Hot Coffee = Hot Water = Muppets

Quite frankly, the GTA series as a whole should have been given an AO rating since GTA3. People always get their knickers in a twist so they may as well make it an official twist in the knickers of freedom… or something.

This is all so comparable to the South Park movie I may as well just point to that and start a movement to invade Canada.

Well, the issue with giving it an AO rating (as Vermouth has told me) is that many stores in America don’t sell AO rated games. A bit like how GTA would have been taken down from shelves in Australia if it was rated R18+, except not quite as bad. As such, Rockstar desperately wants to avoid that, as it would seriously hinder sales.

They should have just come clean when it was first spotted, and got moving to make a scandal-free (if that’s possible) version of the game sooner, to keep the airheads happy.

The whole controversy is blown way out of proportion. The Neistat Brothers said it best with their movie about the Hot Coffe mod for Grand Theft Auto; San Andreas

http://videogamesareevil.com/

Ha!

http://videogamesareevil.com/

is the funniest thing i have ever seen. i am going to try the bomb modification

If you leave the draino bomb in a plastic soda bottle eventually the pressure will explode it on its own. Although it takes a long time. And when it finally does explode it usually scares the hell out of you because you’ve forgotten about it and went off to do other things.

As for Hot Coffee it does not seem like much to get uproarious (:d) about since Rockstar will re-release a version without it (which will no doubt be modded anyway for PC at least). Besides walmart which chains do not carry AO games? Although I am betting that GTA:SA sales have gone up in the past month due to all publicity.

This may also shine a light on digital distribution as well. GTA games are popular and if such a series will not be carried on store shelves where shall it be sold?

I personally think that Rockstar were very stupid for keeping this code in the game. they must have known the troube it could potentially cause, and im almost glad that something is being done about it.

Saying that though, I do still love the GTA games.

This really constitutes abuse of power on the part of theESRB and it’s a case of blacklisting rockstar’s Game over something that in the end wasn’t in the game for people who didn’t want it in the game. Rockstar met their minimum burden of responsibility when they took the game out of the game. End of story, if someone wants to get a mod that puts it back in they’ve effectively voided the rating on the game as they’ve put new content into the game willfully and knowingly. The ESRB wants to stop the bad press so they’ve effectively offered up GTA as a sacrifical lamb even though Rockstar did everything right by the letter of the law.

Seeing as Lisa and Christian are the same person, I will say to him/her collectively, one link is enough. Thanks =)

I don’t know. Like I said earlier, whether the game itself constitutes something corrupting or otherwise likely to offend such that exposure to it is limited is not something that I really wanted to debate, mostly because I’m not in a position to verify it. What I do find interesting is the argument put forwards by Rockstar, which I believe holds as much water as my kitchen seive:

“An artist makes a painting, then doesn’t like the first version and paints over the canvas with a new painting, right? That’s what happened here. Hackers on the Internet made a program that scratches the canvas to reveal an earlier draft of the game.”

OK, I can see how this argument works for the likes of de Vici and other artisists, particularly as I understand that canvas wasn’t cheap. However, de Vici didn’t have access to the Delete key or version control. Are we trying to suggest that the game wouldn’t have worked unless this code was kept but hidden? Please. Whatever way you want to look at it, this has to be seen as an act of negligence on the part of Rockstar and, like ‘em or loath them, the ESRB is quite within their rights to reclassify the game if they weren’t made aware of this material at the time of the original classifaction.

The other thing that’s worth mentioning here is the following, and apologies for anyone offended by this:

“What a sad bunch of tw&ts gamers are”

Perhaps a sweeping statement but I remember getting an email from Gamespy’s FilePlanet when I got back from vacation announcing that they had this modification available and what it allowed you to do. They were making it out to be a “big thing” (although I note now that it no longer seems to be available) and I just couldn’t help wondering why they were advertising this mod or why gamers would bother downloading it except for one reason: it’s pixelated porn. The game itself (most likely but feel free to correct me if you’ve played it) is unlikely to add anything “new” and as such can only really be viewed as titilation. In this respect I just don’t get it. Given the tons of real porn that is available on the Net (erm, allegedly…), why bother to a) add this content in the first place, or b) even bother to take the time to download and unlock it? FilePlanet is now running your opportunity to download “Girls of Gaming”, or, as they term it, “nearly two hundred images of gaming’s hottest and baddest babes”. Big deal. Seriously, if this sort of thing turns you on then you need to get out more…

Anyway, I think Rockstar needs dragging across the coals for a “mistake” that they could so easily have avoided and take responsibility for their actions. I’m all for pushing the boundaries but these guys are just handing out ammunition to people who’d like to see the non-adult content of GTA games banned.

The irony of this whole situation is that, based on the M rating of games with similar content, the Hot Coffee content does not raise GTA:SA to the level of AO. The ESRB had to rerate the game solely because of all the controversy, it was the only way for them to save face and regain some credibility with American politicians and the mainstream press.

Gamespot has an interview with ESRB president Patricia Vance where they ask her:

GS: Arguably God of War has similar levels of violence and even more graphic portrayal of sexual activity. Rockstar could argue that its Grand Theft Auto has been singled out…

PV: I’m certainly familiar with the materials that were submitted to us, and it was rated, you know, as a relatively high M, with a number of content descriptors that indicate the game is inappropriate for anybody under the age of 17. Our action [on San Andreas] was really as a result of determining that the content–the sexual depictions–were the result of the developer creating those depictions and leaving them on the disc, coded not to be accessed by the player. Nevertheless, once they were made available and made accessible, we had no choice but to change the rating.

That’s a nice dodgy answer, Patricia, but doesn’t really answer the question at all. Basically what she is saying here is that they had to rerate the game simply because there is hidden content on the disc, not because of what that content actually is. She in no way addresses the the issue of why a game with more graphic sexual content was given an M rating.

I can’t blame the ESRB for their action given the difficult position Rockstar’s blunder put them in, but it certainly raises questions about the integrity of their rating system when glaring inconsistencies like this arise. And don’t even get me started on why the most horrific and depraved violence imaginable gets an M rating while a little bump-n-grind minigame without even any nudity rates an AO. All I can say is, God bless America and her f’ed up morals!

Here in the UK we’ve always had 18+ on the shelves. It’s not considered some abomination of morality or anything, we pretty much have a simple and effective age system (although stores will abuse it by ignoring a customer’s age): 12, 15 and 18. The whole changing of M to AO thing is retarded anyways. By the time the AO versions start getting pushed out, most 17 year olds will be 18 anyways, and they could’ve bought it last year.

And now this: http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/22/news_6129609.html

Well, if he’s decided to go after someone as big as EA (who by the looks of things, have not danced around it like Rockstar - but have compeltely denied anything inappropriate being in there), he’s got it coming for him.

I don’t think going after one of the games that parents would probably see as one of the nicest games for children (no violence, no drugs, etc…) is going to help his cause any more than his crusade against Rockstar did.

Oh, for pities sake. So the Sims 2 contains naked people. How the hell does that constitute an “Adults Only” rating? If they were depicted shagging or something like that then I can understand why a higher ESRB rating would be sought, but the sight of a pixelated naked body is hardly either porn or corrupting in any way shape or form.

Seriously, I fail to understand some people. The naked body is about as natural as you can get (even sex is but I’m prepared to go with the decisions on this part) yet you get these nutballs who won’t be happy unless you almost deny that it exists by ensuring that all images of exposed flesh are removed from the public (or private) domain. If they get their way then you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the US and somewhere like Saudi Arabia.

Thankfully, in terms of The Sims 2, I can’t see this one getting anywhere since anyone with half a brain should throw this request out.

OK, I can see how this argument works for the likes of de Vici and other artisists, particularly as I understand that canvas wasn’t cheap. However, de Vici didn’t have access to the Delete key or version control. Are we trying to suggest that the game wouldn’t have worked unless this code was kept but hidden? Please.

Actually, that may have been the case.

Programming a game isn’t easy, especially when you take out entire sections of code. It can cause bugs in parts of the code that seem entirely unrelated on the outside. To completely remove the code would’ve meant having to re-test the entire game to make sure it didn’t cause a bug or a crash somewhere else, and if any bugs were found, to fix those and test again until they get it right. Depending on when the feature was axed, they may not have had time to do all that and still launch on time. Both executives and gamers can be notoriously anal about launch delays.

Or they could’ve just been lazy. No way to tell that without an investigation, and we really don’t want the events that would make that even a possibility.

In either case, it was a lot easier, and less likely to cause bugs, to just remove the lines of code that triggered the minigame.

I thing Rockstar left it in on purpose. They knew someone would discover it eventually and make it widely known. Look at the effect it has had! The spotlight of everone has been placed on their newest game, GTA:SA. FREE PUBLICITY! I’ve been in gaming stores, and heard people buying the game “because it’s AO now”. No lie. AND NOW they are releasing ANOTHER version of SA which doesn’t have the minigame… Guess what? They already have everyone’s attention, and with this new “now okay” release, they are GARUNTEED sales.