Anti-game activist brands ESA "criminal", thanks Hillary

[aresef]

A follow-up to the earlier story. Jack Thompson is such a nutjob.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/14/news_6129164.html

Hot on the heels of U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton's call for federal game legislation came a very public and very unlikely thank you. Miami lawyer and ardent game-industry critic Jack Thompson, who has vocally blasted games on 60 Minutes, CNN, and other media outlets for over a decade, publicly praised the Democratic senator from New York in an open letter. "I, as a lifelong Republican, am going to thank Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton," he said.

However, Thompson's letter, which was sent via e-mail to game publishers and press outlets (including GameSpot), had far less kind words for Doug Lowenstein. As president of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the country's main game-industry lobby, Lowenstein helps oversee the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), which voluntarily stamps games with familiar ratings such as E for Everyone and T for Teen.

However, it's the current kerfuffle over an M-for-Mature-rated game which spurned Thompson's letter. Addressed to an assortment of developers and publishers ranging from Electronic Arts to id Software, the latter of which Thompson partly blames for the Columbine Massacre, the letter blasts "the inept fashion in which ESA has 'managed' the 'Hot Coffee' mod scandal...Doug Lowenstein could have prevented what is going to happen today, but he preferred to shoot the messengers."

[drhilarius]

1. Thanks Hillary and lazy ass parents! Here's a suggestion...

Why not monitor what your fricking children do rather than have the government monitor us as if we were goddamn children.

[architect359]

16. Because the freaking parents in question

...still don't want to do that themselves and prefer to have someone else do it - until something happens and than everybody blames everyone else.

[renaissanceguy]

22. Here here!

We don't need the government babysitting children, just like we don't need them babysitting our personal lives.


http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.14745792

[DRoseDARs]

2. I love how the article DOESN'T explain the "hot coffee mod" scandal...

Those naughty little Folger's crystals. :thumbsdown:

I looked it up: It's a mod you can add to (the example I found) GTA:San Andreas to make the "girlfriends" be completely nude while they're drinking coffee with you. Oh the horror, little children will now think it's OK to drink scolding hot coffee completely in the buff... :eyes:

It's been asked before and it will be asked again: Where the fuck are the parents in all this?

[aresef]

3. There's a reason they don't explain it in that snippet, to be fair

1) It's Gamespot. Most readers know these things.
2) They have links embedded in the actual article to the relevant stories.

[AlGore-08.com]

10. To be accurate, the mod accesses virtual sex scenes, not nudity

The descriptions that I've read state that the gamer controls the speed of the male character's pelvic thrusts, choses the sexual positions and the camera angles. The mod is a mini-game, which the gamer can "win" (and the female character will have an orgasm) or "lose" (and the male character will have an orgasm before the female character does).

Originally, the game company was going to have this be part of the game, but decided against it. They locked the code out of the game, and apparently you can't access it without the hack.

Also, my understanding is that the original code had the characters having sex with all their clothes on. The hack makes the characters nude.

Not supporting or denouncing, just clarifying.

[architect359]

18. Editing

You know, one of the questions is: If it has been decided that those levels in the game weren't to be used anymore, why was it still left in the final release? Why not have them edited out prior to going golden master? I have no idea what the timing of the decision was but it can't be after the final printing right? Isn't that what the beta test stage is for? This goes to any published material not just to GTA. Anyway, as I mentioned in another thread regarding the same issue, this world of ours is becoming more and more computer literate and more accessible than ever. Most software that goes out is going to be pored over line by line for many reasons. If you don't want someone else reading what you don't want them to read, don't write it down. Or at least erase it. Is that so hard?

[merwin]

4. The whole sex thing in GTA is ridiculous.

It's not IN THE GAME. It's stored deep in the same files that the game is in. It requires a frickin' downloaded crack from the internet to view.

Yes, it's tacky, but if parents are outraged by this... well, monitor what they play and what they download. It's not very hard. It's simple good parenting. You wouldn't let your kid hang out with the crackheads in the school and then blame the school for not stopping him. Each parent is responsible for their own kid's well being

[aresef]

8. That's not what this is about

The ESRB is saying that if the investigation shows that it was in the game, whether you needed the mod to unlock it or not, Rockstar should have told them and the game should have been rated AO.

And the parents are overreacting.

"I'd rather have my kids watch two people making love than two people trying to kill one another."- George Carlin

[merwin]

26. Many games nowadays could be easily modified to have nude people

in it, etc. Take The SIMs for example. There's a mod for it that will remove the blurring when they are changing, going to the bathroom, etc.

That doesn't mean that The SIMs should be rated AO, does it?

[msongs]

14. if it can be accessed by purchasing, it is IN the game intentionally.

the manufacturers include something they know can be accessed. they know people will do what is required to access. this is a calculated and intentional action on the part of the manufacturer and part of the marketing scheme and also an effort to gain publicity. They know their target audience will want the naughty and illicit things.

the gaming industry pretty much has no morals when it comes to making money, like many other industries.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

PS - hilary clinton is responsible for what she says and does,like what she says or not. She is not responsible for anything this critic says or does.

[merwin]

25. No, it can't be accessed by just purchasing the game.

You have to go to a website and download software that modifies the game to show that.

It's not something you can just stumble across while playing.

[phrenzy]

5. The Punchline.

I just can't get over the main point of hilarity in all of this.

They are complaining about nudity in a game in which you kill cops and routinely kill civilians.

[KareBear]

11. Completely agree

What is it with our supposedly "civilized" culture and this rampant fear of the human body? Murder, War, Drugs, thats just life in these modern times. A naked woman however, DISGRACE! SCANDAL! jeez give me a break.

We should all have a naked day. Just hundreds of thousands of women wearing nothing but a utility belt with a dozen cans of mace <sarcasm> because men just can't help themselves of course! </sarcasm>.

Why is it that those that don't believe in evolution seem to be the least removed from the animals we all really are underneath? The real case against intelligent design is that people like Bush and his wack pack exist :P heh.

[architect359]

20. This boggles my mind constantly n/t

[renaissanceguy]

23. Well didn't you know

killing people is ok (i.e. Iraq) but sex and love is BAD BAD BAD.

http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.14744236

[OneBlueSky]

6. wouldn't it be nice if our elected "representatives" put the same . . .

level of time and effort into important stuff as they do into irrelevant shit? . . . then maybe we could at least get a start at solving the myriad of REAL problems facing us . . . like war, hunger, rigged elections, jobs, etc. . .

really, wouldn't it be nice? . . .

edit: couple of typos . . .

[mduffy31]

7. Just like the Super Bowl

This whole thing about the naked women in GTA San Andreas is just like the Super Bowl. These people don't mind kids being exposed to violence but if they see a womans tits that is the end of the universe, because sex and nakedness is dirty and sinful. I always find it funny that the people who rail against sex always seem to have 5 children, so they obviously like to get down, but it is sinful. What do these people expect them to do over this whole thing, make everyone give their copy of the game back. The main problem is that these people don't understand what they are talking about. They don't know how the software works. This is just another attempt to take away adult pleasures to protect other peoples children. They always talk that liberals want to have more government in people's lives, but they don't want you to have any fun in life.


...sorry if this rant is a little incoherent...

:rant:

[aresef]

9. No, I see exactly what you mean

[livinginphotographs]

12. And sales of GTA triple.....

Honestly, I didn't even know about this mod until the usual suspects started frothing at the mouth about it. I have the game and only occasionally play it (someone bought it for me), but I never check gamer websites, so I wouldn't have even known if the puritan crowd hadn't mentioned it.

[MadHound]

13. No doubt!

Geez, how many little kiddies had no clue what horrors lurked in the heart of GTA? But now Hilary and the morality police bring this right out into the open, and across the country you can hear thousands upon thousands of horny teenage boy going "Whoa, dude", accompanied by the sound of frantic downloading. Frickin' idiots.

Geez, how like the Janet Jackson case, where the vast majority of people had no clue about the nip slip until the mainstream media and horrified politicians started raising a stink, and thus playing it over and over ad nauseum on both TV and the internet,complete with stills, slow mo, and close ups of the offending shot:eyes:

This is just absolute crap, another attempt at complete censorship ala Tipper Gore. What is it with these people that approve of and advocate the depiction of over the top violence, but get the vapors at even the least hint of something sexual. Get a fucking grip people and grow up.

[livinginphotographs]

19. Perfect example with Janet Jackson.

I don't even watch the superbowl, but I can't count how many times I've seen that damn nipple.

If people wouldn't make such a big stink about it, I wouldn't even know about it.

And now, my mind has been permanently poisoned by Janet Jackson's nipple and sex scenes in GTA. Thanks, Hillary!!!!!

[aresef]

24. Yeah, I must know a million little boys who became perverts after seeing

Janet Jackson's nipple.

</sarc>

[aresef]

15. Okay, just sent a letter to the editor of my local paper (Baltimore Sun)

The Los Angeles Times article reprinted by The Sun about Sen. Hillary Clinton's recent crusade against violent video games makes me wonder. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas already had everything from killing police officers to carjacking to creating general mass hysteria, and yet parental groups were fine with the M rating, yet when a hacker's modification opens up sex minigames, you have people crying foul left and right. It's so hypocritical. Additionally, parents and politicians everywhere seem to want the government to raise their kids, to decide what they should and shouldn't see so they can just sit the kid down in front of the TV and not have to care. And that's just wrong. We do not need a federal ratings board. We do not need to fine Rockstar games. We need to educate parents. We need to inform them about the ESRB ratings and make sure they are aware of the kind of content in each game so they can make the right decision for their child, and so that when a teenager with already questionable mental stability goes on a GTA-inspired shooting rampage, the blame will fall squarely upon the parent as it should, not upon the people who made the game.

[bemildred]

17. Great marketing ploy.

I wonder if it was fortuitous or intentional that this "mod" be discovered just in time to pump up sales.

The US Government, BTW, should screw off with the censorship, it's already been proven that they are impotent to do much about these sorts of issues (pornography, drugs, the sex business) and I'm not giving up my free speech rights so they can posture and waste money. High School in this country is like going to "Drug Camp", and most kids have seen the inside of a vagina real up-close by the time they are ten. It's too late and Mom and Daddy need to watch their kids themselves instead of expecting the government to do something about it.

[AlCzervik]

21. this whole reminds me of Tipper Gore and Joe Leiberman

and the war on rap.

[Zhade]

27. What a dumbfuck!

It's a MOD without which kids WHO SHOULDN'T BE PLAYING THE GAME IN THE FIRST PLACE couldn't POSSIBLY see the CLOTHED sex!

[aresef]

28. The idiot has a website and email...you all know what to do

http://www.stopkill.com/

[e-mail]