A Matter of Taste

With Manhunt 2’s future still uncertain, Games asked those in the know to comment, and found an industry divided.
A Matter of Taste

WHILE IT IS an uncomfortable truth, one of the defining attributes of the videogame audience is apathy. Few demographics cling to and venerate their medium’s great triumphs as readily as gamers, but when it come to discussing the thorny issues and inherent weaknesses that plague our fledging art form they can be worryingly dismissive.

Censorship – particularly regarding depictions of violence is one such issue. The wider public’s ignorance of the medium has resulted in games being implicated in a dizzying array of crimes and misdemeanours, often with little more that circumstantial evidence for support, yet place an article about Italy’s reaction to Rule of Rose or Germany’s problems with Dead Rising before an average gamer and the response is likely to be boredom. Such stories are all too frequent and can seem inconsequential, but they speak loud and clear about the stage that videogames are at in their stage of evolution.

The censorship story is far from tired – quite the opposite, it never stops being relevant – and while the news that Rockstar’s Manhunt 2 was being banned in the UK provoked some debate, there was a bemusing air of acceptance among gamers. Despite a negative and well-earned reputation after decades of censorious decisions, the BBFC has reinvented itself as one of the most liberal and permissive classification boards in the world. However, it is the BBFC’s brief that even an adult is unfit to deal with the oppressive atmosphere and bleak violence of Manhunt 2. It is a decision virtually without precedent – the board that banned Carmageddon has a very different view of art – which speaks of a much larger issue, and whether you’ve played the game or not, apathy is the last thing any self-respecting gamer should offer. After all, for an industry so in the thrall of the PR machine, its prominent figure have been refreshingly verbose on the subject of Manhunt 2’s fate.

The work of Danny LeDonne, the creator of Super Columbine Massacre! RPG, exists outside the mainstream, but the controversy surrounding his game makes him ideally placed to comment on the issue. “There is no amount of violence that is too extreme for an M or AO-rated game. This is the point of the rating system,” LeDonne told games in a recent interview. “Language, sexuality, violence, and almost anything else in media are a product of the mind of it’s creators. We may find the content objectionable and it is our right not to consume it, but there is no justification for taking away the opportunity for others to view this work. Censorship is a losing battle and, moreover, it never works – especially in the 21st century.

LEDONNE’S POINT IS a salient one. The contemporary, media-savvy audience is likely to be even more intrigued by this sudden prohibition, and digital technology has made obtaining such items a more formality. “If you prohibit a product, whether it’s alcohol, marijuana or a videogame title, you will not cease its distribution. Rather you will drive its distribution underground where there can no longer be regulation at point of sale, ”he explains. “We now live in a global society, and it is almost farcical for an individual country to ban the sale of a game since one can easily order this game overseas or even download the files necessary to play it on a personal computer. Prohibition never works but is especially ineffective with non-physical objects like computer code,”

The timing of the BBFC’s ruling meant that very few representatives of the gaming media were able to view Manhunt 2 before Take-Two decided to shelve it. Stephen Totio, game reported for MTV News, was given the chance to play the first six levels, and admits that the experience was, in artistic terms, a positive one. “Having played six levels of the game, I find Manhunt 2 to be a provocative test of a gamers threshold for playing a violent role,” He observes “Manhunt 2 allows the player a range of three levels of brutality with which to interpret their role as mentally disturbed Daniel Lamb. It’s an interesting choice even though, given that the game is ultra-violent however you play it, in some ways it’s not much of a choice at all. I welcome the Manhunt series as an interesting experiment of players’ limits, and I’m glad to have player both games in the series”

WHILE MANY SEEK to justify the game’s violence by drawing comparisons with the glowing trend for exploitative horror cinema, for Totilo it seems a weak defence and one that makes the ambiguity of the questions Manhunt 2 indirectly poses. “I find the many comparisons people have made between Manhunt and movies like Saw and Hostel to be disingenuous. We gamers enjoy playing games for a reason, and to defend out chosen form of entertainment against outside critics by claiming that violence s one form of entertainment is entirely the same as violence in another to deny the very wonder of videogames,” He notes “Sure, violence in movies and games is equally fake, but only one form of entertainment links reward and penalty systems to violence perpetrated on the screen. For gamers to truly explain the merits of violent games, they must be able to articulate why and how they find interactive violence compelling. They need to honestly explore why game violence can be fun and why it seldom inspires a feeling of guilt or horror. Having not completed Manhunt 2. I’m not informed enough to quibble with the game’s AO rating” Totio continues “it only took one half-developed sex scene to turn Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas from M to AO. Maybe these’s something i haven’t seen in Manhunt 2 that would clearly push it over the rater’s standards as well. That sad, what i saw was gruesome, engaging and entirely inappropriate for children. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see it rated M” Whether the content of the game is too extreme is a personal issue – limits of taste will vary depending on the individual – but the game being effectively banned in both the UK and America has a wider importance. “Ido find it hard to believe that Manhunt 2 is so extreme that it merits being the first games rejected in a decade,” Totilo admits. “More distressing here in the US is the fact that even thought the ESRB found a ratings category is felt suited the game, Manhunt 2 is still blocked from release because Nintendo and Sony won’t allow AO games on their platforms. I’d like to think that a game console would be designed to be as agnostic about the range of what you put in it as a toaster or a personal computer. That the companies that control that the market will effectively block content that the ESRB rates as acceptable to a certain age group is a disappointing reminder of how tightly controlled console gamers range of experience actually is” Both LeDonne and Totilo seem to acknowledge that there is a principle at stake with banning a game that exists outside the relative extremity of its content. Whether international or not, a precedent has been set that many feel will be a godsend to the conservative media institutions who so readily scapegoat the medium. David Braben founder of Frontier Developments, sees managing the media’s portrayal of such events as a decisive factor in legitimising the industry. “The real problem has been the reaction of the media, and the sensationalism in the articles about these issues, particularly the Manchester Cathedral [In resistance] issue, “Braben observes “it would seem little or no effort was put into checking the facts, which is especially surprising from people like the BBC. Mark Simpson described the game as ‘computerised bloodbath’ and elsewhere it was described as a ‘game about killing people’. They have chosen a very short clip showing the player shooting their colleagues – quite clearly an intentional deception, implying that this is what the game is about. The icing on the cake is they then interviewed Patsie McKie from Mothers Against Violence, who has tragically lost her son to gun crime, so it has hardly surprising that she was asking for the game to be banned given how it has been described. From their descriptions I would be surprised if any of these people had actually played the game”

THE DEBATE SURRONDING the use of Manchester Cathedral in Resistance seems like small beer compared to the reaction Manhunt 2 received, and Braben feels that its approach to violence – coupled with Rockstar’s reluctance to defend it’s choices – can only harm the industry. “It seems like this is exactly the sort of game as an industry, we should not be making as it gives ammo to our detractors, but having said that i have no yet seen it myself, so I am aware this is a little hypocritical,” he admits “I think if there were more debate, if, for example, Rockstar put up someone to answer the obvious questions about the game and defend their positions, this might help a lot. We are left assuming the controversy they are creating is all part of their marketing campaign. Despite all the efforts and the BBFC, the real problem is that we don’t have proper enforcement of age ratings, so the presumption is that children will see it and play it anyway – which i suspect is the reason for the ban”

The majority of people with an interest in the medium seem to agree that Manhunt 2’s ban has more to do with protecting children than adults despite the BBFC’s fervent denial that it played any part in the decision. For an objective classification board to deny one demographic access to protect another would be a corruption of the BBFC’s supposed role, but the fact remains that the industry’s inability to distinguish between its younger and older audience is a prevalent concern.

STE PICKFORD, WHO has worked in game development for more than 20 years, feels that any company releasing a game with such adult content needs to display a greater scenes of social reasonability “I think videogames should be able to tackle any subject and not be limited to child-friendly themes, but while games are still popularly considered to be ‘for kids‘. I think publishers of adult-only videogames have a duty to market and sell such products carefully and responsibly,” he offers “Popular perception isn’t far wrong. The mainstream videogame media and retail outlets are focused on kids, and therefore this isn’t an appropriate arena in which to market an adult-only game. Casual and accidental exposure to minors is inevitable in a way that isn’t true of books, videos and movies, where adult-only material is popularly understood and marketed through separate channels. Rockstar could have taken a reasonable approach with Manhunt 2 and in the process done something really good for the industry. “Pickford continues, “They could have made a serious effort to sell and market the game strictly to adults only and some great, positive publicity for their efforts. Off the top of my head they could have limited game media coverage to the few adult-oriented magazines like games and Edge gone for coverage in the likes of Loaded, GQ, Zoo and so on, avoided child-friendly outlets like supermarkets and Game, and insisted that places like HMV and Virgin stock the game in their 18+ movie sections rather than alongside Pokemon and Mario in the videogame sections. They could even sell it in licence sex shops. They certainly have the clout to try some creative marketing techniques, and by appearing as a responsible adult publisher they’d completely diffuse any potential outrage from the likes of the Daily Mail and Keith Vaz, and have a very good case for arguing against the BBFC’s refusal to rate the game. Instead, Rockstar has attempted to market an adult-only game to the child-oriented mainstream. They’ve previewed the game heavily with the kid-friendly Nintendo press, they’ve promoted the game via newsagent bottom-shelves – Manhunt 2 shared the cover of NGamer with Mario – and was presumably hoping to sell the product in Game and the videogame section of the supermarket – outlets parents consider safe places to let their kids browse.” Take-Two Strass Zelnick claimed that Manhunt 2 was ”a fine piece of art”, and yet the way the game is publicised suggest purely commercial product. Manhunt 2 has been sheleved and it seems very likely that the game will be placed back into development where the violence that it supposedly so integral to this “fine piece of art” will be removed to make it more palatable. Manhunt 2, it seems, is no more art than populist horror sequels like Hostel: Part II or Saw III, and in the current industry there's too much at stake to rule out potential customers.

The defence that Rockstar is simply ‘playing the game’ is no longer enough. No other studio courts controversy with quite as much vigour, and while it has occasionally brought great financial rewards, its deserving reputation as one of the most consistently impressive developers in the world is suffering.

“Of course, they’d sell far fewer copies than if they hit mainstream outlets with a tidal wave of hysterical publicity, but maybe the truth is that there isn’t a very big market for adult-only games just yet, and that market doesn’t support titles with high development budgets,” Pickford admits. “I think they’ve acted irresponsibly, not in making an adult-only game, but in marketing a game like this to the mainstream and not taking any genuine steps to avoid casual exposure to minors. You’d think they were trying to stimulate demand for Manhunt 2 among young teens … it’s a shame because behind the questionable marketing there is a brilliant and courageous developer.”

The Verdict
NOT GUILTY

The final word on the most controversial game of the year.

WE WERE NEARING the end of the penultimate level of Manhunt 2 when the news that the BBFC has refused it a certificate came through. We’d become on of the few industry commentators to have played it from beginning to end. Given that the most common response to the question of whether the game should have been banned is ‘I don’t know I haven’t played it’, we should be in a better position to comment than anyone, Right?

Wrong. For us, this isn’t an issue of whether the game’s content oversteps the mark because after much discussion it became clear that ‘the mark’ lies in a very different place for every member of the team. That the BBFC has decided where the mark is for all of us in a more pressing concern. Despite having the choice to marry, drink, drive, and apply for a gun licence, the BBFC has decided that adults are unable to choose whether Manhunt 2 oversteps their personal mark. We could speculate that the board’s real concern is keeping it out of the reach of children, or to protect itself from the level of scandal that plagued the original, but without proof such musings are without merit. Suffice to say that had it been released. Manhunt 3 wouldn’t have been on all of our shopping lists anyway, but it should be out right to decide for ourselves.

In the last 15 years the BBFC has been broken free of it repressive image and emerged as one of the most permissive classification boards in the world. Commendable but hardly conclusive evidence that Rockstar has been clumsy and deliberately provocative is unarguable, but the BBFC’s ruling has more in common with those it made about video nasties in the eighties than with its new, liberalised attitude. Without any widely trusted research to prove the negative effects of interactive entertainment on human behaviour the “unjustifiable human risks” that Manhunt 2 allegedly presents to free-thinking adults are no more real than the simulated violence on screen, and therefore in Hostel and Saw. The world may be tired of Rockstar’s cavalier attitude and the harm its done to the industry’s public perception, but for use this is a matter of choice: a chance we have been denied.

A BAD MONTH
The buck doesn’t stop with Manhunt 2

WHILE WE WOULD love to dismiss the insistence that videogame industry is an irresponsible as the paranoid delusions of the ultra-conservatives, there are times when it’s difficult to argue. Of course, the Manhunt 2 debacle didn’t help matters, but when the following few weeks saw Law & Order II withdrawn from sale for using a CCTV still of James Bulger being led away by his murderers as an ambient detail, and a Burnout Dominator poster being forcibly changed after the ASA expressed its severe disapproval 0 the poster should and image of a smashed car surrounded in shattered glass, bearing the legend, “Inner peace through outer violence,” Colossal over sights such as this lead us to suspect that the Daily Mail has spies working to bring down the industry from within.

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