The first time the game came out, “Bully” caused a loud clamor of anti-gaming groups claiming it glorified and would cause bullying to increase in schools. The special edition that just came out on the Xbox360 is starting a similar furor.

The head of a teacher’s association in Nova Scotia is getting all riled up, and has written an opinion piece for her local paper that has started another storm about the game. She debated Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the International Game Developers Association, on CNC last Sunday and you can watch it here.

After watching all this and reading the inevitable backslash sloshing around the web I dug up the article I wrote when the original came out in October of 2006. From a parent’s perspective nothing’s changed except exactly who is shouting. Here’s the scoop.

Rockstar’s Bully – What Parents Need to Know
By: Colleen Hannon (Momgamer)
Original Article

Rockstar’s latest offering Bully has been rated T for Teen by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board with the Crude Humor, Language, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence descriptors. Wow.

You’ve all heard the hype from the usual media outlets. Pundits and politicians are already shouting about this game and they have been since it was announced. Among the most vocal is Florida lawyer Jack Thompson, who has filed suit (link also contains a link to his actual filed complaint) against the company making the game and Wal-Mart to keep them from distributing on it’s release date. He consistently refers to it as a “Columbine simulator”.

When it came to court on October 11th, Florida Judge Ronald Friedman asked Rockstar to bring a copy of the game and play it with him so he could see the content of the game for himself the next day. There were several reports that evening of people calling this a victory for Mr. Thompson (this article in the Washington Post is an example).

After playing the game in his chambers, the next day the judge handed down his decision. It was very much on the side of Rockstar. Gamespot reported Friedman as saying, “There’s nothing in the game that you wouldn’t see on TV every night.” The judge pointed out wouldn’t want his kids to play the game, “but that shouldn’t mean that the game won’t ship.”

Here’s some quick facts I’ve been able to find out:

• The player character is not a bully in this game, but rather one of their victims.
• That doesn’t stop him from getting into the fray, though.
• There are no guns, knives, or gore in this game. Lots of non-bloody violence including some serious nuclear wedgies and other humiliation tactics.
• The people in authority in this game universe (the principal, etc) know what is going on and are writing it off as “boys will be boys”.
• If you are caught doing something you shouldn’t, the authorities will punish the character in game and it’s not fun at all.
• The game has you actually go to classes during play. If you don’t go to class it negatively affect your progress in the game. Your performance in class also affects your progress in the game (getting good grades rewards you with helpful goodies and other useful things).

You don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s some resources so you can see for yourself:

• You can see the offical trailers which contain game footage at Bully’s Official Website.
• IGN has been ushered through the game and has a lot of details on how it actually works here. This lets you know what your child would actually be doing when they play the game.
• We have a thread dedicated to this on our message board, and one of regulars (MrAndyPuppy of GAMEparents) has discussed the game with Rockstar’s PR department in Australia.

There’s a lot of confusion out there. Even if you have the real facts rather than the blathering of politicians to go on there’s still questions. How can this game possibly be rated T? I have to admit I was a bit shocked, but maybe I shouldn’t be. If Tony Hawk Underground 2 can get a T then this is probably right along that line.

Some context is in order. This game is a comedy in the vein of all those bad 80’s teen films like Risky Business and Pretty in Pink with a lot more of an Animal House or Revenge of the Nerds type of tone. More recent films with some of the same themes would be Mean Girls, 10 Things I Hate About You, or Not Another Teen Movie. And this sort of mis-adventures at school theme is all over TV with shows like The OC and Gilmour Girls. This is not even the first game of it’s type out there. That honor goes to School Daze, which came out for the ZX Spectrum back in 1985 and was later ported to the Commodore 64 and the PC and had a sequel called “Back to School”.

Now, is there a real difference between doing these things in a game and watching them done on TV and in movies? Is this game’s context serious enough that you don’t think your kids should be exposed to it? I can’t make that call for your household. It’s up to you.

This game is another example of why we’re so insistent at Gamerdad that gaming WITH your kids is the answer to issues like this. The ball is squarely in the parent’s court. The ESRB rating system has no way to address innappropriate/illegal conduct that’s not bloody. There’s not even a descriptor for that sort of thing. You won’t see it unless you look yourself or read a review that even considers this sort of issue the way our Kid Factor does. Since it’s rated T rather than M the stores are not going to stop your kids from buying it. You have to make this choice yourself and you’re going to have to enforce it.

Tags: Misc