Rockstar is the studio that makes of the the Grand Theft Auto games. Yes, the car stealin', people killin', prostitute beatin' games. They have long been the target of attorney Jack Thompson of Florida who believes that video games are a great corrupter of our children. Now something to consider is that the GTA games are rated M (Mature). There may be an issue of retail locations selling the games to minors, but that is the same issue as theaters letting kids into R rated movies.
Personally I think that Thompson's crusade against Rockstar is actually a good thing. Because their games are good. They are innovative and are pushing the boundaries of what sort of stories video games can tell and how they can tell them. I believe that video games are at the same point comics were at in the '50s. Rockstar is the EC (Entertaining Comics). EC and the controversy surrounding them had a lot to do with bringing comics into the realm of "Art." Creative folks are often drawn to those things that are considered taboo. Kids growing up with EC were drawn to them in part because they were hated by 'adults.' In the late '50s and the '60s and the '70s, underground comics became and experimental arena for exploring what the art form could do, allowing it to mature. By the '80s all of that began to blossom. In the '90s, comics began to really come out of the shadows, suddenly exploding with the seminal work Maus: A Survivor's Tale. Now books like Persepolis are looked at not so much as a comic but a valid for of storytelling.
Hopefully it won't take 40 years for video games to get to same place.
But back to Bully. In Bully you play Jimmy Hopkins, a teenage boy who finds himself at a new boarding school, Bullworth Academy. To quote Rockstar's description:
"Jimmy has a whole year at Bullworth ahead of him, working his way up the social ladder of this demented institution of supposed learning, standing up for what he thinks is right and taking on the liars, cheats and snobs who are the most popular members of the student body and faculty. If Jimmy can survive the school year and outsmart his rivals, he could rule the school."Jack Thompson is on an anti-Bully crusade, which is somewhat entertaining since Bully is an anti-bully game. And the game had to change its name in the U.K. to "Canis Canem Edit" and some stores have refused to stock it there. It was still a gutsy move on Rockstar's part making the game in the first place. In a world where the word "Columbine" immediately conjures images of video game related school shootings, shooting were the killers were picked on and outcasted, any game were you play a kid reeking revenge (even if the character never picks up a gun... well, he does use a baseball bat) is bold.
But all of that is a pretty standard. There are other ways that Rockstar continues to push the envelope. For example, as GayGamer.net points out, there are at least four boys that you can make out with.
These aren't played as a joke, just as a part of the game. It is presented no different from how it is with making out with girls. And Bully isn't the first game to do this. The Sims and Fable also come to mind. But Bully having it is special in part because the Rockstar's games reach an audience that might not come into contact with positive (or let's say neutral) portrayals of homosexuality (well, in this case, bi-sexuality). It will be interesting when games tackle the issue of homosexuality in a more realistic way, but I still find it heartening that Rockstar included this. Open ended games are now allowing folks to play games the way they want to. If a gay 15 year old boy plays Bully now, in 5 years he may design a game with a gay storyline, using video games to tell his story. Bully might just make him (or her) think of video games as a possible medium to tell whatever story that he feels is important to him.
One small step for video games toward "Art."
