Pushing the envelope: How far is too far?

My "This month in gaming history" entry for November may be delayed a day or two. I really need to get these ready ahead of time.

Anyway, Manhunt 2 was released recently. So I thought I'd make an entry about games pushing the envelope in terms of violence, and general "adult content."

Now, I think we all know that video games have had the attention of politicians for years. Since the release of Mortal Kombat in the early-90s, the eyes of lawyers and lawmakers have been cast upon the industry. Since the initial outcry, there haven't been many controversies. But there have been enough.

In the late-90s, there was a game called Thrill Kill. This game didn't really catch the eye of any politician, and with good reason. It was never released. The first console game, to my knowledge, to get the Adult-Only rating from the ESRB, the game was more or less complete when Electronic Arts bought the developer. (Or otherwise obtained the game.) They deemed the game unfit for the general public, and canceled it. A near final version of the game was leaked to the internet, where people found out that the game wasn't very good. The game was controversial due to the amount of violence and sexual overtones included in the game.

Another controversy came from the remake of NARC. It wasn't much, but the concept of using illegal narcotics as power-ups, and the fact that you play as a cop while doing these drugs, caused a minor stir. Of course, gamers and gaming media said the game wasn't very good, it didn't sell well, and it blew over.

There's also the Grand Theft Auto controversies. I'm going to skip the Hot Coffee thing, as we all know about that. As for the violence, I think GTA hasn't been too realistic to make that an issue. Something I worry about in regards to GTA4.

But the games that really overdo stuff are the Manhunt games. Now, the first Manhunt didn't get good reviews. I played it, and the game isn't really fun. And from what I hear, it's the same thing with Manhunt 2. To me, it just seems like Rockstar is going for shock value here. Instead of making the game good, they make the game as violent as possible, and throw in a bunch of sexual innuendo to go along with it. Make it the most vulgar and shocking game possible.

It worked. They got media attention. Or at least until people found out it wasn't very good. Manhunt 2 ended up getting an AO rating from the ESRB, and was banned outright in the UK, and I believe Australia as well. They did some modifications (though a hack for the PSP version uncensors the game) and got it rated M. But I think the bans in the UK and Australia still stand. Regardless, this may be a sign that Rockstar has finally found the border of how far they can take things. But I'm sure they'll try to push it farther in the future.

The thing that's getting the most attention are the Wii-specific controls for Manhunt 2. You have to act out the killing motions with the Wii-mote, which is a much more interactive way of killing than ever before in a video game. That, in of itself, disturbs me.

Video games don't need violence or sex to be fun. And I think Rockstar tries too hard to portray the opposite image. You rarely hear about more family-friendly games in the media. You only hear about the violent games. And the more violent the game, the more the media will talk. And the more the media talks, the worse an image the industry gets.

I hope that Rockstar cools it a bit. GTA: San Andreas was okay, but Manhunt is overkill.