Â鶹ӰÊÓ

MONTREAL - The creator of a controversial online video game where players pretend to be the gunman in Montreal's 2006 Dawson College rampage has refused to take it down.

The flash animation game "Dawson College Massacre!" has created considerable controversy and prompted an online backlash against its designer and the sites hosting it.

A description says the game's aim is to "storm Dawson College with your favourite rifle, and kill those students and kill any cops you can."

In an online post Wednesday, the creator defended his game by saying it brought attention to an important issue.

"I am sorry for any pain the game has caused, but I do not think this game will be removed from the Internet," wrote the game creator, whose online moniker is Virtuaman.

"I can see that Montreal is most angry with this games (sic) existence and at me for creating it. For that I can only say, it is only a game, it was not created with the purpose of offending anyone specifically, it was not created to make money (I never received and never will receive money for this game).

"It was created to bring attention to the reality of school shootings."

Despite a complaint filed by Dawson's student union, Montreal police said Wednesday that there is no formal investigation into the game and there is little police can actually do.

Police said they are powerless to take the game down because there is nothing illegal about it. What police have done is asked the U.S. sites hosting the game to take it down.

"But they have no obligation to do so because there is no infraction," said Marie-Elaine Ladouceur, a police spokeswoman.

One website had already taken the game down by Wednesday afternoon while three others — all U.S.-based sites — hadn't.

An 18-year-old student, Anastasia De Sousa, was killed and 19 others were injured when Kimveer Gill opened fire at the downtown college and later killed himself.The free game appeared online just before the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 13, 2006 shootings.

The introduction to the game draws heavily on photos and entries from an online journal Gill kept, whose contents were widely reported after the shootings. It also depicts other school shooters such as Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho and Finnish killer Pekka-Eric Auvinen.

In the game, players manoeuvre a shooter through a layout that resembles the atrium at Dawson College.

Students and police officers scream as they are shot and there's a burst of blood. The idea is to kill as many as possible before the authorities arrive. When police move in on the shooter and he's struck, he takes his own life.

Virtuaman, who is based in Ontario, said he was surprised by the backlash.

"When I began creating this game I really had no idea that it would offend so many in such a way, as it was not my intentions (sic). I figured a small group of people would actually be angry over this, it turns out that I was very wrong," he wrote.

Reviews of the game at one online site are mixed, with some defending the right to create a game and commenting on its artistic merits.

"It's just a game. Just because it's based in reality doesn't mean that is a recreation of the said event," wrote one poster on Wednesday. "People have the freedom to make whatever they desire, even if their invention is sick and twisted. Don't like it? Don't play it."

But those who lived through the rampage or know someone who did were clearly incensed.

"This tragedy has nothing funny and it's of such a bad taste, I can't even understand how someone would use this sad story as a game," wrote one bilingual poster.

Added another: "you're a sad little person. I hope you do not experience the horror of a school shooting. your insensitivity is incomprehensible."

Dawson College did not return calls seeking comment, nor did the Montreal police brotherhood.

But Dawson's student union filed a complaint with police after being notified of the game last week and has tried to reach web hosts to take the game down.

"Every time this event is glorified we are reminded of the communal struggle we endured, as well as how our community came together in our grief," the student union wrote.

"It is through this that we recognize that our ability to live together in peace and harmony is stronger than any attempt to destroy our world."

On Wednesday, the student union said it had faith the game would be removed.

"I watched the first 10 seconds of it and was rather disturbed so I didn't watch the rest — but I know what it's about," said said Nadia Kanji, a member of the student-union executive.