LONDON: British Labour member of Parliament and former minister Keith Vaz has taken cudgels against gaming company Rockstar Vancouver for what he describes as a bullying game being developed by the company. He has sought a reference of the game's name Bully to the British Board of Film Classification. Otherwise, the game should be banned, he has demanded.
There have been demands for a ban on the yet-to-be released game by organisations like Bullying Online and Peaceaholics. The game is purported to be portraying bullying in schools.
Vaz, former minister for Europe, who was forced to resign after being implicated in a scandal involving citizenship applications for two prominent Indian businessmen, asked House of Commons leader Geoff Hoon to get the game referred to the regulatory body.
Hoon, however, said Rockstar is yet to submit the game for classification and its merits and demerits are not known.
A spokesperson for Rockstar Vancouver said the game would be an "engaging story" and products should not be "judged by their titles". The game would be "submitted to the appropriate bodies" to be rated, he added.
Bully, due for release on PS2 and Xbox next year, is a third person action game set in the fictional Bullworth academy, a imaginary boarding school cum juvenile detention centre. No one outside Rockstar has had the chance to play the game as yet, but the publisher has released a screenshot, which depicts a shaven-headed youth kicking a fellow pupil in the back.
Vaz had earlier opposed violent games, especially after the murder of Stefan Pakeerah, 14, in Leicester at the hands of Warren Leblanc, who is reported to have been obsessed by the game Manhunt, published by Rockstar North. Prime minister Tony Blair had then said it worth having a relook at videogames classification but held that the U.K. had Europe's strongest system for controlling the sale of computer games that are not suitable for children.
Posted
on : Sat, 29 Oct 2005 09:30 GMT | General News
By : Paula Jenkins
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