Bully: Scholarship Edition - re-rated from Teen to a more restricted standard?

nothing changed.

Now, you make me want to buy this game.

Teen rating is fine. The game is at a discount price now. Maybe I should grab a copy when i go to Bestbuy or Walmart next time.

Thanks for the clarification, Rachel.

I think, since the game already has a T rating, I doubt protests from educators and parents alike are going to make the rating changes. And advocacy groups need to be very careful not to end up doing advertising for games like these. Instead, educators and parents need to continue to educate about the harms of bullying.

Schools are already trying fairly hard to do this. Unfortunately, in my opinion anyway, the work seems to be very restricted to the bullying done as a result of sexual orientation. Bullying itself is rampent, but not nearly as much as done about that.

I think so. ESRB is the organization that applies and enforces ratings, advertising guidelines, and online privacy principles for computer and video games and other entertainment software in North America. The ESRB has often been accused of not rating games harshly enough for violence and other related themes. Games such as Harvester, Manhunt, Rise of the Triad and Soldier of Fortune have shown gruesome violence, yet received the M rating. Many critics have claimed that these games deserve the AO rating and were given the M for commercial reasons. Critics have claimed that the ESRB will only rate games AO if they have sexual content in them, regardless of how much violence is present.

We should not be surprised that such an organization is mixed with commercial motivations; however the public MAY stress to drive the rating decision, and so re-rate the BULLY game.

IMHO, it's hard to totally limit teens from reaching the sexual and violent games. They can find them from the internet and friends. They know their ways to get the content. It requires parents and schools to promote healthy mindsets against the lustful and lucrative entertainments. As adults and commercials, we should be aware of what we suggest to our teens.

Just a question, Rachel: I thought it wasn't the game's publisher, but rather a neutral, third-party organization (such as ESRB) that actually goes and rate these games? Can you clarify that, please?

TEEN rating is OK because I heard that Rockstar has limited the violent and sex scenes. And it does not fully reflect the dark side of schools (eg. selling drugs is not found in Bully). However, its concept is still not good for teens.