Manhunt 2 Banned in the UK

[animaldude]

I found this very interesting article on gamespot:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6172704.html?tag=latestnews;title;0

 

[UltimaLink007]

It says it was the 2nd to be banned in the UK. What was the first one?

 

[animaldude]

I looked it up on wikipedia and this is what I got this interesting info:

United Kingdom

The introduction of controversial games featuring photo-realistic images, such as Mortal Kombat and Night Trap, led to calls from the tabloid press for games to fall under the Video Recordings Act. The UK games publisher trade body ELSPA responded by introducing a voluntary age rating system in 1994. The ELSPA ratings were succeeded by the pan-European ratings system, PEGI, in 2003. However, although games are generally exempt from the Video Recordings Act, those depicting sexual content, or gross violence towards people or animals, must still be submitted to the BBFC for consideration. BBFC ratings are legally binding, and British law imposes stiff penalties on retailers who sell to under-aged customers.
Carmageddon, in which the gameplay involved mowing down innocent pedestrians, was the first game to be refused classification in 1997 (effectively banning it). The game's publisher, SCI, had a modified version created in which the pedestrians in question were replaced by green-blooded zombies, which completed a successful appeal against the BBFC to overturn their original decision. The uncensored, unmodified version of Carmageddon was later released under an 18-certificate.
In 2004, the parents of a murdered 14-year-old boy blamed the game Manhunt as having been "connected" to the murder (It was later found not to be, as the game was found in the victim's home, rather than the killer's.) [7]; however, Leicestershire police "did not uncover any connections to the computer game." [8] The accusations prompted some retailers to remove the game from their shelves [9]. However following this incident the sales of the game rose due to the free publicity from newspaper headlines. The sequel to the game, released in 2007 was banned in the UK, by the BBFC [10].

 

[Slyguy46]

Yeah, Nintendo and Sony have both announced that they will not publish any A-O rated games (don't know if Microsoft has done so yet), so Manhunt 2 is not coming to the Playstation 3 or the Wii.

 

[yoyolll]

Maybe if the U.S. banned a few things (just to be humane), there wouldn't be as many psychopaths running around (like H. Clinton blaming everything on video games).

 

[webmasterbob]

All the violence in the world is not caused by videogames. Statistically, there are less violent crimes today then in any preceding decade *this statistic was on the FBI website a few weeks ago, I sadly can't find it, if anyone does, feel free to post the link *. If someone were to play Grand Theft Auto for example, you would not instantly decide "WOW, I killed this guy with a machine gun...lets try it in real life!" unless you already have some form of mental illness or poor family upbringing.

However, these violent games should stay out of reach of children. As with rated R movies, rated Mature games display depictions of life which may scare or confuse a young child. However, like a rate R movie, this is where the parent steps in. The parent ultimately has responsibility over a child. In addition, ally newer consoles and Windows Vista + Mac OS X have parental control settings to prevent children from being able to play game with a particular rating or above. Videogames have the ESRB, which many members of Congress, including long time videogame scrutinizer Joe Libermen, have publicly stated they believe the ESRB is the best and most thorough rating system in the free world. In the early part of the 20th century, people attacked movies. Later, they attacked rock n' roll. Now, their scapegoat is videogames.

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Back on topic... As far as the ban is concerned, the UK does not have any form of rights system for freedom of speech and expression. The church can dictate government policy. That's their country and their policy. I do find it odd though they will ban Manhunt 2, which is a far less violent game then many others allowed into the UK *particularly Postal, which you'll never find in my home btw along with most violent games*.

 

[yoyolll]

Right but there are somethings that are just completely unnecessarily insane. I'm talking about movies like Saw and games like Turok (which I actually own), they have such a great amount of violence that it's just stupid now. People who make these should have more common sense, blood and gore aren't what makes a video game fun (mostly).