Bully Draws Protestors to Rockstars Front Doors

[stack99]

Washington, D.C.-based group marches on developer's Manhattan headquarters to protest marketing of violent games to children.

Although the Hot Coffee isn't quite as piping hot as it has been of late, the fallout over the hidden sex mini-games in Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is still simmering. Always a lightning rod for controversy, Rockstar might be growing weary of all the free publicity it has been getting, as games it hasn't even released yet are now becoming the target of public outcries.

Yesterday, members of the Washington, D.C.-based youth group Peaceoholics protested outside Rockstar Games' New York offices, carrying signs that read "Put the cuffs on Rockstar, not youth" and "Prosecute Rockstar Games; they are felons" and chanting "Hey hey, ho ho, Rockstar Games has got to go."

Though the Peaceoholics have accused Rockstar of marketing violent games for children in the past, Tuesday's event was specifically directed at convincing the developer to shelve the upcoming Bully, which Rockstar describes as a game where players take the role of a "troublesome schoolboy" who "stands up to bullies, gets picked on by teachers, plays pranks on malicious kids, wins or loses the girl, and ultimately learns to navigate the obstacles of the fictitious reform school."

Although the game is not yet rated (an M for Mature tag seems a certainty) and Rockstar has revealed next to nothing about the actual gameplay, Bully has already made some waves. Given the developer's history with controversial titles and the lasting taboo of violence in a school setting ever since the Columbine High School shootings, it's a safe bet this won't be the last bit of protest directed Rockstar's way over its latest offering.

Attempts to reach Rockstar Games and Peaceoholics for comment Wednesday afternoon were not successful.

http://www.gamespot.com/...08/03/news_6130289.html

 

[cherok]

I agree, get rid of Rockstar.

The companies constant need to 'push of the envelope' on senseless violence and teenage male chauvanism deserves them a spot in a jail cell.

It makes me sick to think that young men think it's hilarious to romp the hooker, give her the cash then beat her to death afterwards. Rockstar is a cash cow that produces unimaginative garbage for teenage boys who still think it's hip to break, vandalize and beat shit up.

Fuck them.

 

[lordofduct]

yes and with such style they do it... why isn't "Postal" the home of such out cry accept maybe a 2 minute video clip on the web of some asshole you never saw saying they are surprised no one is flipping out over it.

But eh, I wouldn't care if Rockstar was here or not. I don't really play there games. I watch my roommate get stoned and play the game for a couple weeks and then he tosses it until the next one comes out...

But seriousily. Say I did like playing those games. Why the hell should some organization say I can't. I am 21 years old and can make that choice on my own. As for those kids... well get the freakin' parents to stop buying it for them! That and make sure the stores pay attention to the freakin' rating system. They cracked down on that at movie theatres, well do it here. We allow sex scenes in the movies, violence, death... follow the freaking rating so I can enjoy what I like to enjoy. If it were the case that I liked the game... fairness cock weasel peaceoholics, your just as bad as hippies. Wait you are hippies! AHHHHHHHHHHH ::runs and hides under bed::

::whispers from under bed so hippies don't find him::

damn those hippies, they have carrots this time! But anyways this may be redundant and all... but I don't see any other logical answer as closing them down for it is against their rights. They rated it properly, the governments rating system failed to work. Not their fault... ITS THE GOV'Ts FAULT

oh shit, the hippies must of heard that

::is ransacked by 5 hippies holding carrots and picket signs made from 3x recycled paper::

DIE PIGHEADED MEAT EATER! YOUR A CAN.. CAN... CANIMAMABOWL

::lobs carrot up my ***** and beats me with heads of lettuce. I am then dragged to the streets and stoned with potatos::

 

[VertigoXX]

Okay, I think Lord was hitting the nail on the head until he decended into that acid-flashback.

When are these people going to realize that they're protesting a product that is clearly labeled "NOT FOR ANYONE UNDER 17!"

 

[Mr. Moustache]

Originally posted by lordofduct@Thu, 2005-08-04 @ 09:34 AM

::whispers from under bed so hippies don't find him::

damn those hippies, they have carrots this time! But anyways this may be redundant and all... but I don't see any other logical answer as closing them down for it is against their rights. They rated it properly, the governments rating system failed to work. Not their fault... ITS THE GOV'Ts FAULT

[post=137870]Quoted post[/post]​

The ERSB is an independent organization, they have no government affiliation nor regulation that force them to rate games. It is a mandatory rating system that under no federal law has to be enforced...

You can't blame the government for this one.. just the parents and retailers, but on the same note, it's not like a 15yr old kid can't get someone over 18 to buy the game for him. I think the only true way to end this debate is that the game industry needs to better regulate itself, parental advisory stickers only help artists sell more CD's, M ratings have the same effect. I think the most logical choice right now is for console manufacturers to put a v-chip like device in the system itself, truly allowing parents total control over what content is played on their child's gaming console. Problem solved, if parents think they're too busy to take 30secs out of their busy lives to do that they don't deserve the priviledge of having children in the first place.

 

[schi0249]

Unfortunatly, many parents don't understand how those technologies work. And when they do, the setup passwords the kids can guess. You wouldn't beleive how many parents say the set their cable box pin to 1234 or 0000. How dumb.

 

[racketboy]

As much as I personally don't like the content of their games I think people need to harass parents that blindly buy their 9-year-old their games just because the kids beg for it.

There are so many irresponsible parents out there it makes me quite sick.

 

[Dud]

The average gamer is 18-25 years old. These protestors are trying to protect a minority of the gaming population from material that everyone learns from their fellow sixth graders while they're sitting in a school yard. It's ridiculous.

Originally posted by cherok@Thu, 2005-08-04 @ 01:32 AM

I agree, get rid of Rockstar.

The companies constant need to 'push of the envelope' on senseless violence and teenage male chauvanism deserves them a spot in a jail cell.

It makes me sick to think that young men think it's hilarious to romp the hooker, give her the cash then beat her to death afterwards. Rockstar is a cash cow that produces unimaginative garbage for teenage boys who still think it's hip to break, vandalize and beat shit up.

Fuck them.

[post=137868]Quoted post[/post]​

I'm sure we can both agree that Rockstar makes crappy games, but it isn't mandatory to play out that scenario in your post to advance any of their games. If someone does that, they are probably playing out an urge they already have to commit sexual violence, and better they vent that type of aggression in a game than in real life. Since the vast majority of people that do that in game never act it out in real life, I don't see any problem with it. If anything we should be grateful to Rockstar for helping young males vent that built up aggression. And as far as senseless violence, I find the violence in GTA to be pretty tame, it's only because the player takes part in the violence and is on the wrong side of the law that people label it as violent. I haven't played San Andreas, but in GTA3 and Vice City the animation is horrible and the violence laughable. And speaking of laughing, morons laugh at violence in movies all the time, but their callous attitudes towards film doesn't make anyone "sick". Why the double standard for videogames? Why does some hooker in GTA that the player can choose to kill--key word choose, and if he does choose to kill her it's never a result of his own twisted disposition, its of course the game and or the designers fault--deserve more sympathy than the French lady in Kill Bill that got her arms chopped off? I suppose Manhunt was pretty brutal, but the context of the violence is completely different, in that game you are killing pure scum. (Hey if GTA is violent because you're a bad guy then Manhunt should be less violent because you're a good guy, right?) In conclusion, your claim that pushing the envelope warrants jail time is laughable, and like I said earlier most people that play these games are adults so your argument is pretty weak.

 

[cherok]

Yeah, mine was a pretty lackluster arguement and solution; It just gets me frusturated to see a company like Rockstar that constantly shells out mediocrity gain so much fame and be so looked up to by gaming public.

Throughout game history, I'm aware that there have been plenty of crap titles that have hit it big, but those titles still had some element of fantasy and originality to their characters, plot or direction. GTA and the like place gamers in an un-inspired setting where the main objective is to run unimaginatively repetitive missions over and over again. I'm more afraid for what the future holds for the medium that we all have grown to love. If this is what makes waves now, just think of the crap that we will see in 5 years. I can't think straight when I tlak about the game industry. It usually turns from a thought-out opinion in to an angry rant

 

[Dud]

Originally posted by cherok@Thu, 2005-08-04 @ 08:22 PM

Yeah, mine was a pretty lackluster arguement and solution; It just gets me frusturated to see a company like Rockstar that constantly shells out mediocrity gain so much fame and be so looked up to by gaming public.

Throughout game history, I'm aware that there have been plenty of crap titles that have hit it big, but those titles still had some element of fantasy and originality to their characters, plot or direction. GTA and the like place gamers in an un-inspired setting where the main objective is to run unimaginatively repetitive missions over and over again. I'm more afraid for what the future holds for the medium that we all have grown to love. If this is what makes waves now, just think of the crap that we will see in 5 years. I can't think straight when I tlak about the game industry. It usually turns from a thought-out opinion in to an angry rant

[post=137919]Quoted post[/post]​

True that.

I blame Sony for Rockstar's success. If it weren't for the Playstation pulling videogames into the mainstream, games would still be socially unacceptable and developers wouldn't have to cater to your average Joe beer-gut who likes football and slapping hos.

 

[stack99]

Originally posted by Dud@Fri, 2005-08-05 @ 01:46 AM

True that.

I blame Sony for Rockstar's success. If it weren't for the Playstation pulling videogames into the mainstream, games would still be socially unacceptable and developers wouldn't have to cater to your average Joe beer-gut who likes football and slapping hos.

[post=137922]Quoted post[/post]​

that last line about "slapping hos"... priceless.. nice job :agree

 

[schi0249]

That football comment was a little uncalled for though. They have been making football games since the SMS and NES days. Hell, even the 2600 had football games. I am a huge gamer and football fan. I use to get ever new Madden game back in the Genny days. Course, now I cann't stand Madden. IT's all about the now defunct 2K series.

 

[Dud]

Originally posted by schi0249@Fri, 2005-08-05 @ 09:17 AM

That football comment was a little uncalled for though. They have been making football games since the SMS and NES days. Hell, even the 2600 had football games. I am a huge gamer and football fan. I use to get ever new Madden game back in the Genny days. Course, now I cann't stand Madden. IT's all about the now defunct 2K series.

[post=137943]Quoted post[/post]​

I thought about that, but I have a sometimes extreme bias against sports games, so I said it anyway. :/ I don't have anything to back this up but aren't football games in particular much more popular now than they used to be? I don't remember Madden selling 900,000 copies every August in the Genesis years.

 

[Mr. Moustache]

Originally posted by schi0249@Thu, 2005-08-04 @ 07:56 PM

Unfortunatly, many parents don't understand how those technologies work. And when they do, the setup passwords the kids can guess. You wouldn't beleive how many parents say the set their cable box pin to 1234 or 0000. How dumb.

[post=137892]Quoted post[/post]​

Yeah, but it takes a huge chunk of the weight off the industries shoulders and places it directly on the people who should be responsible for these things, the parents. They could easily make the password system more complex than a V-Chip in a TV by allowing actual text to be inputed for the password instead of just numbers.

 

[Malakai]

It might be more of a responsible thing for parents not to even let their children have game systems or unsupervised access to computers. I, however, find it hard to believe that it's actually parents that are in this huge uproar over, especially considering the game isn't out yet, has gotten virtually no poblicity until this mess has happened, and that parents actually seem to ignore game ratings, with the exception of the rich fuckers that send their kids to private schools and want to teach them to be morally better than every one else in the world.

I'm more inclinced to believe it is Joe Lieberman, trying to gain more popularity for being the "moral parent" for all kids in the US, all things video games atleast. After all, he's pretty much the main person that got game ratings out in the sega cd days, for the first "contraversial" game entitled Night Trap. Now, him and Hilary Clinton are pushing this.

I personally don't like any of rockstar's games. In fact, I think they're just plain silly, but I do believe that they have a right to make whatever games they want, and if parents do get upset about any game, they have only themselves to blame for buying the system(s)

 

[Mr. Moustache]

Originally posted by Malakai@Fri, 2005-08-05 @ 09:15 PM

It might be more of a responsible thing for parents not to even let their children have game systems or unsupervised access to computers. I, however, find it hard to believe that it's actually parents that are in this huge uproar over, especially considering the game isn't out yet, has gotten virtually no poblicity until this mess has happened, and that parents actually seem to ignore game ratings, with the exception of the rich fuckers that send their kids to private schools and want to teach them to be morally better than every one else in the world.

I'm more inclinced to believe it is Joe Lieberman, trying to gain more popularity for being the "moral parent" for all kids in the US, all things video games atleast. After all, he's pretty much the main person that got game ratings out in the sega cd days, for the first "contraversial" game entitled Night Trap. Now, him and Hilary Clinton are pushing this.

I personally don't like any of rockstar's games. In fact, I think they're just plain silly, but I do believe that they have a right to make whatever games they want, and if parents do get upset about any game, they have only themselves to blame for buying the system(s)

[post=137962]Quoted post[/post]​

Well first things first, the game is out, it has been out since June 6. And it doesn't matter whether it's the parents or Joe Lieberman ranting and raving about this, the gaming industry needs to do something other than a voluntary rating system to solve this problem, cause games are only going to get more violent, more reaslistic, more interactive, and in turn more controversial.

And saying that parents shouldn't by their children video games is fairly ridiculous, there are lots of educational and critical thinking skills that can be developed through playing video games(in moderation), just don't buy your kids RE4 anytime soon. Never mind the fact that they could simply go over to their friends house to get a taste if they want to.

I think a v-chip like device is probably the best solution to keep the government off the back of the game industry and avoiding federal regulations. Make it user friendly so parents can grasp the concept, make a huge ad campaign promoting it so people know it exists, and if kids still get their hands on games meant for adults then there truly would be noone to blame but the parents.

I think something like that would even get Joementum behind it.

Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

 

[VertigoXX]

But doesn't the PS2 already have a ratings control built in???

And remember, the ratings for movies are volluntary as well!!!

The problem is, PARENTS are too fucking STUPID to look at a rating, then get pissed at the publisher when they find out what they bought for little Johnnie. The game industry, instead of trying to come up with new ways to moderate or regulate what they publish, should launch a PARENT EDUCATION PROGRAM where they explain the ratings system and point out that the words NOT FOR ANYONE UNDER 17 on a game's cover means that they SHOULD NOT BUY THAT GAME FOR THEIR 6 YEAR OLD!!!

Fucking morons.

And truth of the matter is, this is all Hillary Clinton getting ready for 2008. I might have even been convinced to vote for her until she made it clear she's running on an anti-first ammendment platform. If the Dems put her up, they will LOSE. Same as last time, it'll be people voting for the evil they (think) they know rather than the one they're not too sure of. It's time for an independant to step up to the plate.

 

[Mr. Moustache]

Not that I'm aware of... maybe for DVD's.. and if they do I certainly don't see why they aren't using that as a platform to argue with in this debate, as far as 2008 if Guliani(sp?) or McCain run they have my vote, no way I'm voting for Hillary, maybe I would of thought about it before, but not now.

 

[mal]

Originally posted by VertigoXX@Sat, 2005-08-06 @ 02:13 PM

The problem is, PARENTS are too fucking STUPID to look at a rating, then get pissed at the publisher when they find out what they bought for little Johnnie.

[post=137979]Quoted post[/post]​

Yes, and Americans are fat, lazy and stupid.

Aren't stereotypes wonderful?

 

[Mr. Moustache]

After a small amount of research I found out the X-Box does have a parental lockout feature, the PS2 has a DVD lockout feature, and the GC has absolutely nothing.

So kudos to MS for taking the step.. I think Sony and Nintendo should heavily consider the idea.