Take-Two's Day Gets Worse: Is The Wiimote A Murder Simulator?
Well this is questionable for several reasons, innit? Mere hours after Britain banned sales of Manhunt 2, North American watchdogs at the Center for a Commercial-Free Childhood have demanded that the game receive an Adults Only rating from the ESRB before its July 9th release.
The game has already been rated by the ESRB, and Rockstar and Take-Two have already been informed of the rating. We have not, but seeing as it's a deliciously violent game that includes, at the very least, eyeball/syringe penetration and castration, I'm banking on either an M or an AO. But since the AO is a mortal blow to most games, since it means being locked-out of many retailers, I'd bet my plums that T2 is doing everything in their power to make sure that rating is a square "M."
(Insert bit about parents parenting, retailers adhering to rating age requirements, and not letting your kid play a game that makes him disembowel another human being - no matter what letter or letters appear in the little ESRB box.)
Meanwhile, during my serenade about personal responsibility, the CCFC evolves their worry: now the plucky, rounded, Fisher-Price-looking white plastic Wii remote is a bloodbath tutor. That's the greatest thing I've heard since Mavis Beacon Teaches Slaughter.
Make the jump to hear the crazy.
The CCFC maintains:
In Manhunt 2, players can saw their enemies’ skulls in half; mutilate them with an axe; castrate them with a pair of pliers; and kill them by bashing their heads into an electrical box, where it is blown apart by a power surge. On Wii, players will not merely punch buttons or wield a joy stick, but will actually act out this violence…
Ok, no they won't. They'll be moving a plastic wand around in response to pixels on a screen, not getting a Wurther's Original candy every time they give daddy a Dominican Necktie. And if they do, sign me up: those babies are tasty.
The CCFC continues:
If ever there was a time for the ESRB’s strongest and most unambiguous rating, it is now. An Adults Only rating is the only way to limit children’s exposure to this unique combination of horrific violence and interactivity…
An “M” rating is more like a wink and a nod than an effective safeguard. The industry appears to be going through its paces, but as the FTC’s most recent data show, these games are still being marketed to children.
Once again the anti-gaming lobby undermines the ESA. Declaring one rating valid and another ineffective is both self-negating logic and massively unhelpful. Nobody disagrees that the ratings system as it stands needs improvement. It needs support from watchdog groups and politicians; it needs enforcement at the retail level; it needs an adrenalin-shot of an awareness campaign that make parents realize it exists for their benefit if they use it. It does not need more hand-wringing hysteria decrying some ratings as ineffective and others as panacea.
Manhunt 2 looks like a truly sick game. Kids shouldn't play it. The parents whose responsibility it is to ensure the safety of their kids environments should use the tools at their disposal to keep kids as safe as possible for as long as possible. But violent video games, rap music, comic books, dancing, jazz music, and uncovered piano ankles will never cause the apocalypse.
At any rate, the game's already been rated. Now we just have to wait and see what it got.
MORE Bad News for Rockstar: Wii-mote Control Prompts Demand That Manhunt 2 Be Adults-Only in North America [GamePolitics]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 19 June 2007
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: ccfc, manhunt 2, north america, rating, rockstar
Wurther's Original candy?
don't you mean: Werther's Original candy?
they're very nice, until you accidentally suck out a filling and scream uncontrollably because of the agony...
The ESRB's website lists Mature and AO as...
"MATURE
Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.
ADULTS ONLY
Titles rated AO (Adults Only) have content that should only be played by persons 18 years and older. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity."
Based on reading previews for Manhunt 2, I'm not 100% that the game fits either of those descriptions. "Prolonged" seems to be the key difference and is something that could be interpreted in many different ways.
The confusing part of this story is the involvement of the CCFC. Even with an M rating (there's no way it got a T), the ESRB is doing what they can to keep it out of the hands of "the children." Maybe CCFC should talk to retailers that sell M rated games to kids instead of complaining to an organization that provides more accurate ratings than the MPAA ever has.
I wasnt interested in this game until I read this :o.
and i was a little interested until i read this post... seriously, i can say that with this kind of publicity it will most likely not make it to south america
Manhunt 1 was banned in a few places for it's violence...
But then it is true people underestimate the "M" sign on certain boxes
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing reference FTW!
nice job my friend, I love it.