June 22, 2007
In the wake of this week's Manhunt 2 meltdown, Take Two has issued this statement regarding the game's status:Take-Two Interactive Software has temporarily suspended plans to distribute Manhunt 2 for the Wii or PlayStation platforms while it reviews its options with regard to the recent decisions made by the BBFC and ESRB.
We continue to stand behind this extraordinary game. We believe in freedom of creative expression, as well as responsible marketing, both of which are essential to our business of making great entertainment.
Comments
As a student attending a overpriced college, I'm going to buy this game if its released for PC. I'll fast to support Rockstar and I'll try my best to get others to purchase this game. I'll do whatever I can personally to support any game company willing to fight.
2. Release it.
3. Port the uncut version to the PC.
4. ??
5. Big Profit.
oh and one more thing I hope this don’t offend anybody, but parents who don’t pay attention to the products that there kids are playing and to the ratings on the products, AND to have some common sense of the simplest things, those parents are the ones to blame, they are the dumbest clueless kinds of people in the world.
For example movies like: the saw series, hostel, hellrasier, nightmare, Friday the 13, Halloween, etc..... all those movies have 100 times more gore or what ever you might want to call it packed in them then the manhunt games. If parents want to rant on something, that is way to violent and way to gruesome, why don’t they rant on the movies industry or even books ? Why not the porn industry, can parents rant on that? (god forbid that)
Parents who are afraid that this game is going to make little Johnny or little Suzie go out and do something dumb get off your lazy behinds and watch your kids. If I want to see a gruesome movie or read a super horror book by some author and even play a video game that I like, leave me alone. Don't put your moral thought in my head I know what’s right and wrong. This is entertainment its fiction, it’s a story, it’s not real.
I bet most of the adolescent know what a horror movie is and what porn is a porn movie. It has come to the point were people are tell us/you what is ok to watch.
Well that’s my little rant. Best of luck to take two.
Step 4, is easy
Start a macho "we're sticking it to the man" attitude when marketing or defending the game (whether or not this attitude is sincere is optional)
step 4 1/2 people but either out of spite for censors or for other reasons
step 5 profit.
Honestly it's rcokstar games, and it's a series that's even more violent than GTA what more needs to be said?
People not one single U.S. Politician is trying to ban Manhunt 2. Manhunt 2 is not technically banned in the United States. It got an AO rating from the ESRB (which is an independent body, not government controlled.) With the AO rating none of the console manufacturers will actually license the game for their consoles.
Now in some nations where there is a Government controlled ratings board, these boards have refused to issue a rating for the game which is an effective ban as the game cannot be sold in those nations. The thing is those ratings boards are controlled by bureaucrats not politicians.
I'd rant on but it seems that people don't read the articles so it's doubtful they will read the comments, and understand anything they don't want to.
1. Port the uncut version to the PC as AO.
2. wide the wave of free advertising
3.Fight the stigma on adult games
4.Cut it down for the consoles
5. ??
5. Bigger Profit!!
Father Time
god of war is more violent than GTA...gears of war is more violent than GTA....I can think of a few other games that are more violent in visuals and stuff,just because you can run down pedestrians and the citizenry means sht....
R* and T2 just went down a notch.
What's next? Turning GTA IV into the Sims prior to release?
In my opinion and I can only speak about the first Manhunt game, all those movies except maybe Saw, Hostel and Hellraiser are tame compared to Manhunt. Saw, Hostel and Hellraiser maybe equal at best. To say that they have 100 times more gore is ridiculous.
I think there's a few people not fully grasping the situation here. Nintendo and Sony didnt ban Manhunt 2, Rockstar did that themselves.
Rockstar knew full well that the first Manhunt (a game with horrible gameplay and at best an average story, the only thing it did "better" than other games was bloody violence) was as far as rating boards would allow a title to go in terms of gore to not receive an AO ratings. The ESRB and the BBFC said so the first time around.
Rockstar then made Manhunt 2 bloodier and more violent all the while knowing that if it got an AO rating Nintendo and Sony would not carry the title. They're perfectly free to make it a computer game or develop their on console to play it on but people should stop blaming the ESRB, the BBFC, SOny or Nintendo. Rockstar knew the rules and they chose to break them.
How far will Rockstar go? When will be the game where we play a serial rapist? Will people say then that the game should have received an M rating? A few people seem willing to defend the game and say "it should have gotten an M rating" even without seeing it. I'm perfectly fine with an AO rating and I doubt it deserves any less but I will never see this for myself because frankly, the first Manhunt game bored me with it's gameplay and disgusted me with it's violence.
How many people died, in Saw? To me, the worst part of the movie was when the guy had to cut his own foot off, just in hopes of escape. So, you take that, multiply it by.. about 10, and you've probably covered maybe the opening area of Manhunt 2, I'm sure.
In the entire Saw series, there's.. what? 20, maybe 30 dead, tops? And all along the way, it's meant as a psychological game, to test the limits of what one is willing to endure, for the sake of survival.
There's actually a point to the Saw movies, beyond simple gratuitous gore. It turns it almost into a statement of art.
Everyone they've said about Manhunt 2 says.. you go around and kill people, because you -like- killing people. You're a total sociopath. Take as many down as you can, before they take you down. Survival is secondary.
There's no psychological lesson to learn in the game.. it's entirely about killing in the worst ways possible, and having fun doing it. You're a psycho, in a hospital, and they're trying to kill you. You, more than likely, belonged in there in the first place.
Now, I haven't seen Hostel, so I can't comment there, and other horror movies tend to have at least modestly happy endings. Either the murderer gets killed, or there's some other positive resolution. Well, what if you were doing the horror story from the perspective of the killer? And it turned out positive for them? They wanted to kill, and there was nothing to stop them. And as it goes, it just gets more violent and gory and graphic.. I think they'd have a hard time finding any honest people to market such a movie to.
Almost every super violent game got an AO at first. The company never announced it. I think, rather than complaining about it being cut, do something constructive like voice your concern to Nintendo about the AO policy. Also, I'll end up buying it on Wii and PC
From what I hear Manhunt 2 might actually a point. He kills because psychological experiments messed him up bad. I'll have to wait and see if it actually teaches a lesson, but I figure it will. Also, Hostel is indeed pretty much all gore... and topless woman. But mostly gore. A happy ending for Manhunt 2 I think would be Danny finally escapes and finds out what happened to his family; who his family even is.
Sorry for the ridiculous number of posts, but:
Rockstar knows how exactly to get an M. They have had too many bad AO experiances to know not to go their agian. They figured they would get an M. They didn't choose to break a rule. They chose to make a sequal that, while much improved in every aspect, still would have gotten an M. The raters for ESRB may have overrated it. We don't know. We'll see once Rockstar goes for the appeal
Yeah, some children could get their hands on this, much like I did copies of Playboy and slasher movies when I was a kid. I ask, what will the lasting effects be on those children, and what will the effects be on society at large if this game is released? From there, I ask what will happen if this game is not released?
Manhunt 2 is a title with limited appeal in the first place. Society at large wouldn't see any more change from this title than it has from the Saw or Hostel movies. Children, quite honestly, tend not to react so much to videogames as one might think. My answers to the former question is: not much.
If the game were to be kept from the market, I predict harder times for Rockstar and Take Two, both of which have a fair amount of money tied up in the project. The answer to the latter question could be layoffs to the companies' staff and harm to other projects as they are pushed out the door sooner.
A government party (I don't care what you guys say, a party who is given power by government and enforces legislation IS a government body) has come along and has banned the game in the UK. This ban is based on the fact that some artificial images depicting fictional characters and wholly fictional acts of violence - would cause some 'harm' to people. Although what 'harm' watching these drawn images is not exactly set out.
We live in a wonderful era. In 50 years, people will look back at all of this and laugh at how completely rediculous this all is (kind of like purchasing 'virtual real estate' with REAL money). This is a VIDEO GAME, a GAME, it is NOT REAL. There is no actual violence taking place - just the interation of pixels on a screen. THERE IS NO PROOF THAT ANY OF THIS WOULD AFFECT ANYONE NEGATIVELY.
it's a game.
so I find puzzle games and learn games pointless they should be BANED think of the kittens!
Also hate to tell you tis fact (last I checked) games are less absorbing than movies because of the interaction, the thinking and controls you have limits the absorption of the infermation of the game but then again its a game...for adults children should not be getting it but to block and ban it from adults is not good.
orangekrush
the ESRB is not a government body, some of the others are but the ESRB is not,what they are doing is what the MPAA did with the X rating in order to prevent and slow heavy content into the sheeple mainstream until they wont turn into a mob and take rampaging to the streets,however its still censorship but at a industry level, basically in order to not offend its family base it will oppose the highest rating level to show its family friendly...I don't know whos more blind tho the sheeple or the sheep herders that sleep with them...
my point being the BBFC is the same as the ESRB a "headless" detachment from the goverment it has no "control" over it but some influence,what has more influence on it and the ESRB is society in general.
the USK( Germany's software rating organization) is either part of the goverment or the goverment set about to bind some of tis ratings to laws..well if it dose not have a USK rating it cant be sold openly but tis still sold to non minors.
Office of Film and Literature Classification (Australia) also is a governmental board if its not rated you cant even import it and I hear they confiscate banned items.
So really the only power the first 2 have is to slow the sales of it "AO" games can be sold with not laws attached(unless tis porn), its just retail stores will nto carry it.....oh well the ma and pa stores will have to pick up the slack :P
yeah, look how well God of war and gears of war sold (yes I know there are violent games that don't sell well, like postal, but that's beside the point). Anyway my point is mainly that since it's rockstar they know how to handle controversy (or at least are used to it), so I'm pretty sure they can turn big profit on manhunt 2 if they play their cards right.
I'm sure that Rockstar knows how to get an M rating but Im also sure that they know how to go too far with a game. Don't tell me you've forgotten about Hot Coffee. They didnt put that stuff in there just to remove it later, they wanted to include it at first. Nobody as seen what is in Manhunt 2 yet but I wouldn't be surprised if it does indeed warrant an AO rating.
Just comparing the original Manhunt with a movie like Hostel (a popular mention here) you probably see as much gore in the first 15 minutes of Manhunt than in the whole Hostel movie. Also, let's not forget the whole "you get points for killing" argument politicians and anti-game activists like to use. It can't be more true than in Manhunt, the more gruesome the kill, the bigger the reward. Rockstar new what they were doing it's true and they made an AO game according to the ESRB.
caffeine gives my a a itchy posting finger 0_o
less proofing *L*
my point was they can ride controversy and put a dent into the stigma around AO.
I am starting to get flashbacks of the SNES/Genisis days,MS could support "AO" games like sega did I think for the 3600 it would be perfect but I doubt MS has the forethought to do it.