Teachers Demand Ban on Bully: Scholarship Edition
Once again, a group of concerned citizens are trying to save us from the evils of video games. This time, they are attacking Bully: Scholarship Edition.
The biggest problem I have with this game is that it’s not realistic enough. Surviving the school years is a difficult task, yet this group thinks that telling the truth about our school years isn’t appropriate.
Bully: Scholarship Edition features a shaven-headed teenager who adjusts to life at a new boarding school by harassing others, which the organizations say glorifies bullying. The abuse includes dunking pupils’ heads in toilets, photographing them naked and physically assaulting them. Teachers are also targeted.
“We’re asking retailers to be responsible,” Emily Noble, president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, said yesterday. “Yes, they can sell it and make a buck out of this, but is this the kind of marketing that they want to be [doing], selling games that glorify violence?”
Mike and I were looking at this game at the game store the other day. I flipped through the guidebook showing me how to master the art of chemistry in order to create stink bombs and itching powder.
“I wish they made a girl version of this,” I said, “Then I would finally learn how to deal with girl bullies.”
Mike replied without missing a beat, “Too violent.”
And he was right. Games like this help us deal with bullies. They don’t teach us how to be bullies just like learning the exact buttons to push doesn’t teach us how to make itching powder. Just for once I would like a group of concerned citizens to actually PLAY the game before they protest it.