Interest around it exploded: the number of reviews multiplied, and the discussion around it went into overdrive as well…
Cole Thomas Allen, the suspect in the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting, had previously tried his hand at game development, and his only released title had been available on Steam: Bohrdom, which launched at the end of 2018. The game, which describes itself as an asymmetrical combat title, saw its reviews and discussion boards quickly turn into a breeding ground for political arguments and dubious memes during and after the incident. Rumors about the game spread rapidly across social media on Sunday evening. Allen reportedly rushed a Secret Service checkpoint in front of the event venue at around 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. By 11:30 p.m. ET, Stephen Totilo, writer of Game File and former editor-in-chief of Kotaku, had already noticed players flooding the Bohrdom Steam forums and shared screenshots of the activity on Bluesky.
For a time, Bohrdom had only four user reviews on Steam. It has now climbed to 127, with a 57% Mixed rating, and at one point there were ten pages of comments on its forum, all of which have since been removed. Bohrdom is a strange little game. It feels more like an educational tool than anything else. Players control either electrons or atomic nuclei in a gamified take on atomic chemistry, and Allen technically described it as a skill-based, non-violent, asymmetrical combat game, or, put differently, a hybrid between a bullet hell and a racing game. Bohrdom had been selling for $2 on Steam, though the purchase option no longer seems to show up for us, and it supports up to 13 players.
More than 100 people paid for the privilege of turning the Bohrdom review section into a political battleground, and even more hangers-on did the same on the forums. Reviews written after barely half an hour of play began to appear, carrying either supportive or mocking messages toward Allen or Trump depending on whether they were positive or negative. Others settled for straightforward shitposting.
This is the second time in recent memory that a person accused of a political assassination attempt in the United States has left a significant public activity trail on Steam. Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the shooting of Charlie Kirk, had logged more than 2,000 hours in Sea of Thieves.
Source: PCGamer, Newsweek, Wired, CNN, Bsky, Steam
