Running With Scissors ‘shares the pain’ on Manhunt 2 controversy

As soon as news flared up about a violent game banned, we knew this was bound to happen. For those uninformed, Running With Scissors’ Postal (expanded by Special Delivery) was probably the granddaddy of extreme violent game controversies, and its equally violent successor, Postal II (expanded by Share the Pain and Apocalypse Weekend), was similarly banned in multiple regions despite a still growing fanbase on the PS2 and PC.

 

Postal was also one of the first titles to be blamed for tragedies in real life. But while Postal was created from the ground up to focus more on the hilarity of the idea of violence and not extreme violence, the series was the first to pick up the “Intense Violence” rating from the ESRB.

And now as the gaming community centers around the huge controversy concerning Manhunt 2 and calls for their freedom to choose what they can and cannot play, someone caught up with Vince Desi, CEO of Running With Scissors, for an interview regarding Take-Two Interactive’s Manhunt 2.

Concerned for the direction the game industry is taking, Desi knows that the real issue behind the developments unfolding at present is actually the game industry allowing itself “to be set up.” He believes that despite being a free society (pardon for his potshot at the UK), the game industry allows itself to be played like a puppet by the government, politicians and the media that want to play out the win-lose story and who should play what.

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As soon as news flared up about a violent game banned, we knew this was bound to happen. For those uninformed, Running With Scissors’ Postal (expanded by Special Delivery) was probably the granddaddy of extreme violent game controversies, and its equally violent successor, Postal II (expanded by Share the Pain and Apocalypse Weekend), was similarly banned in multiple regions despite a still growing fanbase on the PS2 and PC.

Postal was also one of the first titles to be blamed for tragedies in real life. But while Postal was created from the ground up to focus more on the hilarity of the idea of violence and not extreme violence, the series was the first to pick up the “Intense Violence” rating from the ESRB.

And now as the gaming community centers around the huge controversy concerning Manhunt 2 and calls for their freedom to choose what they can and cannot play, someone caught up with Vince Desi, CEO of Running With Scissors, for an interview regarding Take-Two Interactive‘s Manhunt 2.

Concerned for the direction the game industry is taking, Desi knows that the real issue behind the developments unfolding at present is actually the game industry allowing itself “to be set up.” He believes that despite being a free society (pardon for his potshot at the UK), the game industry allows itself to be played like a puppet by the government, politicians and the media that want to play out the win-lose story and who should play what.

RWS is currently celebrating the 10th anniversary of Postal and are already at work on Postal III (for the PC and Xbox 360), but Desi is anticipating another outcry by the government when the game nears completion. And that’s even when Postal III still maintains an M for Mature rating. Desi explains:

The video game industry is too easy for [the government] to complain about, and with a presidential election next year I can only imagine the pseudo talking points we’ll be hearing. It could be the only issue the Democrats and Republicans agree upon. How old were you when you lit your first cigarette? Drank your first beer? I think rating systems work in general as they provide consumers with so-called valuable information, [but] they should never be seen as or expected to be a policing policy.

And while Microsoft won’t be lifting the AO-mandate for the Xbox 360, Desi believes that Postal III will pass with flying colors. As developers from the past decade, RWS is still keeping to the ancient way to make games: make them creative and fun.

“We never think in terms of violence, it reduces the game to a one-dimensional perspective, aka BORING. We design for laughs. It’s so much more entertaining when you can play for fun and at the same time laugh your ass off,” he concluded.