Slashdot Mirror
Bully To Blacken Rockstar's Other Eye?
Tom writes "As if Hot Coffee wasn't enough for the reeling publisher, Gamespot has an article regarding the uproar starting over Rockstar's next game, Bully. Seems like the assault is coming from both sides of the pond, with anti-bullying advocates from England worried about the game causing kids to act out in classroom what they saw on the screen and with America's very own Jack Thompson calling upon Take-Two president Paul Eibeler to stop the release of the game. How will Rockstar handle the additional pressure being put upon it?"
To: Jack Thompson ESQ.
From: Rockstar Games
Subject: Bully Boycott.
Dear Jack:
Enclosed is a diagram that details whether or not we will stop development of our new game, Bully. Please feel free to peruse this diagram at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely
Rockstar Games
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Dear Rockstar:
I understand your recent trouble with GTA: San Andreas, and the hot coffee scandal. There are many on the religious right, and so called democratic left that disliked your consentual sex scenes within the game.
I understand you're working on a new game called Bully. From what I understand so far, you can be a Bully within the game. This sounds quite interesting, but any sort of consentual sexuality that might creep into the game might once again offend the censors.
In response, I suggest the following:
Thank you very much for reading this letter. You have my full support.
Sincerely,
A loyal fan
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
why are these idiots making a big deal of this game, if nobody said anything i doubt the game would end up popular, now it's the game 'they are trying to ban' so everyone wants to play it now.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Right now the game is only worth some moms complain, and Hilary Clinton's time. If Dubya Bush himself put the war on Iraq aside and hold a conference on this game, then you know it's damn good. I'll get my wallet ready right after that.
For those who have really read the reviews of "Bully". I think at most it would do is match the sales of "RedDead Revolver" or "Manhunt" without enough media attention.
So it's OK to jack cars, attack and kill people to steal their money, drive a cab so fast that pedestrians have no hope of getting out of the way, take work as a hitman, blow police helicopters out of the sky, etc., etc. But having sex is very very bad, and bullying is beyond the pale.
How will Rockstar handle the additional pressure being put upon it?
Start making games that don't appeal only to what is worst in humanity?
Yeah. Cause we all know that most twelve-year-olds have credit cards.
In Soviet Russia, backwards is everything.
I get to play a pissed off kid who gets to go ape at his school? Man this sounds better than my 36 hours of Punisher. (See Journal)
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
This is actually quite interesting, as bullying probably won't be rated anything more than PG.
Will we see ratings for racism, sexism, political and other similar behaviors? These are non-sexual and non-violent, yet they can have great, if not greater, impact on people's life.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
Taking a look at their website, it's a little unclear whether they are there to help the victims of bullying, or to help kids become bullies and to help the parents help their kids become bullies.
I mean, what do you think when you read "Practical help and advice for parents who are tackling school bullying."
Probably by watching their profits rise to an all-time high. Nothing beats free advertising.
>> "What would the robut do? Frame someone!"
If they do, it's not on the news like this.
They should make a 'Passion of the Christ' video game. You can be Jesus or his sacrificers.
Make games which piss people off but play well. They've done that the entire GTA series and it works for them.
Bitch and whine all you like but GTA is a damn fine game and that's why it sells. If you don't like it make a better game with none of the violence and outshine GTA every time they release a new one.
I like muppets.
From the articles I've read, you're not the bully, you stand up to them. Yes, you can kick the crud out of mean teachers.. but the game seems to be about a badass kid who goes to school, people pick on him, and then EVERYONE finds out they've messed with the wrong kid. He beats the shit out of bullies and gets justice on evil teachers. And yes, I Would imagine politicians would still be up in arms about this - afterall, like prisons, in school you're punished when you defend yourself.
They'll probably give up their lunch money and run away crying!
Who cares? It will sell, and that is all that matters for them most likely.
Give Thompson the finger, then refer him to my constitutional right to say whatever the hell I want, then nod proudly when he calls me a "First Amendment Absolutist," because I am.
This sig is false.
Is anyone else here heartily sick of Rockstar's "Sell Games by Moral Panic" strategy yet?
All the more so since, judging from Manhunt at least, it really doesn't seem to have much of an effect on sales; a good Rockstar game sells well, a bad one sells poorly, and the furor raised over all of them doesn't make much of a difference at the cash register. What it _does_ do is create a horrible reputation for the game industry as a whole. Just once, I'd like to see them do something _not_ designed to give Hillary Clinton a heart attack...
wait wait, i saw this and for once disagreed with a video game, having been bullied myself in middle school (yes people who read slashdot have been bullied before!) and i thought it was kind of thoughtless. But then I read the article. It says you STAND UP to bullies, and play pranks on the bad kids. This means that the people arguing are probably the people who are FOR bullying so wtf I'm confused. Are they defending bullying and saying this game goes against bullies?? That makes no sense
In the UK there's currently a really stupid and nasty "craze" called happy slapping which started as a form of bullying in schools but progressed onto the high-street. Many people think that happy slapping was inspired by a TV program called Trigger Happy TV and I can imagine a lot of people in the UK getting upset that a game like this might encourage more of the same.
For some reason I find myself reminded of A Clockwork Orange...
This reminds me of all the protesters who kept saying the Kevin Smith's movie Dogma was was disgusting and a slap in the face to the Catholic church. When protesters were asked if they'd seen it, they said "No".
This game hasn't even been released yet. Why we wait to see what the game is actually about first.
"How will Rockstar handle the additional pressure being put upon it?" Probably by gut laughing all the way to the bank...
These events are just a backhanded attempt to censor Rockstar. Of course, given the current march of freedom in this country, it's probably only a matter of time before they get shut down.
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
Rockstar doesn't make fun games. It makes crappy un original games and then also makes games just to be controversial. Rockstar reminds me of the hicks at school acting like they're rebels. They have a burst of success at times, then they get shut down either violently or quietly.
Jack Thompson must've had a rough time in grade school or something.
Insert Sig Here
Honestly, have any of you other than this guy actually RTFA?
That your not the bully in this game. Your the victim that gets pissed off about being bullied by everybody. While I may agree that fighting isnt the best action in all situations, I really dont understand how this is viewed as something "immoral". I mean, what are these people worried about, that a kid who is always getting bully is actually going to stand up to the bullies due to their playing of this game, because god knows I dont want that to happen....
Maybe I'm completly wrong. I don't know. My memory is kinda vague on this....but...well. Here's Gamespy's capsule of the game.
"You're not going to take it anymore. From edgy publisher Rockstar's Vancouver development team comes this dark comedy set in the most vile and sadistic setting yet in a Rockstar videogame: the schoolyard. As a troublesome schoolboy, you'll laugh and cringe as you stand up to bullies, get picked on by teachers, play pranks on malicious kids, win or lose the girl, and ultimately learn to navigate the obstacles of the fictitious reform school, Bullworth Academy."
And how exactly does that promote bullying? Seems to me that the bullies are the bad guys in this. You're playing average joe student that's trying to make it from being the bullied to being the star, so to speak.
I just don't see the problem with this. In fact, as far a socially responsible games go, I suspect this isn't even near the bottom of the list. I suspect it'll end up being near the top.
Is it not the case that the nerds who actually play computer games are usually the ones being bullied, rather than those who bully?
Any fool can talk, but it takes a wise man to listen.
Bullying is not a suitable topic for a computer game. In term time this charity is contacted by up to four suicidal pupils a day. Between 16-20 children a year kill themselves in the UK due to school bullying. Amusing subject for a game isn't it?
What a bunch of self-righteous wankers. A huge fraction of films/books/games deal with horrible subjects. Should we ban *every* film/book/game that doesn't involve everyone just being nice to each other?
They'll be protesting against Itchy and Scratchy and Michelangelo's David next...
If Rockstar wants to continue making games that cause controversy they should look at Valve.
No need for ratings if you distribute the game yourself...
I would think Rockstar, with some minimal advertising, could pull this off. They have enough brand recognition to pull it off...although I suppose this would make them just a PC game maker...which wouldn't be very good for their profit margin.
Does the ps2 have a "seal of approval" or whatever for their games? Or can anyone release something? Or is it more a licensing thing?
This game sounds somewhat like it was inpsired by the old ZX Spectrum titles "Skooldaze" and the sequel "Bak to skool" both of which were very innovative and excellent fun. Very popular (in the UK at least) and pretty regularly in people's Top 10 and Top 5 picks of retrogames. Not surprised these ideas are being revisisted, whatever else happens in families and work, school is the universal experience after all.
Plays violent online games as: Nerfherder76
Oh noes! 5,000 years of civilization and video games are bringing about this thing called "bullying". I mean children have not been tormenting each other for all this time without the aid of electronic magic boxes? Also, this crime and sex thing you speak of... I'm quite positive it never existed either until video games and rock and roll existed. Humanity was quite perfect and free from sin until the 1980's! If we banned everything that transmits electronic media I'm sure everything would be just fine and peachy.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Is....*drum roll*
In a movie, you're watching actors play the parts. In a game, you are playing the part. So Catholics and Christians could potentially say "This game is evil because you're allowed to beat on Jesus", especially if you get points or some sort of reward for beating on Jesus. And honestly, I could see their point for the game not being appropriate (i.e. it'd be just like a game where you're a nazi and you get to execute jewish people).
However, regardless of the innappropriate nature, I personally would not want something like that to be banned simply because it upsets people, because then it would just set a precedent and you would have people telling you what's appropriate and what's not.
Actually, my gf is very much against this whole hot coffee scandal, and we don't agree with each others point of view, but she did mention one thing that was interesting:
If GTA:SA had rabbis and jewish people, or other obvious minorities, then those people would be up in arms over racism (i.e. Hatians & Vice City), but the same is not true when women are being objectified and you're rewarded for beating down a prostitute.
Out of all this nonsense, the only thing i agree with is that the ratings system is failing. The ESRB must lay down the heavy hand and prove that it can handle it's own policing, thus keeping these clueless idiots from taking advantage of situations like this.
How the hell did the movie industry get past crap like this? I believe the same/similar method should be used.
And another thing, game stores SHOULD be held responsible for selling games directly to minors. There should be an age check done. Just like the movie theatres.
If the ESRB asserted itself more and game stores enforced the age limits, then these instigators would have a less compelling argument to preach. Because no matter what spin they put on the stories of indecency in video games, a miniscule percentage of their complaints do make sense. So lets knock-out the credible arguments they do have...
I'm really getting tired of people posting "Ah, so killing people is okay, but consensual sex is unacceptable"
I'm posting this as anonymous because I fear the wrath of those fatheads who are happy to keep reading the same sentence over and over again. I'm posting this as anonymous because I fear the wrath of those fatheads who are happy to keep reading the same sentence over and over again. I'm posting this as anonymous because I fear the wrath of those fatheads who are happy to keep reading the same sentence over and over again.
In related news...
Rockstar responded to bullying.co.uk's demands by stealing thier backpack, throwing it in a trash can, and dumping a coke on it.
That pretty much sums up Rockstar. The games are just controversial, nothing really original.