NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/gta4/news_6128837.html

Seems like Rockstar is in hot coffee...Ha, get it? Hot coffee!

I've never seen a scandal in the video game industry. Much less did I think that that makers of the GTA series would actually become victims of politician's constant attacks on the GTA.

gee... a game that glorifies Illegal Activites such as murder, theft and general lawbreaking is being raked over the coals for nudity and explicit scene?

God of War anyone?

gee... a game that glorifies Illegal Activites such as murder, theft and general lawbreaking is being raked over the coals for nudity and explicit scene?

God of War anyone?
Where've you been since the PS2 version of GTA:SA came out?

LOL!!

I liked this sentence:

"Now the group is issuing a National Parental Warning for the game, giving concerned mothers and fathers a heads-up that their children could be playing with their joysticks in an inappropriate way."

All sorts of images poped into my head after it said playing with joysticks in the wrong way and talking about sex scenes!!! lol!!

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), should be pointedly ignored by everybody. Always somebody bitching.

gee... a game that glorifies Illegal Activites such as murder, theft and general lawbreaking is being raked over the coals for nudity and explicit scene?

God of War anyone?

LOL! Its cause its GTA, it always gets slated, anyways God of War is 'historically accurate'

Haha, yeh right!

It is ok if movies/videogames blantantly glorify violence (e.g. The Matrix (dont get me wrong, it is a great film) , but it is not ok, if one can have sex in a computer game?
Bah, Americans (at least quite some conservative ones)!

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), should be pointedly ignored by everybody. Always somebody bitching.
Some people actually pay attention to the ratings, that's what amazes me.

Nah, not the biggest scandal. In the late 80's (I think) when video games were first coming out there was an adult-themed game (FYI: It means it was pornographic) that depicted sex between General Custer and a bound Native American captive. That caused a huge stir since, in addition to being sexual, it was also rape and made light of the the Indian/American conflicts of the 1800's.

But come on, I've seen worse than that available on publicly viewable and free web-sites. I can't believe that this, inside an already mature game which requires adult permission to even purchase, would cause such a stir.

It is ok if movies/videogames blantantly glorify violence (e.g. The Matrix (dont get me wrong, it is a great film) , but it is not ok, if one can have sex in a computer game?
Bah, Americans (at least quite some conservative ones)!
Well this is the problem. If the the game is proven to have had the sex game in it without the use of a mod, then it will be rated "Adults Only"

A game with such a rating is not accepted in most stores. Places like WalMart, Best Buy, perhaps even GameStop/EB Games, places where perhaps 90% of the population buys their video games, will refuse to stock them. Causing the company to lose a crap load of money.

Then there's the lawsuits that'll surely follow. Perhaps the company will fall into bankruptcy. No more GTA as we know it. :(

I think the whole thing is absolutely ridiculous. It would be a bigger deal if Rockstar had that built into the regular game. If parents don't want their children to have that sort of thing in their games, they need to keep a better eye on their activity. You can get mods for just about any game that could be deemed inappropriate. I don't really care if Rockstar put it in there locked away or the hacker wrote the code, either way, if I didn't want my kid to see it, I would check the mods he had installed. Rockstar shouldn't be held responsible for it because they didn't intend for the feature to be in the retail version of the game. The kid who installed the mod should be held responsible. Parents will do anything to take the blame away from their children. It's really quite pathetic. That is the reason for the problems we have with today's children. Parents go around making excuses for them and placing the blame on everyone else instead of making them take responsibility for their own actions and punishing them. It's much easier to blame a video game because your kid killed someone instead of sitting down and figuring out the real reason.

Really, would you rather kids have sex or shoot each other and steal cars?

Nah, not the biggest scandal. In the late 80's (I think) when video games were first coming out there was an adult-themed game (FYI: It means it was pornographic) that depicted sex between General Custer and a bound Native American captive. That caused a huge stir since, in addition to being sexual, it was also rape and made light of the the Indian/American conflicts of the 1800's.

Custer's Revenge for the Jaguar I think. It's also one of the 20 worst games of all time, for reference.

Really, would you rather kids have sex or shoot each other and steal cars?

Stealing cars doesn't give you aids.

it is amazing the media coverage on this issue since as already pointed out...ITS FOR FREAKING ADULTS ONLY ALREADY(in my mind over 17 is pretty much an adult, if your old enough to die for your country you should be mature enough to kill in a video game and god forbid, have sex in it)

and isn't "playboy: the Mansion" rated M also, and it has 'strong sexual content" as well...

and to the "non-americans" blaming this issue on conservites(which i am a moderate one) the main person going off on this thing is a liberal DEMOCRAT FROM SAN FRAN!!!


:)

the hypocrosy of it all!!!!

Canada City']Stealing cars doesn't give you aids.
That's what tehy want you to think

Hey...didnt I post this about three weeks ago?
YOU STOLE MY TOPIC!
*runs Colodia down in a stolen car, shoots him, and randomy has sex*
Yay :P

Hey...didnt I post this about three weeks ago?
YOU STOLE MY TOPIC!
*runs Colodia down in a stolen car, shoots him, and randomy has sex*
Yay :P
*gets up*

Little does he know that the bicycle he just raped has AIDS!

Really, would you rather kids have sex or shoot each other and steal cars?
You assume that this will lead to behavior that you list ... prove it

*gets up*

Little does he know that the bicycle he just raped has AIDS!
*shoots self*
HA! I cant get AIDS NOW, now can I?
*dies*
...
...
...
*gets back up*
Braiiiiiinnnnnsssss...
*looks at Colodia*
...
No.
*eats the next poster's, who isnt Colodia, brain*

it is amazing the media coverage on this issue since as already pointed out...ITS FOR FREAKING ADULTS ONLY ALREADY(in my mind over 17 is pretty much an adult, if your old enough to die for your country you should be mature enough to kill in a video game and god forbid, have sex in it)

and isn't "playboy: the Mansion" rated M also, and it has 'strong sexual content" as well...

and to the "non-americans" blaming this issue on conservites(which i am a moderate one) the main person going off on this thing is a liberal DEMOCRAT FROM SAN FRAN!!!


:)

the hypocrosy of it all!!!!

Total agreement. When a game is rated 18+ it should only be sold to people who can produce a valid 18+ ID; it's no good applying both a "This game can only be sold to those over 18 years of age" and a "This game is for adults only" and expecting people understand that the two have vastly different meanings.

In fact, I think I'll have a trip down to my local toy store on Thursday (they're closed for the July 12... issues...) and have a little chat to them about this.

You assume that this will lead to behavior that you list ... prove it

what, you dont get the urge to run over people and gun them down in cold blood after playing video games or seeing it in movies??? omg, i knew i was different!!!!

*runs off to call 800-VGA-HELP!!!*

what, you dont get the urge to run over people and gun them down in cold blood after playing video games or seeing it in movies??? omg, i knew i was different!!!!

*runs off to call 800-VGA-HELP!!!*
LOL :)

Hey I have heard a lot of inuendo from these people but no SOLID studdies so far (they may exist but if so I have not seen them) even so it is the parents job to make sure content shown to their minors is right for their age

Total agreement. When a game is rated 18+ it should only be sold to people who can produce a valid 18+ ID; it's no good applying both a "This game can only be sold to those over 18 years of age" and a "This game is for adults only" and expecting people understand that the two have vastly different meanings.

In fact, I think I'll have a trip down to my local toy store on Thursday (they're closed for the July 12... issues...) and have a little chat to them about this.
Actually, I think the AO rating translates (in some states) as +21 only.
Apparently the age of 'adultness' has been increased.
Didnt you get the memo?

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/gta4/news_6128837.html

Seems like Rockstar is in hot coffee...Ha, get it? Hot coffee!

I've never seen a scandal in the video game industry. Much less did I think that that makers of the GTA series would actually become victims of politician's constant attacks on the GTA.
Hey. If a kid is going to "play with his joystick," he's going to do it regardless of whether there's a "sexually explicit" module on his video game or not! :D

Also, another point I should make is this;
The main implication, whether people realize it or not, is that the ESRB needs to go through EVERY line of code in a video game before it goes into publication.
Y'see, in case you didnt read the article, the 'Hot Coffee' game mode HAD to be unlocked by a third-party mod, if it was originaly in the game (which I think Rockstar has denied), it required a mod to unlock the code.
Now, correct me if Im wrong, but the average video game these days has about two million lines of code, more or less. Going through these one at a time would require the population of, say, Wyoming. And these would be dedicated soley to going through code, not doing anything else.
Not gonna happen :P

Also, another point I should make is this;
The main implication, whether people realize it or not, is that the ESRB needs to go through EVERY line of code in a video game before it goes into publication.
Y'see, in case you didnt read the article, the 'Hot Coffee' game mode HAD to be unlocked by a third-party mod, if it was originaly in the game (which I think Rockstar has denied), it required a mod to unlock the code.
Now, correct me if Im wrong, but the average video game these days has about two million lines of code, more or less. Going through these one at a time would require the population of, say, Wyoming. And these would be dedicated soley to going through code, not doing anything else.
Not gonna happen :P
It can reach that ... there are a few guys around here specifically in the game design industry but I don't remember who they are lol

But a pc game can be massive ... but to trace each game would be a month or two proposition for any team at LEAST but it can be done (I know you were exaggerating a bit but yeah) last stat I heard Microsoft has about 4 k coders working on longhorn alone and another couple of hundred debugging and going through code

It would be a massive undertaking anyways and hurt the game industry immensely with release dates

Not really on-topic, but I hope that Microsoft hires thousands of testers so they can run Longhorn through it's paces for as many potential hardware/software scenarios as possible. Otherwise we'll get another release with 1,000,000+ identified buggy lines of code in it.

Not really on-topic, but I hope that Microsoft hires thousands of testers so they can run Longhorn through it's paces for as many potential hardware/software scenarios as possible. Otherwise we'll get another release with 1,000,000+ identified buggy lines of code in it.
Yeah ... they have the problem of having to deal with millions of idiots using their product on top of trying to support an amazing amount of options and hardware for anything thus idiots want to do

To do what they want with the low intelligence (when it comes to computers) they start having to automate
As they do the code grows exponentially the completely goes up
And with all that so does the potential for bugs and problems

They fall prey to their ambitions and target audience (and their popularity when it comes to viruses) more then REAL horrible coding

There are a lot of pieces of hardware out there that Microsoft has had trouble with in releases past. Not all of the people who use those pieces of hardware can possibly be idiots. Besides, why are you so buddy-buddy with Microsoft? I actually own stock in them, so it's my money that goes down the toilet if they release a crappy product.

For my money, I just wish that HW developers had given correct backwards compatibility for Windows 98, then I would never have had to buy a copy of XP. But since all the new graphics card and sound card manufacturers refuse to write correct code for their Win98 release drivers, the consumer is artificially forced to switch to an OS that is even more of a memory hog.

Which, in theory, means more money for stockholders like me... but not in practice because people who use computers just for the love of computers get Linux.

I need Windows because Linux won't operate any of my hardware or software correctly, though.

Really, would you rather kids have sex or shoot each other and steal cars?I know, what's wrong with this place?

I think in this case, Rockstar is not at fault because even if they originally built it into the game, they chose not to release the game with that feature. Its standard practice to disable features rather than completely remove all trace of them. In fact, had they released the game with that feature and it came back from the ESRB with an adults only rating, they wouldve disabled it like they did and tried again and they wouldve gotten the rating they wanted with the full knowledge of the ESRB that they had simply disabled that feature.

However, those who think that it is up to parents to decide if the game is right for their kids are deluding themselves. Yes, it is the parents' responsability to decide what type of games their kids can play, but they need some way of being able to tell what is in the game. Do you honestly think that parents should sit down and play a game all the way through, doing every possible subquest before they let their kids try it? They need some way of being able to tell what is in the game without spending the endless hours that it would take to go through every nook and cranny of the game. In this day and age, games can easily provide dozens of hours of gameplay and hundreds of subquests. They even have hidden levels that can be very difficult to find. It is unrealistic to expect a parent to sit down and go through all of it before their kids can play it. They need a tool that lets them know what to expect in the game. Ratings are a great tool for this purpose.

Gotta love conservative politcians. Shooting people is A-OK, but sex! God forbid our children should see something they've been snickering about since age 7.

Considering the lawsuits filed against id Software's 'Doom' for inspiring school shootings in America, the GTA scandal does not match up to it. Besides, I'm sure that it's not that only game with hidden porn, whether made by the company or by some fan.

Gotta love conservative politcians. Shooting people is A-OK, but sex! God forbid our children should see something they've been snickering about since age 7.

I though conservatives are against that game because it promotes criminal activity.

Gotta love conservative politcians. Shooting people is A-OK, but sex! God forbid our children should see something they've been snickering about since age 7.
Um...it's a Democrat...from California...that started all the fuss. I think that rules out "conservative" right there.

Gotta love conservative politcians. Shooting people is A-OK, but sex! God forbid our children should see something they've been snickering about since age 7.

Assemblyman Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) On GTAs case.
Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut) Also on GTAs case.
Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) On 25 to Life's case.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York) Denounced them.
Governor Rod Blagojevich (D-Illinois) Attacked sellers.
.....

Get the general idea? Spotting the trend? :rolleyes:

Um...it's a Democrat...from California...that started all the fuss. I think that rules out "conservative" right there.

Sex is more objectionable than violence. I don't think it's a matter of conservatism.

I wonder if our political feeb has ever heard of Leisure Suit Larry... :rolleyes:

I'm sure he hasn't see some of the more interesting "girfriend/hentai" games you can get from Japan... :eek:

The dilemma is that GTA is a mainstream game, not some pornographic sex game. With this alleged mod, and the claims that the sexual contents were hidden by the makers mean that it could be due for re-evaluation.

I love how, even though watch sex does not damage the brain of a child irrepairably, and not very much to begin with, and while lots of violence can damage the brain irrepairably and to a large degree, we worry about sex not violence.

I love how, even though watch sex does not damage the brain of a child irrepairably, and not very much to begin with, and while lots of violence can damage the brain irrepairably and to a large degree, we worry about sex not violence.

Sex is generally taboo across many cultures. Pronography being exposed to youngsters has been proven to give them an unrealistic and dehumanized view towards sexual relationships. It is also known that many serial killers use pornography.

Violence does not damage the child's brain if the correct exposure and the surrounding culture manages to nurture the child right. The ancient Romans used to make boys brave by allowing them to watch gladiatorial bouts and even in the 20th Century, boys were even encouraged to watch live, public executions (my father being one witness).

Violence, can be an educating experience. As for sex, I don't think children will be that age.

The dilemma is that GTA is a mainstream game, not some pornographic sex game. With this alleged mod, and the claims that the sexual contents were hidden by the makers mean that it could be due for re-evaluation.
But that's the problem. It was hidden, and, frankly, should not have ever been seen by the public. Just because a bunch of fans decided to write mods to unveil that doesn't mean Rockstar should be accountable. I believe that they should not be responsible at all.

And also, f*** the ESRB. Pointless piece of crap that keeps games out of the hands of people who want them. Right to games! (I'm not joking there.)

The alliance of Politically Correct Ninnies and Gibbering Puritanical Assholes is tearing this country apart...



IF SOMEONE RAPES WOMEN OR SHOOTS UP THEIR SCHOOL/WORKPLACE, THEY WERE NUTCASES IN THE FIRST FUCKING PLACE, AND THEY'RE JUST USING THE VIDEO GAMES AS AN EXCUSE!

Please tone that down, you're breaking my screen. ^.^

Please tone that down, you're breaking my screen. ^.^



Heh, sorry, I edited it...



I'm just sick of all of this false rightous indignation that the politicians use to build easy political capital.

Um...it's a Democrat...from California...that started all the fuss. I think that rules out "conservative" right there.

Right, because democrats can't be conservatives -_-'

Its not even really in the game. I had to download a program and add it to the game to get those scenes. Much like the nude patch i got for THE SIMS,and noone complains about that.

Um...it's a Democrat...from California...that started all the fuss. I think that rules out "conservative" right there.
Um...it's the US. I think that rules out anything BUT "conservative" right there.

Um...it's the US. I think that rules out anything BUT "conservative" right there.
*smacks with a ruler*

No! Noo....No!

No! Noooooo....No!

No!

And also, f*** the ESRB. Pointless piece of crap that keeps games out of the hands of people who want them. Right to games! (I'm not joking there.)

Whether you like it or not, parents have a right to decide what their kids are exposed to.