The original article can be found here

Student gets creative with 'Riot UMass' video game

In the aftermath of the Red Sox disturbances that took place on the University of Massachusetts campus last month, there have been several studies, forums and debates on the celebrations - but one student decided to recognize the Red Sox revelry on his own, by creating a video game.

Freshman Grant Cerulo created "Riot UMass", which is an online computer game that challenges rowdy students, some dressed in Boston Red Sox baseball caps to fight off riot police officers. The player must attack any and all police officers he or she comes across until the officer collapses on the ground in a pool of blood. Players can also get extra points by picking up police batons dropped by assiduous officers. All of this takes place against a backdrop of the tumultuous Southwest quad.

Why base a video game on riots? Cerulo said it generates a lot of student interest.

"It's just an amazing thing to see. Everyone gets so hyped up about it," he said. "People seem to love to get their aggression out against police brutality."

"Riot UMass" has grown with popularity in the three weeks it has been available on the World Wide Web. It has already received over 26,000 hits on Cerulo's Web site and has been featured on collegehumor.com and zoomassgear.com. Cerulo said he had no intention of generating so much interest in his game. He claims that he made the game one weekend out of boredom, when he did not have to practice with the UMass Marching Band.

"It was the weekend ... I didn't have marching band," he said. "I was sitting in my room with my roommate and I said, 'I've got the best idea ... I started working on it ... he really loved it so I made two levels."

A short time later, Cerulo tested his game on friends who lived in his dorm and received positive responses.

"Eventually, kids from my hall came in and played it," he said. "Everyone just comes in and looks at it and they're like, 'oh my God, this is the best thing in the world!'"

The game has received all positive responses, according to Cerulo. At best, it's popularity exploded almost overnight.

"I sent [the game] to a couple people online and they were like ... 'You're going to be famous for this.' Everyone I told, all my friends, they all really liked it, so eventually I put a counter on the Web site the second day it was on," Cerulo said. "All of the sudden ... we got on collegehumor.com and I got emails from Zoomassgear and all sorts of different people just telling me how much they loved it."

Cerulo said that he was "surprised" that he has not received any response from the administration about "Riot UMass", especially since the Web site is based on the UMass Internet server.

"I made jokes that I was going to get kicked out of college once they found out ... They haven't taken [the Web site] off their server, so they [probably] don't know about it, which would be surprising," he said.

Meanwhile, curious fingers have continued to click on to Cerulo's Web site, but that does not mean students agree on whether the game is good for the University.

"Simulation of reality is not something I really like doing, but riots ... As long as you're not depicting any particular community, I don't care," said a graduate nursing student who identified herself as Jigyasa.

"I think it's pretty normal stuff and most people who are adults and intelligent should be able to handle it," said John Jackson, a member of the Outdoor Club.

"I don't think it's a good cause for the students, it's not going to show any good morale," said Michael Parrish, a junior Journalism major. "I definitely think it looks bad for the University and I don't see how that's going to reflect in any good in any way towards how the students feel about the school."

Cerulo said he does not have any definite plans to make another UMass-based video game in the future, but said if he gets a good idea, then he would consider the option.

"It actually depends on what I get inspiration for ... If I get a good idea, I would." he said.

Riot UMass is still available on Cerulo's Web site: http://www.people.umass.edu/gcerulo/riotumass.html

The original article can be found here

Riot UMass goes Zoo Mass

Flash game gets Uni knickers in twist

By Tamlin Magee: Thursday 02 December 2004, 21:46

MASSACHUSETTS FRESHMAN Grant Cerulo has pulled down his homebrewed "Riot UMass" video game from his website after having received negative comments from the press.

The game, built in response to several disturbances on the campus, involved controlling a cartoon character – dressed up as a student – who specialised in punching riot police officers to death. Sounds like a laugh to me, but apparently the public ain't too keen, labelling it "ultra violent".

Cerulo has developed a new game which he's calling Zoo Mass. The revamp features the same character from Riot UMass but this time, instead of punching coppers, the aim of the game is to feed ducks gleefully floating on the campus pond.

Is Cerulo making a mockery of the folks who got all worked up over the original, or is he making a cutting social commentary on the bipolar nature of today's youth? Only he truly knows (and apparently it's the former): "Zoo Mass is kind of just making a mockery of people getting over excited about it," he told The Daily Collegian.

UMass spokesman Ed Blaguzewski has said it's "regrettable and discouraging that a student has made a game that involves making University police officers targets." Clearly, humour isn't on the prospectus. µ

The original article can be found here

Article Published: Thursday, November 25, 2004 - 2:28:51 AM EST

UMass student changes video gameBy The Associated PressAMHERST, Mass. (AP) -- A University of Massachusetts student, responding to squawking administrators, has replaced his video game depicting a rioting UMass student on a mission to bloody up campus police officers with what he calls a "family version."

You could call it a quack attack.

The new entry, called "ZooMass," is set on the campus pond instead of the Southwest residential area, where about 100 students were arrested during raucous celebrations as the Red Sox captured the American League championship and won their first World Series in 86 years.

Instead of police in riot gear, the game's protagonist, a pugnacious bare-knuckled student in a Red Sox cap, scatters a pesky flock of ducks with some well-aimed punches as the player hits the space bar. No blood is spilled. A can of apple juice replaces the beer bottles that "fueled" the character's stamina in the original version.

"It was a huge decision to take the (original) game offline," Grant Cerulo asserted in a note posted on his Web page Monday explaining his decision. "But as a loyal student to this school, I feel it was the best idea to remove it."

Like "Riot UMass", the "ZooMass" game is accessed through the university's Internet site, which allows students to post Web pages.

School administrators condemned the original game, but after consulting with their lawyers said they could not remove it without Cerulo's agreement.

"I am not ashamed one bit of the game and I feel that it is an excellent source of expression," Cerulo wrote pointing out that the knowledgeable could still find "Riot UMass" on the Internet.

"I want everyone to understand that my goal was never to rile the administration or the police force," he said. "I want people to recognize me for my talent as a designer and animator and not as a 'cop hater."'

"I understand that some critical adults are unable to handle the 'ultra-violent' nature of my previous game," the 18-year-old music major from Ashland added. "Since I allegedly have the power to make people riot, my roommate Mike and I decided to come up with a game suitable for the whole family. Enjoy."

It was not immediately clear how university officials felt about the new entry.

UMass spokesman Ed Blaguszewski said Wednesday he would have no comment, because he "hadn't looked at the game" and didn't know if Chancellor John Lombardi had tried it.

"I would hope that The AP could find something better to write about," he said.

Campus Police Chief Barbara O'Connor did not return a message seeking comment. She had sharply criticized the original game calling it "disturbing that a student created this video game that encourages this kind of behavior against police."

A counter on Cerulo's Web site showed that it had been accessed more than 53,000 times by Wednesday afternoon.

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On the Net: http://www.people.umass.edu/gcerulo/riotumass.html

The original article can be found here

Video game pits UMass student against campus police

The original article can be found here

RIOT UMASS

By, Randy Allain

University of Massachusetts officials say that a student-generated computer game portraying recent campus riots was produced in bad taste. The creator would tell you that the game is good, clean fun.

My index finger taps the spacebar faster and faster – in response, the hero’s fists swing rapidly to fend off line after line of police officers. He moves up and down the screen clad only in blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a reversed Boston Red Sox cap. His opponents wear heavy riot gear. They are armed with night sticks and rifles. If your punch connects, a splash of cartoon blood streaks across the officer’s face. It only takes a few punches to drop an officer. After dropping, he promptly fades off the screen to make way for the next wave.

As the levels progress, I upgrade my weaponry to a police night stick, and later, a rifle. I even find some Molotov cocktails lying around. Vandalizing a police cruiser and catching a student jumping from the top of Berkshire Dining Hall earn me some riot gear of my own. The deeper I go into the game, the more enemies I have to face, and the stronger their armor and firepower become. In the eleventh level, the police squad even brings in the K-9 forces. I had no idea what to expect from level twelve.

Level twelve turned out to be a white screen featuring a single sentence; “Sorry, this is all I wish to post at the time being.” Grant Cerulo’s, “Riot UMass,” video game has still not been completed.

I went to visit Grant Cerulo at his University of Massachusetts Amherst dorm room in Brett House on a Monday afternoon. I woke him up from a nap when I knocked on his door at one o’clock. He answered the door clad in blue jeans, a t-shirt, and a reversed Boston Red Sox cap. Grant was tall and thin with a short haircut and a broad smile.

I didn’t know what to expect from a college freshman who has developed a cult following with his skills in computer programming, but his dorm room was nothing out of the ordinary: an unmade bed, dirty dishes piled on the floor, and Brooke Burke spattered with paint. He also displays posters of The Sopranos, Terminator III, and Mr. Blonde from Reservoir Dogs. The bottle and can recycling bin has been relabeled, “beer,” with a strip of paper and red magic marker. Grant sits at his computer to show me how he made his game. Leaned against the side of his desk is a Yamaha keyboard, and above the desk is a sign reading, “Danger: Construction Area”

“Flash is really simple,” says Grant, “you just need to have a lot of patience.” He is talking about the popular Macromedia Flash software that is used to create animated movies and games for presentations and humor. Grant opens a new file and quickly draws a smiley face. After he enters a line of code, the smiley face scrolls half-way across the screen. Grant sees my look of confusion and clicks out of the program to show me some of his earlier work in Flash.

The protagonist in Grant’s first game was a stick figure. The stick figure has to solve simple puzzles in order to move on to the next level. The first obstacle is a wall that is too high for him to climb. A button on the wall is pressed, and a box falls from the sky. It will crush you if you aren’t expecting it. Grant backs the stick figure away from the falling box and then uses it to scale the wall. The stick figure then monkey-bars over a pool of green acid and slides down a slope to end the level.

Next, Grant shows me a movie he and his friends made with Flash. In the movie, a college student with a hangover sits through the painful experience of an early-morning physics class. Eventually he falls asleep and goes through a dream sequence in which he is pulled out of a robot holding cell like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix. The student wakes up to discover that he has acquired special powers. Grant informs me that this is only part one of the project. The rest is yet to be completed.

Still, Grant is proving that his projects don’t have to be completed to cause a stir. The still unfinished Riot UMass has done just that. “Dude, did you know that I was on four TV channels? I also got on WBUR radio, the Boston Herald, and the Globe,” explained Grant, “all because of this silly game.”

Grant’s silly game was created on October 20, 2004 amidst a slew of riots in the Southwest residential area of UMass in response to the success of the Boston Red Sox in their playoff run that ultimately ended in a World Series title. These riots mimicked similar incidences a year ago during the Major League Baseball playoffs.

The stir started with an article in the University of Massachusetts Daily Collegian. In the article, junior Journalism major Michael Parrish was quoted as saying of the game, “I don’t think it’s a good cause for the students, it’s not going to show any good morale…I definitely think it looks bad for the University and I don’t see how that’s going to reflect in any good in any way towards how the students feel about the school.”

Grant is quick to shrug off any criticism suggesting that his work is a negative influence on the university or its morale. If he thought such criticism was accurate, he wouldn’t still have his game available for students to play online. He may be a freshman, but Grant is bursting with school pride.

“I’ve fallen in love with this place already,” says grant. Not only does he play the trumpet in the UMass marching band, but Grant is a member of the UMass Chamber Choir and is earning a vocal performance minor while he decides what his major will be. While he didn’t come to UMass specifically to become part of the band, Grant wouldn’t give up his membership for anything.

“I couldn’t stop doing it. It’s definitely a part of me,” says Grant of being in the marching band. Grant speaks highly of the opportunities he had to play with the band at the RCA dome and to play for Bill Cosby. He also enjoyed playing with his fellow band members at the home football games all semester. “The last marching band performance was really special,” says Grant, “all the seniors were crying and stuff, it was just really good.”

Knowing that Grant works so closely with music and that some of his favorite sounds are, “those damn NES tunes,” I ask him if he ever composes music for his video games. I motion to the Yamaha keyboard I had noticed earlier.

“Let me whip this thing out,” he said. Grant switches on the Yamaha and stars up one of its pre-recorded syncopated beats. He listens for a second and then jumps in, embellishing the music with his own touches. “Me and my brother always play around with this thing,” says Grant, smiling.

Cooper Cerulo, a UMass senior, has been present on the UMass campus for a lot more rioting than his brother. Grant was still in high school when some of the events that happen in his game took place, such as the student jumping from the roof of a dining hall. Stories from his brother and friends certainly built up the mystique of the UMass riots for Grant. But now that he has experienced them first hand (after game 7 of the ALCS), Grant sees the current riots as more of a collective curiosity by students than a string of violent outbreaks.

“I walked up to people at the riots and just talked to them, people are friendly here,” says Grant. He observed that most people were just there to watch and see what might happen. “It’s the act of a couple of people,” he continued, “people stand there and taunt the cops until they start chasing them.” That is why he doesn’t expect anyone to take his game too seriously. Grant made it clear that his game about the riots was just an attempt to play off of a part of UMass culture that has taken on its own persona and see how many people he could get to play a game that he designed.

“It’s not popular unless it’s aimed at a certain group of people,” says Grant. This is true even if that includes violence to law enforcement officers. Grant tries to keep his game in what he considers to be good taste, and as far as he can tell he has been successful up to this point.

“I haven’t gotten one e-mail with people giving me bad responses,” says Grant. As he continues to expand the game, however, Grant does use a great deal of discretion when taking suggestions from friends and acquaintances. People have suggested that Grant include more powerful and violent weapons like samurai swords or uzis, but he doesn’t see the point. Riot UMass is a tribute to rioting on campus and not about inflicting violence on police officers.

“The police are there to do their job. Without them the place would probably burn down,” says Grant. In fact, Grant places much of the blame on students for problems caused during riots. He mentioned a trash can he sees in the lake every day on his way to class as an example of how people’s behavior harmful to the appearance of the campus. How does he feel about the people he saw vandalizing and starting fires? “It’s all fun and games until you get kicked out of college.”

One student was expelled from the university and several others were suspended for their actions during the riots. Over 100 University of Massachusetts students took their fun too far and were arrested by police forces. The University police forces worked long hours throughout the month of October dealing with the riots and the piles of paperwork that came with each arrest. UMass Police Chief Barbara O’Connor, thinks that Grant Cerulo’s game represents a sentiment among students that rioting is acceptable. She says that the game is ''indicative of the sense of entitlement they have to engage in this type of behavior." University officials agree.

''We think it's offensive to our community and of course to our Police Department," said UMass spokesman Ed Blaguszewski. Despite such negative feedback, nobody from the university directly contacted Grant to ask him to remove the game from his university-provided web page. UMass says that posting the game is within Grant’s first amendment rights. But the buzz of media attention around these remarks finally started to rub Grant the wrong way.

“People [in online news forums] were saying I was raised by wolves,” says Grant, “Once the media grabs something, it can get really distorted into something it’s not.” Hearing so much criticism from strangers, as well as the university administration, Grant realized that he had to make a decision whether to let things continue, or to remove the game from his website.

“I went from being really proud of it, to being ashamed, to being really proud, and then realizing I had to take it off,” Grant explained. Despite support from his friends and parents, Grant removed Riot UMass from his university webpage on November 22 nd, 2004. But he wouldn’t end the game’s run without making a statement.

Grant’s web page now carries a short letter explaining his reasons for removing the game. He doesn’t suggest that he was wrong to create the game, but makes it clear that he cares about the University and the reputation he will hold for the rest of his career as a student.

“My goal was never to rile the administration or the police force,” the website reads, “I want people to recognize me for my talent as a designer and animator, and not for a ‘cop hater.’” At the end of this letter from grant is a link to Grant’s new game, a game “suited for the whole family.”

My index finger taps the spacebar faster and faster – in response, the hero tosses more breadcrumbs to feed line after line of ducks. He moves up and down the screen clad only in blue jeans, a white t-shirt, and a reversed Boston Red Sox cap. The ducks are very hungry. They quack loudly until they have been fed. If you successfully feed a duck, it happily flies off to make room for his friends.

This is the first and only level of the aptly titled, “ZooMass.” The first level takes place by the UMass campus pond, the scene of the final World Series Riot. Neither the hero nor the ducks are harmed in the course of the game. The object is simply to feed as many ducks as possible while the game continues on indefinitely. There may only be one level, but Grant has finally finished a game and put an end to the controversy surrounding Riot UMass.