[Reflection]

Some screenshots:




From today's Daily Mirror newspaper:

A SKINHEAD thug wins a bloody playground fight with a classmate, before hunting down a teacher as his next victim.

This is Bully. A new video game that's been called the sickest ever, a sadistic orgy of violence where you win points for being the most vicious yob in a reform school.

News of the game's release comes as research suggests that playing violent video games makes youngsters more aggressive.

And it appears in the same week as the Daily Mirror launched the Beat The Bullies campaign, backed by X-Factor judge Simon Cowell.

Advertisement

Horrified child welfare campaigners and teachers' groups are calling on the government to ban the Bully game.

Liz Carnell of campaign group Bullying Online says: "This game should be banned. I'm extremely worried that kids will play it and then act out what they've seen in the classroom.

"Bullying is not a game by any stretch of the imagination. We have around four suicidal children contacting us every day."

Two million children in the UK are bullied at school, with 40 per cent enduring abuse twice a week or more.

And the effects can last a lifetime. One in 12 youngsters is so traumatised that their education, relationships and even their job prospects are affected.

Between 10 and 15 children each year commit suicide after being picked on.

Steve Sinnott, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, says: "If this game lives up to its billing, the company is behaving very irresponsibly.

"Awarding a prize - even in the form of points - for bullying should not be promoted."

Before the game hits the UK shelves it must first be approved by the British Board of Film Classification.

Spokeswoman Sue Clark says: "It sounds likely the game will come to us and we will then have to decide whether or not to give it a certificate.

"If we refuse a certificate it cannot be sold or supplied."

But this is unlikely to prevent its release as to date the BBFC has only once failed to certificate a game.

This was in 1997 when it refused a rating for Carmageddon, in which players are encouraged to run over pedestrians.

And even that decision was later overruled by the Video Appeals Committee.

Bully will therefore in all probability be on sale before the end of the year.

Adrian Brown, of ChildLine, says: "Rockstar describe Bully, as 'brutally funny'.

"They may intend their game to be tongue in cheek, but ChildLine knows that for thousands of children bullying is just plain brutal and certainly not funny."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, says: "After a meeting between ministers and industry representatives in December, 15 and 18 certificates on the covers of games have been doubled in size to draw parents' attention to their content.

"This is an issue that the government takes extremely seriously."

Rockstar remains unrepentant. A spokesman said: "There are no easy answers for the real-life problem of school safety.

"But we believe the stories in video games should be judged like other works of fiction and recognized as entertainment.

"Bully is a fictional story that portrays a comic and exaggerated view of a boarding school told with merciless tongue-in-cheek humour.

"Anyone concerned about content should experience the game first hand and also understand the certification system which provides age-appropriate ratings and content descriptions so parents can make informed choices."

[mag]

You know, I've usually defended Rockstar in the past, but this is just sick. I had no idea this game was even in development. I can't imagine anyone wanting to play a game about being a bully.

They really crossed the line this time.

mag

[Reflection]

Originally Posted by mag

You know, I've usually defended Rockstar in the past, but this is just sick. I had no idea this game was even in development. I can't imagine anyone wanting to play a game about being a bully.

They really crossed the line this time.

mag

I hope it isn't banned though!

[Catbert]

Here we go on the censorship thing again... It should never be banned anywhere. **** sakes, if you don't wanna play it, DON'T.

[Reflection]

Originally Posted by Catbert

Here we go on the censorship thing again... It should never be banned anywhere. **** sakes, if you don't wanna play it, DON'T.

-thumbs up-

It will probably be banned in Australia. I can't remember what game was banned there.

[mag]

Originally Posted by Reflection

I hope it isn't banned though!

As believer in free speech, I don't think any game, no matter how inappropriate, should be banned. So I guess I do disagree with Carnell in that respect. But I also think that with that right there has to be a certain level of responsibility. Rockstar, as a company, can choose to exclude inappropriate material from its games. And we, as consumers, can choose not to buy such games.

I suppose the most I can hope for is that the game will bomb, and Rockstar will learn its lesson. But somehow, I doubt that will happen.

mag

[Jake]

Oh bah. Maybe it'll be fun.

[Reflection]

It's just gonna be like Manhunt. But set in a school.

[Jake]

Except you don't dismember people and stuff. And surely it won't be rated for kids. I don't think this is the most clever idea for a game - far from it - but it's at least something that hasn't been done before. I think Rockstar has gone too far over the top a couple of times already, and most of their games that aren't GTA really don't sell well at all, at least for any period of time, so it's not much to worry about IMO.

[JHousequake]

??? Manhunt was awful. It's just another screwed up game in bad taste targeted at kids and slackers. What gets me though is that you play as a skinhead. That's real great, I've always thought video games needed their own Birth Of A Nation.

[Jake]

In Bully? Is he actually "a skinhead" or does he just have the classic bully buzzcut, and newspapers are branding him "a skinhead" for sensational value? Also, Bully is by Rockstar Vancouver, not Rockstar North (formerly DMA Design, makers of all the GTA games... and Lemmings and Uniracer/Unirally for the SNES), so it will probably be extremely

[crabapple]

How about a game where you get to shoot the bullies?
How about a game where you get to kill and dismember everyone in your school?
At what point is it too much?

[sethsez]

I wonder how many airheads are going to blame this on America's declining values somehow.

[Jake]

Clearly this game is a direct result of America's declining va-- oh hey guys!

[Once A Villain]

Hmmm, I'm on the no censorship bandwagon. Rockstar always makes controversial games and they are usually pretty fun to play. This one doesn't look that much different (except it doesn't appear to have the depth of a GTA game)... If I was a parent, I probably wouldn't want my child playing the game, but that would be my responsibility. I got grounded for two weeks when I was a kid for watching A Nightmare on Elm Steet 2: Freddy's Revenge at a friend's house...lol. The fear of another two weeks of boredom kept me happy with PG and PG-13 until I was a bit older. So I do believe decent parents have ways of keeping children from these things, while mature adults can play whatever they want without worrying about some board not approving a "certificate".

Anybody see The Aviator? This reminds me of the scene where Howard Hughes is trying to convince the MPAA (or whatever it was called in those days) that the breasts in his film, The Outlaw, weren't too prominent. As if it's up to these old dudes to define "too prominent" for the rest of the nation. It was a funny scene I thought...

[Once A Villain]

By the way guys...no one is going to blame America for anything as far as this game is concerned. It's made by Rockstar Vancouver. "Blame Canada! Blame Canada!" Oh sorry...a little South Park reference, forgive me.

[sethsez]

Originally Posted by Once A Villain

By the way guys...no one is going to blame America for anything as far as this game is concerned.

Oh, I know who it's made by. People also blamed America for GTA, and that's made in Scotland.

[Once A Villain]

Hmmm, I guess the world does blame America for just about everything... You win seth.

[SoccerDude28]

Whether it should be banned or not, I agree with Mag, this game is tasteless. With all the shootings happening in school, why don't we throw those kids a bone, a motive in something that most resembles their lives, SCHOOL. Yaaaaaaaay, let's encourage bullying Rockstar are talented folks, why can't they for once make a non-controversial game.

Looks like fun to me.

That was terrorible.