pshhhht... what about the sims? I've had a lesbian couple on my sims 2 game for ages...they throw great parties.

What would happen if they started to push the same kind of crap on Hollywood movies as they are trying with these so called "violent video" games.

End of Hollywood as we know it.

If games really make people go nuts, i would have been locked up several years ago, right after the release of the game called Doom.

Where was the outage over the game Fable where you could actually take a male as a domestic partner?

Idiots.

Wow, while I think Bully is a stupid game and wouldn't buy it, I also think big government should worry more about people like Tom Foley and less about computer games.

to put it simply:

if you don't like it don't buy it. and don't dare assume you have the right to make the decision for me.

people are suffering and dying around the world and people waste energy with this crap.

one word:
Priorities!

Fudgepackers!!!

Crikey. Get over it, seriously. :P

OMG

Once again, no one complains this loudly when there's Leo DiCaprio making out with boys in a movie. It gets some buzz, but no one bans it. Oh, and he was making out with other boys' units. Can't you be gay in the Sims, too? Where's the stink there?

The only people who would object to this are god-believers who are secretly gay, but refuse to admit it publicly. I've seen the game played and it's pretty rare to find a guy to give flowers to; still, it reflects real life. Your choice. If you're bisexual, then heck, you welcome all comers!

sounds really gay!

so F...ing what??? all it is some noname lawyer trying to make name for himself.

in GTA san andreas CJ could also kiss males when the charachter the other player selects is a male. (in multiplayer mode - console only?) outrage! i better blow someone's brains out instead.

as "postal " game suggests "GAME IS ONLY AS VIOLENT AS YOU ARE". that is if you have problem seeing two 3d animated male figures kissing don't "give flowers to a tall blonde guy" in the game and all your problems are gone.

"don't "give flowers to a tall blonde guy" in the game and all your problems are gone."

I second that!

This lawyer sounds like a Liberal and yes he seems to be out to make a name for himself and nothing else.

This lawyer sounds like a Liberal...
I don't think so, sounds more like a contemporary conservative to me; what with his trying to legislate religion-based morality through censorship and thought-policing.

Hmmm...you know what I do think you hit it on the $$ there. Now that I think a bit harder he would still be pissy but not as much about the gay thing, cause to a Liberal different is good and it allows them to keep going.
I am seeing this as a lot of advertising for Rockstar, and so far this guy keeps loosing...what next he's gonna run for Senate or Congress in a few years? And he hopes people remember his name and not in what context it was used.
We have a freedom...Rockstar can make a game as they see fit and if some one doesn't like it don't play it, if you don't like it that you kid bought it (cause he's old enough to get a ERSB rated T game) then pay more attention as a parent to what they do and don't do and you can avoid this.
God...I could just rant some more, but I'll stop before I write a whole damn essay!

Jack Thompson is a conservative idiot whose only interests are suing the Florida Bar and dozens of other organisations, and trying to ban video games which contradict his far-right Christian ideology.

I don't know why everyone decided to be so sarcastic but I have a few things to say, and I will spare the sarcasm.
First of all, the world is changing....this is a time and place for parenting to go back to parents. Far too long now it seems that parents tend to blame games, tv, other parents, everyone else than themselves for their own kids getting caught up into bad things. My parents taught me the essentials and from there, I think I turned out pretty good. I don't steal, I don't cheat, I don't kill people, I don't build bombs, etc. etc. etc. and guess what? I played games that I did ALL that stuff in - so? What's the deal?
That being said, if the kid can kiss a girl, then why not a boy? The only people that should be against this, are ofcourse people who find homosexuality morally/spiritually wrong. Second of all, it's not a big deal for Rockstar to engage settings that limit 'sensitive' subjects which is what I hope they end up doing. In the end, there are games where we blow people up, shoot them in the head, tear them limb from limb...and the list goes on. If you don't want your child to play these games, you simply 1. pay attention to them and 2. pay attention to the games they want/own, or you don't get them a gaming system (adhere to parental controls on your home PC), but don't go so far as to make a big whoop about it. Personally I'd rather teach my kid right/wrong - good/evil and let them have an active roll in their own decision making, play a very active roll in whatever they do and guide them than shelter them tightly and break their minds so that they lose control completely at 16 and go and shoot people. In the end, don't blame games, and don't blame tv. Blame parents.

agreed.

ahhh... hold on there a moment
"First of all, the world is changing....this is a time and place for parenting to go back to parents." what are you saying, that parenting all this time wasn't responcibility of parents???

you forget we live in a litigious world...it has become so and shows that it will adopt it. So...the world has changed to suit this mutation of society and not old fashioned values.

That is what is wrong, people think everything should change, so they get lazy and slack off on parenting.

We live in a world where there are Truth ads...where tobacco companies are responsible for smokers who smoke for 50 years, where obese people can sue fast food restuarants, and where teenage girls can dump newborn babies in trashbins, and go back dancing, thinking nothing of it...

I think though, that this is only a concern for some because it is using adolescents. As some have mentioned other games, those had "adult" avatars doing questionable things. But this might be different.

Of course I may be giving too much credit where it's not due. :)

In my humble opinion, all these games should be neutral. Yes the game companies have to support a society too, they are part of it. Let's all build a positive environment, and let kids choose what they think is for them, when they reach the right age...instead of suggesting it to them.

I agree with you 1000% I listen to metal music, play violent video games, watch horror movies and violent stuff on TV and I've never killed anyone, I don't steal and I've never taken drugs or smoked. Its the parents fault when kids go bad not entertainment. If a kid goes nuts its the parents fault for not seeing their troubled not entertainment. To many parents leave their kids with nannies, or leave them home and don't pay attention to them this is the problem with our society. Entertainment is a release, a way to veg after a hard day. If everything was Brady and roses we'd still have violence and then what would they blame? Sugar? Our society blames everything on everyone/everything else. Blame being fat on fast food instead of people who just can't stop eating and don't exercise. Blame violence on entertainment. We profile way to much, and its just an excuse not to blame ourselves for our own problems.

I can see the headlines now, "Kids turning gay after playing Take-Two Interactive's 'Bully'".

I pretty much agree with what you've said, and I fit into the category of people who find homosexuality morally/spiritually wrong, but I still find this whole thing to be ridiculously overblown. It seems to me that since they couldn't attack Take-Two over this game for the same reasons as GTA, they jumped at whatever they could find.

I think that warnings about content and ratings are well and good and that they should be required, but after that it's up to parents to set boundaries when it comes to any media type. etc., it's also up to parents to instill good morals, values and behavior into kids, not the government.

Like you said...Parental Controls, if you're worried about them installing something controversial, don't give them an Admin account, then they'll have to submit every install for your approval.

These days media is the biggest scapegoat there is when people do crazy things, and let's face it, the games didn't make them do it, those people already had the potential, they just happened to be into gaming or whatever gets blamed.

I'd rather people annihilate someone in a game than take their frustrations out on them in real life.

Maybe they make a new rating Not for the mentally unstable/emotionally disturbed", because these are the only people who might actually be "affected" by these things.

/rambling rant

I do the same. Heck my mom let me play RE and all kinds of violent video games, but she also paid enough attention to me to ensure nothing was going on bad with me and was there for me.
It's just lazy side of a human's nature to blame it's own faults on another...it's been this way since the oldest records of human life.

Honestly, I plan to at least rent this game or pick it up when it's used at the local game store just to check it...love what Rockstar does!

hmmm... sarcasm\\ i assume that violence and rape are perfectly alright. as long as there's no homosexuality. //sarcasm

Yes, you are correct. Keep the violence within the same race and the rape to heterosexual...and your in the clear. Think they can make a game that does nothing but go around killing husbands and raping there wifes and get that just a E rating? Sure parents won't care cause it's not racy!

...end sarcasm.

I could care less what game companies put into their games. I do expect and demand a valid ratings system. Oh... and parents... WAKE THE HELL UP!! It is over due time that parents start taking responsibility for their children. Instead of letting a game console raise your children... how about becoming a part of their lives and raise them according to your values and beliefs... do not let a game company raise them for you.

Bah! I don't care no more i got my copy already so they can ban it all they want now. but i'm still againced stuff like this where the free speach movment is being questioned by a few no sense of humor people.

I'm not gay, but I don't see a problem with that in the game... I'd rather see a kid playing a game where they're:

1) a bully,
or
2) doing morally wrong things like beating up other students
or
3) stealing cars and running from the cops,
or
4) shooting people.

RATHER THAN DOING IT FOR REAL!!!

Knowing that activity in real life would not be tolerated, and thus, *not doing it for real to his/her friends/community* is more important.

There comes a time when you're raising your kids that they will know and learn right from wrong, but having a fantasy of being a "bad person" is way different than doing it for real. It's harmless for a *mentally healthy* person to do, as long as they have the moral groundwork and understanding of right and wrong in place to begin with.

Where we run into problems is with the fact that we have troubled kids out there that ruin it for everyone else, and guess who's fault that is, everyone? That's right: THE PARENTS.

Where was this kind of outrage for "Need for Speed: Most Wanted"??? I mean come on, you're talking about crashing around town, outrunning the cops, doing damage, and such? What about Burnout 3 and the crash mode? These are morally reprehensible acts that we have *television reality shows* about (America's Most Dangerous Police Chases type shows) yet who's raising this kind of stink over them?

Where's the outrage for that? I think it's reprehensible, hypocritical, and a double standard to say "It's ok to have a game where you run from the cops, crash your vehicle into other cars doing upwards of millions of damage to societies' property, but it's wrong to see boys kissing boys, THIS MUST STOP!!!".

COME ON is my country led by a bunch of freakin homophobic control-freak jerks or what???

/sarcasm engaged

I think it's morally reprehensible that the gay community isn't represented equally in this game, where are the girl-on-girl kissing scenes? Why can't the protagonist of the game be a girl? I wanna see the girl/girl makeouts!!!

/sarcasm off

That's right: THE PARENTS.
How dare you hold parents responsible for their children's actions. /sarcasm

COME ON is my country led by a bunch of freakin homophobic control-freak jerks or what???
Probably not. Our country is more likely led by a bunch of greedy, power-hungry politicians that pander to the loudest minority.

where are the girl-on-girl kissing scenes...
/sarcasm off
That was sarcasm? (BTW, for equal opportunity match-making people should check out the game "Space Colony".)

Give me a break... It is ok if the game depicts violence, but how dare another guy kiss another guy.

The same people protesting this would also protest if a white character could kiss a black character... Oh wait, this isn't the 50s, so I guess not.

I am not gay ether, but I have no issues with this. Don't be homophobic people! I got several gay friends, and they are some of the nicest people I have ever met...not this holier-than-thou kinda thinking that I see in most of the so-called straight people...

...btw if you are offended by the "so-called" part better go check what the gay-o-meter reads you at.

Boys kissing boys! Oh my god. Howe dare they. Everyone knows a red-blooded American boy should be playing games where they kill them homos.

Sarcasm off.

Dont' we have more important things to worry about in this country right now?

ehhh... apparently we dont'...

nah ... iraq is going swimmingly.