Rated: 93.33% (3 votes)
Loading ...The Manhunt 2 debate
garethogden
The banning of Manhunt 2 by the BBFC has understandably provoked a lot of media coverage, and rightly so, because it’s a big deal. The only other game to be banned by the BBFC was Carmageddon in 1997, although tweaks to the game (adding Zombies, instead of humans, for example) meant that it did later get released.
Personally, I agree with the Manhunt 2 ban because there’s little to redeem a game that, in the BBFC’s own words, “is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context, which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing. There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game.”
However, while I support the ban, it has unfortunately allowed the usual army of right-wing, video-game-hating nutters to creep out of the woodwork and reassert their misguided beliefs that games are the root of all evil. The argument that violent games create violent people is nonsense and there is no credible research to suggest otherwise. Even the research that suggests playing violent games/watching violent movies desensitises you to violence isn’t relevant, because being less shocked by violence doesn’t mean you’re therefore more likely to be violent - there’s a huge gulf between the two, and there’s no bridge between the two sides.
I’ve played violent video games and watched violent movies for longer than I can remember, and I’ve never run amok in a shopping centre with a chainsaw. There’s a simple reason for this, which is that I’m a ‘right-thinking person’. I know the difference between fantasy and reality, and right and wrong, and there’s a clear separation between the two in my mind. For a person to act out the violence in game or movie for real there would need to be an underlying psychological cause - the person would need to be unhinged and open to suggestion.
However, even in a hypothetical case where someone with a psychological issue may use a game as the basis for a violent act, this act would still not be the game’s fault. That’s like saying that if the BBC reported details of a murder that then inspired an unhinged person to commit a similar murder, the BBC is to blame.
What we need here is a bit of perspective. Yes, Manhunt 2 is crude and in very bad taste, and lacks any real merit as a game, but even if it was released, it still wouldn’t turn a right-thinking person into a violent psychopath, and to suggest that it could is simply misleading, and diverts attention away from the real issues behind and causes of violent behaviour.
Yep, lets ban the game and thereby guarantee that every kid in the country will attempt to download it via P2P. If its been banned, it must be good right?
I agree with your comments, Gareth. And with that in mind, why didn’t they just release it with an 18 cert and let it die on its ar$e?
The original Manhunt was abysmal, the gameplay was so unrewarding I didn’t even bother trying to complete it. All they have done is put a spotlight on a low-rent title and make kids want to play it.
“However, while I support the ban, it has unfortunately allowed the usual army of **right-wing**, video-game-hating nutters to creep out of the woodwork and reassert their misguided beliefs that games are the root of all evil.”
Not quite sure what you mean by this comment. The idiots behind our current nanny-state are pretty much all left-wing. Those that believe it is the State’s duty to protect us from ourselves. Whereas, personal freedom and responsibility are traditional beliefs of the Right.
Keep politics out of your reviews/blogs please. Especially if you know nothing of politics.
By ‘right wing’ I was referring to a minority (hopefully) of conservative (traditional conservative, not small c conservative) sorts who have fairly extreme views on certain issues, and that probably wasn’t clear. Admittedly, you could have these views regardless of your political leaning, although I don’t think it’s unfair to state that it’s more likely to be a hardened conservative that takes offence, rather that someone with a more liberal outlook.