Bully Video Game Draws Fire

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August 11, 2006 (4:53 PM EDT)

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By K.C. Jones , TechWeb Technology News

Its latest video game has not even come out yet, but Rockstar is already the center of controversy over Bully, a game that will put players in the shoes of the new kid at a school with a Latin motto meaning "dog-eat-dog."

"As a mischievous schoolboy, you'll stand up to bullies, get picked on by teachers, play pranks, win or lose the girl, and ultimately learn to navigate the obstacles of the worst school around, Bullworth Academy - a corrupt and crumbling prep school with an uptight facade," Rockstar says in its overview of the game.

The main character is Jimmy Hopkins, a teen who was expelled from several schools and "left to fend for himself after his mother abandons him at Bullworth to go on her fifth honeymoon. Jimmy has a whole year at Bullworth ahead of him, working his way up the social ladder of this demented institution of supposed learning, standing up for what he thinks is right and taking on the liars, cheats and snobs who are the most popular members of the student body and faculty."

The Miami-Dade School District has banned Bullyand a U.K. Web site that addresses bullying issues is calling for a ban well ahead of the anticipated holiday-season release of the video in the United Kingdom. The site, Bullying Online, called for the ban after Rockstar released a short demo this week.

"We'd hoped that Rockstar had ditched this game following our complaints about it a year ago," Bullying Online Director Liz Carnell said through a prepared statement. "We don't think this game is likely to leave players with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Bullying is not fun and it's not a suitable topic for a game. This charity is contacted by thousands of parents and children a year for whom school bullying makes their lives a total misery. Up to four of the children who contact us every day are suicidal."

"Youngsters copy what they see on TV and in games, when wrestling was popular on TV we had numerous complaints about young children hurting others by copying the behavior they had seen on the screen," she said.

Justin Goldberg, communications coordinator for the National Coalition Against Censorship, said that most groups are displaying an automatic reaction to a new form of storytelling, with very little information about the content. He said the opposition is part of a long tradition in which critics have tried to ban classic literature, movies, music and now video games without reading, watching, listening or playing.

"Most of the people who are commenting on the game and writing these critical pieces haven't seen it yet and they don't know what it's about," he said during an interview Friday. "It fits within a timeless narrative which is that every new form of art, every new form of entertainment, that breaks in on the scene is targeted by some groups," he said. "I think people are wary of video games because they're a new venue and a new form of storytelling. This lets you participate in that story and almost collaboratively author that story."

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