newvibes

Well for the past two days there has been some pretty furious debate over the ruling by the BBFC to fail the game for certification thus effectively ruling the game illegal to be sold in shops in the UK. The makers of the game, Rockstar, have stood by and labelled it as a piece of fine art.

It brings a unique, formerly unheard of cinematic quality to interactive entertainment, and is also a fine piece of art

In the US the game has been classified as Adult Only which effectively rules it out of the PS3 and Wii markets since both consoles do not support Adult Only games as a matter of principle. Rockstar of course created other games such as Grand Theft Auto and Canis Canem Edit (Bully). The last game to be banned in the UK was Carmageddon back in 1997. With Carmageddon the developers went back and changed all human characters to zombies, thus passing certification. I guess it’s OK to kill zombies but not other fictional characters.

The BBFC banned the game for a variety of reasons including that it featured an “unrelenting focus on stalking and brutal slaying“.

The first game in the series was blamed for the killing of a teenager in Leicester 3 years ago, his family have always maintained that the game influenced the killer of Stefan Pakeerah.

We have been campaigning against these games for a long time and the BBFC made the right decision

But many people have been arguing that the game should never have been banned. How much worse can the game be that some of the things that we see regularly in movies such as Saw for example.

It isn’t just the UK and the US, Ireland have also banned the game. A petition has been set up by American gamers protesting against the censorship of the game.

The American public has the ability to decide for themselves what software they wish to buy and would like to be given the chance to do so freely in the marketplace.

It only has a measly 48 signatures at the moment but that should start to gather momentum. There are also rumors that Australia might be the next country to take action against the game.

My own personal opinion on this is that the decision is a terrible one. Why should we as consumers not be allowed the freedom to choose what we buy. This is a form of entertainment and an age restriction would have been enough. The game isn’t for children and has not been marketted as such and should the game fall into the hands of minors then I cannot see how the game developers should be held responsible for this. Age restrictions are there for a reason. Jodi at younewb makes a good argument against the games banning in the UK.

And what’s up with the UK? They completely banned it. I just don’t understand why it can’t be as simple as developers making a game and consumers buying it. Oh wait, I get it - It’s perfectly fine to release extremely graphic movies because you’re not partaking in the action, while it’s different in video games because you control every gorey bit of it. Alright then, what about porn? Why shouldn’t porn be illegal? Yeah, you’re not involved in the Adult Only action, but I guarantee you’re not watching it for the storyline and plot twists…

On UGS people have been voicing their opinion on the matter too and most are against the decision to ban the game in the UK.

Clearly the game is too dangerous for normal people to play. Only the advanced supermen and superwomen at the BBFC are capable of playing the game without turning into murderers.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.