Game over for Take2?
At gamedaily, James Brightman writes about the controversy of Takes2’s (and Rockstars) upcoming Manhunt.
After the game was banned from sales in England and Ireland, a very controversial desicion bound to create a significant reaction and possibly even a re-write of certain laws, Take2 has decided to put the game on hold for the time being.
I always think that the violence in games should be motivated. What I am saying is that it should be in defense of scary monsters, to free a hostage, for hunting or something like that. No things like pee on somebody’s ripped off head as in Postal and not like hitting some old lady with a bat.
Even though you can’t accuse Rockstar for making bad games, some of the violence might be a bit over the top. And despite the fact that I actually hit a few … (my fiancé will probably say a lot …) old women with my bat in Rockstars GTA. Grand Theft Auto is a really good game, and most of the violence is motivated …I think.
But the entire mainstream media has latched on to the Grand Theft Auto franchise as the symbol of video game violence, and games such as Manhunt and Bully have made waves as well. Now Manhunt 2’s is the latest target. The game was banned in England in Ireland and its AO rating by the ESRB in the US gave Take2 little choice but to put the game on hold.
Following Take2’s confirmation that the title has been “temporarily suspended,” the company’s shares dipped on Friday, but is this the end of the Take2 era? Well, according to the analysts that Gamedaily.biz spoke with it might be so. “It does seem that Take-Two is being a little bit unfairly singled out … because of their history of provocative games,” Nollenberger Capital Partners analyst Todd Greenwald commented. “They’re being burned by their past.”
The word spoken now is that Manhunt 2 will be refit and have a later release with new and not so violent content. I don’t know if that will solve the situation but and its hard to tell whether the publicity helps or hurts, but my guess is that it helps … at least I hope so. Government regulation of intellectual property is not something I would like to see, and it’s very strange that computer games are treated differently from other entertainment media on this issue. Personaly I never liked Manhunt, mostly due to the sadistic nature of the game, but that doesn’t mean I want a big brother looking over my shoulder telling me what I can or cannot play.
Source:gamedaily
Manhunt2, Take2, Rockstar, Games
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