaPierre, confronted many of the claims people in and out of the media have made against assault weapons and other types of guns. LaPierre called this “dishonest thinking.”

“A child growing up in America witnesses 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence by the time he or she reaches the ripe old age of 18,” said LaPierre. “And throughout it all, too many in our national media, their corporate owners, and their stockholders act as silent enablers, if not complicit co-conspirators. Rather than face their own moral failings, the media demonizes lawful gun owners.”

Said moral failings, in the eyes of the NRA, include the media covering up for what LaPierre called “a callous, corrupt — and corrupting — shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.”

“Through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat, and Splatterhouse,” said LaPierre, listing the games he believes leads to real-world violence. “And here’s one: it’s called Kindergarten Killers. It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?”

What is Kindergarten Killer?

Kindergarten Killer is a 2002 web-based Flash game from indie developer Zsoa. It features a crudely drawn janitor shooting kids who are also armed and firing back at the player. It is a callous game, but it also doesn’t support the claim that the media is protecting violent titles so that the shareholders can rake in the money no matter the cost.

Kindergarten Killer is a free indie game. It’s not owned by any of the corporations that run national newspapers or one of the 24-hour cable channels. Likely, no one has even thought about this unfun Internet sideshow — including its developer —  for years.

Although, it is interesting to note that the kids in Kindergarten Killer are armed and are the only thing that can stop the player from killing more.

One of the NRA’s major points at the press conference is that by making schools “gun-free zones,” we’ve announced to would-be shooters that these are safe places for them to attack. Kindergarten Killer supports LaPierre’s argument that only a good person with a gun can stop a bad person with a gun.

The media covers for violent video games?

The other four games are the products of major publishers. Oddly, two of the games (Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse) don’t even feature guns — at least not prominently.

Yet the organization didn’t have anything to say about games that focus on real-world weapons like the best-selling Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Again LaPierre stepped all over his own arguing points. He claims the media is ignoring the alleged violent effects these games have on people, but the media circled endlessly around both Mortal Kombat and Grand Theft Auto games in the past.

The “Controversy of Mortal Kombat” has its own article on Wikipedia. In the entry for Grant Theft Auto, each game in the series has its own separate controversy section. These were media-fueled drives to blame video games for all kinds of violent and anti-social behavior.

The NRA likely knows about those games and the media outrage they produced. That’s probably why they included them in the news conference. Gun advocates know that new antigun legislation is in the works, and the NRA is hoping to get the media riled up over gaming to draw the attention away from any proposed new laws.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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