Dog Eat Dog
There's a game out there that's creating a stir. It's a game that features violence, but not the kind of violence we've become accustomed to in many popular action and first-person shooter titles. There are no decapitations from shotgun blasts, no severed limbs, no Mortal Kombat killing moves. No, instead we have sling shots, firecrackers and a potato cannon. Instead of zombies, gang-bangers or invading aliens, we have teenage bullies. I know why it's causing a stir - or at least, I thought I knew why. Now I'm not so sure.
The game is Bully, also known as Canis Canem Edit, which is Latin for Dog Eat Dog, in Europe and Australia. It was developed and published by the notorious game maker Rockstar Games. It was released last week, but has been generating controversy and headlines for months. Florida lawyer and gaming critic Jack Thompson among others, from over-zealous legislators to peace-loving charities, have taken up arms against Rockstar and its newest game.
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Considering all of the protests and bans of the game, I was expecting something closer to the 2001 movie "Bully" from director Larry Clark (who directed the exceedingly disturbing and controversial movie "Kids"). I was fully expecting that players would assume the role of a bully or at least a member of the ruling class. I expected lots of illicit drug use, criminal behavior, violence, sex and all sorts of abusive and anti-social behavior. In short, I was expecting the game to be Rockstar's piece de resistance, a game so joyfully absent of morals and so incendiary that it would essentially serve as a giant middle finger to media critics, lawmakers and so-called "values voters" everywhere.
But as more and more information about Bully began to slowly trickle out from Rockstar - which was no doubt milking the free publicity and feeding the controversy machine as best it could - it became clear that the game would be something entirely different. Instead of bullying, players would assume the role of social outcast and trouble student Jimmy Hopkins, who is supposed to stand up to his tormenting classmates. Instead of boozing and beating up other kids, Jimmy would be rebelling against the oppressive class system at the fictional Bullworth Academy that allowed the popular preppy students to abuse and ridicule their smarter but less good-looking counterparts.
As someone who often got the crap kicked out of him during his grade school days, the idea of a game based on the twisted social hierarchy of America's schools intrigued me greatly. I imagine it has also piqued the interest of many gamers. I don't wish to generalize gamers, but I suspect quite a few, if not the vast majority, were bullied in school. And I'm sure a lot of gamers still are branded as nerds and geeks and are inflicted with an assortment of insults. What better fantasy realm, then, for gamers than Bully, where players get to rebel against the oppressive hierarchy and turn the tables on the in-crowd jocks and mean girls?
Games Radar likened the game to J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" for the video game generation. While comparing Bully to one of the most beloved and insightful works of literature in the last century is a stretch, the connection isn't far off. Bully is still a giant middle finger of sorts, flipping off the establishment. The game is critical of the social structure and class system of today's schools; it explores with a surprisingly level of authenticity just how miserable the high school experience is for many, if not most, teens, especially those that do not curry the favor of the popular in-crowd members; it even turns a critical eye to those that run our schools, as many teachers are negatively portrayed as highly flawed adults who should hardly be in the position of shaping young minds.
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