14 DAY TRIAL // Rarely has a video game seen so much gratuitous publicity without showing even the slightest sign of screenshots, trailers, story details or extensive site information. In short, there is so little information available on Bully that one would think we?re talking about a low-budget game developed in someone?s basement. For a fact, Bully hasn?t been released yet and it doesn?t even have a rating in the US, yet social activists took unto themselves to fight the game?s release, demanding Rockstar to stop its development. Set in a fictional prep school, Bully follows the 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins, as he copes with every day school life, including bullies, teachers, and other human types. When faced with getting his head dunked in a toilet or being beaten, Jimmy learns that talking his way out of a confrontation isn't always appropriate. To even the playing field, he learns using various weapons, ranging from marbles to bananas, including baseball bats.
In The People vs Bully matchup, joining the former camp is ?Halt Online Abuse? president Jayne Hitchcock, stating: ?It?s one thing to make a video game that is a ?fantasy? or unrealistic situation with adults as the main characters, but it?s another to glorify a daily, real-life situation like bullying and making the main characters teens. This targets the video game to kids and teens, which are impressionable and might come to believe they could be just like Jimmy Hopkins and beat the daylights out of their real-life bullies. That is not the message that should be sent out.? It appears to be a rather funny turn of events, since not two months ago, Bully was being accused of promoting bullying and pro-bully activities.
Although the ever strict Australian media audit authority - Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) - granted Bully an ?M? rating, the title continues to receive more hate speeches in the United States. The professionals decided the game contains "moderate themes, violence and sexual references". This rating category is actually below the highest rating of ?MA15+?, which is in itself only used to classify games thought applicable for fifteen year olds and younger. The lack of a higher adult rating has led to the OFLC refusing to classify a good number of titles including Grand Theft Auto III, Manhunt, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents under Pressure and most recently, Reservoir Dogs. Earlier this month, Rockstar revealed that the game would be available in October on the PlayStation 2, a good time for Bully to speak for itself. It?s still a mystery why the title has not yet been rated by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board in the States, as it would definitely relieve the pressure.