by Sean Workman
Gamercast Network

Rockstar/Take 2 has recently hit a snag with the various ratings boards regarding their upcoming game Manhunt 2, sequel to their 2003 game which was surprisingly named Manhunt. The ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board for the one of you that didn’t know) has given the game the retail death sentence rating of AO, or Adults Only. I say retail death sentence because that means just about any large retailer either will (or has already) cave under public pressure to not carry and support such sexual/violent/explicit material that many see squarely aimed at teens and children.

How bad is Manhunt 2? It’s bad enough that one scene was described as a rape and decapitation of a woman where the man then attempted simulated sexual intercourse with her bloody “neckhole”. That’s pretty bad on multiple accounts. The lead system for this game was Nintendo’s Wii known for its unique motion control that often simulates or mimics actual movements or actions. Nintendo is on retail fire right now selling millions of their systems to both gamers and the newly termed “casual gamers”, people that didn’t realize they wanted to play games until they saw that they weren’t all just blood and gore fests… well, I guess that remains to be seen to some degree. Nintendo has recently gone on record and publicly refused to license Manhunt 2 in its current form for their system. For their part, the often edgier Sony also refused to release the game in its current form. Microsoft didn’t have to bother refusing because Take 2 didn’t even try to put the game out on their system.

Now we get back to the title of this article; Manstunt 2. I don’t think it was any accident that Manhunt 2 was sent to the various international ratings boards in the state it was in. You may remember the little “Hot Coffee” incident that surrounded GTA San Andreas. That generated a LOT of buzz (coffee pun intended) in the gaming world and non-gaming media as well. Take 2 and Rockstar had to halt the sale of their game and reissue a “safe” version. What a minute. Did I just say Take 2 and Rockstar? Hey, the same damned companies!

Now I’m no rocket surgeon but I smell a pattern here. These guys knew EXACTLY what they were doing. Do you think these guys sat around and thought “Corpse humping? Yeah, that oughta be fine! Let’s submit it!” No, they didn’t. They thought “Should we spend $50k-$100k on a proper advertising budget for this (possibly gimmicky and/or mediocre) game or should we spend $10k on a couple weeks of extra dev time to pump out some extremely outrageous content that’ll surely get us the water cooler talk we can’t even buy at any price?!” That’s when someone said “Do it!”. This game was never intended to be released as it was submitted. They have a win-win situation here… they get media exposure without paying for it, they get morbid curiosity from potential gamers, and when they’re forced to remove “the good stuff” as some will see it, they STILL come off as the good guys because “the man” made them do it. It’s ingenious actually! But why isn’t anybody calling them on it? I’m surprised. As much as the media loves a good scandal, you’d think being such a poser/martyr of the game development community would be worth a story or two… and I can’t believe Jack Thompson hasn’t chimed in on this yet. Wait, don’t they have some sort of legally binding agreement against that guy? Hmmm… this intentional marketing theory of mine is really coming together…

So the question now is how far back does Rockstar have to take this game to get it released on the various systems. Was everybody’s balking based on the AO rating or the concept of the title in general? If they make it an M rated title, will the retailers carry it? Will the consumers even want it then? Will they buy it knowing it’s not the same game the ESRB saw and knee-jerked at? Honestly I rented Manhunt when it was first released and I never got hooked. I got bored. I didn’t give it a fair shake probably, but I never would’ve given Manhunt 2 a second look normally. But now, to some degree… I’m ashamed to admit that I’m curious what the folks at Rockstar have up and running in their daily builds. I’m curious what their idea pitching sessions are like… I mean how do you have a work environment that respects sexual harassment laws when you’re producing content covering rape, murder, and sodomy (sometimes in that very order)? I’d hate to work in Rockstar’s Human Resources department… “No, no, I didn’t fondle her by the coffee pot, I was showing Josh the new move for our game!” Rockstar should teach classes in cheap/free game marketing via manipulating the media’s natural tendency to flock to anything sensationalistic. They could probably charge an arm and a leg for it… you know, to use as a training aids during the classes.
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