Bully Trailer Hits the Web

GGLucas writes "Contrary to the rumours that have spread about the Rockstar game, Bully, and it's storyline, the game's trailer as released by IGN today spins in a completely different direction, anti-game critics will not be happy. From the article: 'Bully puts players in control of 15 year-old Jimmy Hopkins — a boy who has just begun his first year in the New England-based Bullworth Academy, and a guy who's charged with the mission of ridding the school of a number of its undesirable elements.'"

Comments

To the anti-game critics:

[Jerk City Troll]

How about we put the burden of raising children on the parents who chose to had them. How about instead of futilely trying to childproof the world we let people decide for themselves and their own children what's appropriate.

If a kid has $50 bucks to blow on the new hotness their either have their parents permission (ill considered as it may be), too much for an allowance, gainful employment, or an entry level position in a criminal enterprise. None of these is the problem of developers or retailers.

Besides, none of the GTA games come close to the sex and violence of the bible. Babykilling and incest? Check. I want to see Rockstar do a Bible game like GTA, where you can wander around brutally killing and raping anything.

Re:To the anti-game critics:

[andrewman327]

THe bible does nothing *but* glorify rape and violence.

You have to admit that the content of Rockstar games is entirely different from that of The Holy Bible, both in content and presentation.

Re:To the anti-game critics:

[arodland]

If you read my original post on this subject, I asserted that videogames are not the cause of youth violence. The Bible is by far a better influence, however.

Well, the most important thing that the Bible teaches children is that it's not necessary to make moral decisions by thinking about the consequences of their actions; logical thought should be replaced with the supposed will of an invisible, imaginary being in the sky, as interpreted by some incredibly wacked-out people.

Instead of teaching that when you see a contradiction, you should reexamine your premises because one of them is wrong, it teaches (by example) that contradictions are everywhere, and can be resolved by a "search for a higher meaning" (divinely inspired, of course, which means making things up and stopping when it sounds good).

Instead of teaching responsibility by showing that who you are in the world is defined by your actions, it teaches that "works" are worthless, and the only thing that matters in the end is an intangible "faith" -- believe and ye shall be saved. Except when it doesn't, but see the previous point about contradiction.

When Christianity is really working its mojo, it's just as good as any other well-known cult at creating "empty" human beings, who are completely unable to function outside of its confines. But more often, it simply causes a really wicked case of "cognitive dissonance" as its adherents do their best to reconcile their "beliefs" with the reality of the world. This makes itself known as a profound sense of anguish, and the most common response is for people to submerge themselves even deeper into the religion as a response, moving further away from the real world. But a really good Crusade now and then will help, too.

Re:Doesn't seem too bad

[darkitecture]

How bad can a game about a kid countering a bully possibly be?

I can't tell whether that was meant to be a rhetorical question or not. There might have been sarcasm or you might be being fatuous, I'm not sure. But just in case you were being serious, let me highlight something:

It could be said that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (responsible for the Columbine massacre) were 'countering' the bullies that harrassed them at school. An extreme example for sure, but never underestimate human flaws when it comes to such powerful emotional forces as retribution.

With that said, I've bought several of Rockstar's games which have been considered 'violent' and probably plan on buying this game too if it seems any good. I'd like to think of myself as a successful late-20-something who has played countless violent and disturbing video games, watched graphic depiction of violence in numerous movies and tv shows and also was the victim of bullying in school (weren't we all?). Yet I'm still a well-adjusted member of society, an upstanding citizen, have never committed a crime, vote, am involved in charitable works, have a good sense of morality and have no qualms with allowing my children to play violent games with morally dubious goals and watch violent movies - as long as I've deemed they're mature enough for such things. I find it is my duty to keep a constant vigil on my childrens' moral/ethical maturity and to screen/judge their input accordingly. I appreciate there being an ratings board for games and the like, but I think this should be considered simply a guide and that parents should take some god damn responsibility and take charge.

I played some brutal games and watched some horribly graphic movies while I was a kid but I had good enough parents that they knew that although those games and movies weren't the most palatable inputs, they weren't having some sort of detrimental inpact on my growth, my education or my general health/wellbeing. They understood that *I* understood the difference between movies/video games and reality. They understood that although I might be ripping someone's spine out in Mortal Kombat, I was still writing A+ history reports and still knew my sines from my cosines. I might have been going on a Redneck Rampage with my shotgun but I still volunteered at the local Salvation Army thrift store on the occasional weekend and took out the trash and brushed my teeth before bedtime.

Ratings boards should never be considered a substitute for good parenting.

ATTN, Jack Thompson

[DragonTHC]

NOT ALL GAMES ARE FOR KIDS!

I agree with game ratings and enforcement of those ratings.

I don't think 15 year old kids should be playing bully.

but I'm 30 years old, and I want to play it.

Re:Porn vs. Violence

[BorgCopyeditor]

Do I think children should be able to buy porn? Sure - why not? Kids are gonna get their hands on it anyway - whether from the net or other friends - and I think that it being freely available will make exploring sexuality less stimatizing.

You seem to be assuming that porn teaches something about sex. I (sort of) agree, but what it's teaching is not very ... realistic, and what it's leaving out is important. If the goal is to make discovering sexuality less traumatizing, why not insist on good sex education? Keeping it locked away from curious eyes doesn't keep kids from finding it, doesn't keep them from having sex if they want, and seems to just be a pointless burden for retailers.

Sure, they'll almost certainly find it; but with good education (and maybe a more sexually healthy culture?), it would not be as compelling and I expect the demand might well fall. As for the last point, I could care less what is a burden for retailers who want to sell porn to minors. Seriously, have you been in some of these shops? I don't plan to have kids, but I wouldn't send them into one.

Re:Doesn't seem too bad

[nametaken]

"I played some brutal games and watched some horribly graphic movies while I was a kid"

You're in your late 20s?

I'd say, Double Dragon, Ninja Gaiden, Kung Fu and Punch-Out weren't exactly like the stuff we're looking at now. Banging a hooker in a stolen car, then jumping out of the car, beating them to death with a baseball bat and taking your money back? Maybe that OTHER Konami code let you do that stuff, but I think I would have cried myself to sleep if I saw that coming from my NES. :)

Re:1999: My Life *was* hell; then Columbine

[DesireCampbell]

See, that's the problem - children don't understand anything fully. This is key now: they are not fully developed. Their brains cannot process high level abstract though. I'm not saying children shouldn't be reprimanded when they do something wrong - I'm saying that a zero-tolerance policy on ANYTHING is stupid, and will only harm more than it helps.

Re:1999: My Life *was* hell; then Columbine

[twistedsymphony]

You just have to level the playing field. I was picked on quite a bit for being a nerd when I was young. Picked last in gym class, called names, had people steal my books, notes, backpack, etc run down the hall and throw them the nasty cafeteria garbage. Interesting enough it was a New England Prep School.

One day my father suggested I start going to the gym with him to work out, it was a powerlifters gym, if you wanted aerobics you ran outside, everything inside was freeweights. I started lifting and advanced FAST, applying my studying habbits to learn proper techniques and eating habbits. I gained about 40lb of muscle over the course of my sophomore year. I had to get a new custom made school uniform because my sholders were so wide.

I was still a nerd, I still played card games with the other 2 or 3 nerdy kids in the cafe during our study halls, I was still a member of the chess club and the math team but after school I would go and lift weights. I even entered a few powerlifting competitions and took 1st place a couple of times. It really turned my life at school around. My junior year I remember early on one of the football players started picking on me and my friends so I stood up and he got in my face... soon realizing that while shorter I was much wider in the shoulders then he was. I told him I'd arm wrestle him and if I won he would have to appologize to my friends and leave us alone for the rest of the year. I put him down so fast he brused his knuckles when they hit the table. Needless to say none of us ever had any problems with the bullies in the school ever again. Despite the fact that I still enojyed doing all of my nerdy things I had earned a lot of respect from a whole lot of the people who used to pick on me.

Nerds are smart enough, get them on a training program, martial arts, weight lifting etc. Bullies pick on your weak spots and typically the week spot of a nerd is their lack of physical prowess... you fix that and the bullies will pick on someone else... or find something better to do.

Re:1999: My Life *was* hell; then Columbine

[fudgefactor7]

Dude, I feel your pain. I really do. I was picked on in school as well--and I'm shorter than you, so there you go. What did I learn? Simple. To get bullies to stop you have to--now pay close attention--KICK THEIR ASS! One kid in school dumped ketchup on me at lunch--he thought that was pretty freaking funny...until I choked him and threw him across the lunchroom. Another kid got bodyslammed by me for being a general dick to anyone smaller than him (and I, naturally, fit the bill.) (Fat kids who bully are easy targets for bodyslamming, they don't tend to be nimble enough to get out of the way of a fast moving short person.) In essence, if somone bullys you, beat the crap out of them at that very moment they start. Don't kill them, just beat them down and let them know that the next time it happens you won't be so lenient. Bullies fear being bullied themselves, and they also understand the concept of "respect."
 
When I have kids, I'm enrolling them in a martial arts class at the earliest opportunity, and I'm going to tell them straight up--and I'll let the school know too--that my kid *will* defend themself and it won't be pretty. And what do I do if my kid is doing the bullying? Same thing--beat him like a redheaded stepchild. I didn't break the cycle to have it started by us.

My first reaction was "Huh, I expected it sooner."

[Maggott]

Amen, brother. I too was among the favored "victims" of my school. Hell, Columbine may have happened in 1991 if my parents had owned any serious firearms. The way students treated each other went beyond uncivilized and into the realm of barbarism. In fact, part of the reason things were so bad was that the stories the students told were so horrific that the faculty decided they had to be ficticious. It took a few dozen people being shot to death to make the world realize that maybe it was real after all.

I knew that if any other schools in the nation were anything like mine, it was only a matter of time before somebody cracked and blew someone else's brains out. I also predicted, rather cynically (this was back in 1990-92, remember) that the media would place the blame squarely on other parts of the media, rather than on the students' brutality or the wholesale negligence of their caretakers.

If you're going to claim--as some others in this thread do--that the fault doesn't lie with the "innocent children" who were raising their fists (and sometimes worse) against their peers, then you've got to accept that the blame lies with the schools who had taken up the duty of protecting them from each other. And then all you're saying is that the Columbine folks should have shot more faculty and fewer students.

I'm a nonviolent person. I'm all for "Never start a fight, but always finish it." But having gone through what I did, I greeted the news of Columbine with gratitude and relief. I knew the massacre was so impossible to ignore that maybe--just MAYBE--it would get the schools' attention and they'd start listening when a fat kid in black clothes says he's sick of having people hit him in the back of the head every day. Most of you don't understand just how much of a difference the lives of those who died at Columbine might make in the lives of those who come after them. I'd love to be shot to death if it means that other students won't have to go through what I went through.

Klebold and Harris didn't start the fight, but--we can hope--they finished it.

And if that sounds insensitive, well, let's just say I had some really good teachers.

Re:1999: My Life *was* hell; then Columbine

[SatanicPuppy]

Self esteem is a weird thing. People focus on the thing about themselves that they see as valuable. I focused on my brain, and on the fact that, even when I lost a fight, I made sure the other guy didn't enjoy winning.

In retrospect, being an intellectual snob and a tightly wound ball of unfocused aggression didn't do much for my social life in high school. I got over it though. I learned to lie about how I felt (I always felt bad, but when someone asks you how you feel, you can't say "My life is pain" and ever expect them to ask again), and I learned to pretend to be interested in things I felt to be beneath me, and I learned to project an emotional vibe other than hostility.

It sounds stupid and fake, I admit. The thing is, when I became more bearable to other people, other people stopped actively shunning me, which made it more natural not to be a bastard all the time. This appealed to people, and some of them (against all possible previous experience) started actively seeking me out, and including me in social things.

The great social secrets for the socially inept are as follows:

1) Listen, don't talk. If you're really inept, it'll show the instant you open your mouth. Watch how other people do it. Everyone loves to talk about themselves, so ask a couple of stupid social questions, but don't just barge up and ask 'em...You need an opening. THIS IS REALLY HARD TO RECOGNIZE WHEN YOU'RE SOCIALLY INEPT. Ask for directions, or for helpful information. "Hey baby, what's your sign?/You come here often?/Etc" are all far inferior to "Hey, I've got a peanut allergy, you think this stuff is safe?/Do you know how late (insert place) stays open?" People love to be helpful, and that sort of thing is socially non-threatening.

2) Be socially non-threatening. Keep up a minimum of personal grooming, try to achieve a socially acceptable wardrobe...I know it shouldn't matter, but it does...You don't have to be super well dressed, but be above the minimum, and stay away from aggressive themes and overly-starched stuff. Casual casual casual. Don't try to lock people in a conversation; let them move off if they want to...It's much more likely that they'll talk to you again if you don't latch on to them. Remember the listen thing. Don't get too personal to quick...You may think you're connecting with a person, but don't burden them with your whole life story within an hour of meeting them. It's too intense, and they'll avoid you after.

3) Don't be afraid to screw up. It's really hard not to get keyed up when you really are desperate to talk to anyone. If you find yourself shaky and babbling, move on, and come back when you've cooled off a bit. It gets easier, and, unless you do something freakish, they won't hold it against you (or if they do, fuck 'em). Check the fringes. There are plenty of people who are also inept, and if you're not scary/overbearing/stinky they'll be glad for someone to talk to. Understand that the average person isn't any more socially adept than you are...They just lucked out and ended up being bland. Bland fits in everywhere.

4) Try not to take yourself seriously. This is hard.

5) Empathy. Try to figure what the other person is feeling. This tends to be nearly impossible for hardcore left brainers; just not wired correctly for reading other peoples emotions. This is okay. But you still need to recognize (if only on a conscious level), basic body language. The only way to do this is to watch...Reading a guide on body language is like reading a guide on art.

Social skills are 100% conformity to a standard. They're a semi-open communication protocol. Once you figure it out, you can talk to most people. Understand that you need to talk about things that interest the people you're talking to...This is hard for geeks, especially because other people seldom talk about things we're interested in. DON'T EXPECT EVERYONE TO KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. You can't be the alpha geek if you're talking to non-geeks...You're just going to piss them off