Bully for you
Take Two Interactive gaming company, best known for the uber-brutal Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series has been in the gunsight of conservative gunsights ever since the infamous "Hot Coffee" mod to GTA3 appalled many nongamers with its simulated (I think) sex scenes. (writer's caveat: GTA3 is my favorite Xbox game)
The new and highly anticipated Rockstar (a subsidiary of TakeTwo) game due to come out next month is called "Bully" and is the story of a young man at a prep school that has to defend himself against bullies. Not, apparently, with guns and flamethrowers, but with household stuff. Conservative lawyer Floridian Jack Thompson has successfully persuaded Judge Friedman to injoin Rockstar from releasing the game while the content is "evaluated" based on Florida's public nuisance law. Starting tomorrow at 3Pm, the Judge and Jack will watch the game being played (or maybe play it?) until they can evaluate whether it is truly a "Columbine simulater", the way Mr. THompson has been alleging.
Wow. I can't believe that this is happening. If God loves a lunatic, he must visit Florida every summer. Lucky for TakeTwo it's this game and not the last one, for reporters who have seen advance copies of the game have all said that it's nonviolent and does not glorify bullies. Still, it's chilling that guys like this get to somehow "rule" on the content of entertainment prior to release. I would imagine that the same argument could be applied to music and videos. Even if the game is socially unredeemable, I would support the company's right to sell it, although I'm sure that there's a line somewhere, some sort of video-Skokie where I would have a problem with its release.
Posted on October 12, 2006
