It had looked for a while as if the bullying of Bully had stopped. But now it's teachers that are calling for a ban on the game. The controversy surrounding the release of the PlayStation 2 edition of the game in 2006 saw the title renamed in the UK to Canis Canem Edit (dog eat dog)--the Bullworth...
The controversy surrounding the release of the PlayStation 2 edition of the game in 2006 saw the title renamed in the UK to Canis Canem Edit (dog eat dog)--the Bullworth Academy school's motto. However, even with the name change, two UK retailers--Currys and PC World--refused to stock Canis Canem Edit.
Bully: Scholarship Edition went on sale in Britain today, and according to the BBC, both the National Union of Teachers and the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association have condemned it.
Scholarship Edition brings the game to the Wii and Xbox 360 and adds new graphics, extra solo missions, and multiplayer games.
Bully puts gamers in the shoes of 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins, who is dumped at a boarding school by his mother and new stepfather. Jimmy is left to fend for himself against bullies, learn skills by attending lessons, and undertake quests such as finding a box of chocolates for an unpopular girl.
The NUT and SCTA think the game, which has been passed by the British Board of Film Classification with a 15 certificate, "encourages" bullying.
NUT's general secretary Steve Sinnott pleaded with retailers in the UK to refuse to stock the title. He said, "At a time when there is a growing concern about bullying in schools and the increasing violence shown toward teachers, the idea of a game that rewards bullies and those who engage in brutal and savage attacks is irresponsible in the extreme. I call upon Amazon, Game, Play, and HMV to withdraw this product from sale immediately."
The Beatbullying charity group was also unimpressed. Throwing in their two pence worth, a spokesman told the BBC, "A video game like this, which encourages, glorifies, and rewards child-on-child violence, does nothing but undermine all our hard work."
This kind of crap is just disgusting because these teachers are spending all of their time trying to ban a game in the name of bullying that is in fact completely anti bullying and could instead be spending their time trying to stop real life bullying and if I was a bullying victim I would be absolutely outraged.
I find it hilariously ironic that these teachers are angry about a game that they probably would champion if they bothered to find out that it doesn't promote bullying at all.
If this is violent then we might as well ban pretty much every game out there. Mario jumps around killing walking mushrooms and fire flowers shouldn't he be put away for being on drugs? Come on now.. I think most people know the difference between games and reality and if he/she doesn't then I think people have a lot more to worry about with this person than just gaming being an issue. It's like watching a movie. Why isn't porn banned? Does that promote rape?? lol fools.
peole i know that this may be a old news but i like to say to all parents that if you think that this game is going to make you're kids bullies, think again beacuse i played it and i see no sighn of it being conterversial, yes i do adment there are some parts in bully that a teacher may not like but teachers lets think again.....this is a video game A VIDEO GAME it has no businnis with you. you what who gives a crap that kids copy it, mabey you should tach kids the diffrance beetween reality and video games!
I think kids can tell the difference between a game and real life. For example in real life I would not pull a fire alarm and beat people up. (ahh every time I think about it I get happy. Great Game) Nobody shoud ban this game in there countries because its super fun!
sigh, these guys are idiots, the story is about STOPING bullies insted of being a bully, you can choose if you want to be a bully people these days just have to learn to play the game befor protesting about it play the game first or are adults to lazy to play games god this world today
If these guys are gonna rely so much on cliche's, shouldn't they realize that the people playing these "videogames" nowadays are nerds?
sad.. Yeah i love bully its an awesome game XD so.. i shoved algernons head down the toilet, so now im supposedly going to shove a fat kids head down the toilet in real life :| JEEZ!! why are some people so against games.. this doesnt encourage bullying .. infact its about stopping it really O.o but you can bully if you want..but its not exactly the storyline...ah..
seriously they gotta chill out the game doesnt even have a real meaning an besides dont talk with ur eyes closed.0_0
People like this don't even realise that the story in Bully is centred on Jimmy Hopkins trying to make the school better by outwitting bullies. Not only that but it encourages going to lessons. sure its a bit ironic and subtle. But if people are going to complain then isnt it down to the parents to make sure they know what their getting thier kids? Seriously if people are going to try to ban games for violence, then ban every other action film, rap song and close contact sport out there while your at it
This game is actually very anti-bullying.... the (ps2) game (at least) portraits the headmaster as king pin bully himself, with Jimmy H seeing through it all.... how can ANYONE miss out on that????????????? The game RULES.
You know what, Rock Star oughta put out a statement saying something like, "Find out a little bit about the game before you bash it!" I thought the game was about being a bully myself until I read that you played the one outsmarting the bullies, not the bully himself. People should leave this game alone.
Its only a game. This is typical of teachers and peaceaholics. They should just shut the **** up about things that they don't even know **** about. They probably only heard the game title and/or a screenshot and just to assumptions. Gaming and real life behaviour have nothing to do with each other. I've shot up streets in GTA killing everyone i see and have no thoughts on evil acts. I don't even like being a bully (even though I do want to play this game), so why would this game change it.
i think the hooting goose crowd of the pc england need to realise that a game dont effect kids thinking, and plus this games a 15 so thats 1 year befor the kid leaves school ... dont let young influent kids play this game morons!
Well, it's an open world game, yes? So you can either beat up the current bullies or become one your self, if I'm correct. Also- you can do nefarious things in almost any video game. Even in the Halo campaign, which is incredibly forced and linear, you can slaughter a bunch of innocent Marines for no reason.
Why does everything in this world must have a disclaimer and warning printed on the box, no matter how menial it is? Lighten up people, IT'S A GAME!
Videogame is videogame, the real life is real life.as well as in case of with GTA or Manhunt very stupid to bun this game.
DO THEY EVEN KNOW WHAT THE GAMES ABOUT! I own the game I found more that u'r character Jimmy Hoppkins tries to stop the bullying in Bullworth Acadmy by uniting the various groups of students. I don't deny I was a little skeptical about the game when I heard about it right after coming off the tail spin of the "Hot Coffee" bit. But overall I found the game to be pretty decent. And not that bad I haven't heard anyone in the U.S. complaining about it sense its original release date they are more concerned about going on about GTA San Andreas and now GTA IV. As far as I'm concerened people in Authority position think they are know it all's about 5hit they have no idea about.
"brutal and savage attacks" Maybe they should play the game before they shoot their mouth off.
rockstar are pathetic to make this game. Manhunt ok. GTA ok. But something which involves children and gets a rating 15 (sometimes = M in USA) is pathetic.
When people say there is NO connection between video game actions and actions in real life, I usually agree and in this case I still will. , most of us who usually lean that way have a very good head on our shoulders. The concern is for those who don't (thanks to bad parenting, lack of social role models, etc.). That would be my concern.
OMG!This is exactly how some people put the blame on GTA for street killing,what the hell.Not that it would happen,but even if an idiot was inspired to do whatever a bad thing a game contains,he probably had that in mind in the first place.Someone who plays Bully isn't suddenly going to have a self esteem boost and go a push around some kids.Same with GTA,no one's going to play through and become a drug,sex,and killing addict.Games ARE for things that you probably aren't going to end up or even can do in real life,that's what makes them fun.They're extrafrikkin'ordinary.
people should really see what a game is actually about before they raise political hell over it.
This article is disturbing. It's worrying that the very people who's job it its teach children, are also first in line to under-estimate their intelligence. Also, notice how they say "all our hard work"? How self-centered, short-sighted. Stick to your curriculums teachers - that's all you have to worry about.
More idiots passing judgement before they play the game. All they've done is read the title "Bully" and thought "this game must be about bullying other people, ban it!". They should play it first to avoid sounding like idiots. With teachers as stupid as this in our schools no wonder our children are all dumber than 'dumb and dumberer'.
Why are Rockstar games always taking heat? I hope they don't have a problem with GTA IV as well.
As a teacher I'm annoyed by the comments on this post. I'm a gamer and not anti the game bully, in fact I bought it yesterday. However none of the teachers I know have any problem with this game either... my problem would be with the irresponsibility of teachers unions (the militant NUT in particular) and the popular press for making this a big deal. Some of the comments here against teachers are appalling and give me no hope for us as a society combating the problems in school about children's lack of respect for their peers or their teachers. In response to the earlier post, I still find the episode of Brasseye that was mentioned pretty hardcore and can't belive it was aired... funny though.
Obviously, nobody played the game, because that's not what the game is about. I redirect you to the Fox News story about the "Sex-Box 360" and how "Mass Effect is a Sex Simulator". The outside media, and the outside opinion of non gamers, has no bearing in anything to do with games what so ever. All they can speak of is ignorance and bigotry.
Bully is so immature kids need to move up and defend our country from zombies with bigass unlimited ammo shotguns! RE4!
bully is EVIL .. all the people commenting should also join me in condeming the full hardcore relations that can be viewed by children playing mass effect !! we should do something to stop this immeadiately !! Thank you for your time in listening to my well informed and considered responce to these games
The teachers' insane hypocrisy is really getting on my nerves now. They encourage people to have an open mind and learn past the surface and learn what things are about before judging people and things. I wish us as gamers could hit back at them, condemning the sorry state of teachers in this country. Teaching well is an art form, not something you can manufacture. It also shows that these anti-bully associations are wasting our time, since they are not willing to do their jobs in depth and would rather act like "The Sun" tabloid journalists.
Britian is like that they always condemn everything they dont even allow cigarettes in video games...in fact they dont allow anything, i think they should get their heads out of their butts
Hahahahahahahhahahah This is ridiculous, this game isnt even that bad at all. I dont see assassins creed being banned, when you can jump of a tall building, take out a concealed blade from your sleeve and land on an innocent civilian, stabbing him in the face, or gears of war being banned, because u can chainsaw someone to pieces, crack peoples skulls in half with a nicely aimed sniper bullet, and when these things happen, the gears people rejoice. You chainsaw someone, and the guy you are using says NICE! Scrath one grub. Woo hoo! so yeah. Why is everyone against games? there are horrific, brutal movies out with explicit sexual scenes, books out that decribe gore and other really messed up things, but they try and ban a game because its called bully!? ridiculous! Ever since gta, loads of people have been against rockstar games, first man hunt, now this (well, manhunt did have some of the most brutal, sickening ways of killing peopleever seen in a video game... try and watch some of them without feeling sick...) people that are against games, especially one as harmless as bully, should go get a life!
NUT is the perfect acronym for an organization THIS fickle and ignorant. Hey dinosaurs, did you guys even play the friggin' game before you went trash-talking about it?
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