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This game was recently pulled off of stores shelves recently due to explicit.



http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3277048

July 22, 2005, 10:38AM

VIDEO GAMES
More oversight sought amid Grand Theft uproar
Major retailers pull game because of explicit content
By RON HARRIS
Associated Press


Associated Press
A monitor shows an image from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which was given an adults-only rating after pressure from politicians and media watch groups.
SAN FRANCISCO - The video game industry's decision to give an adults-only rating to the best-selling Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas because of explicit sexual content could signal the start of a crackdown on raunchy games.

The rating change followed intense pressure from politicians and media watch groups. Retailers reacted swiftly — Wal-Mart Stores, Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. said this week they would pull all copies from their store shelves nationwide. Circuit City Stores, the nation's No. 2 consumer electronics chain, joined the list Thursday.

Rockstar Games, the producer of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, said it has stopped making the current version of the game, which includes graphic sex scenes that can be unlocked with an Internet download. The game was released in October with an "M" rating, for players 17 and older.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, has called on the Entertainment Software Rating Board to do more to police game content.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, applauded the change but said she was disturbed the sexual content appeared on store shelves in the first place. She asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate and called on the Entertainment Software Rating Board to do more to police game content.

Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif., said this week the video game industry needs a good dose of government oversight and renewed a call for a law requiring the FTC to determine if the video game industry's labeling practices are unfair or deceptive.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was last year's top console game, selling more than 5.1 million copies in the U.S., according to market analyst NPD Group. Xbox and PC versions were released last month.

Rockstar's parent company, New York-based Take Two Interactive Software, acknowledged for the first time that the sex scenes were built into the retail version of the game. Company officials previously suggested that a modification created by outsiders added the scenes.

In a statement, Entertainment Software Rating Board chief Patricia Vance said the sex scenes were programmed by Rockstar "to be inaccessible to the player." But she also acknowledged that the "credibility and utility" of the industry-run board's initial "M" rating had been "seriously undermined."

Rockstar said it would provide new labels to any retailer willing to keep selling the games and offer a downloadable patch to fix the sexual content in PC versions. The company also is working on a new, more secure version, to be rated "M."

A computer program known as Hot Coffee allows users to unlock the sex scenes. Such modifications — or "mods" — are wildly popular among the hardcore gaming community, and have been shown to extend the retail longevity of games. Half-Life, for example, is still sold years after its release because of a Counter-Strike mod that allows for detailed counter-terrorist shoot-'em-up action.

Take Two president Paul Eibeler said "the decision to re-rate a game based on an unauthorized third-party modification presents a new challenge for parents, the interactive entertainment industry and anyone who distributes or consumes digital content."

The Parents Television Council, a media watchdog, called on the game publisher to recall the game and offer refunds.


Opinions?

Am I the only person in the world who wasn't at all surprised by this? And really couldn't care less???

No.

I think it's absolutely ridiculous that the rating would be changed or companies would pull it off their shelves (I guess I understand for the companies with policies not to sell adult only games).

I mean, the content isn't even accessible unless you KNOW about it, and download a patch.

There are probably patches for many many other games that add explicit content, even if the content wasn't there to begin with.

No kid is going to accidentally run across this content. There's nothing for parents to worry about until the kid knows.

Well guess what? They changed the rating, companies pulled it off their shelves, and now everybody fucking knows, so any kid who wants to can look up that patch.

Good job.

good game i'm in Las Venturas

faninor wrote:I think it's absolutely ridiculous that the rating would be changed or companies would pull it off their shelves (I guess I understand for the companies with policies not to sell adult only games).

I mean, the content isn't even accessible unless you KNOW about it, and download a patch.

There are probably patches for many many other games that add explicit content, even if the content wasn't there to begin with.

No kid is going to accidentally run across this content. There's nothing for parents to worry about until the kid knows.

Well guess what? They changed the rating, companies pulled it off their shelves, and now everybody fucking knows, so any kid who wants to can look up that patch.

Good job.

Exactly. Rockstar doesn't even have to advertise their games, they just wait for the controversy to boost their hype, and suddenly they're selling millions of copies.

faninor wrote:I mean, the content isn't even accessible unless you KNOW about it, and download a patch.

And you have to input hours worth of lines of code to get it to work. So it takes considerable time and effort and the average gamer isn't likely to do that.


Personally, I think its quite pathetic that people are in an up roar because of this. Sure, this game contains extreme violence in where you can kill people with knives, shovels, katanas, chainsaws, shot guns, flamethrowers, molotov cocktails and a slew of other weapons but the moment the game involves sexual content, it is deemed inappropriate.

Plus, there are plenty of other games with sexual content that nobody cares about.

Yeah! Like the Sims 2.

I don't see why people care. Like Johny said, there extreme violence, but once a couple of COMPUTER GENERATED people have sex, everyone is upset.

Well, it's a lot like tv. People get shot and stabbed and beaten all the time, but there's no graphic sex scenes allowed.

The difference being on tv, it's actual people. Also graphic sex scenes are allowed on tv, but usually after 11pm. With games, it's just computer generated graphics, and you don't see as much as you do on tv, and there's a chance it's gonna be a little choppy as well.

They don't allow hentai on television either, or any other animated nudity.

Some shows on tele-toon will have animated nudity, and many movies and shows that come on later at night will have sex and nudity.

Some people need to be run over with a tank.

Seriously... These jackasses can't even see fucking logic. The scenes weren't a part of the actual game! You had to use a mod! And now that this is all public, every horny 13 year old who's parents bought him the game is going to try to unlock them.


Way to fucking go. Jackasses.

ihatethunderbay wrote:...every horny 13 year old who's parents bought him the game...

Therein lies a missed fault of responsibility. The games are rated so that people under a certain age can't buy them. If a parent buys a game with a stamped M rating on it, the parent has acknowledged the game's content and the blame for exposure to violence and whatever falls on them. The game is rated so that people of a mature age will be the only ones accessing the game. It is also the retailer's responsibility to verify age of the purchaser as well.

Rusty wrote:The difference being on tv, it's actual people. Also graphic sex scenes are allowed on tv, but usually after 11pm.

Not in America.

Really? All I know is whenever I see, "A vampire hunter hunts vampires" as the description for a movie I'm never going to that channel again.

Yeah, every Friday evening, CITY TV airs a movie which is essentially softcore porn. It even has an adult rating too.

I'm talking about some movie channel. It only has movies, and this wasn't softcare, it was hardcore. *resumes his task of suppressing the memory of vampire porn*