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."
The FTC has better things to do than become parents to all the nation's kids. This is just another election ploy by the house to get votes from the "conservative" and "religious" demographics.
- AMW
I said it before and I'll say it again, to be fair they should prosecute Maxis too!
X(7): A program for managing terminal windows. See also screen(1).
Go, and play the game. Find the hot-coffee mod for yourself. Look at it. Then be ashamed, while games like Playboy: The Mansion, and XXX Volleyball are still on store shelves (rated M for Mature).
Be very fucking ashamed at yourselves.
Informatus Technologicus
...justify your comfy jobs by going after a video game maker. Ignore the fact that the evil sex bits needed some pretty fancy dancing to have them show up.
Won't somebody think of the children?!
Trolling is a art,
the adults only rating should be used more often...
its not used because it would mean that the 15 year old with his b-day $$ cant go but the latest gore spiller. if the rating was used more we might actually see parents take a larger intrest in what their kids are playing when the parent themselves has to buy the game vs the teenage kid.
though it will still do nothing for the idiots that just buy what ever game their kid is begging for and let them play it regardless.
A game that depicts and rewards as much violence as the GTA series has, has missions where killing cops and civillians gains you status and money, and is generally about the rise to power of a crime lord, and they're worried about a sex scene that porn collectors wouldn't waste the time to download. Geez, priorities are out of whack.
A company cannot be allowed to profit from deceit. So pick a relatively small company to go after, since the bigger ones are so much harder. You think Rockstar is the only or even one of the worst companies making money from deceit? Think again
Here's a stupendous quote from the Honorable (guffaw!) Fred Upton, representative from Michigan:
"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."
Never mind that this title wasn't supposed to be sold to youths (17+), or that it already boasts loads of sexual and violent content.
That said, the facts don't even matter here. Rockstar had a software quality SNAFU that is providing politicians a soapbox opportunity. Betcha those easter eggs will get fewer and farther between, eh?
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
"A company cannot be allowed to profit from deceit."
A government or political party, on the other hand...
Anyone remember that scandal about Karl Rove? Leaking the name of a CIA agent?
Doesn't the House have slightly more important things to be doing than starting an investigation against a video game?
Someone in the White House may have placed individuals who gave intelligence at risk, breaking the law in the process. So Congress responsds by... INVESTIGATING TITTIES IN A VIDEO GAME!
Yes, I know, not directly. It still seems like they're looking for something - anything - to replace Karl Rove with in the news.
There's not really a mystery here. Rockstar put in a sex minigame. A hacker unlocked it. It was not accessible without a patch or hack, which probably violates the EULA.
Also, what is the big deal here? The game was already rated 'M for Mature'; that's 17+, according to the ESRB. In a majority of states, you can already play the sex mini-game legally in real life. Is there some reason sex should be legal at 16, but a sex-themed video game should be illegal until you're 18?
The parents comment seems to be the general consensus (at least in my area). But why does the FTC really need to investigate Rockstar? I'll bet $10 that the FTC spends thousands of dollars on an investigation, and their report ends up stating that hackers bypassed Rockstars reasonable protection against viewing said explicit material. Case closed, Rockstar never intentionally mislead anyone to get the M rating.
Open Source, Open Mind
Slashdot plays into the "bread and circuses" mentality that has gripped our nation for the past couple of decades. This is a real non-event designed to buy political karma for a select few, and drum up business for the folks on the other side of the argument.
While our nation continues to decline in its engineering education, falling behind "second world" nations, we focus on the nerd version of "Entertainment Weekly". Fortune had a wonderful article talking about this, and what the U.S. must do if it wants to stay #1... their focus was on engineering (imagine that... business folks recognizing the need for engineers).
Will we see this type of article on Slashdot? No. But will we see more articles like this one? Yup. Will we see stories on what breakfast cereal Google endorses? Probably.
Mod down accordingly.
Don't get me wrong, we need articles of all types to make the "Slashdot salad" complete. But it seems this site ignores articles that really make you think, and go for the gratuitous knee-jerk articles instead.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
If anyone UNDER 17 is playing a copy obtained by an underage person, the system failed.
If anyone UNDER 17 is playing a copy obtained by a "legal" of-age person, then that person is presumably guilty of contributing to delinquency or somesuch (IANAL).
As far as I know, Hot Coffee is only accessible through an extra, non-in-game process in any version. Source mod, cheat code, etc. Therefore, anyone accessing Hot Coffee is doing so in circumvention of the standard game code.
Now, after ALL THAT, here's what I want to know...why isn't Hot Coffee (and M-rated gaming in general) treated like drinking? If I drink too muck and then "manslaughter" someone, do I get to finger Corona? No!
In addition to GTA, I'm currently enjoying BloodRayne 2. I'm really enjoying the feeding fatalities. But if I go and slice up some poor schmoe, am I going to sue Majesco or Terminal Reality? No!
What happened to adults taking personal responsibility for their own actions? I should be smart enough and responsible enough to know when I'm taking *any* vice too far. Games, sex, drugs, speeding, etc.
GTRacer
- Pleased that Rayne is more or less realistically proportioned, unlike Lara
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
I'm writing because Rockstar Games North is at the center of the future. The Hot Coffee Mod has propelled you to the front lines of the culture wars. For many hundreds of years, crafty and selfish politicians have used the empty and meaningless phrase "family values" to enrage an otherwise apathetic public and solidify their power.
The most recent self-aggrandizing political power-monger to attempt a power grab by denigrating the invented enemies of children and the family is Hillary Clinton. How hypocritical for a woman whose own family life is a public embarrassment to now attack a supposed enemy of the family. But of course it's no coincidence - it is precisely because her own family life is a joke that she must become a defender of the family. For what better way to advance her political career?
You have a choice. Rockstar Games North has created the most aesthetically important piece of art since Andy Warhol was alive. Never in the history of the narrative form has a piece encouraged with such audacity the audience's identification with an anti-social character. And yet, it's a hit. Grand Theft Auto is one of the most popular video game series of all time. The question people should be asking is why do so many people dream of being an outlaw in their personal life rather than what effect this piece of art is having on our children.
Then again, the outlaw has been a staple of the narrative form ever since the inception of the story. Men have always thrilled to tales of the criminal, the social deviant, and the outlaw. Obviously, part of the attacks on Grand Theft Auto are spurred by an anti-technological bias. It's likely that many who criticize have never even played a video game. It's even more likely that those who criticize have never played through a single game of Grand Theft Auto.
Many criticisms are based on single, isolated elements of the game, and yet where's the criticism of the game as a whole? Criticizing GTA for a single element is like criticizing Huckleberry Finn or The Catcher in the Rye for a single word.
The suggestion that Grand Theft Auto could somehow harm children is laughable. How is it possible for a video game to nullify the effects of poverty, racial discrimination, lack of opportunity, and - most importantly - the natural slights children experience as a result of interacting with other children? It's not possible. And for someone to suggest that a video game has a greater influence than any of these effects, combined or individually, on the personality of a growing child, is ridiculous. Your company is being attacked and demonized by individuals and organizations concerned only with increasing their own power. Clinton's and other groups' intentions are naked, obvious, and reprehensible.
How many of us experienced violent content in art while growing up? How many of us experienced sexual content while growing up? Almost all of us. The Bible itself is full of violence and sex. Yet most of us are law-abiding citizens. In fact, I believe if the GTA audience were researched, we'd find that they are less likely to commit a crime than the general population. How likely is someone to be a criminal when they have the tenacity to make it through a 40+ hour narrative? How likely are they to be a criminal if imaginary anti-social acts satisfy them?
You need to break yourselves off from Take Two and fight the good fight. You're established now. GTA will always sell. You can make other games that push the boundaries of the art form. And, if you follow this road, you'll have no competition. Almost all other companies will be cowed and scared.
Good luck. I hope you decide to fight.
US politicians saying that "a company cannot be allowed to profit from deceit"?
What next? Investigations into where all the money actually went in Iraq? Go do a search for: budget audit iraq.
"CPA staff identified at one ministry that although 8,206 guards were on the payroll, only 602 guards could be validated," the audit report states. "Consequently, there was no assurance funds were not provided for ghost employees."
If all the US people are bothered about is "sex scenes" in computer games, they really have skewed priorities.
Please stop drinking the kool-aid.
Hmm, maybe it's all the thimerosal in the vaccines - so lots of people nowadays have damaged brains and so can't really think straight?
Yes, thats fine. Lets see.
... Seriously ... they would work then on world peace ... or fighting hunger, poverty ... or ice cream that melts in the mouth and not in the hand.
GTA 1: Run over people, kill them with guns, run big tanks into police building to kill cops. Kick people out of their cars, or shoot them, to steal their car. Violence: very high, Sex: none -> okay
GTA 2: same with little bit better graphics. Violence: Very high, Sex: none -> okay
GTA now: semi-realistic 3D graphics. Kill, shoot, rob, destroy, explode, etc. Violence: Very hight, Sex: one dry hump -> CATSROPHY.
In my opinion. American FCC makes itself a world wide joke. Seriously. Nobody here outside of America takes them serious and the bad thing is, nobody takes the rest of America serious either anymore thanks to those FCC & religious idiots. Great work, how some stupid sex-hating maniacs can do damage. Actually this is just something, where I can make fun of my American co-workers at office.
I think they need to get laid. NOW. Right now
"Freiheit ist immer auch die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1871 - 1919
> "A company cannot be allowed to profit from deceit."
What about politicians?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
And I'm not yelling at the parent because he probably knows, but I just want to get the point across loud and clear: THERE WAS NO BOOBIE ACTION!
Fully clothe is what you got with that modification.
Now, with a naked skin mod, only then do you get to see something, and those are community created, Rockstar did not create naked skins. So these fucking politicians are just using this as an excuse for something, and this entire fiasco has been completely over-blown.
So, I hope this has upset you as much as it upsets me. Reading that sniveling worm of a politician's thoughts on GTA and how they are trying to peddle smut to the kiddies makes me want to vomit. And I don't even like GTA!
Does anyone have a good site that we could use to write people involved in this "investigation"? Perhaps someone could draft a nice form letter we could all use?