Our Position

POSTAL , since it's beginning ten years ago, has been the nearly constant recipient of aggressive misinformation and outright fabrications made by “journalists” and zealots content to provide their own “facts” without the benefit of actual research. We feel it is well past time for us to once and for all, clearly state our position, and clarify our intent.

Despite our renegade image, we do NOT enjoy the real life suffering of flesh and blood human beings. Real life violence is reprehensible and unacceptable.

We have ALWAYS stated that violence belongs in videogames, NOT on the streets.

Videogames serve as an outlet for aggression, not as an instigator to it.

Just look at the numbers involved. If videogames had the power to create murderers we would be up to our necks in corpses right now. The FBI's national statistics on youth violence indicate it is at a 10 year low. The empirical data fails to support the hysterical rhetoric used by anti-game “crusaders”. In fact, these statistics could potentially be used to support the idea that the increasing popularity of videogames is actually helping reduce the rate of real-world violence.

The concept of "person plays violent games = person becomes violent criminal" is offensive and ignorant. Violent behavior and mental illness are complex issues and trivializing them with baseless anti-game invective helps no one.

POSTAL 2 is intended as social parody in the form of a videogame.

We took unsavory elements of the American psyche, pop culture and it's ignorance, and elevated them to a state where they represent “normalcy.” Against this comically distorted backdrop of Americana , the player must make choices as The Postal Dude. To kill or not to kill, is a question left entirely to the player to decide. POSTAL2 was designed to allow successful completion of all missions without the use of lethal force. This is a fact ALWAYS overlooked by the zealots and their sympathetic media cohorts.

And to the critics who mindlessly repeat the tired litany of “glorifying violence”, we feel the need to point out another basic aspect of POSTAL's design: The more violent you play, the more resistance from Police, Military and even armed vigilante bystanders you will face. That's right, sometimes even the “helpless” bystanders will fight back. Considering these examples of Running With Scissors' core design philosophies, it's hard to imagine POSTAL being considered as anything other than a hard lesson in the fact that violence has dire consequences.

Unlike every other violent videogame on the market, POSTAL 2 makes no attempt to defend or justify any violence committed by the player. You don't get points for shooting someone in the face. There are no missions based on slaughtering innocent bystanders. The player is placed in a detailed environment and given simple tasks such as buying milk and cashing his paycheck. Just like the real world, the player can find weapons in that environment if he looks for them. And, just like in the real world, the choice of what to do with those weapons is left up to the user. Misuse may result in severe consequences including jail time or death. In our opinion that makes POSTAL2 the most politically correct game ever made.

  Running With Scissors holds to the concept of free will and taking responsibility for one's own actions. We can only shake our heads in disbelief as self-serving censors market a sad "society of blame" wherein nobody is responsible for his own actions; it's always the fault of someone that can be sued for large sums of money.