Controversial publisher Rockstar is asking for the industry's support in its battle to revoke the BBFC's 'no rating because it's revolting' decision on Manhunt 2. In an interview with Develop, Rockstar Leeds chief Gordon Hall, said:
"But if you look at a film like Man Bites Dog, it makes Manhunt look tame in comparison, but that film can be bought by anyone aged 18... We need to teach people that games are an art form - they are more artistic than film.
"I think the games industry should rally behind us, because there will come a time when we'll all have an idea that's a little edgy, and we need to have the freedoms to express it.
"We are an adult entertainment industry - we may have started out with child-like technology making games solely for a younger audience, but it's just not like that anymore. It might take legislature a little while to catch up, but if the industry sticks together hopefully we can change people's attitudes quicker."
Well, first of all, Man Bites Dog was a small, independent foreign language film, which received a tiny cinema run, and which had salient points to make about the nature of violence and the voyeurism of the mass media age. Manhunt 2 is a mainstream release about virtually context-free extreme violence. There's a bit of a difference here - even if we don't want to admit it to ourselves; even if we rail against the elitism and classism implicit in the suggestion that it's okay for arty middle-class cinema goers to experience hyper violence but not the hoi polloi in front of their games machines.
Plus, how adult is Manhunt 2? I mean really? Some of the defences I've read for the game in various magazines have been laughable - the sulky squealings of little boys who've been told they won't get to pull the wings off a daddy long legs today.
At least be honest. Manhunt 2 - like Saw and Hostel - is a trashy piece of gore for frothy-mouthed teenagers. Except it shows the acts of violence in the sort of gratuitous detail we think we see in movies, but rarely do.
I can't imagine slogan-shouting industry execs gathering behind Rockstar at the gates of Downing Street. Weeks after the BBFC decision I'm still not sure whether this is a game that fundementally needs to be defended, or whether lines must be drawn for the makers of mainstream entertainment. I just know that citing films that only a tiny percentage of the population have seen is not the way to build an argument.
