Adults only rating may kill sales of video game

Rockstar Games has come under fire. Again.

First, there was "Grand Theft Auto," whose graphic portrayal of drugs, sex and violence put it squarely in the cross hairs of Congress.

Next came "Bully" about a slingshot-wielding 15-year-old at a boarding school.

Now, the company's latest video game has just been banned in England and Ireland and is facing a ratings controversy in the United States.

Players of "Manhunt 2" assume the role of an escaped mental institution patient who goes on a killing spree as he fights his way to freedom. It includes special death moves players can perform by moving the Wii's wireless, motion-sensitive controller at just the right moment.

British Board of Film Classification director David Cooke said the board was unable to approve the game because it "constantly encourages visceral killing."

In the United States, the video game industry's self-regulated ratings board has given a preliminary version of "Manhunt 2" an "adults only" rating instead of the more lenient, and far more popular, "mature" rating for ages 17 and up.

Slapping "Manhunt 2" with the Entertainment Software Rating Board's most stringent rating would likely doom sales. Large retailers including Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart won't stock AO-rated games.

At the same time, Nintendo Co. and Sony Corp. said their policies bar any AO-rated content on their systems.

Microsoft has a similar policy, but "Manhunt 2" wasn't planned for the Xbox 360.

Still, the game's publisher, Take-Two Interactive Software — Rockstar's parent company — said it was determined to bring the title to market.

Rockstar spokesman Rodney Walker said "Manhunt 2" was meant to be a horror game, something akin to gory films like "Saw."

He called Britain's decision a form of censorship because the public would never get to decide for itself.

"People think of video games as a kids' medium but the fans are so diverse and the games are diverse," he said. "When you ban a game, you're putting a limit on what sort of creative choices people can make."

But Cooke insisted that the game would "involve a range of unjustifiable harm risks to both adults and minors."

Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive Software have six weeks to appeal.

In the United States, meanwhile, a national coalition of educators and child advocacy groups sent a letter to the video game industry's self-governed ratings board this week hoping to slap "Manhunt 2" with the strictest rating possible.

In a letter to ESRB President Patricia Vance, the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood urged the stricter, "AO" rating.

No one at the group has seen or played the game, though. Campaign spokesman Josh Golin said the view was based on comments from a video game critic and various studies on video games and violence.

"If ever there was a time for the ESRB's strongest and most unambiguous rating, it is now," wrote Susan Linn, co-founder of the CCFC. "An adults-only rating is the only way to limit children's exposure to this unique combination of horrific violence and interactivity."

The group said the Wii version was particularly troublesome because players would be able to act out the violence with the console's controller.

"It is reasonable to expect that being able to go through the motions of violence while playing Manhunt 2 will exacerbate its negative effects," the letter said. "Given what is already known about the impact of violent games played on standard game controllers, it is irresponsible to make this game available to children and teens on a potentially more dangerous platform."

Defending the less-restrictive "M" rating, Walker said people shouldn't treat video games like toys.

"Video games are a very sophisticated medium," Walker said. "Ratings systems and classifications boards have to adapt to the audience and the audience has already voted. We keep having the same arguments over and over again."
Source :http://www.news-record.com