Bully for you: Controversial video game may not be as violent as critics fear
Posted by: Diane Levin in Conflict Resolution, Popular Culture, Politics, Society
With Conflict Resolution Day just around the corner (October 19, in fact), conflict resolvers may be interested to know that today marks the official release date of the video game Bully, produced by Take Two Interactive Software, Inc. under its Rockstar Games label.
Bully depicts the adventures of teenager Jim Hopkins as he stands up to the obstacles–social, educational, and physical–that await him at fictitious private school Bullworth Academy (motto: canis canem edit—dog eat dog).
(For a post last year from this blog that covered Bully and pop culture depictions of conflict, please read “Seeing ourselves: conflict and negotiation in popular culture“.)
Many months before its release, angry parents, lawmakers, and educators on both sides of the Atlantic denounced Bully and called for an outright ban on its distribution and sale in protest of its purported glorification of high school violence–before any of them had even seen the game first-hand. One attorney, Jack Thompson, a conservative crusader against violence and sex in the media, is currently seeking to have Bully deemed a public nuisance in violation of Florida law.
Surprisingly, however, media and gaming experts who previewed the game report that Bully in fact has little violence. Clive Thompson, author of the blog Collision Detection, had this to say about Bully in a recent article on Wired.com:
It turns out the game doesn’t glorify bullying at all.
Indeed, it’s almost precisely the opposite.
…Instead, most of your early missions involve you defending the helpless: Escorting weak-bladdered nerds past phalanxes of threatening athletes, or sneaking into the girls’ locker room to retrieve an essay that popular cheerleader stole from a helpless she-geek…
Bully, however, may be subversive in ways that its opponents didn’t anticipate. According to Thompson, Bully functions as no-holds-barred polemic on the rigid social hierarchies and daily injustices that high school life is susceptible to:
Peel back the hood on the ludic violence, and Rockstar’s games have a surprisingly consistent moral view: Those with power will inevitably abuse it. It is a conclusion that would not displease Thomas Hobbes, or even Thomas Jefferson.
That’s why Bully is, in many ways, the ultimate Rockstar game. By turning to high school, the designers have found the perfect locale for exploring the cliquishness, unfairness and brutality of everyday society.
Which proves once again that things are not always what they seem.
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October 18th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
Well, one thing is for sure, never before has the public release of a video game commanded such media attention. The manufacturer must be ecstatic over all of the free advertising. I wouldn’t be surprised if next week’s headlines boast record-breaking sales on the tail of all this hype. What are we trying to accomplish here?
June 3rd, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Cool post,
However, I was wondering if it would be possible if you touched on the action/adventure genre sometime in the near future. Today’s violent games are fairly recent and have their roots in the older action and adventure games of the 70’s and 80’s. Consoles like the Atari and Intellevision featured primitive games with combat and violence that laid the groundwork for the games of today. I was doing some looking around online trying to find some history on the genre and I came across several good articles like this one, but I was thinking perhaps you could do a write up that ties the history of action and adventure games to today’s violent video games. For example, you could take a game like “Tanks” for the Atari 2600 and show the progress and evolution that has occured since then, and how public perception of violent games (and video game violence in general) has changed as well. Just an idea. Great post either way. Thanks for writing it. Your blog is always a great read. Keep up the good work!
June 4th, 2007 at 4:54 am
Lee, many thanks for your comment and kind feedback about this blog. I’m intrigued as you are by cultural expressions of conflict and violence, and like you I find digital gaming a fascinating topic. As much as I would like to explore it further, gaming is not my primary area of expertise. I myself would like to read an article like the one you propose–I think though that I’ll have to leave it to others with greater expertise and knowledge to research it and create it. Thanks though for your comment, Lee–it was great to hear from you! If you do come across other articles that explore this theme, definitely let me know.
Best wishes,
Diane