A game writer ponders Manhunt 2's bans, Adult's Only Rating and Wal-Mart.
Last week marked quite the SNAFU for Rockstar Games and their parent company, Take-Two Interactive.
The sequel to Manhunt was banned in several countries, protested and effectively killed when the Entertainment Software Ratings Board slapped an Adult's Only rating on it.
One would think the game would only have taken a financial hit in these circumstances, since major retailers like Wal-Mart won't carry a video game rated Adult's Only.
However, neither Nintendo or Sony will release a game with the dreaded AO rating. Which begs the question to me: Why have an Adult's Only rating if it's essentially a Trojan Horse for censorship? Slap that rating on a game, it's dead. Sure, the film industry has the evil NC-17 rating (Absolutely no one under 17) but those movies can still see the light of day.
Plus, it seems pretty disingenuous that Wal-Mart and their ilk will carry movies with graphic violence like Saw or Hostel, but a game like Manhunt, apparently that's crossing a line.
In the midst of the controversy, GameSpot published a first-hand look they got at the game and described the content. It sounds pretty gruesome, with one sequence required the player to decapitate a guard and hold it up to a window.
The thing is, without playing it, I can picture the scene perfectly since it's such a cliche from both the horror and action movie genres.
One common explanation for the double-standard between video games and movies is the interactive nature of games. When you're watching Saw, it's passive. Playing Manhunt, you're pushing the buttons to make the dude on the screen garret somebody with a wire. There is some possibility that this could have a negative impact on children playing the game.
However, what groups like the Campaign for a Commercial-free Childhood forget is that THIS GAME IS NOT FOR KIDS!
Seriously, do parents allow their kids to watch Tarantino movies? If I had kids, I certainly wouldn't, nor would I allow them play original Manhunt or Grand Theft Auto or anything similar. And adult games are nothing new. In my own video game-centric childhood, my parents forbid me to touch the Leisure Suit Larry series, which centered around one man's attempts to have sex with many women.
Besides, since I doubt any of the protesters have actually played the games, they probably don't realize how much patience Manhunt requires. Most of the game consists of hiding in shadows and waiting then very slowly creeping up behind the enemy. It's anything but fast paced and I can't see it holding any kid's attention span for a long time. Heck, it tested mine and I usually love stealth games.
Before writing this, I sat back and watched the trailer again (after confirming to the video website that I am indeed older than 18) and realized, I actually do want to play this game.
Perhaps Rockstar should take a page from Tarantino's play book and switch the more graphic scenes to black and white. That was apparently all it took to keep the NC-17 rating off Kill Bill.
