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Britain bans Manhunt 2

MATT SLAGLE

Associated Press

Latest comment posted at 1:35 PM EST 20/06/07

Game 'encourages visceral killing' rating board says ...Read the full article

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  1. M K from Canada writes: "The group said the Wii version was particularly troublesome because players would be able to act out the violence with the console's controller."

    Yeah, this is what sets it apart. Honestly a game like this need not have been made. I don't know what Rockstar expected.
  2. gary blades from Halifax, Canada writes: Mmmm.. But it's not real. It's just a game. It's just some pixels on a computer screen. Just some colored dots flashing in front of your eyes. No blood. No loss of life. How can activity in a virtual world be illegal ?
  3. Vadim T from Canada writes: The only reason that Manhunt should be banned is that, if it is ANYTHING like its predecessor, it is a terrible game. Lousy interface, brain-dead AI, clipping errors and inane missions with terrible stealth requirements reminiscent of "Thief". Its just a game, but its a lousy game. If you don't like it don't play it.
  4. Shamus M from Canada writes: gary blades, your just a collection of atoms grouped into molecules and cells and so forth. There's nothing illegal about destroying molecules, or even cells. However when they are grouped in a particular manner we have something called a human and we respect their integrity.

    A game is made of pixels but there is human thought and intent invested in their configuration. All this a long winded way of saying it's not as neutral as you would like to make it out.

    It's about sadistic killing as entertainment. It's really not relevant that it's pixels. A human is enjoying the thrill of slaughter at a level not possible in another medium. Where does that take you at the end of the day?
  5. gary blades from Halifax, Canada writes: It doesn't take me anywhere at all, Shamus. A pornographic video is nothing but a bunch of pixels. A movie depicting dropping an atomic weapon on a city of a million people vaporizing them all instantly is nothing but a bunch of pixels. It's all in your head. Experiencing videos, movies and games is completely in your own mind. Now we have society legislating what people are allowed to experience inside their own minds. Society is dictating that certain spatial arrangements and temporal sequences of pixels are illegal. Crazy. Images of real people are one thing, I agree, but images of computer generated characters ? They have no reality whatsoever. They only cause streams of photons to inpinge on your eyes. How your mind experiences that stream of photons is your business. Physical reality and mental fantasy are completely disjoint realms. (BTW - it IS illegal to destroy certain types of atoms or molecules, such as those which comprise atomic weapons or high explosives, so atoms are not a good analogy to pixels).
  6. james p from Canada writes: too funny. was there ever a more mind-numbingly useless skill than pushing console buttons in ever more dazzling combinations. i bet if i wasted as much time as these geeks do, i'd need more 'provocative' scenarios to mask the abject tedium of my pathetic choice of entrtainment. oooo psycho killa escapes! that'll be soooo rad, dude. get the Cheetos and bong and let's rock!
  7. Captain Pugwash from Canada writes: I'm sure those Brits who wanted to buy this game could always sign up for service in the British army. They could then get paid to go off to Iraq and kill and beat up real people because as Tony Blair keeps telling us "the rules of the game have changed."
  8. Kirk . from Ajax, Canada writes: And the sales of Manhunt just went through the roof everywhere else, I'm sure.
  9. I B from Canada writes: If you don't like it, don't buy it (I won't). That being said, the government has no business dictating the forms of entertainment that people may choose to enjoy as long as they do no harm to another (real) human being.

    I B
  10. Thumb Sucker from Toronto, Canada writes: This is the best advertising campaign Rockstar could have come up with. How many people will want to see what all the fuss is about?

    AO rating = Advertising Only
  11. A H from Canada writes: Shamus M. I could not agree more.

    I am curious to know Gary Blades opinion of the appropriateness of child pornography laws on the internet. Even fictional depictions of the sexual exploitation of a child are illegal in Canada and any normal person would agree that this is a good thing.

    Laws are sometimes created to protect the community standards, and most parents would probably not appreciate a game which invites their child to step into the mind of a serial killer by graphically (and physically in the case of Wii) simulating what it is like to brutally kill innocent people.

    It might be enough to send some wack job over the edge, or it might desensitize a person to violence, and that is enough of a downside to block the sale of this game.

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