"In the end, it's not about the game," said Tracy Fullerton, assistant professor in the University of Southern California's Interactive Media Division, the protesting sponsor of Slamdance's Guerrilla Gamemakers Competition. "It's about freedom of expression and creativity and what we believe the contest stands for."

USC was providing prizes for the competition - summer fellowships in the school's interactive media program. Slamdance begins Thursday in Park City.

Six game makers who were among the 14 finalists in the competition also withdrew their games this week to protest the festival yanking the PC game, "Super Columbine Massacre RPG!" from its lineup. It's the first time a festival sponsor has backed out of the event in its 13-year history.

"Super Columbine Massacre RPG!" - which has riled victims' family members and been called the second-worst video game of all time by PC World magazine - is a role-playing game where players take control of teen shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The free downloadable game was created by Colorado filmmaker Danny Ledonne, who was not available for comment Thursday but has said the game was an attempt to provide insight into the tragedy.

With a top-down view and retro-style graphics reminiscent of old Nintendo games, players go through the events of the April 20, 1999, shooting, beginning with outfitting the killers with guns and bombs and raiding the school's cafeteria and library while shooting students. The game is full of true-life references to the incident, including using the music of Nirvana and Marilyn Manson.

Festival president Peter Baxter acknowledges it was a tough decision to pull the game from the program, but he said keeping it in would have threatened the well-being of the festival.

"Given the legal advice I have received about the 'Super Columbine Massacre role playing game,' Slamdance does not have the resources to defend any civil action that can easily arise from showing the game or . . . from an extremely well-known Nirvana song that the game maker has no current right to use," he said.

But USC's Fullerton said Slamdance has a responsibility to celebrate the best in independent media and not censor a game because of content.

"[The competition's jury] judged this game and said this is interesting, provocative and a game that should be accessible," she said. "That process should be respected."

Fullerton said Slamdance's video game competition is one of the country's two largest independent video game events, along with the annual Independent Games Festival at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Baxter's decision to ax "Super Columbine" from his competition will hurt the reputation and credibility of the festival, she said.

Nick Montfort, a Philadelphia doctoral student who pulled his game, "Book and Volume," from the competition after the Columbine game was dumped, agrees.

"It's much less credible," he said of Slamdance. "A lot of gamemakers are thinking of alternative ways to get together and show their games and compete.

"Not everything done in a video game form is brilliant work and not all is done with artistic intention," he said. "But some of it does work in a way that other art does not."