Parents angry at violent school bully game
Parenting and education experts have savaged the release of a controversial new video game based on schoolyard bullying, which features animated blood and violence, sexual themes, crude language, and alcohol and tobacco use.
Bully: Scholarship Edition, packaged in Britain as Canis Canem Edit, Latin for “dog eat dog” pits schoolchildren at a fictitious boarding school against one another in a violent struggle for control of the campus. It’s maker, Rockstar Games, which produced the Grand Theft Auto series in which players steal cars and interact with prostitutes, describes its latest character as “Jimmy Hopkins, a teenager who’s been expelled from every school he’s ever attended”.
“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,” Rockstar’s website declares. “If Jimmy can survive the school year and outsmart his rivals, he could rule the school.” The internet is already abuzz with chatter about the game, released last month.
One review posted on gaming site Xbox World Australia enthuses that Jimmy makes plans in the game to “smack other kids around”. “Surrounded on all sides by enemies, it will be your job to help Jimmy bully the bullies and unite the school. Yes, the intention here ironically is to stop all the violence by solving it with … more violence!” the review reads.
The game’s rating is listed on an Australian government classification website as M, meaning it does not carry the age restriction attached to the higher MA15 rating. Parenting Australia chief executive Jane King described the game as “disturbing” and said it should never have been released. “It’s scary, it’s outrageous, it’s gross,” she said.
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