Teachers Promote Sales Of Bullying Video Game
from the streisand-effect dept
In 2006, we covered the ridiculous campaign to censor Bully, a video game that anti-video game Jack Thompson started denouncing before he'd even had a chance to play it. Now some teachers' organizations are up in arms about the game's sequel, "Bully: Scholarship Edition." The teachers claim it promotes violence, but some anti-bullying advocates thought just the opposite about the original. Even assuming the teachers are right that the game glorifies bullying, the teachers' campaign still seems awfully counterproductive. There's no real evidence of a link between violent video games and real-world violence. American courts have repeatedly held that video games are protected by the First Amendment, so it's not like a ban would pass constitutional muster anyway, at least here in the states. But the biggest problem with the teachers' campaign is our friend the Streisand Effect: I bet a lot of our readers had never heard of "Bully: Scholarship Edition" until they read this post. I certainly hadn't before I started writing it. Getting singled out for condemnation by humorless teachers' organizations is the kind of publicity money simply cannot buy. The teachers' efforts are going to give the game more buzz than it would have gotten otherwise, and that will cause a lot more people to hear about it, which will lead to more kids playing it. Personally, I think the vast majority of kids know the difference between playing a game and bullying people in real life, so that doesn't worry me too much. But if the teachers' theory about the link between video games and real-world behavior is correct, their own campaign is likely contributing to the problem by making the game more popular.
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Filed Under: bully, streisand effect, teachers
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i now find myself running around in a blue jumpsuit trying to grab gold rings, or put on some plumber pants and a red had and eat mushrooms to get bigger, and flower to make me spit fireballs....
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I just got that yesterday
The first thing in the game you do (Asides from beating up billies as a tutorial) is save the nerds. It condones proper behavior and rewards class participation. One of the mini games even helps with spelling and vocabulary (I suck at that part).
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Second, Bully isn't anything special. The only reason it stands out is because it is a game about KIDS in SCHOOL rather than some random criminal on the streets. Streisand Effect indeed, as more people hear about games like this, the more they (should) realize that they are virtually harmless in the hands of a normal, MENTALLY HEALTHY child. I'm glad to see teachers promoting video games of any kind.
Third and finally, it is no coincidence that the more violent individuals also happen to be gamers. Gaming can be just as enjoyable alone as in a group, and the majority of psycho college shooters have either been complete loners who probably filled their social void with video games, or those with many friends, possibly who used video games as their only social interaction.
Seriously, if video games really made you kill people, we would KNOW FOR SURE by now. There would be NO question about it.
PS: I think teachers and people like Jack Thompson should spend their time stopping REAL WORLD VIOLENCE rather than using games as a scapegoat. Find the real sources and get rid of Hazing and Bullying and sadistic fraternity initiations and all that business before worrying about video games.
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Re:
That is quite possibly the most ignorant statement I have read today. First of all the statement "it is no coincidence that the more violent individuals also happen to be gamers" is entirely false. Of all violent crimes committed, most are committed by people who have never even seen a game, but rather generic criminal elements. Further, to assume that because many school shootings are perpetrated by people who have played video games is absurd. Based on the statistics of the number of people attending a school that play video games regularly, it would be as if I were to liken coffee drinking to a school shooting... one does not correlate to the other.
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Why God? Why am I unable to stop myself from pointing out semantic/grammar errors in comments?
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Charles Manson, Adolph Hitler, Name-Your-Famous-Violent-Person, etc never played video games. They just got the Silly-String gene and would've been violent regardless of their surroundings.
Violence is a social deviation and no video game is going to influence that, one way or the other.
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Re; Casper
Any assertion of the contrary would be what I deem ignorant. Like this Jack Thompson or whatever his name is. Jack Thompson probably -didn't- get to play any games as a child (violent or otherwise), on account of him being a loser with no friends =] Now, in his adult life, he's trying to ruin games for contemporary kids too..
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Bully was originally supposed to be a 360 exclusive title. If there are graphical issues (I have seen none) than it's because it was ported from the 360 to the PS2 and then back again from the PS2 to the 360.
To Sopor42: That was the quote I was looking for. It's the first thing I thought when I read this.
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Games
Now I have no fancy numbers of college degree to back up my theory, but I'd be willing to bet it's accurate in 5% of cases. And the other 55? Well they were probably unbalanced little psychos before hand! Remember folks, there were idiots and violent kids long before computers became a popular form of entertainment.
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Re: Games
...accurate in 95% of cases. And the other 5%?...
Sorry!
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AC #1 is right, video games didn't affect us...
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I don't know where you got that information from, but it's completely untrue. I worked on the this game, and it was not only developed as a PS2 title from the beginning, but it was in production long before the 360 existed.
It runs on a modified version of the GTA 3 engine, which was also written for PS2.
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