Manhunt 2

Unless you've been living under a rock in the gaming world, then by now you've heard at least a little bit about the controversy surrounding Rockstar Games new title Manhunt 2.   It is supposed to be ultra-violent and  initially received an AO rating  by the ESRB.  AO is the most restrictive rating given by the ratings body; many American retailers will not carry AO rated titles.  Amid protests and threats of legal action Rockstar edited some of the murder scenes and blurred a few of the more graphic sequences in order to get a "M" rating.

I'll admit that I was a little perturbed at first when I heard this had happened.  At what point will society realize that the video game market is no longer a "kids only" medium?  After all, movies like Hostel and Saw are common place in the market.  Deadwood and Dexter show just as much violence on their respective pay TV networks as anything I've seen on a video game.  In fact, if we go past just violence, even sexual content is becoming more mainstream in the entertainment industry, ie. Shortbus, 9 Songs, Tell Me You Love Me.  Isn't a video game just another form of entertainment?  If I can keep my kids from going to see the latest Rob Zombie horror fest, can't I also be entrusted to keep them away from Manhunt 2?

Then I wondered....where do we draw the line?  How much deviant content can we expose ourselves to before it begins to, at the very least subconsciously, affect our psyche?  Is there nothing that will be sacred?  What if they made a game where you got points based on how many women you raped, with bonuses based on the resistance given?  Should we accept pedophilia, bestiality or any other form of deviant behavior you might conjure up as acceptable forms of "entertainment"?  Personally, I think we do need to draw the line somewhere.  By we, I mean the community at large.  The community whose "standards" determine what is objectionable material.  At least that's the way the Supreme Court has viewed it.  I'm not trying to eliminate all violence from video games.  There is however a line where the violence becomes "pornographic" in its enthusiastic portrayal. 

Before we all bemoan how Rockstar "caved" to the threats and protests, maybe we should step back for a minute and think about the "line".  If the community as a whole determined that the content was too much, then maybe it was.  They could have always gone with the AO rating had they really been stalwart in their convictions on their game.  By all accounts this game is a stinker anyway and without the controversy would have gone nearly unnoticed on gaming shelves everywhere.