”Wilhelmina treats all white people like slaves. Something about payback.”]

More Manhunt 2 Craziness

How far will mainstream media go?
Thanks to Kotaku for the orginal post:

ManHunt 2 Video Game: Blasted for Linking Mental Illness to Violence; Retailers
Asked Not to Sell Based on Public Health Concern
ARLINGTON, Va., Nov. 1
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) today
condemned the controversial video game Manhunt2 based on its irresponsible,
stereotyped portrayal of people with mental illnesses, asking that it be
recalled or modified, or that retailers decline to sell the game. NAMI executive
director Mike Fitzpatrick issued the following statement:
"NAMI asks Rockstar
Games to recall or further modify the videogame Manhunt2 due to its
irresponsible, stereotyped portrayal of mental illness. We also ask retailers to
be responsible in responding to public health concerns.
Even though some
people may consider Manhunt2 to be only a game, it unfortunately perpetuates and
reinforces cruel, inaccurate perceptions that people who live with mental
illnesses are violent. The U.S. Surgeon General has condemned such
stigmatization, identifying fear of stigma as a major barrier to people getting
help when they need it. The overall contribution of mental illnesses to violence
in society is exceptionally small. In fact, people living with mental illness
are far more likely to be victims of violence.
Released on Halloween,
Manhunt2 enables players to assume the role of a patient fighting to escape from
the "Dixmor Asylum for the Criminally Insane." The patient uses a variety of
sickening techniques to torture and kill security offices and others in his
way.
Manhunt2 initially received an "Adults Only" rating for players ages 18
and older in the United States. This rating would have limited the game's
market; several major retailers will not sell games with that rating. Rockstar
made some small changes to the game, including the removal of a graphic scene
with castration, and received a new rating of "Mature" for players ages 17 and
older. The British Board of Film Classification was not satisfied with the
changes and citing the game's "unremitting bleakness" and "casual sadism," has
banned the game in the United Kingdom.
Concern over the violence reflected in
the game up until now has not yet been extended to include the outrageous
portrayal of the 54 million people in the United States who live with serious
mental illnesses. We do not favor censorship, but we do ask for responsible
exercise of creative rights when serious public health concerns are at issue. It
is our right to demand a higher standard."

Doesn't Everyone Already Have at Least One?

Kotaku is reporting on a rumor that the PS2 will see a price drop next year and cost just under a hundred bucks. Since I own 2 PS2s and a PS3 I really don't care that the system will now be more affordable to people who've waited 7 years to jump on the bandwagon, but then again, my second PS2 was bought when I went to college so this might be a good investment for poor college gamers looking for something to brighten those dreary college days.

Penny Arcade: Manhunt 2

I was playing Manhunt 2 last night and apparently if you are just watching someone play the game like my brother was, the censoring of the kills really doesn't take that much away, cua you can pretty much tell exactly what is going on. Something about a drill and several nails made one scene particularly colorful. While the game is by no means stellar, it is a very...interesting experience.

(Comic from Penny-Arcade.com, visit the site, now!)

Hollywood Writer's to Strike

I am in full support of the writer's guild who wants writers to be paid when shows are sold on the internet. So more power to them! Show Hollywood what happens when the real storytellers are taken out fo equation, nothing for an actor to say if someone else hadn't already written it down, eh?

Side Note: Props to the writers for showing what unhappy work conditions can produce, Season 2 of Heroes is reason enough to want to keep writers happy, otherwise...well the show pretty much sucks balls, do we want to see that happen to Pushing Daisies?

"If Dante had been with us on the plane, he would have been terrified"

Paul Tibbets, the pilot responsible for dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945 died yesterday at the age of 92. Now I have no problem with this man, a soldier who was doing his job, a job that ended up wiping out 140,000 people in a six moth period, with 78,000 of them dead in a fraction of an instant. This man ushered in the atomic age, an age where even now people live in fear of a nuclear attack.

Let's be honest people, if the world comes to nuclear war, we'll all be killed before we even knew what was going on. So let's remember this soldier not as a hero, but as a man who flew his Enola Gay over Japan on August 6th 1945 and dropped a bomb that sent shockwaves through a country, through the world, and through history