Lawyer Jack Thompson is preparing to argue in California that the contentious video game Bully, is a public nuisance. The judge has agreed to review and play the game before making a decision whether or not to ban it.

The action is being brought under Florida’s public nuisance laws, normally they are used to regulate and prosecute in the areas of environmental pollution.

The legal action is against the US publisher Take 2, as well as retail giants Wal-Mart and GameStop. The game has a teenage only rating in the US and a 15 rating in the UK.

In Bully the main character has to defend himself from school bullies as well as form alliances with different cliques in the school, to head off the action of the bullies. Defence, counter action against the bullies are a key feature of the game. The point of the game is that the victim’s have to stand up to the bullies, not just for themselves, but they must prevent the bullies from reacting by picking on other kids.

The game which is set in an American private school has a serious of stringent rules. Violence is strictly moderated .
“Hitting girls lands you in serious trouble. You can’t hit girls or little kids or teachers and prefects, said a bully spokesman.
He continued “There’s no blood at all in the game. There’s no physical damage.

But the main character can use dustbin lids and baseball bats to hit other children in the school.

In the UK, Bully has already changed its name to Canis Canem Edit (Dog Eat Dog) and is due for release on the PlayStation 2 on 27 October.

The Rockstar spokesman claimed the game was “entertainment” and “out of reach of people who are unable to draw a distinction between what’s real and what’s fantasy”. He added: “Video faced the same backlash in the 80’s, music did in the 50’s when Elvis shaked his hips. Now we think of it as laughable.

Maybe it is me, but it does seem a tad hypocritical that the gun culture is legalised and encouraged by the constitution, and a video game is being banned. I played one of the original video games in the early seventies, but it has never given me a hankering to go out and find aliens to kill!