Should Manhunt 2 be banned

[Mickey T]

Different thread please follow the rules.

The other thread has got pretty emotive so I thought we would try and get the general concensus without the debate.

Rules are
1. Vote once
2. You are welcome to post what you voted and your reasons, but nobody can respond or argue any points made, hopefully this will become a thread of statements and represent the feelings of the forums users, rather than debate and give a cross section of opinions accordingly.
3. Please dont hold me liable if not arguing and quoting somehow infringes you basic human rights

[Antiriad2097]

No, it should not have been banned. Censorship is wrong.

[Mickey T]

Yes it should have been banned, Censorship is contextual.

[Freshmetal]

I've never played it or seen it played, so can't say either way.

[Dudley]

Yes it should have been banned, Censorship is contextual.

Indeed, I vote we ban Mickey T because he offends me.

After all, we're apparently now supporting the banning of anything that offends a tiny minority of society who apparently don't have the brain power to.... not purchase it.

[Mickey T]

2. You are welcome to post what you voted and your reasons, but nobody can respond or argue any points made, hopefully this will become a thread of statements and represent the feelings of the forums users, rather than debate and give a cross section of opinions accordingly.

[P-Head]

No, it should not have been banned. Censorship enlightens no-one and not a single life will be saved from this game being banned. Banning Manhunt 2 adds credence to the dangerous belief that video games can somehow instruct or induce children to kill. It also draws people's attention away from the real reasons why kids kill each other, whatever they may be.

[EvilArmourKing]

YES IT SHOULD!!!!!!!

Because my mum is Mary Whitehouse, and she said so.

She could also "have" you mum.

[paranoid marvin]

No - otherwise we are admitting that videogames cause people who otherwise would have lived normal , law-abiding lives ,into homicidal maniacs

[andy vaisey]

As a teacher of children and a parent, I have to chip in:

I don't believe in censorship at all; I believe that all sensible, mature adults should have the rights to choose.

However, I deal everyday with 7-11 year olds. Speaking to them, it's obvious that an increasing number of these kids have played, watched and heard things that young children never should have.

Many parents seem to be more lax nowadays (although I'm not with my kids). So bans and/or ratings will make no difference. The children will watch it somehow. I assume that all people on this forum in their early thirties would have sneaked a watch of Robocop somehow back in the 80's, even when they were underage...?

I'm also going to assume that the majority of us who grew up watching films that we weren't supposed too and playing the evil that were (even back then) "videogames" haven't turned into mass murderers or anything.

Wasn't the "evil" of mucis back in the 50's, 60's and 70's supposed to bring about the downfall of the world as well?

I don't know what the solution is. I just know I won't let my kids watch or play stuff like that with me knowing and that's my choice.

[Dudley]

2. You are welcome to post what you voted and your reasons, but nobody can respond or argue any points made, hopefully this will become a thread of statements and represent the feelings of the forums users, rather than debate and give a cross section of opinions accordingly.

3. Stupid made up rules will be ignored.

[Dudley]

As a teacher of children and a parent, I have to chip in:

I don't believe in censorship at all; I believe that all sensible, mature adults should have the rights to choose.

However, I deal everyday with 7-11 year olds. Speaking to them, it's obvious that an increasing number of these kids have played, watched and heard things that young children never should have.

...

I don't know what the solution is. I just know I won't let my kids watch or play stuff like that with me knowing and that's my choice.

The solution is to do exactly what you do and also extend the current laws to remove the loophole that makes it legal for parents to buy these games for their kids.

I would be absolutely happy for the parents to recieve the same punishment for showing their kids an 18 rated game or movie as a shop would for selling it, namely 2 years in jail and a £50,000 fine.

The solution is not to ban an age restricted product because parents are idiots. There's a lot more we'd need to ban in that case including a complete ban on all knives, which are considerably more harmful and considerably more prevalent.

Despite the number of violent games we've had, the number of murders tied inn any remotely convincing way to a game is 0. How many knife deaths a year are there?

And if anyone brings up that Manhunt 1 story then I'm sending your address to the Daily Mail.

[Opa-Opa]

NO....

[Dudley]

No - otherwise we are admitting that videogames cause people who otherwise would have lived normal , law-abiding lives ,into homicidal maniacs

This is a pretty central point to me, if we are admitting this fact then how can you defend any game with crime in it. I can't think of a way.

[paranoid marvin]

The quetion is - do gams companies really WANT their titles to be sold only to 18+ year-olds , or do they think that by having an age restriction , this will appeal more to youngsters.

Are these companies prepared to cut out a massive part of their market
by restricting their games to a (admittedly quite large) minority?


Games companies are just as aware as the rest of us that age laws simply don't seem to work in this country - people under 16 smoke , people under 18 drink , watch movies they're not meant to and play games that they're not allowed to

So the question is , what do you do to stop them ?