Grand Scandal Rockstar

In other news, Hot Coffee has got a lot of pulpit pounding politicians draping themselves in outrage.

Turns out that, by modding your copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, you can unlock a minigame that
has the player perform blurry intercourse! Shocking!

Leland Yee (Child Psychologist, Sand Fransisco democrat and California representative of the OMG!1! Teh
VidoegameZ R teh CorruptorZ coalition) has spent the last couple of weeks calling out the ESRB and Rockstar Games for their deceitful ways.

Their deceit being that you can hack your copy of GTA:SA to make it do something it wasn't supposed to.

In fact, modding GTA in such a way is a clear breach of the Terms Of Use and End User License Agreement of the
software. Meaning that it goes against the intentions of the software's creators.

The part where this gets tricky is that said Hot Coffee patch for the PC version of GTA:SA can also be reproduced
on PS2 versions of the game through a variety of third party devices a la Gameshark.

What this means is that, although unavailable through any legitimate means, the code for said Sex minigame was
and is buried somewhere in Rockstar's game. They, at some point, created it to be part of GTA:SA.

At a later time, for whatever reason, they took it out by removing any sort of access to it from the game. Most
likely, it was removed to avoid the dreaded Adult Only/AO rating for the game. Possibly, it was also removed
because, from what I hear, it's just really crap.

Although the distinction that this entire Hot Coffee thing was only "in the game" through third party hacks has
escaped the loudest voices of dissent, the fact that, somehow, the code for it was in the game hasn't.

And so, once again, we fall into the fight about entertainment media corrupting the youth.

As other industries, like music, were becoming embroiled in scandals of their own regarding unsuitable content,
the videogame industry decided to police themselves. In 1994, they created the Entertainment Software Rating Board.
The idea was simple. They knew that, eventually, they would have to fight the same fight. In order to prevent a court
order putting the rating system into law and into the hands of a group more than likely unsuitable for the decision,
they decided to police themselves. Create their own ratings system, similar to cinema, and enforce it strictly.

And you know what? It works.

The problem is that the media at large and, by extension, child protection advocates like Mister Yee have decided
25 years ago that videogames are for children and have not re-evaluated their position since.

The truth of the matter is that research shows the average age of gamers is now 28 years old. The basic breakdown
is this: 50% of all americans play videogames; 35% of videogame
players are under 18 while 65% are over 18.

As the gamers have grown older, so have their tastes. When the ESRB started, the M for Mature(17+) rating was a rare
thing. Now, it is commonplace because the companies who make videogames are trying to keep up with their aging clientele
and make games that, they imagine, would appeal to them.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is rated M for Mature. There is a large black and white M on the box along with the word
"Mature 17+ contains Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use Of Drugs".

So where's the problem? This is not a game meant for children. It is not presented as a game for children.

Yet, in Mister Yee's own words "Once again, ESRB has failed our parents. Plain and simple, parents cannot trust
the ESRB to rate games appropriately or the industry to look out for our children's best interests".

What. The. Fuck.

Yee? You're either a fucking moron or trying to further your political career. Or both.

The problem is simple and it's not the ESRB or hacked sex in GTA. The problem is that 85% to 90% of all game purchases
are made by adults. Those who go and purchase games for their children do not pay attention to the ratings. You're an
adult buying an adult game. It's not the minimum wage walmart teen's job to question you about whether or not you will
give it to your kids.

Will changing the rating of a game like GTA from M to AO change the irresponsibility of bad parenting? Of course not.

But still, the mission was succesful. GTA is now rated Adult Only. A rating that is only carried by pornography and
represents less than 1% of all games produced. As all major nationwide chains have policies against carrying "adult"
material, San Andreas is now to be taken off the shelf until such time as Rockstar Games can come up with a version
that can't be sex-haXXord.

Proof positive that idiocy is never the sole property of one political party.


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On a related tangent, this is an interesting and intelligent discourse on such things as videogame addiction and videogames
causing violent behaviour in children.