One amusing by-product of Manhunt 2 recently getting the ‘M for Mature’ rating it so desperately required is the fanciful conspiracy theories that have begun to germinate in Internet forums.

If you’ve only just clambered from beneath your dank rock after several weeks of videogame hibernation, allow GamerSquad to fill you in on the entire debacle to date:

June 20: Rockstar’s Manhunt 2 has an ‘Adults Only’ rating slapped on it by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). Publisher Take-Two moans. Rockstar moans. Gamers moan. Activists throw wild party.

August 24: Rockstar submits revised version of Manhunt 2 for rating. ESRB says, "That’ll do nicely!" and awards the title a retailer-friendly ‘M for Mature’ rating. Game violence critics moan. Jack Thompson, anti-gaming lawyer dude, predictably moans.

And this is where we pick up the story, because since Manhunt 2’s re-rating by the ESRB, the conspiracy theorists have been piling it on thick and fast. GamePolitics correspondent Andrew Eisen managed to identify four different conspiracy theories, each of which attempts to explain why Manhunt 2 clinched that much-needed M rating.

Theory 1: Take-Two and the ESRB have collaborated throughout the entire process, so that both parties would benefit. Take-Two got to generate buzz for the game, while the ESRB demonstrated how the ratings system could be effective.

Theory 2: The more grisly sections of the game were simply covered with a ‘fade to black’ sequence by Rockstar, protecting impressionable eyes from THIS SICK FILTH (sorry, I get carried away).

Theory 3: The game only had one or two particularly shocking moments. With these removed, the AO rating could be dropped. Simple.

Theory 4: Rockstar and Take-Two had two versions of the title prepared all along, the big japesters: one with lashings of sex and violence, and one with puppies and candy (or whatever). Knowing that the nastier version would instantly get an AO rating, the companies deliberately submitted that version first, creating the mother of all hoo-hahs. Just as the commotion threatened to die down, the less sadistic edition was then sent the ESRB’s way. Hey presto - mountains of hype, and the all-important ‘M’ rating.

Think any of those have any credibility? The last one is probably the most outlandish of the four, yet also the one we really want to be true - if correct, it would confirm Take-Two and Rockstar as absolute masters when it comes to generating hype and, y’know, dishonesty. But damn, we’d just be too impressed to care.