Man Hunt 2 i mean No Hunt 2 rate AO not for Everyone

This game has been under the radar for a good 3-4 months. Rockstar the games developer has not put in any extra effort to publicize this game in the likes of Halo 3, or Gears of War. Actually, there are only 3 trailers available for this game, and none showing any lengthy game play. They merely show dialogue over select video clips of the game. However, in the past week, this game has garnered more attention by the news and gaming sites. The initial news broke that the UK would ban the sale of Manhunt 2. However this was only the tip of the iceberg.

But first to those who aren’t familiar with the title, I will be happy to brief you on it. The game usually takes place with you as a prisoner. You some how break free and start to kill anything in sight. However, this game does not merely give you a gun or a knife or sword. It gives you household weapons and tools. In this version of the game manhunt includes a syringe in its arsenal. Special preset death kills are placed in the game. Where a slow motion style camera tapes the kill from the most brutal angle and shows every motion of the kill. This is one part of the game that falls under violence for the sake of violence debate in video games. Although the game does have an elaborate story, it succumbs to be an above average action adventure game.

Now with that aside let me point out what’s been stirred up recently about this game. This is the official statement released by the Take2 (publisher of Manhunt 2, parent company of Rockstar Games), “The ESRB has issued an initial rating of AO (Adults Only) for Manhunt 2," Take-Two said. "We believe the process of rating videogames is to help people make informed entertainment choices and not to limit them. Manhunt 2 was created for mature audiences and we strongly believe it should receive an M (Mature) rating, aligning it with similar content created in other forms of media. We are exploring our options with regard to the rating of Manhunt 2.” What this means is that the only way Manhunt 2 can be released commercially is to have its’ box branded with the rating AO, adults only 18+. No console game in history has ever been branded with the AO sticker. In video game circles the AO sticker is known as the kiss of death. This is in reference to walmart, target, ebgames, and gamestop all aligning themselves as not selling AO rated games. The game will thus, be commercially inaccessible.

There are really three options that can happen from here on out. 1) they delay the game, modify it to which the ESRB will give it an M rating, 2) Scrap the game 3) or Release the game as it is and hit the least market penetration for a console game in history. I say this for number 3, because UK has banned it, Australia will follow suit and will probably be only sold in mom-pop game stores in US and Canada. Literally the only profitable way to go is delay and modify the game. However, in the consumers eyes, those which do not care about profits, I suggest they keep it as it is.

My argument is that video games like movies, short films, comics, paintings, poetry, rap music, sculpturing, and action figures are works of art. They are one person or a groups vision of something. Whether it is for aesthetics or expression, there really needs no reason to stop a video game from reaching the publics hand. Now from what I can tell there is no sex scenes in manhunt 2 to warrant the AO sticker. In fact the only reason that the AO sticker seems to be in place is because of the stigma of manhunt causes children to kill. This would be due to the use of weapons to kill characters in the game. However, how is this different than 70% of the other T-M rated games on the market. From Zelda to Halo, from stomping turtles and mushrooms to chain sawing aliens. There seems to be no reason why ripping body parts with different objects is any different. First of all this game is on last generation graphics. It doesn’t have the realism of gears of war. The physics and details are a tenth of the details found in gears.

When it comes down to it this game cannot possibly warrant an AO rating. There is no sick death, or murder that can be gruesome enough. Just look at Killer 7, or Resident Evil remake 1,0 and 4. They were all realistically gory and horrific. It would be a poor sport for the ESRB to rate manhunt 2 with the AO tag. The M rating is good enough to tell parents and consumers that it’s a violent game. Giving it the AO tag means that it is therefore unsuitable for anyone to play?