UK Politicians Threatened By Bully

Though its release date is still a ways off Next Generation is reporting that UK politicians are already calling for careful consideration, and possible banning, of the Rockstar title Bully. From the article: "Do you share my concern at the decision of Rockstar to publish a new game called Bully in which players use their on-screen persona to kick and punch other schoolchildren? Will you ask the prime minister to refer this video to the British Board of Film Classification? If they don't make any changes will the government use its powers to ban this video[game]?"

I am well over 18

[FidelCatsro]

There has been a lot of devolution going on in UK politics the past few years.
Some of it great , like the devolution of parliamentary powers . Others not so great , such as the New labour AKA: Old conservatives.

This type of censorship is totally unacceptable , we have a ratings system which is complied to by retailers , giving it an 18 rating is more than sufficient .
Devolution of public freedom ,many steps were made during the 70's and 80s to loosen up the censorship in the UK . Are we now taking another step backwards, if this comes to pass then I would say yes.

Re:Wtf?

[Guiannos]

This isn't a new concept, though... I remember playing the card game Lunch Money [atlas-games.com] back in high school, which is the same kind of thing...

The premise is that you are a bunch of catholic school girls trying to beat each other up for your lunch money on the playground. Cards include attacks, weapons, etc.

Fun game, regardless of your feelings on bullying.

Re:Wtf?

[Wandering Idiot]

My cousin, on the other hand, between growing up wrestling us (his cousins, older than him by five years) and playing violent games is a serious bully at school, and whenever he sees an ad for a game with guns his instant reaction is "that game looks awesome!

But are you sure the bullying is due to wrestling and video games, and not just him being big for his age/a jerk/etc.? I mean, you yourself just said you grew up similarly, and yet never became a bully.

I'm not saying video games can't have some emotional or cognitive impact- pretty much any medium can, but I haven't seen much to indicate a large causal relationship between fictional and real violence. Certainly not enough to consider the regulation of it a public safety, rather than a public standards/obscenity matter.