Flash game of Quirino hostage crisis released

UPDATED 3pm, 24Aug2010 Barely three hours since the end of the dramatic hostage crisis at Quirino Grandstand, an unknown programmer has quickly earned the ire of online gamers by releasing a crude flash game based on the incident. Entitled Bus Hostage Policeman, the game was created on the day of the crisis, August 23, 2010, at 10:22am EST (11:22pm in Manila) and uploaded to Newgrounds.com, a website that hosts Flash games made by its users. The crudely developed game, supposedly "Brought to you by the Philippines Tourism" (sic), allows the user one minute to "Shoot the amok policeman hostaging a bus full of Asian hostages!" (sic). When the time runs out, regardless of how many times the policeman in the game is shot, a photo of dismissed PNP Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza is displayed along with the caption, "I want to be reinstated back to my job so I hostage these people." The game's author, going by the pseudonym "keybol", describes the game flippantly: "Seeking to arm-twist authorities into reinstating him back, a dismissed policeman has taken a bus with 25 passengers hostage here. Can you stop him and blow his brain?" The game has quickly earned criticism from other users of the site: "You totally didn't just make a mockery of a tragic attack on innocent people," sarcastically wrote user "chitoryu12". "If you were on that bus, how would you feel about someone making a mockery of the situation? Good luck trying to create REAL games. You lack the creativity to be original and the common sense to know what is tasteful," rejoined user "pdpRez". "do you even know what are the families of the hostages feeling? THINK FOR JESUS CHRIST!!!" added user "jmb13". On his personal website, "keybol" explained that the game was a means by which he sought to express how he felt about the hostage crisis. "Ironic, but people will always find a way to vent. That was my way, and now I get hate comments everywhere," he said. Nevertheless, Newgrounds.com users continue to criticize him, saying that he created the game "too soon" after the crisis: "This is not a funny thing to do. It's too early to produce something like this if you want to make a tribute or some sort. I don't know what you did here, but nothing does it seem to be a tribute," said user "eiennofantasy". "This was too soon, man. The same way that the cop wanted to gain attention was by doing something insensitive, was the same way you got attention by making light of a horrific event in our country. Just think about it. Can't we wait before doing something that makes fun of people losing their lives?" asked "ericqespiritu". "You picked a current event that was so recent, that people are STILL Mourning and in terror treatment facilities. And worst of all, I mean, you made this game in an OBVIOUS attempt to be the first one to harvest a tragic event such as this. Just because they're phillipino doesn't make them any less of people. Really... Bad Dog," explained user "ResidentSociopath". - GMANews.TV