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Bully Gets In Trouble With School
The Miami Dade school district is moving to pressure Rockstar games over its upcoming game Bully. From the Next Generation article: "Last Thursday, a board committee unanimously approved the resolution. A full board vote is expected this Wednesday. Rockstar issued a written statement to the Herald, which said, 'We all have different opinions about art and entertainment, but everyone agrees that real-life school violence is a serious issue which lacks easy answers.'"
What people fail to realize is that you're not a bully in the game. Here's the game synopsis:
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 since when was this "real-life school violence?" Last I checked, this was a video game.
I was bullied as a child, and the thought of kids playing as a bully really turns my stomach.
Congratulations, you've been sucked in by the Jack Thompson hype. Bully is a game where you fight against the bullies. But don't let little things like facts get in the way, will you?
This is the "think of the children" mindset at work. You are outraged and ignorant. That's a hell of a lot more dangerous than any game, especially when school boards are full of people just like you.
I've played this game before. It was 20 years ago, and it was called Skool Daze, and it was perhaps the best game there had ever been at the time. Utterly, utterly amazing.
I've thought for years that Skool Daze could be remade today and be something special. If Rockstar's description here is accurate, I'm really, really looking forward to this game.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Anyone remember Skool Daze on the c64? http://www.mobygames.com/game/c64/skool-daze The objective, to steal back your awful school paper from the headmaster's office. Common activities include: Beating up fellow classmates, fighting with the school bully, shooting anyone you like with your slingshot and hoping someone else gets blamed, skipping classes, writing obscenities on the blackboard and more. Why are the school's piping up now? This type of game has been done before, granted with not as much exposure until now.
Interesting you should mention Crazy Jack. Since the Next-Gen blurb was really short, I went looking for the article they were talking about. A quick google news search found it.
So, who is pushing the school board to do this? None other than Crazy Jack! From the article: "The goal is to make it such a negative thing that the retailers won't carry it," Thompson said. "This thing hasn't really reached critical mass as a [public relations] problem yet; that's what I'm trying to do."
Maybe Crazy Jack is an advisor to Hillary Clinton as well?
Got news for you, it is about the students but guess what? The system only works as well as the people involved. The kid is acting up in school? The teachers or the counselors needs to bring the parents in, keep everyone actively involved.
There will always be school violence, kids do it, at the youngest of ages they don't even realize they're doing it. You ever seen a 2 year old pull ont he hair of another kid? It just happens. As kids get older things obviously change. Usually kids with parents actively enganged in their education are well behaved. There are situations such as with sports where parents are actively involved in one aspect and completely negligent in others.
You say there are easy answers? Do you really think this would still be a problem if it were near as simple as you say? A lot of people have proposed this "simple" solution without realizing the consequences. Another idea was to link salary with student success. Another stupid idea which can't have been thought through. It implies that teachers aren't teaching and worst of all, it implies that teachers are the only ones that need to be teaching. This creates the overgrown daycare scenario that a lot of schools have now. This issue isn't simple, punish parents for not being actively involved in their child's education? What if the single parent is working two jobs just to keep food on their kid's table?
Whenever you try to do anything that effects this many people you will invariably alienate people from the system. Would you rather cast our some rich kid who will just soak money from daddy or expel some low income kid that will be reduced to selling drugs on the streets. Naturally this is an overgeneralization, plenty of low income kids strive for success and actually achieve it. I am an example of that. I wouldn't count on every child knowing what they want to do at the age of 6 though.I'm done ranting, thank you for playing