p2pnet - rss feed: UK bans Rockstar’s Manhunt 2
p2pnet.net news:- “You get to meet - and brutally kill - some very interesting people,” said a caption under a pic on CNET Networks’ GameSpot back in Decem,ber, 2003.
The game? Take-Two Interactive’s execrable Manhunt, marketed by Rockstar and touted by Sony for its PlayStation games consuls.
Close to four years ago, New Zealand banned it, Australia followed suit and now the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has prohibited Manhunt 2, condemning its encouragement of “casual sadism,” says Times Online.
Nor is Manhunt and the only Take-Two video game to come under fierce criticism.
Take-Two’s Grand Theft Auto III is blamed for inspiring two brutal murders in California; a Haitian civil rights groups sued Grand Theft Auto: Vice City because they said it instructs players to “kill the Haitians” and awards points for each kill; and, after blatantly lying about the animated Hot Coffee sex ‘game’ hidden in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Take-Two Interactive was forced to reclassify it M for Mature.
Manhunt 2 is slated for release on the Wii, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable on July 10, 2007, says the Wikipedia, going on:
Demented screams echo around the dank asylum that has caged you for the last six years. You open your eyes. A white-coated body slumps to the floor through your shaking hands. A bloody syringe slips from your arm. Waves of confusion and paranoia crash over you. You have no idea who you are or how you got here.
The door to your cell is open. One choice. One chance. They took your life. Time to take it back.
In the US, “The Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood urged people to write the ESRB and demand an ‘Adults Only’ rating, which means it could not be sold by major retailers,” says Reuters.
Of the original Manhunt, the New Zealand Office of Film and Literature Classification’s Bill Hastings said, “It’s a game where the only thing you do is kill everybody you see,” said the New Zealand Herald at the time. “It gets worse. Not only do you have to kill everybody you see, you can choose to kill ‘mild,’ ‘medium’ or ‘hot’” and that ‘hot’ kills are particularly gruesome with death coming from weapons used ranging from shards of glass to garrotting wire, plastic bags and machetes.”
And, “When you go for the ‘hot’ kill you actually see the snuff film … you see the person being killed in close-up. With the plastic bag, for example, you see the victim’s mouth gasping for air inside the bag.”
Also See:
brutally kill - Brutal and violent, December 12, 2003
Times Online - First video game banned in Britain puts player in role of sadistic killer, June 20, 2007
Reuters - British censor bans ‘Manhunt 2′, June 20, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
June 21st, 2007 at 10:03 am
Banning it won’t do a thing other than increasing it’s attractiveness 10 fold. The little kiddies will just get it off p2p.