so let me get this straight, i havent played the game...

you actually ARENT a bully?

and you protect kids from other bullys?

and you actually get punished if your caught breaking rules?




err and why is tis a bad thing?

i just love how htese idiots actually make a lesser desired game into a media frenzy focus, and increase its sales by about ooh 1000000%... by kids who don't know its nothing special, and only want it because 'ooh this game is so bad im not allowed it.. it must be good'

What? You think anti-game activists are going to judge a game fairly and with an open mind? Oh Rockstar, to live in your candy-coted world... :-P

@NovaSim

Nothing special? Bully is a great game and deserves whatever sales increases these people inadvertantly cause.

"It is not a game about playing a bully."

Um. Well. It is. Your character is sent to Bullworth because of his history of bullying, and when he gets there he sees that he has competition and sets out to become the worst of the worst. On the way though he does his fair share of cleaning up and actually making the place safer, but his original motive and the way he goes about it is definitely not one you want kids following.

Anyone who has played GTA will be familiar with the story. Just put it in a school area instead of a city.

Anyway it's all moot. The original game didn't destroy the school system, and making it HD with a few new cutscenes isn't going to change that.

Who exactly is this Jack Thomson?

Same shit, different day..

@Brandon:

He's a "bully with a heart," if you will. He stands up for those who are unfairly picked on but isn't afraid of getting in the faces of people he thinks deserves it. (Pretty much everyone you meet at Bullworth deserves it, teachers included.)

You're right though, he is deposited at Bullworth because of his family, but his academic history is discussed in the intro segment and his permanent record takes up a whole drawer. Really he's quite a lot like CJ from San Andreas. He tries to go straight but just keeps getting dragged back into the mire. It's an unfortunate position for him to be in, but his non-player-controlled history is not a good one.

Thinking about it, it's a good thing. I guess really you take control of a bully and turn his life around by focusing his inate violent ability in a more productive direction.

I'm honestly considering leaving this site and not checking it anymore.

I just can't take much more of this. There simply can't be this many stupid people out there. My faith in a kind and just humanity has been absolutely annihilated since I've started coming here.

Oh, for the love of Pete...

Gamebasher #1: Crap. We made complete asses out of ourselves with the Mass Effect thing! How were we supposed to know that the game isn't a sex simulator? Quick, divert attention, NOW!
Gamebasher#2: Hey, look, they're re-releasing that "Bully" game that Jack Thompson, holy crusader, said had gay content and encouraged violent behaviour in kids, despite having never played it. We can't lose!
Gamebasher #1: Okay, take this down. "We were horrified to learn that the murder/sodomy game, Bully..."

@ Conejo

Well it's either that or get rid of all the stupid people.

A very wise man once said, "The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?"

They just are making more noise and raising the game sales. I don´t see anything special about Bully, but know I want it, even when for many years I was victimized by bullies on elementary school.

Good job, people. You are doing right on your war against filthy games.

@Matthew

Yeah, that makes sense, and yeah, he was deposited at the school because his parents were going on vacation, but you're right, he had issues, and yes, sure enough, people at that school pretty much deserve everything that they got.

However though, the games not as violent as its GTA counterpart, and at the very least, people are knocked out instead of being killed. Honestly, to me, its not as big a deal as these people are making it out to be.

This is the original story of Bully:

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/bully/review.html?om_act=convert&om_c...

Preview of the new version:

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/bullyscholarshipedition/news.html...

The Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bully_%28video_game%29

Gee, let's see what those "morally superior" critics missed mentioning:

Character: Jimmy
Background: From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_characters_in_Bully

The main protagonist of the game, the player controls Jimmy Hopkins, a tough 15 year old boy who has been expelled from at least seven schools for offenses including vandalism, graffiti, violent conduct, bad language, disrespecting staff, and in the case of his most recent school according to smalltalk, arson.[citation needed] Unwilling to deal with his problems herself, Jimmy's often-remarried mother soon dumps him on the doorstep of the notorious Bullworth Academy while she sets off for a year-long honeymoon with her new husband. Jimmy then has no other choice but to become a student at the school and face the challenges that await. Despite being violent when provoked, and having an unwillingness to trust new people, Jimmy is a relatively decent kid who possesses a higher level of maturity and awareness than most of his fellow students. Rather than being a random troublemaker, Jimmy claims he only "gives people what they have coming to them".

The school: From the main Bully article on Wikipedia:
The game takes place at Bullworth Academy, a fictional independent boarding school in the New England area of the United States. The school is located in the also fictional town of Bullworth, which resembles Connecticut (this would also explain the high prevalence of 'Old money' and 'Nouveau Riche' influences). The school itself is a classical neo-gothic design and is similar to many other schools and colleges in the United Kingdom and New England, in particular Fettes School in Edinburgh. A reference to the year being 1995 as the setting can be seen in one of the various arcade machine minigames but school sports flags show the school as champions as recently as 1999.

Are the authority figures all as innocent as implied by the critics? While the Principal isn't quite as corrupt as originally designed, his own abusive (bullying) treatment of students is quite clear. In the List of Characters, he's stated as " referring to all the bullying taking place as "school spirit". He also refuses to hear bad about his staff, even expelling Zoe for complaining about Mr Burton hitting on her." While he does come around, his own actions, or lack thereof, PROMOTE the abuse in the setting.

There are a great many things the critics overlook. Perhaps because, while certain ones complain about Rockstar attempting to pay them off, they ignore abuses from other sources that contribute to the victimization of a great many students. Indeed, many cliques are not regarded as "antisocial" despite their abusive treatment of the preceived "inferior" students. Many of these organizations are nothing more than mouth pieces which are too cowardly to face off against the abuser empowering authority figures or the "popular" cliques. As much as these organizations condemn the "unpopular" groups and individuals, they should also being using similar force to condemn the "popular" abusers as well.

Shifting the blame to a video game, or any other media, is just the furthering of that cowardice.

Nightwng2000
NW2K Software

@PWD

i'm not big on Canadian politics, but i though the hockey teams ARE part of the governing body... :p

@Brandon
I know who Jack Thompson is but the article mentions a Jack Thomson...

Oh, my bad, I didn't catch the typo, and to Tron, I don't think it was, maybe a year to two, but yeah, people, especially politicians like to complain about things like Bully.

On an almost completely unrelated note, the new boxart for this game sucks... I loved the original design, with just the Bullworth logo.

.... doesn't this game punish you if you're caught riding your bike without a helmet in town? I remember being grabbed by a police officer for that.

@KTP

It doesn't punish you for riding a bike without a helmet, but it does punish you for riding a moped with out a helmet.

"Just the name Bully is going to attract young people to buy it."

Doesn't this say more about young people than the game itself?

(I'm a 'young person' at 16, I probably still wouldn't have heard of this game today if I wasn't a GamePolitics reader, and having consequently got and completed the game I have yet to see what was even remotely worth kicking up a fuss about)

@G-Nash

1. It's made by Rockstar
2. It's called Bully
3. It takes place in a school

That's it. The pundits just drew an eronious conclusion based of those premises. It's like putting two and two together and getting 5 [insert 1984 reference here]

@IanC

Makes no sense, especially when compared to its GTA counterpart, I mean, I don't think anyone gets killed, just knocked out. Thats some mighty fine logic them retailers are using.

"Insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

They posted that part at the end of the article, they didn't say anything after that.

As a former employee of Curry's, video games make up less than 0.1% of their profit margin. Their move is neither consistent (since they're happy to stock GTA) nor significant, as they are making no real sacrifice. I doubt people will think 'Wow, Curry's has a real family friendly image, I'll shop there more often', since Curry's is shit anyway.

Are there actually any mediums left that can be invented?

@Skyler

Uh, I've played, granted, you beat people up, but like Matthew said, people at the school in the game deserve it, not only that, but Jimmy defends the ones that don't.

As for tasteless, yeah, don't think its tasteless compared to other games that could be considered tasteless.

@Sean

There still could be virtual reality video games, that aren't all black and red.

@everyone

you know we could just tell the pundits and idiots out there thats theres something new and evil to rally against (those of you with photoshop this is your cue to get busy!)

im sorry to say ruinning man someone will always be there to follow jack off the proverbial cliff (and say that they are winning as they hit the rocks below)

@Running Man

I think Jack is to busy trying to keep himself disbarred, if thats still going, and if I'm not mistaken, I think he can't say things about Rockstar games anymore cause of an out of court settlement. Not like thats stopped him before though.

hmm something like 3-d television or maybe a new "evil" book or music genre

What we really need is a War on Bullying. It's worked out so wonderfully before, in the War on Poverty, War on Drugs, War on Crime, and the War on Terrorism.

Rockstar are just PRO. No other company has mastered the art of getting free publicity, by stirring up controversy, to such a amazing degree. Even rock-bottom out-of-shape former pop princesses with suspended custody and visitation rights could learn a lesson or two about getting people to talk about you. Simply amazing.

gotta love the Rockstar games PR machine, i mean how many times will you be able to see a 2 year old game just fly off the shelves like all these people are apparently going to make happen with Bully V 1.01

i hear they don't like the song "Wooly Bully" either.

Ugh. Deja Vu all over again. I think we'd be better off if they stuck with Canis Canim Edit. That doesnt attract quite as much attention as Bully.


I rented this game and beat it. It was really good, so it deserves the sales it gets from this BS "controversy".

Uh...it's nice to see that the same people still haven't bothered to learn anything before they open their mouths again about subjects of which they're entirely and proudly ignorant. Fortunately, it's reaching the point where the majority of people know more than the leadership...unfortunately, that's not saying much with a show of idiocy of this level, at this point, with Google widely and long available.

34 years huh? we'll all be old by then. Which means we'll get to rant and rail against the next medium!

ive got it! as i was saying earlier we need to find something new for them to rally against! . . . manos the hands of fate! (we will just tell them its new)

Here's a good question:
Would they really be making a fuss all that much, if at all, if the game was called "Underdog" or something along those lines instead of "Bully"? Considering that many critics have yet to do any real research into it, they probably wouldn't.

Niall Cowley of BeatBullying told the newspaper:

"We’re disappointed this game was created in the first place. Some mindless people thought this was a fun, interesting piece of software to create, but it undermines all the hard work that organisations like ours are seeking to do."

So what?

Millions of kids get picked on...i got picked on at school but eventually i grew older and i became the senior. The thing about bullying is that it is the individual bully that needs to be stopped, not the games. Why is Mr Cowley just sitting there and saying that games like "Bully" are bad for kids who have been bullied... and not actually going to the schools and physically stopping the kids beating on each other?

Im really getting tired of Rockstar getting shafted just because some people lack commitment in their own goals, so they just shift the blame to others.

Another bunch of clueless morons who won't even apologize for their uninformed accusations. Gogo defenders of families and children!!!11one

Keith Vaz fails to acknowledge that this has a 15 certificate.
Once again, he cannot see that the certification process means that it should not get into the hands of any child that may be "influenced" into bullying by it (though to the fair, I don't see how anyone can take a 7 out of 10 game and decide that it makes them want to bully)

Keith Vaz should therefore be attacking the whole certification process not just those involved with video games.

i played the ps2 version, i agree that parents have reason to be all 'zomfg, promoting bullying and stuff'. however, i didn't feel it to be that bad, it felt like an allright game.
i didn't like the GTA games (beyond GTA 2), they felt wrong to me. but 'bully' felt alright, albeit a tad unrealistic.

Merc25 Says:

"Will they ever let anything R* publishes slide. "

Lets see, there was Rockstar Table Tennis, Max Payne 1 & 2, Red Dead Revolver, Midnight Club series, Smugglers Run series.

Its funny that the games that drew the least controvery are the least memorible.

It's nice to see that most of the usual names are still making ineffectual gestures towards stopping bullying (I don't know about BeatBullying, they weren't active where I used to live).

Maybe if they actually did something about the real bullies, like look at history of abuse in their families and do something about that, then I might pay some attention to them but then it always was easier to scapegoat than to try to solve the problem.

@Mnementh2230
When I was bullied fighting back wasn't an option. One on one I might have had a chance but they would just come back later with their friends/family and make me pay later (and we're talking hardened criminal family here). Besides the head of my year had very clear views on what girls should and should not do, didn't believe I was being bullied and had already labeled me a troublemaker because I had shown him up by telling him what he was teaching was factually wrong and showing him why.

Looking back I can't really remember the pain of being beaten (I know I was lucky there), it was the constant namecallings and putdowns that did the real long term damage.

[...] [Via GamePolitics] [...]

@ Quad9damage

Not until a new form of popular culture comes along to be deemed 'bad for the children'.

Haters, meet Miss Information.

[...] [Via GamePolitics] [...]

The game is only called Bully in the first place because americans are too fucking stupid to buy a game with a fully latin name. The title in other areas is latin for 'dog eat dog'