History VideoGame / Bully

* NewKidStigma: Right after being dropped into the Bullworth Academy, Jimmy immideately gets bullied for being a new kid in school.

* AnachronismStew: The Bullworth region appears to be caught in a time warp. The game is ostensibly set in the present (there is reference to the school banning UsefulNotes/MP3 players, Mr. Galloway mentions the Internet during his questline, Jimmy receives a digital camera during the Photography class, and the map of Europe in Geography class added in ''Scholarship Edition'' features a modern-day political layout), but the cars, computers,[[note]]The Nerds keep a modern PC with a flat-panel monitor in their hideout, just to further confuse the issue.[[/note]] nobody has a mobile phone (which, even if set in TheEighties, would definitely have been thrown in as a status symbol for the Preppies), and the Preppies look like they came out of TheEighties, while the Greasers are a throwback to TheFifties. One of the arcade machines has the release date for its game as 1995. There's also no mention of social media, which would seem odd for a game set in the mid-2000s. Reportedly, this was done because Rockstar wanted both adult and teenage gamers to be able to enjoy it, and thus, they threw in elements from multiple time periods rather than grounding it in one.

* AnAesop:
** Discretion Assured: Revenge porn is not justice, no matter how horrible someone is to you. Paying them back by violating their privacy and dignity that way will only make you a villain as well.
** The game goes out of its way to show that popularity isn't worth it in the end since it can be destroyed within seconds and [[ConvictedByPublicOpinion how public opinion can ruin a life]], especially when that respect was taken through brute force. As long you have a few good people on your side then it should be good enough:
*** [[spoiler:The greasers only turn on Jimmy in Chapter 3 because Derby told Jimmy to spray insults in their territory, the nerds betray Jimmy in Chapter 4 because they thought Jimmy was mocking them, and in Chapter 5, all the cliques betray him. After helping every clique with their problems and earning their trust to stop the fighting, all the cliques turn on Jimmy because of problems caused by Gary. They all blamed Jimmy because they expected him to do everything for them and it eventually gets Jimmy expelled after Gary reports him for vandalising the town hall. Jimmy was expelled because Dr. Crabblesnitch read the reports from the other students and heard complaints from Mr. Burton about Jimmy's alleged crimes of releasing rats into the library and setting fire to the gym, something they had no evidence for other than word of mouth.]]
*** Zoe is another example. Mr. Burton is shown to be ephebophile as he instructs Jimmy to collect girls underwear under the pretence of doing laundry for them. According to Zoe, Mr. Burton harassed her at some point and managed to turn the conviction around by getting Zoe expelled. [[spoiler:Mr. Burton is only fired in the end because Jimmy reported him after defeating Gary and restoring order to the school.]]

** Unlike the other protagonists in the future and preceding Rockstar games, once Jimmy gets a tattoo he won't be able to get it removed. People will also react to those tattoos since it's unorthodox for school kids to get them. The Bullies, Greasers, and Townies will speak approvingly of them since [[DamnedByAFoolsPraise they don't really care for education or discipline]] while the other cliques (nerds, preppies, and jocks) will insult them. The prefects will yell at Jimmy for violating the school dress code and will only stop yelling at him if he wears something that covers his sleeves.

* ArtShift:
** The game went through a drastic one through development - Originally, the characters had a more cartoon-like style, with many of the characters being even more stereotypical in appearance than their final counterparts - Peanut looked like an Elvis impostor, Russell was more of a BarbaricBully but lacked his lack of intelligence, the nurse looked barely human, and Earnest was more of a stereotypical nerd than his final design. Hell, even the Prefects looked more barbaric (they carried ''batons'' - it was changed to paddles before being cut altogether) than their final counterparts. Eventually, the game switched to the more realistic style the game kept, before ditching most of the cartoon-like design elements. The pause menu screen is illustrations are based on the aforementioned early version of the game's character design.

** If the player somehow gets projectiles to use for the final fight, either via PC mods or cheat codes, the mission is programmed to automatically fail if they are used against Gary. The developers went out of their way to program this, likely so that it doesn't become possible to KO Gary during the chase and glitch the game.

''Bully'' is a 2006 video game by Creator/RockstarGames for the Platform/{{PlayStation 2}}, combining the WideOpenSandbox gameplay of the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' franchise with the fantasy of besting TheBully who made your own school years a living hell. In 2008, an UpdatedRerelease, ''Bully: Scholarship Edition'', was released for the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}}, PC and UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}. This version features a few exclusive missions, extra [[MiniGame classes]], new [[AndYourRewardIsClothes outfits]] and some minor improvements to the graphics.

''Bully'' is a 2006 video game by Creator/RockstarGames for the UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation 2}}, combining the WideOpenSandbox gameplay of the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' franchise with the fantasy of besting TheBully who made your own school years a living hell. In 2008, an UpdatedRerelease, ''Bully: Scholarship Edition'', was released for the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}}, PC and UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}. This version features a few exclusive missions, extra [[MiniGame classes]], new [[AndYourRewardIsClothes outfits]] and some minor improvements to the graphics.

* ArtShift: The pause menu screen is illustrated by monochromatic sketches of various characters, with a grotesque cartoonish style which doesn't match the relatively realistic character design of the game (the sketches are based on an early version of the game's character design).

* ArtEvolution: The game went through a drastic one through development - Originally, the characters had a more cartoon-like style, with many of the characters being even more stereotypical in appearance than their final counterparts - Peanut looked like an Elvis impostor, Russell was more of a BarbaricBully but lacked his lack of intelligence, the nurse looked barely human, and Earnest was more of a stereotypical nerd than his final design. Hell, even the Prefects looked more barbaric (they carried ''batons'' - it was changed to paddles before being cut altogether) than their final counterparts. Eventually, the game switched to the more realistic style the game kept, before ditching most of the cartoon-like design elements.
* ArtShift: The pause menu screen is illustrated by monochromatic sketches of various characters, with a grotesque cartoonish style which doesn't match the relatively realistic character design of the game. As aforementioned, this is because these sketches were made during development.

** Averted, at the cost of there being only about sixty students and ten teachers in the entire school, all appearing at multiple locations at the same time. This greatly accentuates the game's CatharsisFactor, since if another kid gets one over on you, you can track that specific kid down and whoop his ass for it instead of having to settle for a random lookalike.

* HeroesWantRedheads: Jimmy's final love interest is Zoe, a red-haired Townie girl.

* FanDisservice: Paris (aka "The Ugly Fat Bearded Woman") from the carnival freak show is an [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin morbidly obese bearded woman]] which wears a dark red bikini.

** You can actually beat up as many students as you want and merely get detention. Heck, you can even do stuff like beat up ''the faculty'' ([[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking if you manage to do this]]) and run into a prefect with a lawnmower or hit him with a shovel and you won't get expelled, whereas Dr. Crabblesnitch would have ''more'' than enough reason to do so. This is a case of AcceptableBreaksFromReality because one could get expelled before [[spoiler:the story demands it]]. Plus, it's incredibly satisfying to give a prefect a swirlie and then watch as later in the day he appeared to have forgotten it. On a similar note, no matter how vicious or violent you are to the Bullworth citizens or the local police forces, the worst which can happen is a short trip to the police station.