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

Doesn't seem too bad

[vinividivici]

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

Wah?

[Kid Zero]

That made less sense than most teaser trailers I've seen. I saw nothing to support Rockstars claims of "Wait! This isn't the game they say it is!" mantra.

Porn vs. Violence

[yeoua]

Ok so in the United States, porn is basically not legal to buy by a minor. The store can't sell it to you, and you can't rent it.

And hell, NC-17 movies exist, as do R movies (which require a parent).

So why do games not have similar levels of preventative measures?

I guess the question I have is... why should games NOT have such similar measures (I'm in favor of NO limitations to who can buy actually) while porn and movies do? And if you believe that games should be freely buyable, would you consider allowing porn and any rated movie to also be freely buyable? What about cigerettes and alcohol?

It seems that we keep on having specific rules/laws per each individual "substance", and many are inconsistent with each other in terms of necessity.

1999: My Life *was* hell; then Columbine

[Un-Thesis]

I am a 5' 4" male nerd who wears corrective lenses. I was habitually psychophysically tortured by bullies throughout my life; today women shun me because I am still to this day psychologically scarred by their antics in my youth (although I'm getting better).

I used to be ridiculed, beat up, harrassed, and generally driven to depression *daily* by a *wide*range* of youth at my school; not just traditional bullies. Columbine happened when I was a Junior (or virtually finished with my primary education).

All of a sudden, my harrassment stopped! Literally that very same day! I was called into the Principle's office a full three times. The reason? I met a lot of the characteristics of the massacrists; sans a close friend (at that time I had none). All of a sudden, people would actually come up to me and spontaneously *apologize* for how they treated me; even 8 years later people are still *apologizing* to me as I sporadically meet them in town :O

I used to go to the Principle's office to report being punched in the face, jumped in the parking lot or being spat on by groups of girls (seriously :(, just to be told to "fight back" or "suck it up" or something. Now, my 15 yr-old nephew got guys *expelled* or transferred to other schools merely because they made fun of him and the school now has a zero harrassment policy!

After nearly 2 decades of near persistent parent-teacher meetings, moving to different schools, etc, to try to assuage the torture my peers inflicted upon the obvious physical grunt of the pack (but i have an IQ of 150), schools are finally taking things seriously.

So excuse me if it took a horrible massacre to make ordinary people realize how horribly detrimental their actions are. God turning something bad good, I guess. I will always remember the day of Columbine as the day my life started becoming enjoyable for the first time ever.

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

[Alaria Phrozen]

When I first found out about Columbine.. my first thought was: I wonder how those poor kids were treated to drive them to such ends.

Sure, with all the recent media releases with how darkly into hatred the Columbine kids were, perhaps there should be no sympathy for them. But I've always wondered... did they choose their victims, or was it really just random shooting with all that planning behind it? If the victims were chosen, for what reasons ... how were they treated?

I remember very clearly in seventh grade, many years ago, a fellow student was picked on mercilessly everyday until he would cry and have a total fit. Every single day. The bullies were very, very good at doing it covertly. The victims fits were off course a total fight/flight reaction, and I'm sure it could have even been seen as comical-hence why they did it. This kid was usually the one who got in trouble too, as teachers would ignore the smalltalk from the bullies and would only notice when he would burst into tears or slap/punch somebody. He was an incredibly nice kid and of course smart.

What is popular is not always right. What is right is not always popular.

It makes me want to do something about it now. Seventh graders suck at communicating their feelings. It really would have been nice if they gave us surveys so we could express in a directed manner how we and our peers were being treated. Of course there would be jokesters, but I'm sure it is possible to build control mechanisms within surveys?

I know this is impractical but... there has to be something.

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

[carpe_noctem]

...to try to assuage the torture my peers inflicted upon the obvious physical grunt of the pack (but i have an IQ of 150)

Sheesh, and you wonder why you got beat up so much in school. I knew plenty of ugly, short, and smart kids that did just fine in high school by being pleasant to be around instead of always trying to assert their intelligence over other people.

Remind me to give you a virtual wedgie when this game comes out.

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

[harryk]

You got screwed with as a Troll, personally I agree with both of you. I wasn't the geek, but I wasn't the bully either. I grew up in a fairly rough neighborhood, and we routinely settled our differences with our fists, or our skateboards against someone's head. In the end, I was recognized as just another kid. I don't recall having any kids in my schools (junior/senior) that were singled out. Maybe lucky.

I'll agree that sending a kid away for being a bully is not necessarily the right thing, but its not necessarily the wrong thing either. I do recall one kid in elementary school, a bigger kid, larger and meaner than any of us (in elementary what can you possibly be that pissed off about?!) and he would routinely and randomly beat up on just about any kid, I remember one day he was walking by and I was like 'Hey man, whatsup...' just an informal greeting, he punched me right in the face, and walked away... fucking bastard... he eventually got expelled... and wasn't welcome back... that fit.

On the other hand, this bullshit we have now with the Zero-Tolerance policy doesn't allow any room for growing, its a simple matter of their word against yours, and the school district (because they cannot afford not to) acts in their best interest, not in either of the kids interest. I can't necessarily blame the schools, frivouls (spelling is horrible, sorry) lawsuits drive costs fucking skyhigh, and it doesn't stop with schools. Remember watching the move "187" with Samuel Jackson as a teacher, and the punk ass kid says something about go ahead and do whatever, he'll just sue ... thats a great fucking lesson our kids have learned. A movie? Yes, it was... art isn't always fiction.

Anyway, enough rambling ... just didn't want your voice to go unheard, a troll modifier on your post is fucking bogus, and shows just how much of a panzy society we have become.

harryk

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

[SatanicPuppy]

No doubt about it.

But why did they do it? It wasn't sociopathy...They were out for revenge, and by that point it didn't matter to them whose blood was spilled.

The whole idea isn't that uncommon. It's been books, it's been movies (The Basketball Diaries, Heathers). And it's not the books and movies that are causing it, it's the sheer misery of high school. I definitely fantasized about getting even when I was in high school. Heh. I was on the school rifle team for years, and I'd think to myself, after some asswipes had picked on me, "I could take their heads off from a quarter mile away, and no one would ever catch me."

It was a comforting daydream, a way to vent some of that hatred, instead of stewing in it. That's pretty much why I play GTA...When I feel the need to kill someone, I have a nice outlet. I'll almost certainly pick up Bully. Sounds like a game I would have LOVED back in High School.

I'm sure however, that someone who plays that game obsessively because of his real life situation, will decide to beat one of his tormenters to death with a baseball bat. Not because of the game, or even to make Jack Thompson blow a load in his pants, but just because, when things get bad enough, you can't take refuge in fantasy.

That's all these damn cross-correlational studies mean. Promiscuous people have more sexually suggestive music on their iPods. Angry people listen to angry music, and play violent games. Nerds and geeks read Slashdot. It's because we're that kind of person, that we do that kind of thing. How the hell do you think the person got the thing in the first place? Did someone secretly put sexually suggestive music into the iPod to turn the listener into a slut?

The lengths people will go to to put the blame on anything but people.

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

[Anonymous Coward]

I was in second grade when I got picked on relentlessly by a bully. I took my Grandizer metal lunch box, filled it full of rocks, then when he came up to me, I wound up and slammed him upside his head with the lunchbox. Gave him a concussion, he was in the hospital for 2 days, and got some stitches. All I got out of the exchange was a dented lunchbox, and hassle free recesses.

It's scary to think that in today's world, I would have probably been arrested, placed in a school for troubled kids and basically given up on. Now, I'd probably be retreading tires instead of solving the world's problems via enterprise software solutions!

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

[Whitemage12380]

If you have a masters in psycology, neurology, etc. I should be saying no more.
If not, you are making your opinions out to be facts. Saying a child can't know the difference between right and wrong... nearly every child's life directly contradicts what you are saying. What you are saying is not fact- it is fantasy. Okay, expelling poor bullies from school may devestate them and be bad for them. Doing nothing and telling a victim to just suck it up? That can go all the way to ruining their entire life. That is as close to fact in all this as you can get, and you are ignoring that. Getting these bullies and helping them quit their destructive actions? TA-DA! There's the best answer right there! But if during the entire time that's going on, you just let those kids bully victims (exactly what you implied), the entire point is moot.

Re:Sounds more interesting than before.

[TomHandy]

To be fair, from what I've heard at least, the game does sort of let you choose what kind of person to be............ either protecting the weaker kids by taking on the bullies, or choosing to be a bully yourself. There was a story in USA Today about this that seemed to hint at some of the mechanics of the game (i.e. if you beat up some nerds, you'll be seen positively by the bullies, but the nerds will gang up on you, and will use their nerd science on you).

So it sounds like one could play this game as a bullying jerk, but the game will apparently make you suffer the consequences if you do.

at 18 and 21 something happens....

[nickyj]

And at the age of 18 and 21 something magical happens. Nope... nothing happens. The only difference is when you are 18 you are no longer a minor and are punishable to the full extent of the law. But again really at the age of 18 nothing happens in your mind. In Europe, you can drink alcohol at the age of 16.

The real thing here is that at these ages we expect that most people will be mature enough to be responsible about their usage of these 'items' but in reality some people should never use these things because they will never be mature enough to be responsible with it, be it alcohol, violent images (games or movies), or drugs/tobacco.

School survival techniques

[brother_b]

Back when I was in school, I occasionally would have an incident where someone would pop me in the back of the head with a book or something, but it was usually untargeted violence - I just happened to be a convenient target at the time. In general, I didn't have many issues probably because of several reasons:

• I was a top-tier student but was a slacker that didn't flaunt my being a top-tier student and didn't really give a rat's ass about school
• I was friends with some black guys who were also friends of some of the toughs (this is in the South, so there was a good deal of black-white animosity that came out in fights occasionally); as a white kid you wouldn't fit in with them but they at least knew you were on the level and not some hateful redneck
• I hung out with some average students and some that were borderline psychotic (several would fit the D&D classification of neutral evil, and at least one was very clearly chaotic evil - couldn't trust him with a quarter, but people stayed away from him because he was an unstable wacko); this had the advantage of making me a lesser desirable target since if anyone stood out it was one of them and not me
• Didn't do anything to cross the bully types - I was generally friendly with everyone

I still felt like I was in a war zone sometimes, but at least the flak wasn't being targeted specifically at me. Hell, the person who gave me the most beatings was my best friend from 4th grade (not in a "bully" way, more of a "I want to see what he does if I hit him really hard" and it made him look tough since he got picked on more than me), and I still hang out with him whenever I'm back home; I fixed him up good in 5th grade by knocking the snot out of him to get him back and he never tried that again. We still talk about it, and it's actually quite funny to remember back to it. Man, we were some stupid kids back then.

Some school admins were good too, though. One in particular (dead now, sadly) was pretty well respected even by the tough guys since he would be straight with you and not just dole out zero-tolerance BS. He was a really nice guy, but he could be a bulldog if you crossed the line and would scare the crap out of you. Luckily I was never in a position to be on the receiving end of that.

It's really kind of funny in a sad way to see what happened to some of the more evil kids I hung around with for "insurance". Many of them now have rap sheets a mile long and have been in prison. At least one has been in a mental institution.

um - anyone want to talk about the GAME?

[mgabrys_sf]

Or are we too busy having our nerd-flashbacks?

Fucking move on people. Or you can stay a victim forever I guess. The therapist market is ready to take your money and operators are standing by.

Hell the thing is a PS2 exclusive and even the Sony haters haven't made comment-one. Bizzare.