I was lucky enough to get a chance to sit down with some of the Rockstar guys last month in their SoHo offices and look at and talk about Bully for a package of stories I was working on for the Rocky Mountain News.

Earlier this week I had a news story up about the game, today I have a story up about Bully that looks at censorship and the medium of gaming coming into its own as a social commentary. The story includes interviews with the executive directior of the National Coalition Against Censorship, Clive Thompson, the Miami-Dade school board member who banned the game, Rockstar founder Terry Donovan and our very own Alice Taylor, of the BBC.

It's a controversy launched by a sentence.

The video game Bully, from the makers of Grand Theft Auto, has been called a Columbine simulator and an impetus for teen violence. The House of Commons condemned it, the Miami-Dade School District banned it, and anti-violence activists have protested it.

Until this week, the only thing these vocal critics knew about Rockstar's upcoming game came from a single sentence released in 2005:

"As a troublesome schoolboy, you'll laugh and cringe as you stand up to bullies, get picked on by teachers, play pranks on malicious kids, win or lose the girl, and ultimately learn to navigate the obstacles of the fictitious reform school, Bullworth Academy."

But with this week's announcement of the game's October release, more details have emerged — as have advocates for the game. Where some people see controversy, others now see a cause. Months before its release Bully may be evolving into a benchmark game for issues ranging from censorship to the stature of video games as relevant social commentary.

Make sure you check out the full story. I think it touches on some interesting ideas about gaming and its place in popular culture. Brian Crecente

Evolution or Explotation [Rocky Mountain News]

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