Hot Coffee update
A while back I did a post on the Hot Coffee mod to Grand Theft Auto. My conclusion was the mod altered the game to make it “offensive”. I even chastised Hillary Clinton for attacking the makers of the game, Rockstar games. Well, if you follow my GTA link there, you’ll see that it is now rated “Adults Only”. On their web page, they don’t mention any of the controversy. The US House of Representatives voted 355-21 to investigate Rockstar. Here’s the content of that vote:
Whereas the video game `Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ was given a rating of `Mature’ by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board;
Whereas the game contains sexually explicit content that is accessible by consumers but that appears to have been hidden from the ratings board in order to avoid the game receiving an `Adults Only’ rating;
Whereas the Entertainment Software Ratings Board took swift action in investigating the matter and revoked the `Mature’ rating, ensuring any future sales of `Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ will be under an `Adults Only’ rating;
and Whereas the publisher of the video game, Rockstar Games, may have intentionally deceived the ratings board and consumers: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that–
(1) the Federal Trade Commission should investigate the publication of the video game `Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ to determine if the publisher, Rockstar Games, intentionally deceived the Entertainment Software Ratings Board to avoid an `Adults-Only’ rating; and
(2) if the Commission determines Rockstar Games to have committed such deception or fraud, the Commission should apply the toughest of penalties.
Now, internet opinion has not really been too terribly split on this, it goes mostly like this:
“Like there is nothing better the government could be doing with its time… GG Morality Squad”
“I agree man. I am a conservative, so I am sitting pretty happy with the majority in the house of Reps, but this is just retarded. Isn’t there something else they could have voted on?
Well, this is an easy “Vote for me, I oppose sex in video games!” vote cast. But still ridiculous. “But don’t worry, the excessive cursing, drug dealing, racial stereotypes (let’s not kid ourselves, Rockstar CLEARLY paints blacks in a negative manner with this game), and all the cop killing and prostitute beating you can do in a lifetime.”
“Did I mention I oppose sex minigames? And oh yeah, vote for me. Please!!” ”
“Aye, any amount of violence seems to be fine, but the moment sex appears, oh my. “
Etc, etc, etc.. Not one single person with an opinion is really concerned at all with what Congress intended. Hillary did a very poor job presenting her opinion, but if this resolution is the result of it, then I will admit she does have a point. Now, this might sound like a broken record mentioning Hillary and “it’s not about sex” in the same sentence, but I have to. In this case, it’s not about sex. It’s about encoding software to intentionally deceive federal regulators. The content of that deception is not the point. GTA advertised violence, they advertise crass language, they advertise explosions. However, they did not advertise sex. If they had, combined with everything else, it would have gotten an adults only label from the beginning. If they chose to encrypt the parts that would kick them into an adults only category only to be able to be accessed after the purchase, purely for the purposes of skirting federal regulations, they have some serious issues on their hands. Like jail. I still don’t really know what has happened. It’ll come out eventually. Software is too easy to de-crypt if you have the rools. And, with the resounding encouragement from both the House and Senate, I’m sure the Federal Trade Commission will be hacking GTA in such a way Rockstar never envisioned. And, if Rockstar has done what I am now suspecting they did, they deserve a major hammering by the FTC. Not so much, IMO, because they have snuck naked women in front of young boys, but because they have undermined the credibility of the entire video game industry.
Tags: Computers, grand-theft-auto, hot-coffee
