Little question: Who actually watches Sky News here? I know there are some Limeys here, but I don't see how anyone watches Sky News.

Jacks's obviously kidding, guys, nothing to get mad about.

On an unrelated note, the EB website states that the price of the PS2 Manhunt 2 has gone down to $29.99. I'd care, except that I've already cancelled my preorder because of the changes made.

You gotta love news that is so totally twisting the truth and then filling it with shit...

And of course, all these people not only are downloading the game, but then know exactly how to mod their PS2's in order to make the game run without exploding anything.
Voided Warranties, oh noez.

@Black Manta

No, Dennis and you will be in Philadelphia. Jack will be in Conneticut.

@jack thompson, attorney
"we can actually talk about things without Dennis McCauley censoring our discussions."

The only thing Dennis censors here is personal attacks. Are you admitting to inciting such an attack?

I wonder how many of the 'thousands' of people actually downloaded the game, realized they needed technical expertise to make it work, then gave up because they did not have said technical expertise.

Is it more like, hundreds or tens of people? Probably.

Well done Sky! You just managed to get the message to anyone who didn't already know, you must be so proud.

Give it up guys. It's not like the game will start world war III. They make it seem like a violent game is a huge deal. But in reality, it's not.

Welcome to the party Sky. Everyone has already left, but you can help clean up.

shit happens people.

No-one of any age is allowed to play the game, and yet our investigation found thousands of people downloading it.

Why do I get the strange feeling that their 'investigation' looked at how many people were sharing and didn't look at in which country?

A rant about a vast conspiracy by Rockstar in 10, 9, 8, 7....

Um... Banned? Okay, true it was banned over in Europe, but it was only given an AO rating here in the US. Thus, since the AO rating is only a metaphoric ban, its technically not illegal to get it via downloading. And remember, if the ESRB says its not a ban, well, then I guess its not a ban.

"Gaming expert and journalist Rob Fahey told Sky News: "What's disturbing about the game is you play a killer.

"There's no victim to sympathise with, there's no particularly complex storyline; you simply go around killing people in extraordinarily violent ways... there's no moral framework around it.""

Is anyone else dumbfounded? I swear, Sky is almost as bad as FOX.

Yes, that is exactly what we should do..

[Rockstar] accepts the game was leaked onto the web by an employee of a different company who had access to the preview copy. That person has been sacked.

Yet this will still be touted as a "failure" of the ESRB. I just know it...

Memo to Sky News:
Try to narrow your numbers down, please

@BlackIce, Leftie:
Sky News is Fox News' sister network in the UK.

@general531

Your're joking right? The world has just become a little bit foggyer..

So no-one has any legal standpoint to block this? Kewl..

I couldn't even get Hot Coffee to load on a PS2 with a GameShark, and I have quite a bit of technical expertise.

So I'm sure this "Bloody Coffee" incident will be similarly blown out of proportion by the sensationalist media and the so-called watchdog groups, even though hardly anybody will actually see it (except the ones who hear about it on the "news")

@BlackIce, Leftie
No Joke.

I'm not sure if its the same, but a friend of mine managed to dl a copy of that uncut version of Manhunt 2 a few weeks ago (don't worry - he's 20).

It's bugged from what I hear

This is why arbitarily banning things is a waste of time. People will find plenty of ways to circumvent such bans, and the bans themselves will likely make the object more desireable.

Not getting a rating makes it a ban because it is illegal to own a game in the U.K. that has not been rated by the BBFC. Or is illegal to sell it. Or something like that.

Now, someone from the UK correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it, Manhunt 2 being denied a rating by the BBFC doesn't actually mean people can't play or own the game. It means they can't sell it, which is a slight distinction. A distinction that was lost on the author of that article. If it was actually illegal to own or play a game that doesn't carry a BBFC rating, wouldn't importing games be illegal too? Now, I'm pretty certain that Nintendo and Sony don't license unrated games in the UK any more than they do in the US, so Rockstar can't release an unrated version for free or anything.

But people can still legally import the US version I believe. But I think that the US and UK are seperate regions as far as region encoding goes, so they'd need either a modded or US console.

Eaten post, Cyberskull?

@ Baramos, UK law is different than German law in this case. Also, I believe Mad Scientist is correct that is is not illegal to posess or play unrated games, otherwise online games would be right out in the UK.

OMG! people can see things on the internets!

Mr. Gore, tear down those tubes!

@Jack Thompson
That is either a false Jack Thompson post or you made yet another boneheaded move (I'll lean towards the former).

@jack thompson, attorney

The source was already found and taken care of, Rockstar would never let you neat their offices, you'd never apologize for anything and say you did it to prove they aren't careful, you would more than likely destroy what you got, or would say it was exactly as bad as you said without letting anyone see.

So either you're fake, or you failed at lying, AGAIN!!!

completely fails^

Woops, mistyped.

Quickie: The BBFC non-rating means it's illegal to sell, not to own or play.
Important extra quickie: It's illegal to mod a PS2, so you'd have to break the law before you even tried to download it.

@Mad_Scientist:

It is, or at least it was determined to be so a little while ago and I haven't heard that it changed. The stance is that you can't mod a PS2 for the "good" reasons (import titles, homebrew) without also allowing the "bad" ones (piracy) so modding is necessarily enabling copyright infringement.

Yeah, it's stupid when you compare it to similar copyright laws. I think they just don't want us to play Katamari Damacy.

It is the Wii version that is really toxic. If that leaked out, the story would have much more relevance.

It is one thing to be pushing a button to swing an axe...it is another thing entirely to swing the wii controller as if it WERE a weapon, to simulate hitting someone. Using the Wii in Manhunt 2 is potentially a BIG PR problem and is probably a legitimate area of medical concern. Violent games that use the Wii get all too close to Lt. Grossman's ideas about "Killology"

Next thing Jack's going to say is that his son downloaded it...

@jack
That gave me a good laugh.

Oh and what part of monty python has the sacking thing you are all referring to? It seems so familiar yet I can't put my finger on it.

(paraphrased) "Oh noes, people can pirate a game and play it on a modified console even though it was banned!!!"

News flash, they can do that with *any* game, whether it was banned or not.

Seriously, this "no one of any age is allowed to play this" concept is garbage. IMHO, the game is abhorrent and it disturbs me that some people enjoy that sort of thing; but setting a precedent for censorship is bad. Period.

wow censorship sucks balls.
I wonder if this is how the marquis de sade felt? i mean when he wasnt molesting his servants

Mad_Scientist:

You are 100% correct. Sky are 100% wrong.

“No-one of any age is allowed to play the game”.

No. False. Bad journalism. Noone of any age is allowed to BUY or SELL the game in the UK, but technically getting it for free, or buying it overseas and bringing it in for your own personal usage is perfectly legal.

The real legal aspect is the fact that downloading it is piracy...

I don't care if it's fake, (which I'm sure it is,) the Idea that Jack leaked a copy of Manhunt 2 out on to the internet made me laugh.

@finite

I agree, that actually made me laugh out loud, and that was a breath of fresh air from him, if it was him.

@ Father Time

Its from the opening credits.

All I can say about Jack's joke comment is this:

Don't worry about it. The only thing he knows how to leak onto the Internet is gay porno. ^_^

You do know that's not Jack right?

Sensationalism at its finest, I suppose.

"It was I and it was a joke."

Heh.

"The rest of us will be in Philadelphia, where vgXpo is actually taking place… "

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

It appears that JT cannot read a map. When he ends up in the wrong state, he blame the vast conspiracy of changing the state's names just to confuse him.

Ohhhh, ZING!! Jack just got owned.

Right, Connecticut is in Philidelphia, Belgium is in the Netherlands, and Canada is in the US. IT ALL MAKES SENSE!!

OK, OK, talking seriously now, i WOULD go, Mr. Thompson, but i have important things to do that day. It's a Saturday, i know, but i'm not going to drive from New Hampshire to Philly just to try and catch a glimpse of someone as insignificant as you.

CONNETICUT?

I guess you are better off there- are you not afraid of all the gamers there who are all trained killers?

I swear, Jack is worse that Britney Spears.. She doesn't know where Australia is, he can't tell Connecticut from Philly.

Jack, he's not censoring you. I find it funny that you brought the comments policy down on me, while you yourself are claiming it "censors". Jackass..

@Jack

You aren't censored here Jack. If anything else the free reign that Dennis affords you here is a constant irritation to many posters here. But perhaps you should test the waters of just how censored or not censored you are by responding to Mnementh2230's utter deconstruction of your comment in the Susan Bartell story.

@ Jack

Hate to burst your bubble, but if you've been paying attention (and you haven't) Dennis will be there, as will I. I think I speak for all attendees when I say we'll be personally looking forward to tearing you a new one! :D

Also, for the record people, I attend on going to this, what with it being in my home state. If you have anything you want asked in person, or comments of his brought up for explanations, feel free to get in touch with me.

And I'll be bringing a video camera.

@ BlackIce

Uh...Connecticut is a state. :)

@Erik:

In fairness, that's more of a language thing. Games reward you with points whether they're a numerical counter or not. In this case though it obviously shows an ignorance for what the game actually does rather than being a statement on the reward systems of games.

@Jack

The only reason why your comments are delayed and scanned, so that fake versions of you are censoured. Cause they would be deframing your character.. ya know?

The whole thing about the term "points" is that it underscores the outdated ignorance of the anti-games crowd. The same thing holds true when they refer to videogames as "videos".

Points aren't that outmoded, just disguised. Any reward in a game could be summarised as being point distribution, ranging from obvious things like unlockables and achievements to more subtle things like having Alyx cheer you on after a physics-powered headshot. Actually, thinking about it, points still exist in many genres outside the FPS; it's just usually called money or star rank or whatever. But anyway, it's still obviously being used here because they think that shooting someone in the face causes a little "300" to spiral into the sky and that you brag to your friends about your position in the high score tables.

Honestly, I think I'd prefer them to think that's what games are like. If they knew that people really compared sniper rifle accuracy and that time they lobbed a radiator at a dude's head but it deflected a grenade mid-flight which blew the arm off the person who threw it, then they'd be a lot more worried than they are now.

"The whole thing about the term “points” is that it underscores the outdated ignorance of the anti-games crowd. The same thing holds true when they refer to videogames as “videos”."

Or when a news story talks about video game violence they show some stock footage from the original Mortal Kombat, or even worse Doom.

1) lol @jack thompson...

2) think that the 'sky news' article is kind of naive because people of "any age" can access a lot of other material on the internet (like photos and videos of real tortue and whatever else)...

a more enlightened article might discuss what the end of disk based storage might imply for the regulation of entertainment...

3) People aleady pointed this out...

Last week there were a lot of UK posters passionately explaining how the BBFC just classifies the material, which then makes it illegal for retailers to sell (which is not as bad as total censorship)... the article says, "No-one of any age is allowed to play the game"... that's a either a mistake on the part of the writer.... or could it be accurate?

yea jack thompson would ever admit anything...


Good one

Hmmm...if it's actually illegal to mod PS2's, most of the U.S. Military forces stationed overseas are going to jail. Of course, it would be after they came home, a civilian jail for a decidedly non-military concern, and let's be honest--prisoners have more rights than soldiers when it comes to food, housing, and recreation--oh, and conjugal visits. But at least the military is focusing its criminal proceedings on real crimes.

Then again, that IS the benefit of being in a warzone--nobody's worried about stupid laws with the real issues so close at hand. Unfortunately, the politicians constantly belie that assumption by diverting school and health and other funding toward attempts to pass blatantly unconstitutional laws like those against videogames, because of course it's more important that children are "protected" from material not even conclusively linked to aggression, let alone real harm. They can do without food and education for that gift.

@ Shaesyco

Ding ding ding! You win! Now bask in the enjoyment of realizing that the ignorant among old people are so afraid everybody else is like them that, knowing THEY would be evil regardless of influence (good or bad), they expect the rest of us to behave in kind when faced with what they see as incomprehensible and therefore evil.

Too bad for them that the average youth of a whole clump of different fairly recent high school graduating classes are amongst the politest, most charitable, and most responsible young people in the history of--well, America--but let's go with all of history, since it sounds better, and if they can base actual tax-money-diverting illegal laws on what sounds good, surely I can make an equally unsupported and unconfirmable claim.

Either way, it's unfortunately just a bunch of out-of-touch old fogies realizing that we're ready to replace them now, thank you, since they can't even maintain an understanding of the relatively unchanging Constitution, let alone new technology that is vital to the world's social functioning. Of course, telling them that we earned the managerial positions ahead of them because we're better educated, especially in regards to technology that frightens them as they're left behind in the dust, probably doesn't help matters.

Especially when we point out that we learned those useful managing skills playing games like WOW, while they're still knee-jerk reacting as if videogames are useless fluff or violence-instigating danger

;-P

Who the hell is a goverment to rape away the right for someone to enjoy a violent form of media that is not hurting any real people?

I don't care if the game is called: Kill all Life on Earth. People have a fundamental right to make up their OWN minds on the topic of consuming violent forms of media.

Pandralisk
the goverment thinks its wrong to sleep with kids (under 12) wrong to keep to many firearms wrong to this wrong to do that, it is their place to tell you how to live,its just each goverment limits on how involed they will be.