Banned British Manhunt 2 Identical To M Rated US Version

I suspected as much when the news broke earlier this week, Rockstar made one set of changes to Manhunt 2 and submitted the results to both the ESRB and BBFC. Why the ESRB passed it and the BBFC didn’t is the question everyone is asking.

I still say the reasons are political, with a government study into the effects of interactive media on children announced on the same day as the BBFC’s ruling. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there was an ‘informal chat’ between a government official and someone from the BBFC along the lines of ‘Look we’re starting this study, we want to spin it so that we can restrict the freedom of expression of videogame makers, it wouldn’t do us any good if you pass this game.’ Purely conjecture of course and my distrust of government generally colours my opinion somewhat.

The BBFC have replied to criticisms that they are treating games differently from films with the following, from spokesperson Sue Clark:

“If we were more tough on games than any other medium, don’t you think we’d be banning far more titles? Manhunt 2 is the second game we have rejected in 23 years. I’d hardly call that draconian.”

The fact that many films don’t make it through the process, many more than games anyway, doesn’t seem to get the same amount of coverage as the games that don’t make it. I still say that the reasons given by the BBFC for the banning of Manhunt 2 are not the best ones. It is not their place to judge the tone of a piece, merely it’s content, and unless the content involves child pornography or overt racism then frankly it should be up to the adults buying the game whether the content is appropriate or not. The BBFC are not arbiters of taste, if they were then the crime against cinema that is Legally Blonde 2 would never have seen the light of day. They should also not have the power to ban films or games, it is merely their job to judge their suitability for certain age groups.

The problem as I see it is not with the makers of the games, nor is it with the games themselves, it is with those who sell them. If retailers were more responsible and if the ratings system were more effectively enforced then children wouldn’t be able to go into a shop and buy an 18 rated game with no questions asked, and anyone buying one would be informed that the title is not suitable for children. Retailers have the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason, if a sales assistant believes that an adult is buying an age rated game for a child then they should feel that they have the power to refuse that person service. During my days at GAME (who it seems aren’t going to give me a Christmas temp’s job, I must ask them why, the answer could be quite illuminating) I often refused to sell 18 rated titles to an adult on the grounds that I’d seen them talking to a kid outside the shop and money changing hands, I would also explain to ill informed parents that the Grand Theft Auto they were buying for little Johnny’s birthday really wasn’t suitable for anyone under the age of 18 and explain the reasons. I did my part to inform parents as to the adult nature of a lot of games and the fact that the ratings system was there to inform them.

Also it seems that as the debate in the US regarding adult video games has quietened down, with many state and federal courts throwing out anti-game legislation as unconstitutional, the debat in the UK has heated up. Of course we have no such thing as protection of free expression, which the US has under the First Amendment, so basically if the state doesn’t like something that someone is saying, writing, filming, producing and publishing they can quite legitimately shut them down, often quite punitively. I have to live in hope that this particular political football will be punctured by some pointed arguments from the games industry, and gamers.

As gamers, I feel that we have a duty to defend our preferred form of entertainment, educate those that are ignorant about it, and fight to gain acceptance from the mainstream. It used to be that games were a marginal medium, this is how the old guard of the mainstream media would like things to stay, they are fighting a losing battle however and we have to make sure that the government, wherever we are, is not swayed by the ill informed public opinion that is being spread about. Like it or not gaming is mainstream, and has been for a while, its simply a case of getting the rest of the world to realise it.

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