Experts at the Bullying Prevention Program at Clemson University fear that the game might exacerbate schoolyard altercations,and have encouraged boycotts. In March, the Miami-Dade school board passed a resolution urging local retailers not to sell the game, warning that it could 'serve as a violence rehearsal simulator on which teens will prepare, either wittingly or unwittingly, for acts of violence in schools.' The nonpartisan National Institute on Media and the Family, one of the many national organizations that aim to clean up pop culture, says 'Bully' encourages antisocial behavior. Since long before its release, 'Bully's' critics have suggested the game might cause irreparable harm in teens. Critics have long feared the worst from it - that 'Bully' would be 'Grand Theft Auto' on campus, encouraging every long-suffering adolescent malcontent to live out his nihilistic revenge fantasies on school grounds. For one thing, it's made by Rockstar Games, the company that produced the indulgently violent and hugely popular 'Grand Theft Auto' series. It's an old claim, and there remains scant scientific proof for it - but that seems to matter little in the fight over 'Bully.' A bipartisan gang of politicians (from Hillary Clinton on the left to Sam Brownback on the right), school officials, child-rearing experts, and family-values types blame games for inducing all manner of delinquent, antisocial and dangerous behavior in children. The debate illustrates the precarious political and cultural position that the video game industry finds itself in. 17, but it's been the subject of raging debate for more than a year now. If you get the fat kid safely to the john, you'll gain some respect among the nerds and your standing in school will climb.ĭoes this sound like a task one might find in a game that critics have taken to calling a 'Columbine simulator'? 'Bully' was released to the public on Oct. You've got to escort Algie to the bathroom before he wets himself, fending off all the bullies who want to harm him along the way. Rotund, whiny and afflicted with an overactive bladder, Algernon is the archetypal outcast.

In a typical early mission, for instance, Algernon, one of the neediest nerds at school, has been set upon by a gaggle of bullies. Your job, unexpectedly, is to help him do good. Like Holden Caulfield, Jimmy Hopkins, the game's blank-faced teenage antihero, is a mess of internal impulses.

The enchanting and addictive new video game 'Bully' is set in an imposing red-brick and ivy-covered Northeastern boarding school, that familiar launching pad for so many adolescent epics.

Game over dealing with bullies videos