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The Social, Legal And Ethical Issues Surrounding Video Games Essay

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Bully, also known as Canis Canem Edit (2006), is an open-world action adventure video game published by Rockstar Games. It was originally released on the Playstation 2 in 2006 but was later released onto the Xbox 360, Wii and PC in 2008 under the title Bully: Scholarship Edition. The game was the centre of a lot of controversy during release as it is focussed around a schoolboy named Jimmy Hopkins who is enrolled at Bullworth Academy; a school filled with bullies and corrupt teachers. Though the game was labelled as a disgrace by newspapers such as the Daily Mail and banned in countries such as Brazil, upon closer inspection, one may argue that serious social issues are tackled within the game, and many of the game’s issues are conveyed hyperbolically. The research in this report aims to look at the social, legal and ethical issues surrounding video games using Bully as an example in order to draw conclusions into the positive and negative implications.

Bully is the subject of this report due to the large amount of controversy that surrounded the game, especially during its initial release. The game contains violence, bullying, theft as well as other anti-social behaviour. Though the game’s title may be misleading, the storyline of the game focuses around standing up against bullies, and many of the issues within the game are non-fictional real world issues that many young people experience. Furthermore, the game only received a BBFC rating of 15, which critiques claimed

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