Umm... they're demonising a game that isn't even out yet? Holding sting operations for a game which hasn't been rated yet?

Umm...

Obsess much?

Would this affect their 1st amendment?

All I have to say is that Jack Thompson is a... well, I'm not even sure I can post the word I want to say, despite being uncensored by the filter.

I agree, this is just stupid crap made as an excuse to current problems. The REAL problems in life. Hell, I think I may just buy Bully to see if it's THIS bad.

...dude, the game's not even out yet.

Although I agree that some retailers are guilty for selling M-Rated games to minors, he's just too full of sputtering rage and 'OMG TEH VIOLENCE IS GONNA MASSACRE AMERICAN CHILDRENZ AND THERE'LL BE A COLUMBINE 2!' to be taken seriously.

I hear Matt Hayter is going to be a playable character.

Seriously, I don't see what all the fuss is about. He hasn't even played the game yet, so what's the big deal?

Boulder Dodging mini-game!

I honestly think he's taking it a bit too far, especially as numerous people already posted on how it's not even released yet.
Granted, I know my own fair share of bullies (well, I wasn't hurt physically as I was emotionall back then), but I'm just a firm believer that video games are just that, video games and it's up to the relationship between parents and children when it comes to what games are good for kids and how it affects their lives.
~Neo

"Columbine" changed the face of America, but you are about to come out with a game that celebrates, glamorizes, and trains kids to do what Klebold and Harris did.
Klebold and Harris commited the shooting *because of* bullies and the whole school treating them like s**t because they were nerds and outcasts.
In the game, you play the role as a bully who picks on nerds and outcasts.

Actually, Geogwe...

which is a title where players take on the role of a troubled schoolboy and, according to Rockstar, "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."

You play the antagonised kid trying to survive and get his/her own back.

so you can bully or be bullied... interesting. Oh great now i want to play manhunt.

I think it stupid to make game which is full of violence/M rated stuff that atracts children or aims to make children by it. See, I think it sounds fun, but I shouldnt play it because I am under age. Good idea about you can play both sides...

Rockstar have always made contraversial games. The GTA seris and Manhunt to name but few. They also take on the challenge ogf making games that other companies don' try, like red dead revolover. The idea of Bully sounds very orignal and that is what makes rockstar good. Originality.

You play the antagonised kid trying to survive and get his/her own back.
From all the information I read on the game so far (Magazines, Websites, etc.) you play the role as a kid that has been kicked from a goos number of schools for heavy disconduct. You are in the last school you can be at, if you get kiced from that one there is no other school to go to.
Moreso, of all the screenshots, the player indeed looks like your stereotypical bully. And most of the peopel he picks on look like stereotypical nerds.
Perhaps this artical twisted the information so the reader would bend to their opinion, such as the media commonly does?

Yeah, just like you score points for running over pedestrians in GTA:SA.
Nah, man, the last one to do that was GTA2.

which is a title where players take on the role of a troubled schoolboy and, according to Rockstar, "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."

You play the antagonised kid trying to survive and get his/her own back.
Yeah, just like you score points for running over pedestrians in GTA:SA.

Seems to be the case. I've never seen info on this, so that was my only impression and it was very very misleading...

I can't believe the hypocrisy of these people... they want to stop a game about bullying. Why don't they do something about the real-life bullying in schools, workplaces and countries?

I really don't like the idea of a game about bullying. I'm trying not to make it a personal thing, and failing. It's targeted at children. It's not even ridiculously impossible, like Manhunt or GTA, it happens. A twelve-year-old is going to see this, but they're unlikely to go and steal cars or use hammers.

They're glorifying violence in schoolyards. Don't they even realise what that means? Don't they realise what that will do the the kids who are bullied?

Censorship is bad, but the minds of the game-designers inside Rockstar are somehow worse.

Ya. F**k pacman, too. Some dude was palying it and I was liek 'dude sup' and he like tried to bite out my eyes.

Say it with me: Kids aren't mirrors.Just because they see something doesnt mean they will commit it. Moreso, the most bullying at the age of 12 is 'lol u r idiot', nothing actually harmful.
However, if you mean people in high school and the like, we must accept that the majority of people in high school who play a ntoicable amount of video games aren't the kind that would go to school the next day and issue a classroom-wide beating.
That is changing by the years, yes, as gaming is becoming more mainstream and common, but just because a teenager sees something on his playstation doesn't mean he'll do the same the next day.
The people who are likely to be bullies probably arent going to act any worse due to a game they might not even ever see.

I honestly don't see how an anti-bullying game is crazy offensive. If you were mowing down the bullies with machine guns, then yes, but just playing pranks on them, standing up for yourself, and trying to impress a girl? Really. I actually applaud a game like that, because in it, kids who are picked on are the heroes and have a voice. If anything, I would think that discourages the despair and hopelessness that leads to schoolyard violence in the first place.

Let's just get the object of the game straight here. While it is possible to not be the bad guy, and instead take crap from the bullies, just like it is possible to play Postal 2 without firing a shot, this is not the intended outcome. The developers intend for you to build a sort of one-man empire in this rough-and-tumble fantasy school through physical force. This not only involves beating up other bullies, but also picking on nerds -- in a reasonably violent way.

You might throw dodgeballs at them:

Or you might plain old kick the crap out of them:

Personally I don't know what to think; the game's still in full-scale production and could change profoundly before it's released. In the past TakeTwo has said on record that they are starkly opposed to showing any kind of violence against minors, and then they decide to publish something like this. Something tells me this'll be undergoing a few fundamental changes before it goes gold.

I really don't like this game, and like I said before it's mostly for personal reason. Now I know how hit-and-run victims must have felt when GTA first came out.

Beating up bullies is a good thing. But why can't it be a game about protecting the weak and vunerable, instead of kicking their faces in?

Telling people "Oh, you get to kick bullies in too" is what game developers say when they are trying to promote their game to parents with an IQ close to 65.

Oh, and 12-year-olds are not just "Ha-ha, you are stupid." And even when they are, that doesn't make it any less painful.

Now I don't like censorship. If they sucessfully censor this, what's next? But that doesn't mean it's a good game. Unfortunately, Rockstar loves this kind of publicity.

By that logic, Harley, war veterans who suffered trauma and loss would be highly opposed to the Medal of Honor series.

It's just a game. Sure it's an etchy concept, but I find it laughable that anyone would say this is horrible and evil, when Manhunt and GTA are just harmless fun which have no baring on reality.

It's a game. It's not endorsing anything, it's just trying to sell itself and perhaps offer a gameplay experience.

Ironic, as this whole situation only furthers interest to the public by bring it to everyone's attention. At the very least, this probably will increase sales, especially from people who want to see how really "bad" Bully is. I'm sure Rockstar is loving the free advertising they're getting from Thompson lately for their games.

I can already tell I hate the game but that's why I'm not going to play it...though once FotF gets word of this, they'll never shut up and I'll have to turn my station to another channel to listen to music...

Maybe that should tell you you're listening to the wrong station. *insert customer service smile*

~Rico

Take your spin elsewhere Dr. Underwood...

Personally, I've never understood why people find games like this appealing. Why would someone want to go around beating people up? It just doesn't seem fun to me.

One opinion is that kids won't imitate something they see on a video game. That may be true to some extent. But taking in that kind of violence and idiotic morals is sure to shape the kid's mind in some way. Did anyone see the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Mike Teavee, the video game kid, had a serious violence problem, even though he was apparently very bright. I'm not saying that video games cause violence, but rather that they change the way the mind thinks to be more violent in nature.

Ever hear of "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil"? Same sort of concept. If one takes in violence, one will eventually output violence in some way. I have a friend who was practically raised on violent games, and he has definitely been shaped by them. I haven't met anyone else who enjoys destroying things the way he does. His morals are somethin' terrible, too.

Hey now, you were the one griping about it.

~Rico

Mike Teavee was an extreme case, but yes, though violent vidio games and violent children are not cause and effect, they do influence us. Everything we see and hear influences us.

Take your very first horror film. Mine was Blair Witch (or maybe Scream) and I remember being simply terrified by it. But as I watched more horror films and violent action movies, I became attuned to them. Frightened or not by the jumping out of some guy in a mask weilding a large knife, I was not so disgusted as he ripped it through a young girl's body.

Nobody lives in a box. We can't venture out into the world and not be affected by what we see and hear. We are reactive.

And while there are some people who take it that little bit too far, like making lightsabres out of neon and gas, and killing themselves because the Matrix was so convincing, and stealing cars because it's fun, and the majority of people are sensible and mature, nethertheless, we are still affected.

I agree with Harley on this, this particular game so far looks to emulate bullying as it can be; To steal a car, you need to know a few things about a car first, to kill someone you will most likely reqire a weapon, but to beat up kids in school just requires you to be tougher than the other kid, or pick up a ruler, releasing a game where you can beat up smaller weaker kids and thinking it could influence bullying in class isn't as ridiculas as people seem to be making out here, especially when kids are happy slapping random people on busses.

Basically, righting off all responsibility from the game is just as bad as placing it all on it, especially on something that is a very real problem that still hasn't been solved. Personally, I'd rather this game wasn't released.