Video game's R rating a first for Ontario

TORONTO -- The Ontario Film Review Board has rated its first video game, slapping a "restricted" rating on it to keep it out of kids' hands. Manhunt, a PlayStation 2 game that features extreme gore and language, can no longer be sold, rented or distributed to anyone under 18 in Ontario.

Consumer and Business Services Minister Jim Watson said he agrees with the board's decision to rate the "disturbing" video game.

"Going around and murdering people and assaulting people -- it was quite disturbing, I'd never seen anything like it before and I thought it was quite distasteful," he said yesterday.

In Manhunt, the player assumes the persona of a death-row inmate who escapes and kills his enemies. Top scores are earned by turning up the terror, which, while enticing to fans, was a factor in its R rating.

Watson said it's the first time the province has placed an R rating on a video game.

In Manhunt's case, he added, it's an attempt to keep the "vile and violent" game out of kids' hands.

"If you've seen this video, you realize, quite frankly, it's really disturbing."

Review board chairperson Bill Moody said the video game came to the board's attention after New Zealand banned it.

Video games are considered films under the Theatre Act and can be rated, but this is the first time it's happened in Ontario, he said.

Videos are rated in the U.S. by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. But the voluntary U.S. rating isn't enforceable -- only a suggestion to parents, Moody said.

Any underage person in Ontario who buys or rents the game risks a maximum fine of $25,000 or up to one year in jail.

Anyone selling Manhunt to minors faces fines as high as $100,000.

Moody said the raters found Manhunt contained course language and sexual references, but it was the extreme violence that earned the R rating.

The player gets extra points for escalating the violence, such as smashing in the skull of a dead victim.

The film board wants to help parents guide their children to good choices, Moody said.

"I'm not sure that some kids don't get so immersed in the world of imagination that they sometimes have difficulty recognizing when they leave the game and enter real life," he said.

Moody said he has received no negative reaction, just positive calls from supporters of the R rating.

Manhunt's publisher, Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of New York-based Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., issued a brief statement saying it would fight the classification.

"Rockstar Games is appealing the decision with the Ontario Film Review Board," the company said.

The violence in Manhunt prompted the ban in New Zealand last December, where it was called "injurious to the public good."

Any underage person who buys or rents the game risks a maximum fine of $25,000 or as long as one year in prison.

Anyone selling Manhunt to minors faces fines as high as $100,000.

The rating was applied by the Ontario Film Review Board -- an arm's-length agency of the Consumer and Business Services Ministry -- after its panel reviewed the game, in part because of parents' complaints, said board chairperson Bill Moody.

The board usually accepts the video game industry's voluntary classification system as determined by the New York-based Entertainment Software Rating Board.

Manhunt was given a Mature rating by the New York board that pegged it as suitable for those 17 and older.

But the voluntary U.S. rating isn't enforceable; it's merely a suggestion to parents, Moody said.

"We felt the only way we could control the thing was to put the R rating on it," Moody said, shrugging off suggestions of censorship.

Manhunt's publisher, Rockstar Games, a subsidiary of New York-based Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., issued a brief statement saying it would fight the classification.

"Rockstar Games is appealing the decision with the Ontario Film Review Board," the company said yesterday.

The violence in Manhunt prompted a ban in New Zealand last December, where it was called "injurious to the public good."

Australia also considered a ban, but Ontario won't go that route, said

Moody said the province has never banned a video game.

"We're not banning it all," Moody said, noting Manhunt's content is comparable to an R-rated film. "We're trying to protect our kids.

"Most parents, unfortunately, don't know what they've just given their kids for Christmas."