Jack Thompson, pain in the you-know-where for the game industry, has asked for something that some of us at GN would like to have as well-an advance copy of Bully. And of all things, he is asking his hated archenemy, Take Two, for the freebie.
Bully has received a great amount of press for its storyline and gameplay. The premise is about a 15-year old who must defend himself from schoolyard tormentors. Anti-violence rights groups have attacked the game, for its portrayal of children beating up on other children. With that said, why would the likes of staunch anti-video game lawyer, Jack Thompson, want with a copy of Bully? It,s not because he,s hot to get bragging rights of playing it before anyone else, but he plans on having the game reviewed by an independent party to determine if the still-unrated game is suitable for sale in Florida. If it can be “proven” that the game is in the “M” or “AO” category, this would make Bully unsuitable for sale in the state of Florida due to new state legislation. "If Bully is indeed safe for children’s play, then [I] will be the first to say so. If it is not, then not only will the underlying action be brought sounding in Florida nuisance law, but also possibly and most likely in fraud as well,” Thompson said. Thompson ranted against the ESRB for not affixing a rating to Bully in a timely manner. “The ESRB refuses to say and appears to be withholding from the public the rating of the game in order to quell controversy for its corporate collaborator, Take-Two. … This withholding of rating information from the public about a game that the ESRB has had for over a year is outrageous, made more so by the fact that Wal-Mart is actually pre-selling Bully with no rating whatsoever for the game, to anyone of any age!"
Gadzooks! Those dastardly minions at Wal-Mart are polluting the youth of our country!
In reality, the idea of the ESRB and Take Two conspiring to stop controversy about the game is laughable, but the real reason for the slow rating is probably more pragmatic in nature-it takes time, lots of time. A great deal of time is taken to review and rate the thousands of games that go through the doors of the ESRB each year.
