Judge to Review New Rockstar Game 'Bully'

By Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews

October 12, 2006, 6:03 PM

A Miami-Dade circuit court judge has ordered Take 2 Interactive -- whose Rockstar Games studio is responsible for the controversial, though successful, Grand Theft Auto series -- to make available a copy of Rockstar's unreleased game Bully, in order to determine whether it violates the standards set by the state's public nuisance laws. The game is scheduled for US release on Tuesday.

According to the gaming blog Destructoid, who has sent a reporter to cover the trial live, the judge will be seated with a Take 2 employee, presumably in chambers, to play any of randomly chosen missions from Bully.

If Judge Ronald Friedman feels, on the spot, that the game is offensive enough, he will grant prosecutor Jack Thompson's motion to stop the sale of the game in Florida. Thompson has filed suit specifically against retailers GameStop and Wal-Mart, where the game would premiere.

In the character-driven game, the player represents Jimmy Hopkins, a dejected young fellow who finds himself an under-achieving student at a miserable, bureaucracy-infested academy. Rockstar describes the main character as "working his way up the social ladder of this demented institution of supposed learning, standing up for what he thinks is right and taking on the liars, cheats and snobs who are the most popular members of the student body and faculty."

According to interpretations of previews of Bully, one of the options available to Jimmy for taking on the world involves vengeful violence. However, perhaps very cleverly, guns don't appear to play a role.

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board has issued a "T" for "teen" rating for Bully, which is far milder than for other games, especially from Rockstar. However, a court filing by Thompson earlier this week states the game's European version has been slapped with a "15" rating by the British Bureau of Film Certification, thus prohibiting its sale to minors 15 years of age and younger.

Assuming Take 2 complies with the judge's order, this will apparently also be Thompson's first opportunity to play the game, although in public remarks, he has previously referred to at least one of its missions as a "Columbine simulator." Most screenshots made available to date, however, depict fist-fighting and, as the title implies, the act of being bullied. The court filing adds that one screenshot includes the clever use of a toilet as a bullying device.

"The premise of Bully is that it is sometimes acceptable to deal with bullying by becoming the ultimate bully," reads Thompson's filing. "This was the dynamic at Columbine."

One of the weapons depicted in a screenshot included by Thompson is a "wrist rocket" - a wooden slingshot. "So deadly is this weapon," writes Thompson, "that it cannot be sold in most states, including Florida, to anyone under 18 years of age.

Yet, any kid can fashion his own slingshot in a matter of minutes from a wood, or a Y-shaped tree branch, along with scraps from an inner tube or latex surgical tubing available at Home Depot. Such a weapon, glamorized for use in Bully, can easily get through any security check at any school in America, given its non-metallic components."

To demonstrate his point, the Destructoid reporter noted, Thompson actually produced a wrist rocket from his own pocket in court yesterday. "It was a moment right out of Court TV, but an effective one," the reporter wrote. "If there was any chuckles that a slingshot could be a lethal weapon, they were silenced."

Florida statute states that, in order for something to be declared a public nuisance, it must be found to either annoy the community, be injurious to public health, or corrupt the public morals. Since the game has yet to be released, and may only be viewed from within the confines of the judge's chambers, advocates for the game's defense could argue that the game's qualification as a nuisance under Florida statute cannot be effectively determined until the public has been exposed to it.

Bully was originally announced by Rockstar back in May 2005, and has since been the subject of contention in every country where the concept was introduced, including throughout Europe, Australia, Canada, and now the US. In October of last year, a concerned parent started an online petition to compel Rockstar and Take2 to withdraw their release of the game, which was then scheduled for April 2006.

"We ask of you as an adult, as a member of this society, to stop the release of this game," Rochelle Sides' petition read. "If one child sees the violence portrayed in your game as an avenue to end his/her plight with bullying, will all of the money you have made be worth it? How much is a child's life worth to you?"

"Bully is a calculated effort to cash in on the tragic phenomenon of school bullying and thereby spawn more of it," concludes Jack Thompson's motion. In language about as confusing as the issue itself, he proceeds, "'Columbine' was just a taste of glimpse of what is coming and is increasingly already here."