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Blair Bullied Over Bully
Following up the banning of Bully by British retailers, UK BM Tony Blair faced criticism from Parliment members over the Rockstar title. During the daily 'Question Time' the PM faces, Leicester East's Keith Vaz called for a meeting on the game, and investigation of the title. From the article: "'I know that the Minister for Creative Industries and also the Minister responsible for the industry are very happy to meet with him and stakeholders to discuss it. It's obviously an important issue. I know there's a lot of concern about it. It is, I think, right to say that the video games industry, or certainly a very substantial section of it, have made significant strides and advances over the last few years, but he's quite right, it's important that's maintained,' Blair said."
"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed"
So yeah, I have a way to solve this problem without a bunch of emo hearings and speeches:
1) Ask the citzenry what should be done.
2) Do it.
The game got a 15+ rateing, some guy (aparently likend to Thompson) does not like it, so they are going to have a meeting about it.
Out of curiosity, can Parliment ban a game/movie?
And is The British Board of Film Classification a govn't organisation, or is it like the ESRB?
Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
At what point does it become libel/slander to describe Bully as anything approaching a "columbine simulator", when it's rated T(Teen) and has no guns in the game? If we're going to bother Tony Blair about a game, shouldn't it at least be over one of the many rated-M games?
Blair Bowled by Bounders Bashing Boffo 'Bully'!
Dark Reflection
Whackjobs like Jack Thompson have a huge impact. He has convinced the media, politicians, and alot of the public that this game is some horrible, extremely violent game about a kid killing schoolmates. Of course that's not even remotely close to reality, but the people wanting to ban it are never going to actually try playing it. I keep hearing gamers say we should just ignore Jack, because responding to him makes him seem credible. Ignoring Thompson is not the way to go, we need to loudly, publicly and frequently tell people the truth about whatever game he's attacking this month. People find him credible because they aren't hearing the truth.
No matter what happens, Rockstar will win. They have gotten so much publicity in recent years, that even if they released a tame title, it would probably be a hit, just cause people want to see what all the hype is about. If the game gets held back, they can sue for censorship. If the game gets released, everyone wants to see what the hype is about. If the game gets held back, they can re-release with "special adults only product" purchasing, where you buy a special license via a credit card (online for legal-age verification). Again. Rockstar can't loose.
You get penalized in this game for resorting to violence at all--and that violence amounts to fisticuffs. The game is about outwitting bullies and coping at a dysfunctional school, not about being one. In fact, it's one of the most interesting game concepts to come out in a while. These people are reacting because of its name, and because it was made by Rockstar, who also make the GTA titles. Beyond that, they haven't a clue.
Once again, another example of politicians grandstanding with no idea of what they are talking about. Did you know, by the way, that the premise of the terrorist plot which recently hit the headlines--the plan to mix chemicals on the plane to produce explosives--was completely unworkable? You need a reasonably well equipped lab to control the reaction, keeping it at low temperatures, otherwise the chemical mixture will go off prematurely and all you'll get is a loud, smokey fizzle--enough to draw a lot of attention to yourself, but not enough to actually kill anyone, let alone bring down a plane. But none of the politicians could actually be bothered to ask a chemist about that, either. So now people can't bring any liquids on a plane, because our leaders are just too fucking lazy to do a little research...
"Following up the banning of Bully by British retailers"
1 retail group has banned it - and as the BBC article on the banning reported yesterday, it can still be bought from most of the high street retailers, thus is not going to cause anyone who wants the game any problems.
"During the daily 'Question Time' the PM faces"
While it would be fun for it to be daily, it is actually weekly, midday on a Wednesday during parliament.
Posting Anonymously for non-karma whoring.
Go to straight to the source: Official website of PM's Question Time.
Direct links of the Oct 18 session:
Windows Media.
Real Player.
Transcript
Always
Loading
Which can be a pain in the ass. It will really depend on if it drops off past chapter 1. Chapter 2 I just started (which according to most reviews is where the game officially "starts") and it's pretty neat.
The school classes you must attend are all minigames, some good some bad. (Art is very similar to the arcade classic Qix . . . and is much fun)
I can't give any sort of definitive review at this point because it feels like I'm at that point with a lot of games where I've gotten a good 4 hours of play out of it that has been fun, but it could swing either to Really Annoying and Repetitive or Fantastically Cool Game.
So far it seems to be a really big hit if you like minigames. There's a shitload of them.
And as an aside, the whole "you're helping little kids fight back" P.C. line is total bullshit. You're pretty much a bully in the game through the first act, and if the fighting moves and the like are any indicator, that's the case through the whole game.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
I've played the game for a few hours. While you can't hit girls and get away with it (mostly - you CAN get away with it but it's really tough to do) you're a bully in a school of bullies.
You're not helping the little guy in any meaningful way, except in side montages propelling the plot forward.
You're beating people up all the time. You can humiliate them and while it raises your threat level incrementally, it doesn't impact the game through the first 2 chapters at all.
Frankly, I think both sides are guilty of lack of investigation. It's not a Columbine simulator, but there's mud to be slung.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
The media in the UK is, with the exception of maybe three newspapers (The Guardian, The Independent and the Morning Star (which is hardly a major player)) and TV and radio, extremely right wing, with an almost fanatical devotion to "family values". The major newspapers, like the Daily Mail, the Express, the Sun, are extremely able to whip up people into angry, paranoid frenzies against just about anything. And it will happen with Bully.
They'll stomp and cry and scream in their usual way, not for any real purpose or end, not because they think it'll do good, but because it sells newspapers, and then their readers will stomp and cry and scream, and it'll end up with Bully being banned. Joy.
Boy do I LOVE living in a tabloidocracy.
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
No it doesn't.
From the article (the first paragraph instead):
Followed by (beginning of next paragraph)
That seems to be pretty clearly the parlimentary Question Time (or Prime Minister's Questions or "Questions to the Prime Minister" as it's called in the UK), and not a BBC programme.
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