I'm going to have to disagree with what he's trying to say here.
Put simply, on this or any other issue, I don't see why the fact that it's in a game makes it different, in any way, from how the same issues are portrayed in other media.

It's not like the escaped mental patient murderer is a foreign concept in slasher flicks, which is where Manhunt draws its inspiration.

I have no love at all for the franchise, but I frankly don't understand or agree with a lot of the flak it receives.

Dude needs to go in a eval...his comperhention and ability to understand reality is failing....

Listening to him talk the first time around was like..... brain poison.

I dont think he has anything against videogames. Im sure he just saw an opportunity to puplish his organization for free, and ofcorse remember kids, if all the cool kids are doing it (the goverment), you should to.

@Nightwng2000:

"So, while he is giving statistics on how many individiuals have mental illness, maybe he ought to give statistics on how many have been experimented on by questionable organizations or individuals. After all, the experimentation on the mentally ill, using them as guinea pigs for unscrupulous “professionals” is also an important issue."

This is exactly the point. The game is about a man who wakes up in an asylum and doesn't know why he is there. He isn't mentally ill at all, just held against his will and being experimented on, and makes an unfortunately violent escape. The game does not portray mentally ill people in a bad light, unless Mr. Fitzpatrick is admitting that mentally ill people are held against their will and experimented on...

Let's give more publicity to a game destined to be on the discount racks in three weeks!

It's also giving these idiots something to bitch about, thus publicity for them! Just like groups that bitched about Me, Myself and Irene or the one that the "represented" the blind that bitched about the Mr.Magoo movie from several years back. Every year, we get more hypersensitive wussies bitching and moaning about what they don't like and cry ignorance or whatever. The best part is that most of the time these people are the ones who are really ignorant in not knowing or maybe just ignoring the facts of whatever it is they're complaining about so they can get the attention they want.

Wait, who are these people again? I didn't know they existed until the LAST article on GP. I'll probably forget again in 3...2...1...bzzt.

He has a point. Don't be so single-minding to not understand it. He is making it known that unfairly stereotyping those who are mentally ill isn't fun and games.

My comment from the first swipe still stands. If this were a movie. No one. Not one bloody person would say one god damned thing. Not even one word. But a videogame? It's as if they can't shut up!

- Warren Lewis

@Mike Fitzpatrick

until you start attacking books, movies, pictures, and all other forms of media that stigmatize the mentally Ill, shut the f--- up,

Whatever happened to the days when if you didn't like something, you simply ignored it? If this game offends you, don't buy it. Simple. Some people feel that for some reason if they don't like it, it needs to be banned.

I would make a game that makes fun of cancer and heart attacks. Why not? anything can be funny. and anything can be a game. if people have fun with it, if they enjoy it, who cares about the content. YOU don't have to play it. if YOU don't want to. It does not affect you if other play it.

leave it alone.

Millions of dollars of profit?

Bear in mind the length of time it's been in development, retailers pulling it from shelves, and ratings boards banning it. Then bear in mind that it hasn't exactly lit the charts on fire and has since descended into obscurity with the Christmas charge of high-profile releases such as Super Mario Galaxy, Mass Effect, Halo 3, and Assassin's Creed.

Frankly they'd be lucky to break even.

From my understanding the story of Manhunt 2 actually shares some simlarities to stephen kings the firestarter (only without the weird powers).

You are the guinea pig in an experiment involving some weird drug (lot 6) for the military. The experiment goes horribly wrong and you're placed in an insane asylum to keep you away from the public and to keep word of the exeperiment from leaking to the public. You escape from the asylum and are now on the lam and must avoid the people who worked at the asylum. (Only in firestarter they started on the lam then got caught and thrown in the asylum place). This is what I gained from the previews so if I'm wrong I apoligise.

These guys would flip out if they saw Twisted Metal Black.

Condemned Criminal Origins has mentally ill people in it. Since it's a video game it's making fun of them ,so why haven't they said anything about that?

The stigma against mental illness is so great, it makes this man's reasonable statement sound like inane raving. There is so much work to be done here, it's practically spitting in the wind to single out MH2. But he's right in that it's a prominent teaching opportunity.

I can think of very few games that have approached mental illness in a sensitive manner. Which is too bad, because the possibilities are fantastic.

Ladies and gentleman of the world, I come before you to tell you that the world is changing. The world found out that the brain is very different then they thought it was. Many people are suffering. Who you may ask? I’ll tell you, it’s your sons, your daughters, and even your parents. It’s called mental disorders, and many people have them. The symptoms can range from hypertension, to staying up all night scared for your life thinking some ones going to kill your whole family. Mental disorders are a serious thing and there everywhere and they don’t get the respect they deserve. Businesses everywhere fire people for things they can’t help. Why you may ask: Ignorance, and hate for every thing that’s different. Throughout time people hated many other people. First Egyptians enslaved random African tribes out of hate. Then Romans were hated, then Greeks, then blacks, then Jews. Now people with mental disorders are a subject to hate. our whole lives we are made fun of, people beat us up, we fail our classes, we never have girl friends and are punished by our parents and that’s just the first half of our lives, all because all because of “normal” peoples ignorance of mental disorders. I didn’t even mention when we grow older we will be refused jobs, not have friends, and never be respected. That’s why I come to you today, to make this ignorance stop. Please join me in my fight to make mental disorders not only understood but thought of as an every day thing.
They say they have organizations for us like mental hospitals but I been in those places and the whole time I was in there they acted like they were punishing me. Should I be punished for things I can not help? And there’s an other organization called 7 counties, but when I was with them the guy that was supposed to help me never showed up he just kept making up excuses. All that goes to show you what the government thinks of people with mental disorders. They pretend to want to help but they in turn do the bare minimum.
From the web sight http://www.cmha.ca/bins/content_page.asp?cid=3 this experts says “There are many myths about mental illness. Until people learn the truth, they will continue to deny that mental illness exists at all or to avoid the topic entirely.
How much do you know about mental illness? Here are some of the common myths -and truths.
• People with mental illness are violent and dangerous. The truth is that, as a group, mentally ill people are no more violent than any other group. In fact, they are far more likely to be the victims of violence than to be violent themselves.
• People with mental illness are poor and/or less intelligent. Many studies show that most mentally ill people have average or above-average intelligence. Mental illness, like physical illness, can affect anyone regardless of intelligence, social class or income level.
• Mental illness is caused by a personal weakness. A mental illness is not a character flaw. It is an illness, and it has nothing to do with being weak or lacking will-power. Although people with mental illness can play a big part in their own recovery, they did not choose to become ill, and they are not lazy because they cannot just "snap out of it."
Mental illness is a single, rare disorder. Mental illness is not a single disease but a broad classification for many disorders. Anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, personality disorders, eating disorders and organic brain disorders can cause misery, tears and missed opportunities for thousands of people.
Words can hurt
Words like "crazy," "cuckoo," "psycho," "wacko" and "nutso" are just a few examples of words that keep the stigma of mental illness alive. These words belittle and offend people with mental health problems. Many of us use them without intending any harm. Just as we wouldn't mock someone for having a physical illness like cancer or heart disease, it is cruel to make fun of someone with a mental illness.”