Valve have disabled purchases for a Steam game made by one 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, who allegedly tried to shoot up the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel on Saturday. The game in question, Bohrdom, was published in December 2018, and is described on its store page as “a skill-based, non-violent asymmetrical fighting game loosely derived from a chemistry model that is itself loosely based on reality”, with a multiplayer mode that takes inspiration from quantum physics.
As you might expect for a game with such an eccentric, nerdy premise, Bohrdom hadn’t received much attention prior to Saturday’s events. It’s now the subject of 130 or so reviews and forum comments, ranging from lazy trolling to hate speech. Valve have yet to comment about the game’s removal from sale, but I imagine the reasoning is simply that they don’t want to be seen to be profiting from the work of a would-be assassin.
Saturday’s rampage at the Washington Hilton was short-lived. Prior to being overpowered, Allen reportedly shot a Secret Service agent, but the latter escaped serious injury thanks to his bulletproof vest.
In a manifesto for the shooting attributed to him by the New York Post, Allen refers to himself as “Cole ‘coldForce’ ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen”, and lists Trump administration officials as targets, while expressing a wish to avoid injuring security staff and members of the press unless “absolutely necessary”. He also makes allusion to allegations of sexual assault laid against Donald Trump together with unspecified war crimes, calling the US President “a pedophile, rapist, and traitor”, though he doesn’t name Trump directly.
On his LinkedIn page, meanwhile, Allen describes himself as “a mechanical engineer and computer scientist by degree, independent game developer by experience, teacher by birth.” According to the Experience section of his LinkedIn, he’s currently self-employed as an “indie game developer” and is working on another project, “First Law”. (Ta, IGN.)
US authorities are expected to lay formal charges against Allen today. I’ll go ask Valve if they have anything to say.
