Bully (video game)

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Bully (video game)
Image:Bully frontcover.jpg
Developer(s)	Rockstar Vancouver
Publisher(s)	Rockstar Games
Engine	RenderWare
Released	PlayStation 2 NA October 17 2006 EU October 25 2006 AU October 27 2006[1] Xbox 360 and Wii March 4 2008
Genre	Action / Adventure
Mode(s)	Single Player
Ratings	ESRB: T OFLC: M OFLC (NZ): R13 BBFC: 15 IFCO: 16+
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, Wii
Media	DVD, Wii Optical Disc, DVD-DL

Bully, also known as Canis Canem Edit (Latin for "dog eat dog") in the PAL region,^[2] is a third person action-adventure video game released by Rockstar Vancouver for the PlayStation 2 on October 17 2006 in the United States, and October 25 2006 in the United Kingdom. An Xbox version was planned but has since been canceled for undisclosed reasons.^[3] The game is also available in the United States as a special edition that includes a limited edition comic book, and a dodgeball of the same style as the ones used in the game, with the word "Bully" engraved on it.

On July 19, 2007 Rockstar announced Bully: Scholarship Edition for the Xbox 360 and Wii. The game will feature additional new content.^[4]

On July 23, 2007 a Rockstar fan site discovered the possibility of Online Play on the Xbox 360 version after they found the Xbox Live button on the official website. ^[5]

On August 7, 2007 RockstarWatch.net reported on the release of the Australian Bully: Scholarship Edition box art which included artwork of protagonist, Jimmy Hopkins, and the school principal, Dr. Crabblesnitch. Also discovered was that it appears that Bully will be released in the PAL region as "Bully," and not "Canis Canem Edit," as the PlayStation 2 edition was renamed in those parts of the world.^[6]

Contents 1 Gameplay 2 Setting 3 Plot summary 4 Characters 5 Development 6 Controversy 6.1 Sexuality 6.2 ESRB 7 Reception 7.1 Awards 8 See also 9 Notes and references 10 External links

[edit] Gameplay

Bully is a sandbox game set in a school environment. The player is free explore the school campus and town, or to complete the main missions. The game makes extensive use of minigames. Some are used to earn money, others to improve Jimmy's abilities.

School classes themselves are done in the form of minigames, broken into five levels of increasing difficulty. English, for example, is a word scramble minigame, and as Jimmy completes the level, he learns to apologize to bullies, deliver better taunts, apologize to prefects and finally to apologize to the police.

Jimmy has a multitude of weapons available, although they tend to run along the lines of things a school boy might actually attain, such as slingshots, bags of marbles, stink bombs, and later in the game, a bottle rocket launcher and a spud gun. He also has an assortment of vehicles to operate - mainly bicycles with different abilities, but also a moped, a go-kart, a lawn mower, and a skateboard.

[edit] Setting

The game takes place at Bullworth Academy, a fictional independent boarding school in the New England area of the United States. Jimmy ends up enrolled in the school when his newly married mother and fifth stepfather go on her year-long honeymoon cruise. The school is located in the also fictional town of Bullworth, which resembles Connecticut (this would also explain the high prevalence of 'Old money' and 'Nouveau Riche' influences). The school itself is a classical neo-gothic design and is similar to many other schools and colleges in the United Kingdom and New England, in particular Fettes School in Edinburgh. A reference to the year being 1995 as the setting can be seen in one of the various arcade machine minigames but school sports flags show the school as champions as recently as 1999.

[edit] Plot summary

The game is divided into six different chapters.

• Chapter 1: Making New Friends and Enemies: Jimmy comes to Bullworth Academy and immediately runs into trouble with the Bullies.
• Chapter 2: Rich Kid Blues: Jimmy is now more popular, but he must deal with the spoiled Preppies.
• Chapter 3: Love Makes the World Go Around: Jimmy gets mixed in with the love affairs of Lola and Johnny Vincent, leader of the Greasers.
• Chapter 4: A Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body and Other Lies: Jimmy decides to take on the Jocks, but he first needs to convince the Nerds to help him.
• Chapter 5: The Fall and Rise of Jimmy Hopkins, Age 15: Jimmy, after briefly enjoying his power as king of Bullworth Academy, is expelled. He has to clear his name and get re-enrolled back into the Academy while regaining control of the cliques.
• Chapter 6: Endless Summer: Jimmy can tie up any loose ends, such as finishing races, finding collectibles, etc.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of characters in Bully

The game focuses on Bullworth's newest student, Jimmy Hopkins. As he advances through his academic career at Bullworth Academy, he may interact with the school's students and teachers, as well as people from the neighboring towns, many of whom will give him tasks to complete. He is greeted by Gary Smith, a scheming, unstable sociopath and Pete Kowalski, a shy student who has yet to make any friends. Jimmy has to navigate his way through the five cliques at the school - the Bullies, Nerds, Preppies, Greasers and Jocks, as well as the Townie kids, the school faculty and all the other adult townsfolk.

[edit] Development

Early information released by Take-Two Interactive seemed to indicate that the player would be taking the role of a bully, and screenshots printed in Electronic Gaming Monthly showed the player-controlled antagonist administering a "swirlie" and throwing a punch at another student. The game uses an advanced Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas engine through Renderware, completely changing all the programming code to make the gameplay different. Rockstar Vancouver also decided to make every student in the school have a unique appearance and, within programming limitations, personality.

[edit] Controversy

Bully has caused controversy among parents and educators. Criticisms are due to the adult nature of previous Rockstar games, in particular, the Hot Coffee mod in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and to certain aspects of the game, for example, its title (despite the fact the lead character is able to defend others from bullies as much as be a "bully" himself, is trying to end bullying at the Academy and any picking on female characters or smaller children is an extreme transgression within the game's internal rules with immediate punishments besides). Groups such as Bullying Online and Peaceaholics have criticized the game for glorifying or trivializing school bullying. Most of these criticisms, however, were voiced before the contents of the game were actually available to the public. In 2006, the United States-based Entertainment Software Rating Board officially gave Bully a rating of "T" (suitable for ages 13 and up), the BBFC gave Canis Canem Edit a 15 rating^[7] and the New Zealand OFLC restricted it to persons 13 years of age and over. In 2007, Yahoo! Games listed it as one of the top ten controversial games of all time.^[8]

[edit] Sexuality

Sexuality is a minor but present theme throughout Bully. Five different missions involve Jimmy running missions on behalf of different girls, the successful completion of which earn him a kiss. Additionally, the art class minigame is used to improve Jimmy's ability to talk to girls, as well as his ability to make out with them and receive a health bonus which can be expanded by passing classes in art. Although it does not play a role in the storyline and is strictly optional, Jimmy can kiss certain boys.^[9] The inclusion of this caused a minor uproar; however, the ESRB claimed it was fully aware of the content when they gave it a T rating.^[10] Other sexual themes involve a gym teacher who is stated to have hit on the girls in school, and a student reading a men's magazine - whether the magazine was fully pornographic or more along the lines of FHM can't be told as the magazine's pages aren't visible.

[edit] ESRB

Prior to both the ESRB's rating and the release of Bully, Jack Thompson filed a lawsuit attempting to have the game blocked from store shelves in Florida. Thompson declared the game a "nuisance" and "Columbine simulator" (in response, many of his detractors have mockingly referred to it as nothing more than a "Dennis the Menace simulator"). He also argued this point on Attack of the Show along with Adam Sessler (with him on the opposite end) on the show's "The Loop."^[11] Thompson's petition, filed with the 11th Judicial Circuit Court, asked for Wal-Mart and Take-Two to furnish him with an advance copy of Bully so he could have "an independent third party" play the game and determine if it would constitute a public nuisance in the state of Florida (in which case it could be banned).^[12][13] On 2006-10-11 Judge Ronald Friedman ordered Take-Two and Rockstar to provide the court (not Thompson) with a copy of the game within 24 hours. On 2006-10-13 Friedman subsequently ruled in favor of shipping the game, noting that there was no content in the game that was not already on late night TV. Thompson responded to the ruling with fiery speech directed at the judge.^[14] Similar attempts to have the game banned have also been made by the charity Bullying Online and Labour Party M.P Keith Vaz in the UK^[15]

When given a preview build, however, the mainstream media took a generally positive opinion of the game. Press coverage has described the game as free-form, focusing on building a social network and learning new skills from classes, with strictly enforced punishments for serious misbehaviour (for example, having to clear snow away as punishment for hitting a girl).^[16]

Currys and PC World, both owned by DSG International plc, said that they do not wish to sell the game in the UK because it is "not appropriate for Currys' family-friendly image". The official statement lists what Currys believes is "the explicit link between violence and children" as the reason behind the ban, and continues: "We haven't taken this decision lightly, particularly considering the excellent relationship we have with Rockstar." However despite this decision other high street retailers including Game, HMV and Woolworths, Virgin Megastores have all announced an intention to stock the game.^[17] Interestingly, DSG stores still stock other Rockstar games including the GTA series, and other violent games like Manhunt, which both have BBFC 18 ratings, where Bully has a BBFC 15 rating.

[edit] Reception

Bully has received generally positive reviews from critics.^[26] The game received ratings of 8.9/10 from IGN, 9.0/10 from Games Radar, a perfect 10/10 from 1UP.com 8.7/10 from GameSpot, 8.75/10 from VGRC.net, a 5/5 from X-Play, and made the Top 10 Games of '06 in Playstation Magazine. Canis Canem Edit also got 9 / 10 from OPS2 Magazine. Critics generally praised the game's storyline, while they complained about particular stealth missions, as well as the camera. Critics also noted that the game is substantially easier than veterans of the Grand Theft Auto series (Rockstar's flagship titles) would expect.

[edit] Awards

• Won IGN's award for Best PlayStation 2 Action Game.
• Won GameSpot's award for Best Original Music.
• Finalist for GameSpot's Game of the Year 2006
• Gaming Target - 52 Games We'll Still Be Playing From 2006 selection^[27]
• Came in top ten of best Playstation 2 game of the year.

[edit] See also

• Video game controversy

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• Official Bully Homepage
• Official Canis Canem Edit Homepage
• Press Release by Take Two Interactive
• BBC News article about the controversy
• Youth Council of Ireland wants boycott of “shocking" game
• Information about the Bully Soundtrack album, composed by Shawn Lee
• Voices and Choices: A Conversation with Shawn Lee
• Bully (Special Edition) at MobyGames
• Bully at MobyGames

v • d • e Video game controversy
Computer and video game law	Family Entertainment Protection Act • Truth in Video Game Rating Act • Video Game Decency Act • Video Recordings Act 1984
Organizations and rating systems	Active: Entertainment Software Rating Board • Pan European Game Information • Computer Entertainment Rating Organization • Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle • National Coalition Against Censorship • TIGRS • Valtion elokuvatarkastamo • Game Rating Board • British Board of Film Classification • Office of Film and Literature Classification (Australia) • Office of Film and Literature Classification (New Zealand) Defunct: Videogame Rating Council • Recreational Software Advisory Council • 3DO Rating System • Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association • Korea Media Rating Board
Major figures	Julia Boseman • Hillary Clinton • Sam Brownback • Herb Kohl • Joe Lieberman • Devin Moore • Cody Posey • Jack Thompson • Fred Upton • Keith Vaz • Leland Yee
Genres	Eroge • Adult video game • Survival horror
Games	Carmageddon • Death Race • Bully • Doom • Grand Theft Auto series (Hot Coffee mod) • Halloween • Lethal Enforcers • Manhunt 2 • Mortal Kombat series • Night Trap • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (ESRB re-rating) • Texas Chainsaw Massacre • Duke Nukem 3D • Postal² • Hitman • Conker's Bad Fur Day

ca:Bully

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