Brainless Bullies

Nanaia Mahutu, Naomi Hessling (Primary School Social Worker), & Megan Longman (Parentline).

All three of them (none of whom have probably picked up a videogame in their lives) are jumping on the newest political bandwagon: Videogame banning. As the Economist points out, Videogames are the perfect scapegoat for everything: videogame players are too young to vote, the videogame industry is not in the game of political pole greasing, and middle class white people really want to ban them.

The newest controversy is about Bully. A game where, according to Waikato Times (showing us why it has such a superb reputation forh accuracy) you assume the role of a bully and beat up nerds/prefects/and everybody else tat the Waikato Times so valiantly protects. Bannable material right?

Wrong, the New York Times, a newspaper that people actually read, played the game (it's called research.. and newspapers used to do it..) and outlines the ACTUAL story:

Rather than thrusting the player into the role of a tough, the entire point of the game is that bullies (noticeable at a distance by their distinctive white shirts) are everyone’s enemies. A player takes the role of Jimmy, a new 15-year-old student trying to navigate the complex social hierarchies of boarding school while earning respect from various factions like the nerds, the preppies, the jocks and even the teachers.

Standing up to and even fist-fighting bullies to stop them from tormenting geeks and other students is encouraged. Giving a smaller child a noogie or other gentle razzing is allowed, though not encouraged. Hitting a smaller child, a girl of any age or an adult is strictly forbidden. You can try it, but you will not get away with it. The dramatic, ton-of-bricks response from school security, complete with purposely boring punishments, is meant to be a strong disincentive.

In short: old-time adolescent high jinks like setting off a stink bomb are O.K.; serious delinquency and criminality are not.

What is most bizarre is that a simple google news search of 'Rockstar' and 'Bully' turns up the NYTimes article and a string of other articles like this, which means Nanaia Mahuta, Naomi Hessling, Megan Longman, and the Waikato Times would have had to have been exceptionally negligent in not finding it.

To top it off, Chief Censor Bill Hastings (not content to let all the others monopolise the market for idiotic comments related to this particular game) inserts this statement into the 'd:

"Rockstar had a reputation, with many of its other games being banned or rated R18"

Which is the equivalent of saying Miramax Pictures made She's All That which was a good PG film, so Kill Bill Vols 1 & 2 are likely to be enetertaining PG teen movies. At least he was careful enough to say 'many of its other games' because Rockstar's most recent release was Table Tennis....

Videogame publishers publish a whole range of games just like movie houses produce a whole range of movies. Which of course, you'd know, if you actually knew anything about the industry you were regulating. Maybe Mr. Hastings should nominate himself for a Ted Stevens award