Slashdot Mirror
House Calls for Investigation Into Rockstar Games
Spad writes "The BBC is reporting that the U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly voted for an FTC investigation into Rockstar Games following the GTA:SA 'Sex scandal'. Their basic premise is that Rockstar intentionally deceived the ESRB in order to 'peddle sexually explicit material to our youth'." Gamespot has coverage as well. From the BBC article: "The release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was widely anticipated, but an adults-only rating would have severely limited its sales in retail outlets...It appears that the publisher has blatantly circumvented the rules in order to peddle sexually explicit material to our youth, and they should be held accountable. A company cannot be allowed to profit from deceit."
Anyone remember that scandal about Karl Rove [google.com]? Leaking the name of a CIA agent? In the interest of accuracy, he didn't leak her name, only her relationship to Wilson. Also, her status as a CIA agent was not exactly secret.
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
You drive around removing voting booths from black precincts....
Won't see the Congress investigating that game.
Ben Masel: 51,282 votes for US Senate in the Wisconsin Democratic Primary
I'm writing because Rockstar Games North is at the center of a shitstorm. The Hot Coffee minigame you included on the disc you sold has propelled you to the front page of Slashdot and made life a living hell for other video game publishers.
While it cannot be denied that much of the current political firestorm that you are involved in is led by opportunistic politicians (like Senator Clinton) in need of a demon to fight, there are still a few points of contention.
You included the sex game on the disc, regardless of how well it was hidden, and it can be accessed without modifying the game's code. On top of that, you lied about it when it was found, claiming that the content was added by third-party modders. Some see fit to give you the benefit of the doubt when you say it was part of the game that was scrapped and was never meant to be accessed, but seeing as how you were less than truthful about the content's origin, you understand how others might be hesitant to believe you.
Of course, you'll still enjoy a surge of support from dozens of Slashbotters whose concept of business and ethics begins and ends at "fuck the man." They'll make ridiculously grandiose statements about how GTA is "the most aesthetically important piece of art since Andy Warhol was alive" and wax poetic with stirring Braveheart-style soliloquies about "fighting the good fight" (though they won't mention that whole "lying to the consumers" part). They'll ignore your own part in this just so they can take a stab at the older generation and feel superior. And they'll mod down anyone who points out your own ethical shortcomings, for attacking their sacred cow of video games.
Meanwhile, the rest of the video game industry, the retailers, and the gamers themselves will suffer for your actions. They'll have to live with the raised level of scrutiny coming from concerned parents who were none too pleased to find out that there was more to that disc than they originally thought. Had you just put the minigame in without hiding it, and taken whatever rating it got you, there probably wouldn't even be a controversy. You might even have still gotten an M if you had just been up front about it. Then we could point to the rating and its content descriptors and tell those "concerned parents" that hey, they knew what was on the disc when they bought it. That is, if that was even necessary -- they probably wouldn't even be upset about the sexual nature of the content if they knew about it when they bought your game.
Of course, now that they know they've been tricked, it sure does seem important.
But who cares, right? You already made that fat stack of cash. You didn't violate any laws, so the House of Representatives can't really do anything to you. The best they can do is start passing laws forbidding retailers to sell M-rated games to anyone under 17. Or force the ESRB to be accountable to some government agency. But that's somebody else's problem, because your game already sold. Right?
We defended you, Rockstar. When people talked about how violent your games were, we noted that your games were no more violent than what could be seen on television, and that if there was a real concern, the ratings system was a reliable gauge that parents could use. But you threw that right out the window, and in the process single-handedly destroyed the best defense the video game industry has against the thought police. Why? For a publicity stunt? A marketing ploy? Or just because you were too lazy to remove something that you knew would cause a political firestorm?
You screwed us, Rockstar. Now I only hope that someone does the same to you.