October 26, 2007
Not suprisingly, watchdog groups are weighing in on Manhunt 2 as the game's Halloween launch draws near.San Jose Mercury-News scribe Mike Antonucci reports that Common Sense Media has issued a press release urging parents to boycott the game. Not bad advice, actually, since no one under the age of 17 should be playing Manhunt 2, anyway.
But where did the screen shot at left come from?
Take Two has notified GamePolitics that the horrifying image, circulated by CSM with its press release, is not from the final, retail version of the game. Is CSM working with the leaked early build for some reason? (see update below)
The group also takes a shot at the ESRB rating process. From the CSM release:
The most violent and gruesome video game ever produced for a mass market will hit shelves on Halloween, and Common Sense Media is encouraging parents to boycott the game...
What did Rockstar cut out to get the [Adults Only] rating reduced [to M (17+)]? No one knows, because neither the ESRB or Rockstar will comment on the rerating process.
What we do know is this: The British Board of Film Classification banned the game in June – and refused to lift the ban in August after Rockstar submitted the same version of the game that got an M rating in the U.S...
Research suggests that nearly 60 percent of kids play M-rated games on a regular basis. And data from the Federal Trade Commission shows that underage kids can purchase M-rated games more than four out of ten times. Before “Manhunt 2” hits shelves on Halloween, Common Sense wants to make sure that parents know this game is NOT okay for kids.
Common Sense Media has promised to hold a Manhunt 2 press conference on October 30th, complete with video footage. A screenshot of a police officer being decapitated with a shovel was included with the CSM press release.
UPDATE: We've had some surprising news from Take Two on this story. Here's their statement:
Take-Two wishes to make it clear that the screen shot of Manhunt 2 shown in a recent Common Sense Media press release does not appear in the ESRB-rated version of the game that will be released on October 31. It has been speculated that they have used the unrated version that was leaked some time ago.
Comments
Re: Common Sense Media Urges Parental Boycott of Manhunt 2
Censorship is rubbish, and throw-a-away. Kids, like adults, should be able to buy M-Rated and/or AO-Rated games. Anyone should, this is supposed to be a Free Market Economy. Women and African-Americans have gotten their rights that they did have before, now kids deserve ALL the rights that adults have. But unfortunately we live in a ReaLly HORRIBLE nation/world, where a child's right to play video-games(something that kids do these modern days) gets infringed on. Blashphemy!
As for IDing the real JTs, you'll usually see an append like so:
GP: *insert text that makes Thompson look retarded here*
(NOTE: the preceeding was just an example and not an actual GP appending)
Great. Now I feel a Linkin Park song coming on...
I can't faint the way I did before
Don't turn your back on me. I won't be ignored....
All these guys are asking is that parents are aware that Manhunt is not suitable for thier kids, no mention of banning or censoring anything!
However I'm with Vellocet, why do they single out Manhunt rather than calling for parents to stop buying ALL 'M' rated games for thier nippers.
http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Trevor+McGee/jack-thompson-clown-and-yo...
Hopefully Mr. Zelnick does aswell.
Do you ever send these logs of his comments to news agencies? I don't suppose you'd consider sending his comments about bugging someone's home to the FBI, would you?
I think it was Chaplin that said it, that or Mel Brooks. I'd do it myself, but I haven't the time.
As for the relativity of it, yeah, think about sone crazy guy from Florida we all know of. 'Nuff said.
Can one of the "good" lawyers here comment?
Now, if daddy were to buy a copy for himself...
WAKE UP PEOPLE. There's a COLOSSAL ratings tag on the very front of the box saying that. You CAN NOT MISS IT!
That right there is what seperates responsible parents from douche licks like Whacko Jacko and a few other countless thousands of sad excuses for parents.
What happens if your ultimatum isn't met? Do you just attempt more annoyance tactics, file more frivolous lawsuits, or cry like a baby and throw a temper tantrum because nobody really cares?
Actually since you brought up Saw 4, there is plans to make Saw the video game that is based off of the movies.
I guess since Jack Thompson is so into games way more than movies that he would just wait for the Saw game to come out to mess with.
Jack basically just wants to cause trouble to gamers by messing with our rights.
"Grand Theft Auto"
"Manhunt 2"
I mean seriously, with names like that how are parents supposed to know if the game's appropriate for their kids?
PLEASE, please take action against him. He has infringed upon R* rights (and legal settlements) regularly, casting scandalous aspersions upon your character and the developers' intentions. He really needs to be taken to court for violating agreements and spreading lies and misinformation in a nominally political capacity.
Not to mention, he's a jerk who refuses to bow down to his own defeat, is incapable of rational or polite discussion, and wildly tossing out threats and what would appear to be blackmail if his claims had any merit but are instead slanderous and ignorant. The entertainment of the village idiot is nowhere near worth the cost of NOT bringing long overdue extreme legal actions.
Preferably in time for the Florida disbarrment, considering their record for punishing him for his crimes in an appropriate, lawyer-status-removing manner is currently quite low and can use helpful evidence of his misconduct and violations of agreements. Not only that, but the man is proud enough to claim he BUGGED your house and retains the receipts
@ tony
Jack would have to present some sort of case and have legal approval (prior to making the statements) in order for such claims to have any basis in or support from the law. Considering he has no legal rights to make such demands (and legal action preventing him from such contact), coming across as a terrorist in them, it becomes almost worthless to elucidate that the changes were made, were appropriate for the rating achieved, and exist for all to view with the merest effort to do other than searching for gay porn.
And still Jack is incapable of getting it engraved into his Grinch-heart-capacity brain that videogames, even merely in advertisement, are more mindful of audience than all other forms of media, less graphic.
Or that the exact same measures used to enforce age ratings in numerous businesses and media sales are used to validate age of videogame purchasers. The games aren't being marketed toward minors; any parent who lets their kids watch WWE or whatever deserves to have to refuse requests for violent movies and games for which the kid saw commercials during the program.
And he still misses the reality that such games are not made, marketed, or desired to be sold to children and teens--rather, they exist so that adults can play if they choose, because if their intended audience were younger, they couldn't make such a game fdue to sales potential. If the audience for this game were youn, it would be an entirely noe game.
Of course, Jack would see even everal years as "not enough! it ony took three years and should be rated XXX for its contents! Even though i have neither seen nor heard about the actual contents, since i read rumors and headlines, not bothered to read any studies' actual findings. i know far better than its manufacturers what makes it a murder simulator--no, a COP murder simulator--that destroys our society. and you moron children are making more and more children buy games above their age rating. your blasphemous support for endangering our children with the claim violent games aren "art" ot "protected speech" will work a well as all the others!"
With all his claims proven to be only so much bs, it's no wonder Jack has to come here to validate himself; in real life, he's useless, impotent, immature, foolish, and scornful of intelligent or educated people. To name a few of the less-demeaning qualities he has demonstrated.
Dear Chuma: I have their lawyer’s email and I sent him the email. You’re the idiot, not I.
Way to avoid the real question! For reference, idiot, here it is again:
So Jack, if someone doesn’t look at the comments in this website for the 45 minutes you gave them to answer, they must therefore have something to hide?
The question about you being an idiot was rhetorical - we all know the answer to that one. Only an idiot would be on this idiotic crusade, trying to write idiotic legislation while acting like an anonymous idiot on the internet. Only a genuine idiot like yourself would come here day after day, spewing the same lies and half-truths that are continually debunked by the members of this community (whom you claim are brain dead morons or industry shills - GP is from a CONSUMER group you idiot!) and outside lawyers.
Congratulations, Jack Thompson: Your continued existance, and the fact that you're reading this right now, prove you to be more of an idiot that mere words can say.
Actually, he just raised his intellect level by 2 years with that comment, given him another 70 years he might function as an adult.
- Mature-rated games are not okay for kids under 17, because it's the rating
- If they want to call for a boycott of the game (which is their right) and if they really want their boycott to be efficient, they should ask EVERYONE to boycott it : people who are parents, and people who are not
- Maybe they could acknowledge that all Mature-rated games are not equal in their content. Halo 3 is not Manhunt 2, which is not Oblivion (because Oblivion is rated M, isn't it ?), which is not GTA, etc...
Well, no shit, Sherlock.
If you've seen or played the first one, you pretty much know what you're getting for the sequel.
Still, the CSM will remain nothing more than a pro-censorship PTC-ripoff.
GP: Would you please be truthful? Yesterday, I reported verbatim from your press release about your lawsuit your remarks on why the ESRB is supposedly engaged in some fraud you've alleged (even though I think it's nonsense).
My advice is to dispense with the none-too-subtle legal threats, or you will be back in IP ban land. I'm willing to let you read & post GP because you are a player in the field. But it's not going to be your forum to threaten me or my readers.
Maybe 7 or 8 parents would listen.
Is it that hard to get across that M rated games don't belong in the hands of kids? Calling for a ban is nothing but a lot of hard work to be lazy. Kids aren't required to purchase every game that comes out for their system. Parents aren't required to purchase every game their kids want. So how does this affect them?
If their kids come home with a copy of Manhunt 2, then the parents need to return it, and reevaluate their parenting, because if they did their jobs, their kids wouldn't be sneaking around buying something they don't want in the house. It's not 100% surefire, kids will get curious about stuff, but I was raised right, I wouldn't buy ab M-rated game without my mothers' permission, and I still got to play Halo, Doom, Half-life 2, and Resident Evil. I couldn't play GTA, and I stuck by that rule.
I don't plan on purchasing Manhunt 2, never played the original, because it didn't interest me.
But I don't want it banned. Why should a normal law abiding adult who wants to play this game, never be able to purchase it, because a stupid adult can't control their kids actions?
I believe boycotts surrounding products created in child labor sweat-shops or ill-treated "every-man" are more important. I'm not naive: I know why the group is calling for a boycott, if I follow the core definition of the word.
I truly and humbly believe the campaigns I could put together would be more informative and protective of children, and would never involve a ban or boycott.
Hmmm....maybe I should....
You sat with him in a Condom.. Okay..
And i'm sure Strauss is really bothered over one group calling for a parental boycott.. Game isn't for kids, he knows that, he knows it will be sold to adults.
That 60% of kids play M rated games is NOT the fault of the games industry, it's the fault of parents who think that all games are for kids.
Also, LEARN TO USE THE PARENTAL LOCKS! Doesn't matter if a kid has access to an M rated game if they can't play it. Imagine if a 12 year old gets his hands on a porn video but can't find any piece of technology in the house that will play it.
This game is not intended to reach the hands of your snott-faced, over protected, children. If you do not want your child playing violent games, try actively parenting the child and monitoring the games they play. Stores and the ESRB have created measures to ensure that these games do not reach children. Adults have a right to enjoy games that contain violent and sexually explicit content. Do not strike down the rights of other adults because you cannot parent your children in effective ways. In this paticular circumstance, our rights as free and autonomous adults are more important than the mental safety of your children.
...If we want to start boycotting "obscene" content, then let us start with MH2... We can then turn our attention to every horror movie ever made, scary TV shows, virtually every religious text, and any other work of fiction that might cause intellectual harm to the development of "teh children." Let us go Boycott crazy! Take away our freedoms? Well then, I'll be pleased to suggest that we take away the obscene and ridiculous aspects of your freedom.
Much better. Granted, you still found a way to berate religion, but on the whole a much more acceptable post than we usually get.
Religious comments are given in porportion to how much the topic pertains to it. In this case, we simply have a hand full of crappy and over-protective parents who are trying to protect their children for content that is not even intended for consumption by anyone under 18.
No malice intended, I just like to see other countries get thrown under the bus for the same reasons as the USA.
The game is called Manhunt. If you can't figure out what it's about from the title, you should not be a parent.
As for the Common Sense media, they ruined a completely legitimate point (kids shouldn't play manhunt 2) with a shot at the ESRB. They still are a censorship organization.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
Random Tower: Game News and Commentary
Why is it that these people see this as some kind of protest? This is what they should be doing! They should be boycotting this game if they have kids. The fact that they think they're doing someting out of the ordinary or dramatic is exceptionally indicative of the mentality of parents in North American society.
They seem to think that they're making some kind of statement, but gamers have been telling thme to do this for years! If you don't want your kids playing the game... don't fracking buy it!
Just because you and these nutjobs don't agree with it doesn't make the rating system arbitrarily bogus. You really need to pull your head out of the hole in which you've so firmly wedged it and see that.
Can you go to your hell any louder?
@Mr McCauley
Thanks for sticking up for us man, you are a good leader in that regard.
Common sense: it might not be a good idea to expose a child to insanely violent images.
Orly?
Memo to CSM:
The same FTC report also said that underage kids were able to purchase R/unrated DVDs and Parental Advisory CDs nearly TWICE as much as M-rated games. That means an underage child has an approximately 70% chance to buy Hostel, Saw, or a gangster rap CD than any M-rated game. And please don't give me the interactivity vs. passivity argum
Parents who actively engage their children in daily routine to observe what is consumed by their offspring are applauded. If a parent deems a game too violent or inappropriate for their child and does not buy the game, then they are doing a fantastic job.
My problem with the meat of this article is a call to boycott:
boy·cott
Pronunciation[boi-kot]
–verb (used with object)
1. to combine in abstaining from, or preventing dealings with, as a means of intimidation or coercion: to boycott a store.
This is the main definition and purpose of a boycott. The goal of the intimidation or coercion is to harm the finances and reputation of the creators and distributors of the product. This has nothing to do with good parenting, and is in fact counter-productive in my opinion.
You are a jackass, and so are your friends at Common Sense Media. The primary audience for this is game not parents, nor children.
It's males, ages 18-30.
Some may be married, some may not. Some may be parents, some may not. But no one is going to listen to these retarded old biddies bitching about 'threats to society' and looking down their holier than thou noses at the rest of us.
And by trying to ban the media, you make it all the more appealing to those who may not have even considered buying it before.