Will Mean Girls Get Meaner in a Mean Girls Game?

When bad news comes out about a videogame, or salacious details are leaked, many are those quick to jump on the bandwagon deriding the game. This seems to create a perpetual cycle of bad press regarding various games (and the medium in general) as they come down the pike. We saw suggestions from local politicians that Bully be banned, even before it was released. The Grand Theft Auto series has had its share of bad press, with the Hot Coffee incident being the worse. More recently, Manhunt 2 has garnered plenty of bad press for being over-the-top violent.

Now, a new game due out in January is garnering criticism for teaching girls how to behave badly. Coolest Girl in School is like Bully, with protagonists as females who must “lie, bitch and flirt [their] way to the top of the high school ladder.” As such, teachers are seen as rubes to be manipulated, rumor mongering is seen as a social tool, and sexual experimentation is rife with potential.

In an article for the CanWest News Service, Misty Harris writes that the Aussies are upset with details concerning the game (beta testing has occurred in Australia).

“The activities in the game have been shown through vast amounts of research to cause significant, long-term problems for young people,” a spokeswoman for the Australian Family Association told the Daily Telegraph this month.

But, the developers insist they’ve been unfairly tarnished:

“We have had a lot of press and, unfortunately the game has been misrepresented in some articles,” says [Holly] Owen [creative director of Champagne for the Ladies, the game’s developer] . “It is … a very tongue-in-cheek look at the perils of the quest for cool in high school. Key word: irony!”

Owen notes that although activities such as smoking or using drugs “might seem obviously cool,” they can work against a girl in the game because she could be sent to virtual rehab or have foul-smelling breath when a love interest approaches her.

Academics in the article express their doubts. Christine Daviault at Concordia U. in Montreal is quoted as saying she doubts young girls will get the irony, and are at a developmental crossroads where negative influence may hold sway. The final quote:

Anastasia Goodstein, a noted youth media consultant, believes the game’s premise might hit too close to home for some.

“Coolest Girl In School sounds a lot like high school,” Goodstein writes on her marketing blog YPulse.com. “Do girls need to play a game to remind them of high school’s depressing social hierarchy?”

On one hand, negative press about any videogame hurts the cause for educational products that seek to do good. On the other hand, any publicity is good publicity, and public outcries against games for whatever reasons ultimately lead to higher sales than otherwise realized.

References:
Harris, M. (2007, November 22). Videogame teaches teen girls to slither up social ladder. Canada.com. [Online.] Available: http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?
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