Damn, who could have thought that Europe would get more anal-retentive about a game than the U.S.?

I hate the sun with a pasion - it is so stupid with its shock and awe tactics and its Page 3 girls...early this week the they did this story about setting up a website to track sex offenders - the URL they had as the headline was quickly snapped up for a potential page 3 girl model company...

I have already sent the following to GP's tips mail address but I'm going to include it here for completeness.

Panorama is a tabloid from the Berlusconi family of companies. It sucks, but it's read by many conservative families all across Italy. The article is at: http://www.panorama.it/internet/computer/articolo/ix1-A020001038759

AESVI, the Italian association of sofware entertainment distributors, also has a press release decrying Panorama's mishandling at their web site, http://www.aesvi.it/.

The article in Panorama was full of factual errors; what little it did contain that actually referenced the game was allegedly plagiarized and deformed from a review that was posted on a forum of Future Media Italy, the foremost Italian editor of game magazines. Andrea Minini Saldini, chief editor for one of the FMI magazines and forum moderator, already complained to Panorama in their forums. (Context: Game press is one of the few fields of journalism that has a high standard here, having evolved from '80s/'90s fanzines, and AMS, like many other game journalists, is an independent figure and a gamer himself.)

Also, the article seems to have been commissioned by the PR firm handling publicity for the launch of the game in Italy (which is how Panorama had high-res images for its cover and articles). This was said by Ivan Fulco, technology and game journalist for authoritative national newspaper La Stampa (http://www.lastampa.it/cmstp/rubriche/girata.asp?ID_articolo=86&ID_blog=...).

A long and Italian review of the whole ugly mess is found at http://www.videoludica.com/news.php?news=441 -- Google language tools can translate from Italian. (Too long to translate it myself.)

I have to ask, is it "Rule of Rose" or "Rule of THE Rose?" I hope this wasn't mentioned in any comments/discussion I missed. If so, sorry.

Cool, the industry is lifting a finger to defend itself over there.

> Even in EU looks like it’s piss poor journalism FTW

"The Sun" isn't really journalism. It's a tabloid of the lowest order

It's refreshing to see the game industry defending itself, especially after seeing how Rockstar's reaction to any kind of criticism is to stay COMPLETELY SILENT.

Another thing with regards to the credibility of The Sun's story: The Sun is owned by Fox.

(Oh, alright, News Corp., who own Fox. Still.)

/b

The contemptible thing about this game is that you play the role of a teenage girl being abused. Who would want to play such a thing, and who would want to make such a thing?
Who wouldn't? Victims trying to overcome their difficulties and free themselves are some of the best protagonists. Playing a game, or watching a movie, for that matter, where the "hero" was an abusive father, or something like that, wouldn't appeal to me much, but a young woman (teenage girl, whatever you want to call her) learning to stand up for herself is a great premise.
I don't know how this game plays out in the end, mind you. It's the horror genre, and that plays by a different set of rules I'm not terribly familiar with. Presumably, though, since this is a game, there is a way to win.
Regardless, the idea of dismissing something because it stars an abused teenage girl offends me. Not as a gamer, but as a writer.

"Jabrwock Says:
November 20th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
I guess horror should drop the disturbing themes, and only have stories where it’s fluffy bunnies… who snuggle you to death…"

Under the correct circumstances, that would be preety disturbing:)

"Robb Says:
November 20th, 2006 at 10:37 am
You really don’t have to dig deep to find a reason to have a battered child as a protagonist. It can educate the players on how awful the problem can be. It certainly will make you want to save her. It sounds like the idea of the game is to be completely appalled at her treatment. I can only conclude by the Sun article that they want to brush the problem under the carpet and deny the very existence of child abuse."

Agreed. In a Way, Jimmy hopkins and ((Who's the girl in rule of rose?)) are kind of similar characters. I belive that the NIMF was going after bully not because of grahphic violence, but becaus it critisizes authority and reveals the problem with bullying in schools.

@Matt: I see Rockstar as turning the other cheek and making the conservatives seem more evil than they already are (I am totally biased oy.) and how they are what I see as how people in Christianity should act instead of acting like the Pharisees to Jesus calling him a fraud and whatnot oy.

Argh, just spotted a typo in my last post, the second 'Movie' should be 'Video Game'. :X

The game that will still probably get criticized by those same people (anti gamers and stuff)

plot: a man in an open field, theres a house in the distance, you go to the house, open the door, you go in, sit down near the fire place, and open a book. turn the page, and it says, "you've finished 100% of the game. The end."

I have said it before and I'll say it again. The mere notion that video games incite people to commit acts of violence isn't even moronic. It's submoronic. Anybody who believes this theory is stupid and retarded. What is it with people in Europe anyway? They can't stand a little horror game like this? No game should ever be banned because of violence and I hope this game sells real well in Europe and hurts the cause of anti-game turds like Jack Thompson. I sometimes am curious about something. How many time do these stupid turds have to lose before they realize that video games, of all kinds, are here to stay?

They're not going anywhere. As long as there are people like me, who are willing to buy and play them, they will never be gotten rid of and I hope that one day soon, they realize that their efforts are futile and invain. They're never going to beat the video game industry and they'll never be able to stop people, who really want to play from playing. There need to be more games like Bully and Manhunt so that these idiots finally realize that they can get as mad as they want, but these games aren't going anywhere. Jack Thompson, and all others like him, need to shut up!!

Ahh, Bully... those were the days when a news source would have garnered considerable attention by NOT ripping on a video game. Good times, good times, I mean, for the video game industry it kind of sucked, but some of the anti-VG views were entertaining to read.
As for RoR, I've little to add that hasn't been said already - though I do find the industries' responses to be somehow amusing.
News: "This game is creepy and the main character suffers from a traumatic past! It's bad for kids!"
Industry: "No shit!"

Niall Cowley of Beatbullying.com:

"The contemptible thing about this game is that you play the role of a teenage girl being abused. Who would want to play such a thing, and who would want to make such a thing?"


Me... and I'm 28 and make my own purchasing decisions, thank you very much. The cause of all this hysterial is really nothing more than small-minded people making the same "all digital media is for children" assumption and then frantically attempting to censor it to save their poor little babies before ever doing thorough research into the subject.

[...] November 24th, 2006 Posted in culture, news | If you use our story, please use the trackbacklink. [...]

Publisher...

Some portions of this article sounds interesting. May be you have some links where I could read more about this topic?...

**VERY MILD SPOILER WARNING**


I have beaten this game now, and I fail to see the problem. It's true that at times it can contain violence (though none of this is directed at minors, just "imps" and the main character, who is 19 and thus not a minor at all) but that is mentioned in the rating on the box. Furthermore, the "burying a young girl alive to win the game" is completely and totaly false. The only sequence that vaguely reflects burying someone alive, is when the main character (again not a young child) falls into a box. This scene is in the opening sequence long before you even start playing the game, let alone win it. This whole controversy was obviously sparked by someone who watched the opening sequence of the game, and never actually played it, as nearly every issue adressed (the "burying a young person alive" and the rat being rubbed in a young person's face) is in the opening sequence. Yes, it is true that I would not recomend this game for young children, it is still no worse than any other game of its rating and genre, and I believe it was simply targeted because they needed to ban something after they failed at banning Bully. the story itself did indeed involve minors, but without spoiling too much, it attempted to tacke the issue of obsesion, rather than sexuality, another "problem" with the game that would not be a problem at all, had those in favor of banning the game actually played it, or at the very least got an objective view of what the game meant by someone else who had beaten it. It's simply about what can happen when an unstable friend becomes so attached that they refuse to accept that you are allowed to have friends besides themselves.