Amarillo College Ranger

Issue date: 11/9/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: www.rockstargames.com/bully/home Jimmy Hopkins, the main character in "Bully," plays dodgeball with his schoolmates at Bullworth Academy. [Click to enlarge]

Any video game called "Bully" is bound to make people start asking questions about its content, especially when they find out "Bully" is brought to us by the same designers who invented the violent and controversial "Grand Theft Auto" video game franchise:- Rockstar Games.

Rockstar describes "Bully," released Oct. 17, as an adventure game involving "a mischievous school boy" who has to work his way "up the social ladder" in a boarding school populated by students and faculty who are "liars, cheats and snobs."

Before its release, Florida attorney Jack Thompson, an outspoken anti-video game activist and glory hound, called "Bully" a "Columbine simulator" and tried to get a judge to block its sale under Florida's public nuisance laws.

The judge viewed the game and refused, saying it showed children no more violence than they routinely encounter watching television.

But the controversy hasn't died down. School bullying is an emotional topic, and parents and educators worry that real-life bullies who shove kids and steal their lunch money are creating victims who might show up at school one day with a gun.

It concerns me because I'm both a parent and, as time provides, a gamer.

I purchased the game and have played it for about 22 hours.

Here are a couple of observations I've found.

Granted, it is not an appropriate game for anyone under the age of 13, but the game is not a how-to for bullying.

The goal of the game is to stop school cliques from bullying you and from bullying one another.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board rated "Bully" a "T" (Teen) because of the game's crude humor, language, sexual themes, violence and use of alcohol and tobacco.

The main character is 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins, freshly arriving at rundown Bullworth Academy after being expelled from several other schools for aggressive behavior.

Continued...

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