Jump to content
Hondo's Bar

Bully

Lycaon

By Lycaon
in The Game Room

Recommended Posts

Lycaon Hondonian

Lycaon

Posted
Posted
New Bully Video Game Stirs Up Conflict

Tue Oct 17, 2006 3:04PM EDT

 

See Comments (3468)

 

It's not yet available, but Bully, a new video game from Rockstar Games (the U.S. distributor is Take 2, the same folks who brought you Grand Theft Auto) is causing uproar. The animated game, set at the fictitious Bullworth Academy, features a protagonist who is bullied, faces mean teachers, and encounters the nastiness of clubs and cliques. There is no beating them without joining them in this game set in a bully or be bullied world.

 

GameSpot, a gaming destination, reports that the Britain-based Bullying Online, an organization devoted to ending "bullying" on school grounds in the U.K., is seeking to have the game banned in the country. According to a BBC report, Bully will change the name of the U.K. release to the less offensive Canis Canem Edit (Dog Eat Dog). It is due for release on the PlayStation 2 on October 27.

 

Here in the U.S., members of the Washington D.C. based youth group Peaceoholics protested outside Rockstar Games' New York offices. And a Florida attorney, Jack Thompson, has sued to have the game removed from stores. In the US, the game has no rating yet because it hasn't shipped, but it's expected to receive an M for mature (over 17) audiences from the ESRB.

 

I watched the trailer for the game on GameSpot, and clearly it's a game about bullying that's similar in style and action to Grand Theft Auto. But this game is like your worst high school nightmare, with everything from wedgies, mean girls, and teases, to nasty cheerleaders and catty cliques. As the protagonist, you need to get strong fast as you rise through the challenges of girls that hit; mean, spiteful teachers; and gang plots to make your life miserable.

 

There are those who think that a game that makes "play" out of bullying is despicable. But in fairness it should be pointed out that this is not a shoot ‘em up game, and there are no guns or blood. Some experts believe it can be a healthy outlet for kids to get these sorts of fantasies out of their systems on the screen and not in the real world. On the other hand, the game shows that to survive the bully culture you need to become one.

 

What do you think? Will kids know that Bully is a game? Can they find it amusing and keep it in stride? Or do they learn that bullying is acceptable, fun, and even cool behavior? Would you let your teens play Bully?

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/raskin/1906

 

Been curious about this game ever since that reference about it in that post concerning Jack Thompson. What do you think about it, or Rockstar Games in general (should they have their own thread?)?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jables Hondonian

Jables

Posted
Posted

This game's been due for over a year now. I figured hippies & fundamentalists'd hold this shit up(my disdain is evidenced by my 11-month-old pre-order slip for this game). Kids should be raised to understand no matter what they play on a home console or see on ficticious tv is judged on a completely different scale to what happens away from there. Before you're say, sixteen you can't race F1, bend it like Beckham, aid or end an alien invasion by means of rts, fps, or puzzles, or (shock horror!!) visit acts of violence(gratuidous or otherwise) upon your fellow man. People raise their fucking kids with these things & don't expect knockback but it's fucking brainless. Blame the parents, not the developers. I grew up in a financial bracket that meant console gaming was an incredible privelidge, so it's easy then for me to keep that & reality at complete odds. Kids who spend as much time doing this as they do at school or whatever will ostensibly melt the two together. Sure, the content's a lot less surreal than GTA, hence easier to 'act out' at school, but like I said- It's all in the context in which it's presented, which, as custodians & patrons of children's welfare, is solely the parent's responsibility.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Reverend Jax Hondonian

Reverend Jax

Posted
Posted

I wish they would release a school shoot-em up game. I wish you could have gone into schools in San Andreas. I wish they made more rape games. Incestual pedophilic rape games, with points score for tears of the victum shed. With cool marioesque sound effects. I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill. Kill. Kill. Kill!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lycaon Hondonian

Lycaon

Posted
  • Author
Posted
It's rated T so I can't imagine it being too bad.

 

I wanted to rent it and see what it was like but the fucker is all out everywhere. If I can't get it by Friday I might just buy it.

 

Or I could play some rape games with Jax and Jont. Bags being the rapee.

What were the GTA games rated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
The NZA Hondonian

The NZA

Posted
Posted

yeah, except its rockstar, so i felt much better about the results - take Just Cause. Game's premise and all got me excited, but things like the glitches, hit/collision detection etc felt rushed & sloppy....this is Rockstar's bread & butter; they may be one-trick poneis with it but they get it right.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...