Time to Pile on Bully

Let's see: Hot Coffee is old news, so the media and politicians need a new dead horse to beat. It's looking like it's going to be Bully, Rockstar's harmless-looking take on schoolyard fights.

There's a Miami Herald story about the game being picked up by various other papers today; I myself am linking to the Grand Forks Herald site because – you guessed it – "Grand Forks Herald" is an anagram of "Rankled Hard Frogs":

Little is actually known about the game, Bully, which was scheduled for release last fall but has been repeatedly delayed. Opponents of violent video games have been driven largely by its pedigree – the game is being developed by Rockstar, the controversial designer of the ultra-violent Grand Theft Auto series.

In those games, which have been top sellers for years, players steal cars, hire prostitutes and brutally beat and murder enemies, police and bystanders. Opponents fear that Bully will bring the same graphic violence into the virtual schoolhouse.

''This game is built entirely around bullies and is staged in a school – it's the antithesis of everything we're trying to promote,'' said School Board member Frank Bola?os, who introduced a resolution urging Rockstar not to release Bully, asking local merchants not to sell it and asking parents not to buy it.

That's the real crux of the story, by the way: not so much about Bully, more about the fact that small-time politicians are using it as a springboard. ARGH

(Also, I should point out that the piece refers to Jack Thompson only as "a Coral Gables attorney." The beautiful understatement here is so poignant that I cannot even make a wisecrack.)