Everyone wants another bully game.
At least, everyone that has played it.
The original’s wit, charm, sass you might even say, spoke to players in a completely
novel way.
In fact, most of the things that the original Bully did were very different than what was
considered “the norm” back in 2006.
For instance, the game is set in a boarding school with a vast assortment of troubled
kids cast in the starring roles.
The kids are rude, mean, and exactly what you would expect if you attended an American
middle school in the mid-2000’s.
THE POINT is that these types of games are rare.
Games that come along and tell irreverent stories in a style that’s unique and refreshing.
That’s more what people loved about Bully, the fact that it FELT different.
But despite the cult following that it’s garnered over the last few years, Rockstar
has been very tightlipped about a potential sequel.
And even some large gaming publications have come out against a sequel, such as this article
by TheGamer, wherein they say:
“As certain principles change and the way we all view the world evolves, it will be
interesting to see how Rockstar handles this new way of thought.
These days you have to be real careful, not only in what you say but how you say it, as
well.
Rockstar has had a knack for saying whatever, whenever.
That doesn't fly anymore.
Especially for both Bully and future GTA titles, Rockstar will have to adapt to these new worldviews,
or else their games may miss their audience or get construed by the public.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but I hate that this is sort of true.
Bully would have a real hard time in the media releasing in 2019 because of our “evolved”
social dogma.
A game that rewards the player for completing quests by having his crush give him kisses
or having an adolescent boy dress up as a Schutzstaffel officer is not going to go over
well with a lot of the main-stream media nor the hyper-progressive wing of gaming journalism.
And a sequel that seeks to hold true to its roots and the subject matter could find itself
in the same hot water, drowning in controversy…
But maybe this is the secret sauce that will make Bully 2 a reality after all.
Maybe this whole debate over the game’s controversy, could be its greatest asset?
Well, buckle in because we’re about to put our Marketing hats on and speculate like hell.
You see, Rockstar has never been one to shy away from controversy.
That was kind of the point of the original Bully and of most of the Grand Theft Auto
titles.
They’ve always been accused of “normalizing negative behavior” in their games; it’s
nothing new.
And at the end of the day, the only question with regards to controversy is whether or
not it will apply to the customer in question.
I mean, imagine something like the controversy that surrounded James Charles in summer 2019.
I don’t know about you, but I had never heard of him, didn’t watch any of his content,
nor did I give a crap about his makeup videos.
Because of this, when the “scandal” (if you can even call it that) came out between
him and Tati, all it did was raise his public presence and increase his brand’s awareness
beyond that of his fairly niche, albeit gigantic, audience.
The overwhelming majority of people watching and reading the news updates on the feud were
people who had never heard of him before.
Sure, there was some incidental damage to like ratios, and an initial sub exodus, but
almost all of those sub losses were recovered within two weeks and it seems to have only
rocketed him to new heights of popularity.
Now I am in no way recommending that you seek out a scandal like this, but the point is
to say that seemingly negative press coverage can often be used to your advantage, specifically
if the news coverage is transparently ridiculous, like in the case of the Pewdiepie N-A-Z-I
article from the Wall Street Journal.
In the immediate aftermath, it sucks, but the truth tends to win out and cooler heads
prevail.
This, is where Bully 2 comes into the picture.
The debate here isn’t whether or not it would be a financially lucrative move to release
a sequel to this beloved franchise.
I think that answer is pretty transparently evident.
Rather, the question is whether or not Rockstar would hold true to the Original’s tone and
tenor.
Bully didn’t pull any punches…
I guess that’s a pun…
Nor did it try to water down middleschool life in an elitist school.
They put out the game they wanted to make and they rolled with the punches as they came.
And this is another thing that bothers me about how a lot of YouTubers are handling
this conversation: Bully wasn’t immune to criticism because it was released in the ancient
past of 2006.
Many main-stream media outlets criticized it at the time.
These articles can be hard to find considering that they’re mostly over 13 years old, but
look at this one I found from the Telegraph in 2008 when the game was being released to
the UK:
A violent new video game which is set in a school and encourages players
to act out assaults on pupils and teachers has been condemned by anti-bullying campaigners
and teaching unions.
The game, called Bully, features a shaven-headed pupil who torments fellow students and teachers
at his school.
The National Union of Teachers called for a wide ban on the game.
Steve Sinnott, the general secretary, said: "We're deeply concerned that all the work
in cutting out bullying and cyber bullying in school does not seem to have made any impact
on the consciences of the makers of this game.
The dialogue about the pernicious effects of bullying appears to have been ignored.
It is an encouragement to violence and intimidation, and those things have
a major impact on schools."
See?
They were saying the exact same *MEOW* back then as they are now.
It’s clear, controversy doesn’t hurt game sales or performance, because gamers don’t
give a crap.
You can release a truly offensive, grotesque, borderline psychotic game, and gamers will
back your right to release it.
The ultimate example would be a little game that I love dearly and even did a critique
of: South Park: The Stick of Truth.
I don’t want to go into too much detail as to what’s in this game, but let’s just
say it get pretty…
Startling.
Regardless, it’s in this sense that gamers are very libertarian, we simply don’t want
a very easily offended and incredibly vocal minority to dictate what games can and can’t
be released and played.
And this is all why the case of Bully 2 is so bizarre.
It would sell great, it would be cherished by the gamers who would play it as long as
it hold’s to its foundational work, and the only people it would upset, are the people
that gamer’s tend to relish in upsetting.
And yet, there is still concern and worry as to whether or not the game could/should
be made in 2019.
It’s stupid.
There is no question here.
Yes, it should be and likely is already in development.
Just look at some of the recent leaks that have popped up over on the Bully subreddit.
It may be 2019, but we’re not past commercial liberty, free speech, and the right of consumers
to buy the games they want to buy (at least not yet).
Furthermore, it’s not like Bully 2 would be a game set in Aushwitz, it would likely
be a game where you are playing a highschool student in a boarding school with students
who treat you and everyone else badly, you know, like it is in real life.
Banning or preventing a game pointing out how screwed up modern schools are wouldn’t
do anything to help improve the schools in question, if anything you’d just be removing
one more escape for lonely and troubled kids stuck in a bad situation.
Bully 2 needs to be made, and if you’re one of the people saying that it shouldn’t
be made, fine, but maybe you should look in the mirror and see who the real bully is.