Manhunt 2: Art Form?

In the spring of 2007, controversial video game maker Rockstar Games (owners of such titles as the "Max Payne" series and the "Grand Theft Auto" series) was subjected to a refusal from the British Board of Film Classification (the UK equivalent of the Canadian Radio Telecommunications Commission) to issue an age rating for its latest game, "Manhunt 2".

For those of you not familiar with the content of "Manhunt 2", the story deals with a scientist who, as a result of unauthorized government testing, is locked up in, and subsequently escapes from, an institution for the criminally insane.

During the course of the game, the protagonist is encouraged to use a variety of methods to eliminate characters. For example, you can push an enemy face-first into a live fuse box, use telephone cords to strangle an enemy, rip off his testicles with a pair of pliers, or you can drown an enemy in a toilet.

The BBFC commented that in certain cases, it could "consider... modifications which remove the" offensive material. This was not the case with ManHunt 2. The game "is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone... which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing. There is sustained... casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged".

Now Rockstar Games is launching an appeal to the video gaming industry to battle the BBFC's decision and have it revoked (as the lack of a rating effectively bans it sale). A Rockstar executive from the UK takes the position that "we need to teach people that games are an art form - they are more artistic than film."

I think that's such a load of junk! It seems like any sort of violent or pornographic medium today can be justified by the position that it's artistic (and more so than film? Where is the reasoning behind that?) Go ahead... make violent video games and sell them, see if I care... but don't insult my intelligence by asking me to classify violent video games as an art form.