Monday, June 25, 2007

Manhunt 2 update

There was lots of email response to my story Saturday about the Wii game Manhunt 2. A few are below. Meanwhile, NYT writer Seth Schiesel actually played the game in all its Adults Only-rated glory. Read his account here.)

Just to be clear, however, the AO version will never see the light of day. Turns out (as many of your emails pointed out), Sony and Nintendo won't allow AO games on their systems. What's more, producer Rockstar Games is postponing indefinitely the origial July shipment date. What that probably means is simply that they are reworking the game so it'll get an M rating so the big box retailers will carry it. (The Entertainment Software Rating Board gives the company 30 days from the time of the AO rating to resubmit for a lesser rating.) Like NYT's Schiesel, I wonder if this wasn't part of Rockstar's plan all along, to drum up attention and eventual sales.

So here's a smattering of emails:

From a 21-year-old reader:

"My name is Anthony and I am a huge Nintendo fan. I have been playing Nintendo games since I was 5. I own the WII and I am in love with it. Growing up I played violent games with my brothers all the time. Games with shooting, stabbing and killing people were in my home. Now I am 21 and I have been waiting for Nintendo to release a violent action game for the WII. Rockstar games has come out with "Manhunt 2" and I am excited. Now I hear that it is being plagued as a game that will make kids violent. I don't know what people's problems are with these games. I have played them and I am not out killing people. Games or movies don't make kids violent, it is dumb parents that don't take time out to teach their kids reality from fiction. It makes me sick to see that games can't be sold because of their nature. These companies work hard to make these games, which they stand by completely, to then see them go down the drain by dumb ignorant people. I hate this a lot. I want games with blood and violence in them. I want to live that in a game cause i know that it's wrong to do it in real life. Leave our games alone and blame the parents, not the games."

From Cheryl K. Olson, co-director of the Center for Mental Health and Media at Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry

"I should note that in our research on violent video games (some of which appears in the July issue of Journal of Adolescent Health) we asked over 1200 7th and 8th grade children to list “five games you played a lot in the past six months.” Children listed hundreds of different (verified as real) game titles, including M-rated titles. But not one child listed Manhunt as a game he or she had played. This may be of small comfort to parents."

Posted by Barbara Meltz at 11:30 AM

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