The Bullying of Rockstar
Activists and concerned parents aren't too impressed with the little they know about Rockstar's new high school-themed game.
The brouhaha surrounding Rockstar's inclusion of (admittedly hard-to-get-to) adult content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas hasn't even calmed and already the company is getting stick again.
Anti-gamer Jack Thompson, an American lawyer-slash-activist who once tried to blame the Columbine High School shootings on Doom, has called for Rockstar's parent company Take 2 to rethink the release of Bully, the company's upcoming game where you play as a new kid dealing with the frustrations of school life in his own inimitable way (read: wooing girls and flushing nerds' heads in toilets).
Thompson's pleas have been echoed by those of UK-based anti-bullying outfit Bullying Online. According to GameSpot, the group is trying to get the game banned lest impressionable youths unable to separate fact from fiction mistake the game's events as a How To guide for getting into trouble.
Already groups in the US are preparing protests aimed at convincing Take 2 that releasing the game would be a bad thing.
Neither the UK or US ratings boards have doled out parental guidance for Bully yet, but it's expected that it will pick up the equivalent of an 18 rating in the UK and the US.
Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games
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