Gaming's 10 Biggest Scandals

GamePolitics has a list of ten of the most well known gaming scandals to hit the games industry. Starting back in 1993 with the senate hearings on Night Trap (a game that arguably led to today's ESRB), the list catalogs some things that the companies responsible would probably just as soon forget. "Hot Coffee (2005) - needs no introduction. Cheeky Rockstar programmers left hidden sex animations (accidentally or otherwise) buried in the PS2 code of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Modders made sure they didn't stay buried for long. Rockstar's denials only made things worse. And then Hillary got involved ..." At the post's close they call for additional nominations, as it's definitely not an exhaustive list. They left off the ESRB's decision to re-rate Oblivion , for example. What 'scandalous' gaming events can you see rating with this topics?

Comments

Night Trap

[doublefrost]

I remember everyone rushing to buy the game when the story broke out. Maybe that was the idea.

Re:Night Trap

[Akaihiryuu]

I actually have an old copy of the Sega CD/32X version sitting around somewhere. It's not a *terrible* game, gameplay is basically the same as Dragon's Lair, but it's not good for more than one playthrough as it is exactly the same every time. The amusing thing is, despite the controversy, if it were a movie, it probably would have *barely* gotten a PG-13 rating, if that. No nudity, no on-screen violence, no blood, nothing. The most "controversial" scene was a few women in nightgowns, nothing even remotely revealing. The fact that there was controversy over it was rather amusing.

WhereTF is Mortal Kombat?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

WhereTF is Mortal Kombat?

e.g.,
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6090892/p-5.html

It looks like this "article" was written in about 5 minutes and would probably get a C in your average sixth-grade English class if judged for intellectual content.

Re:WhereTF is Mortal Kombat?

[WhatHappenedToTanith]

Ripping a head off someone's body with their spine dangling down would only be bad in mainstream censorship society if the person was naked whilst doing it. I refer you to episode s8e01 of south park for the best commentary ever done on this topic.

Re:WhereTF is Mortal Kombat?

[Hemogoblin]

I find it very odd to see this Gamepolitics article on Slashdot. Why of all articles was this one submitted to Slashdot? Normally, Gamepolitics articles are very well written and insightful, but this article is one of worst on the entire site. Practically all others such as this one are more interesting.

Damn you submitter for portraying one of my favorite sites in a bad light!

Re:WhereTF is Mortal Kombat?

[shird]

"Top 10" style article written in 5 minutes, check.
"Digg it" link at the bottom of the article, check.

Welcome to the new age of "publishing".

Custer's Revenge?

[morari]

At least Hot Coffee was consensual and non-explicit. I guess America was founded upon the notions presented by that old Atari game though...

Left out Carmageddon too

[El_Muerte_TDS]

Carmageddon was the first game ever to be banned by the U.K.

Re:Jack Thompson

[The PS3 Will Fail]

No, Jack Thompson should be forgotten about. He's had no real impact on the gaming world. He's just a loud voice that sensationalist news outlets get for their incredibly shallow examination of any gaming issue. I can't think of a single time he's really been on top of an issue or caused any real change. It certainly wasn't Thompson that brought Hot Coffee to light.

He's not worth mentioning.

The Star Wars Galaxies NGE should be there

[WCMI92]

The NGE was the biggest bait and switch EVER pulled on a MMO subscriber community, sell them an expansion containing content and enhancements for professions that would be removed 2 weeks later, publically say things like "The CU is here to stay", and "Jedi will never be a starter profession" then 2 days after charging for the expansion announce a massive change to the game that deleted 2/3rds of it. This was so egregious that a week later SOE was forced to offer refunds for the expansion (probably because spending time in a federal "pound me in the ass" prison for wire fraud didn't appeal to John Smedley).

The NGE also ruined SOE's reputation basically for good. Not that the rest of Sony wasn't helping.

EVE Online

[L-Train8]

How is an MMO game where the developers are cheaters who give themselves and their friends an advantage? That's scandalous. http://endie.net/cs/blogs/endie/archive/2007/05/25 /Eve_Online_Developer_Cheating_Again.aspx

Let's not forget some historical controversies

[solar_blitz]

I can think of several different controversies or scandals in the video game industry that need to be explained. Yes, Mortal Kombat is definitely one of them. Harris and Klebold are another. But aren't we forgetting some others?

Christian Conservative backlash over Pokemon is one of them - summoning demons, doing demonic acts, James the cross-dresser, etc. As well as Jewish backlash against Pokemon because one of the Japanese card had the manji character on it (essentially a swastika), even though it was in use for thousands of years prior to World War II, and African American protests over the character Jynx, which was based upon a reference to picadilly characters in old Japanese comics. Oh, and the epileptic seizures caused by an episode of Pokemon.

Also consider the Gizmondo, which had everything from a trashed 1 million dollar ferrari to the Swedish mafia. Oh yeah, and Phantom.

Then there was that lawsuit Universal Studios threw against Nintendo in the early days over the creative license of Donkey Kong. Nintendo won, by the way. And got Universal to pay off their legal fees.

I bet they did...

[SanityInAnarchy]

I mean, they were busy blaming everything they could get their hands on for Columbine. There was so much blame that even on PBS, there was barely time left to mourn...

Here's my all-time favorite quote, though:

Michael Moore: If you were to talk directly to the kids at Columbine or the people in that community, what would you say to them if they were here right now?
Marilyn Manson: I wouldn't say a single word to them, I would listen to what they have to say. And that's what no one did.

"Oblivion scandal" shame for ESBR.

[SharpFang]

For those who don't remember it: man-boobs forbidden.

Oblivion originally used the same skin for both male and female models. Males had normal male chests with normal nipples on them. Female models had an extra unremovable piece of clothing - a bra or a strap of cloth, or some other halter, so the breasts never show. Except a mod removed the piece of clothing and what you got were stretched, misplaced textures of nipples that came from the male body.

Result? "Bethesda tried to sneak adult content into the game!" outrage. And re-rating it.

Incidentially, the male nipples appearing on female models were more offensive (and caused re-rating the game) than a mission to murder all children of a mother, then the mother herself, or performing a live sacrifice (ok, not actually human, but sentient...), or murdering innocent citizens on behalf of a schizophrenic madman... oh well, things that kids shouldn't be allowed to play. But cheating, stealing, murdering innocents in cool blood, that was all OK to ESBR. Piss-poor textures of nipples weren't.