As many of you know, Bully is the new project for the PS2 by Rockstar, who are also behind the now infamous Grand Theft Auto series. The game takes the free roam style gameplay out of the busy city streets and into the gated fences of Bullworth academy,a ritzy, hard nosed prep school.
With the recent rash of school violence, the thought of releasing a game with a theme of bullying may not be that great of an idea right? Such was the worry of Florida lawyer and Video Game Darth Vader Jack Thompson. Thompson, who is well known for his campaign against violent games, many, from Bully's producer Take-Two has been crusading against Bully since the game's innitial announcement.
"The goal is to make it such a negative thing that the retailers won't carry it," said Thompson. "This thing hasn't really reached critical mass as a [public relations] problem yet; that's what I'm trying to do."
After conspiracy theories and threats, Thompson was able to convince a judge to order Take-Two to submit a final copy of the game, which would be played under the supervision of the court, to decide if the game was fit to be released.
As expected, an elated Thompson rang the death bell for Take-Two and the video game industry itself. "It appears that finally the violent video game industry is going to be held accountable to someone," Thompson said.
Judge Ronald Friedman was assigned the case and spent days with the game. When Friedman finally reached a verdict, it wasn't exactly the one that Thompson was looking for as the judge deemed the game okay to ship.
"There's nothing in the game that you wouldn't see on TV every night," Friedman is quoted as saying. The judge added he wouldn't want his kids to play the game, "but that shouldn't mean that the game won't ship."
Of course, Thompson wasn't finished, sending an attack letter to Friedman that was picked up by various gaming news outlets:
"Now that you have consigned innumerable children to skull fractures, eye injuries from slingshots, and beatings with baseball bats, without a hearing as to the danger, let me tell you a few things, with all respect for your office and with no respect for the arbitrary way in which you handled this matter," he wrote. "The way you conducted yourself today helps explain why a great Dade County Judge, the late Rhea Pincus Grossman, could not abide you."
The letter went on to attack Take-Two, the Miami police, and oddly compare the court proceedings to "the equivalent of Iran leading UN weapons inspectors around the country taking them to places where the illegal activity was not occurring."
Friedman has not issued a response and the game will ship for the PS2 on October 17th. World War III is sure to follow.
________Below this line is not fact, just oppinion_____
The funniest thing about the entire Bully/Jack Thompson saga is that, like other games good ole' Jack has tried to "save us from," he has not played the game.
Judge Friedman has, and he deemed it no less violent than what we see on TV on a nightly basis. But of course, that wasn't good enough for Thompson, and he attacked the judge just as he did Penny Arcade and just about anyone who made a valid point against his own beliefs.
Just like every dog will have his day, every man will have their day in court, and Jack -- you lost. Get over it. While I havn't played the game, reactions from the trailer and those who have played the game suggest that it is the equivalent of a kid's action movie. What are we going to do, start banning films like "How to eat fried worms" or "Monster House?"
Rockstar and Take-Two are not dumb. They may have made some mistakes, but there is way they would release a GTA like game centered around a school and children. The game does not have any guns, and no one dies. In fact, the main character is not the bully, he is the one getting bullied.
Jack Thompson is a publicity whore who frames his ego with a facade that he actually cares about the children in this country. The National Institue for Media and Family, a non profit group that actually does care, have asked Thompon to stop using his name in association with their company.
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