From GTA to Bully

I don’t know if RockStar has a deathwish or if they feed off of negative press, but with their new game Bully (Google there isn’t much news yet) they bring the grit of GTA to the schoolyard – at least that is the impression that I get from the first screenshots that they have on their website. Even though the company says:

Rockstar’s “Bully” Web site describes the game as follows: “As a troublesome schoolboy, you’ll laugh and cringe as you stand up to bullies, get picked on by teachers, play pranks on malicious kids, win or lose the girl, and ultimately learn to navigate the obstacles of the fictitious reform school Bullworth Academy.”

I don’t think that you will stay innocent for long… afterall how far can the pranks go? This is likely not going to be limited to playing a variant of Bart Simpson.I know that by blogging this I’m giving them more attention, but it’s better the “devil you know” right? This is certainly not a game that promotes safe and caring schools and anyone who thinks that kids won’t play this must be really living under a rock. Our saving grace (and I shudder even thinking about this) is that places like WalMart who are currently not stocking GTASA may not stock this game as well.

I can’t see a single positve thing that could come out of this game. Even thinking about the benefits that games give for concentration, motivation and the like. In a school context and in a civil context, I think this one is really over the line. I only hope that parents and other groups concerned about safe and caring schools (ATA??) get wind of this and take action.