
As
reported by
GamePolitics and other outlets, an early PS2 build of Manhunt 2 was leaked onto the Internet last month.
For its part, the gaming community seemed to take the news in stride. It was, after all, not a finished product, only one of several planned versions, and not accessible without some extra effort and technical knowledge.
Great Britain's
Sky News, however, jumped on the story in a big way today:
Thousands of gamers are using the internet to get their hands on a video game banned because of its graphic scenes of torture and murder...
[Manhunt 2] ...was leaked onto the web - and anyone with a little technical knowledge can download it and play it on a modified games console...
No-one of any age is allowed to play the game, and yet our investigation found thousands of people downloading it.
Despite the sensationalism, we did extract one kernel of what is believed to be new information from the Sky News coverage:
[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.
So... we'd like to know more about who leaked Manhunt 2, as well as how and why. Simple mischief? Bragging rights? Perhaps a true believer who was offended by the ban and wanted the original version to see the light of day?
Comments
I highly doubt swinging a simulated axe to hit someone is worse that using a simulated gun to shoot someone. Given that the later have been in arcades for decades, I'd say we're safe.
Bad PR? Maybe. Legitimate area of medical concern? Hell no.
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.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
No, Dennis and you will be in Philadelphia. Jack will be in Conneticut.
By the way, I encourage anyone in the gaming world to come to the VideoGame Expo in Connecticut November 3. I’ll be there, and we can actually talk about things without Dennis McCauley censoring our discussions.
See http://www.vgxpo.com/
GP: Yeah, you’re really censored here…
By the way, you keep heading to Connecticut. The rest of us will be in Philadelphia, where vgXpo is actually taking place…"
Shhhhhh Dennis...Now now If Jack says it is in connecticut then its in connecticut....so lets not question that now....See jack i defended you..
Hooooah!
"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?
Really?
Is it more like, hundreds or tens of people? Probably.
Where the hell has Sky News been for the last decade?
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?
So much for our rights as an adult lol.
Seconded. Quite how Sky thinks this is news I don't know..
"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.
Am I the only one who had a 'Holy Grail' flashback there?
Also I guess that means we should watch out for more copy-cat violence incidents because of this, right?
Gee, are they talking about a leaked copy of Manhunt 2 or GTA: SA's "Hot Coffee"?
"[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."
See what happens when you own up to something, even if it wasn't directly your fault? Ole Eiber can sit n' spin. Hah!
Nightwng2000
NW2K software
Yet this will still be touted as a "failure" of the ESRB. I just know it...
Try to narrow your numbers down, please
@BlackIce, Leftie:
Sky News is Fox News' sister network in the UK.
Your're joking right? The world has just become a little bit foggyer..
Well, it is still legally a copyright violation. R* does, after all, own the rights to distribution of their title. Still, like a lot of .torrent stuff, it'll probably be hard for them to do much to the end downloaders. Ask the RIAA.
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")
No Joke.
It's bugged from what I hear
It argues that it is parents' responsibility to supervise what games children play, and what they see on the internet."
What radicalism!
That's not necessarily true.
For example, Dead Rising, was not banned in Germany. It was just not rated. Any people over 18 had the right to import a copy.
Either those news were British (nothing against those from Great Britain) or the announcer were speaking in hyperbole, something some announcer (not all) tends to do (thinking about Jeff Filion).
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.
Mr. Gore, tear down those tubes!
We need them down ASAP!
That is either a false Jack Thompson post or you made yet another boneheaded move (I'll lean towards the former).
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!!!
And completelyfails at it.
Woops, mistyped.
"Is anyone else dumbfounded? I swear, Sky is almost as bad as FOX."
Actually, Sky and FOX are both owned by the same people. They are synonymous.
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.
Is it really illegal just to mod a PS2? I know that it voids the warranty, and I know that useing a modded system to break copyright or other laws is illegal, but is just owning a modded PS2 or modding one itself illegal?
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 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"
LOL.
@Miraba:
"Why should *I* have to raise the kid? I mean sure, it came outta me, but lots of things do!"
@JT:
It's not him, as his post has the word 'apologize' in it, not preceded by "I would never" and followed by "to gamers for my actions."
This is good news.
Also I wonder how many of those thousands of gamers live outside the U.K.?
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.
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.
I wonder if this is how the marquis de sade felt? i mean when he wasnt molesting his servants
I have to admit, that one was a good one. It made me laugh. Maybe you can start a career in comedy cause... you know... you will be unemployed soon.
@Sky News
Gotta love that First Amendment over on this side of the ocean. No matter what you say and how many people it pisses off you still have the right to say it. But I think the game was only refused a rateing and it is not a total ban in that you cant get arrested or get it confescated if you import it.
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...
Which what if it is and Jack is actually a video game lover just like us, but he pretends not to enjoy them... or maybe he wants minors to GTFO steam or x-box live.
That would be a hilarious turn of events.
I agree, that actually made me laugh out loud, and that was a breath of fresh air from him, if it was him.
Chuma
Piracy involves monetary gain, do not listen to the media mafia hype.....
they claim a person riping songs off the radio is "piracy" sorry no not every lil thing thats done without them gaining money is not piracy.
Its from the opening credits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnJnA_mt_UA
This fits him like a wet-suit lol
Don't worry about it. The only thing he knows how to leak onto the Internet is gay porno. ^_^
By the way, I encourage anyone in the gaming world to come to the VideoGame Expo in Connecticut November 3. I'll be there, and we can actually talk about things without Dennis McCauley censoring our discussions.
See http://www.vgxpo.com/
GP: Yeah, you're really censored here...
By the way, you keep heading to Connecticut. The rest of us will be in Philadelphia, where vgXpo is actually taking place...
Heh.
"The rest of us will be in Philadelphia, where vgXpo is actually taking place… "
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
But...but...Connecticut is in Philadelphia, right?
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.
That is one of the funniest comments I've read on GP of all time. At first, I too was skeptical that it was the real Mr. Thompson posting it. When he confirmed it, I have to give major kudos to him. So many fail at dark or ironic humor.
Adding to the final statement of the report, perhaps an employee had the foresight of knowing even an edited version of the game would not receive a rating from the BBFC. In his own eyes, the employee may think what he did was an act of freedom or "power to the people," but as a game developer myself I have the opinion that he is lucky that he was only "sacked."
If someone on my team leaked a copy of our game, I'd make sure his name was plastered on every dev site and do everything in my power to tarnish his reputation.
(Normally post under GameDevMich)
I guess you are better off there- are you not afraid of all the gamers there who are all trained killers?
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..
Two different cities. Philly had me fooled for a bit too.
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.
dennis censors you as many times as you get your facts straight.
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
And I'll be bringing a video camera.
How is this relevant to the story at all? He played a game then he killed someone. But that does not mean that he killed someone because he played the game. I wonder if he ate a sandwich before killing this person? Would that mean that we could place this killing into a story on the Foodtv website?
"Stefan's parents later said Leblanc had been obsessed by the game, which awards points for brutal killings. "
Points? Maybe I just don't remember the game well enough but I don't remember there being "points". Of course we are talking about people with an extreme ignorance level when it comes to games. And when these people who have no clue how ignorant they are try to write a news story they inject their erroneous assumptions into said story. Such as all games having "points".
Uh...Connecticut is a state. :)
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.
Its gotten to the point where news is biased towards anything the younger generations like.
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?
Points are really a hold over from video games of yesteryear. Early on in the history of video games the bridge between them and non-video games, which rely heavily on points, was very small. Therefore you have things such as the utterly pointless point counter in Super Mario Bros. Despite the fact that the points themselves were rather moot compared to the goal based achievement of rescuing the princess.
In Portal which was just released the game's HUD is extremely unintruded by things such as a point or even a health counter. As it was very goal based. Games like Manhunt reward you by furthering the story, more in a way of a movie rather than point-wise like a football game.
The point thing just really irks me. Lets take the Metal Gear Solid games. You could take out every soldier in your path, or you could sneak by them and harm no one except the bosses. Which one of those actions give you these supposed "points"? Only the violent ones?
If i wasnt a converted 360 fan already i would want to play it but seeing as how i wont be touching a ps3 until there is something on there i wanna play maybe i'll wait..i'll be buying a ps3 if kingdom hearts 3 is ps3 exclusive
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.
Or when a news story talks about video game violence they show some stock footage from the original Mortal Kombat, or even worse Doom.
O RLY?
Actually, it was denied a rating, meaning it cannot be sold. I'm pretty sure owning or playing it isn't illegal, even in Britain.
Or am I mistaken about that? I know we have some Brits on these boards.
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?
If it is accurate, then they forgot to tell the BBFC. "You are therefore entitled to purchase unclassified videos or DVDs whilst abroad, provided they contain no illegal material and are solely for personal use."
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/faq/docs/10601.html
Good one
@JT
And while I'm venting JT, you idiot. I could only wish that you could actually step out of you ego-riddened mind and actually look at yourself and see what a douchebag you are.
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
Anyway, this is a great example of how the BBFC as a censorship rather than ratings body is now useless. It is impossible for anything to be correctly banned from a single country, when there are so many ways of people obtaining copies from elsewhere. When I was growing up in the 80s, I had no problems getting hold of a lot of the banned 'video nasties' on VHS, and that was before the internet.
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.
You ever heard of Destroy All Humans? That's your Kill all Life on Earth.
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.