The Wii was already deprived of Grand Theft Auto IV and now Mediawatch UK wants to have MadWorld banned from it too - in Britain, at least.

The self-appointed media watchdog group told UK tabloid the Daily Mail that it wanted the BBFC to a rating for the game, making it effectively banned from the region. Said John Beyer, the organization's director:

This game sounds very unsavoury. I hope the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) will view this with concern and decide it should not be granted a classification. Without that it cannot be marketed in Britain.

We need to ensure that modern and civilized values take priority rather than killing and maiming people. It seems a shame that the game's manufacturer has decided to release this game exclusively on the Wii. I believe it will spoil the 'fun for all the family' image of the Wii.

This feels a bit confusing for me. Is the issue about violence in video games, or that the game ruins Beyer's idea of the Wii being a "family" console? At any rate, it wasn't long before their inbox was flooded with "hostile emails" telling them to "shut the f- up," and others to that extent. Mediawatch reacted:

Within hours of these remarks being published a rain of hostile emails from gamers poured into our office telling us to "shut the f*** up", [...] demanding, as though we were on trial for an heinous crime, to know what right we had to impose our "narrow minded bigotry" on them and stopping them playing an "adult" game of their choice.

Others, of a more sober character, asked reasonably why we should be so concerned about games when there was so much violence in films and on television! We were also accused us of being "cowards" for not responding properly to belligerent strictures and one ‘emailer' observed glibly that "violent acts are not a symptom of video games and films, but rather the human condition". Another said: "If you don't like violent content, don't view or use it".

Others thanked us cynically for drawing attention to the game saying they would rush out and buy it as soon as it was available. Yet others told us to focus on retailers and said that parents should safeguard their children from "adult" games.

It goes on like that. Their main conclusion stands this way: "It is evident from this that the battle for standards has rather shifted away from television towards games and the internet." Right. As much as video games have become big over the past few years, I doubt it's influence is bigger than television.

Good publicity for MadWorld though. Thanks, Mediawatch!