Clinton vs Rockstar

[Adagio]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/14/news_6129040.html

Summary:

Hillary Clinton found out that there's a "coffee" mod to GTA SA that enables a bit sex to be seen in the game and now she's complaining to Rockstar for making this possible to be made, it's not an adult game afterall


I haven't tried the mod myself so I don't know how much you actually see, but even in the "worst case scenario" I see nothing wrong with this, it's not like the sex scenes are avaliable by just buying the game, you have to manually find it online (it's a mod afterall).
Is it Rockstars fault that this is possible? I don't think so. What if someone makes a mod to SMAC that replaces all wonder videos with hardcore movies and makes it easily avaliable to download. Would that be Firaxis' fault? Or what if someone makes a mod that changes the look of units in Civ3 so they're all doing something dirty in the animations. Would that also be Firaxis' fault?

[child of Thor]

Tricky - i just get the feeling there is a growing ground swell in political circles to lay blame at console games feet for the problems of disfunctional kids etc.

I cant see how Rockstar can be held responsible for what a modder does to its game. Still i think game developers and publishers need to examine the motivation behind much of the games they make, and the messages they give out.

If not then it could be the non-computer game playing lawers/politicans that decide the future of gameing. which sucks as much as me having to play another movie tie in game(done badly)

[Asher]

You can see her breasts.

The guy remains fully clothed, and you can never see the other bits.

[Adagio]

So with other words: Skins to games like The Sims 1/2 are much more adult than this? I still haven't heard anybody complain about the adult possibilities in those games, and aren't they rated teen?

[lord of the mark]

its not a "mod" in the classic sense. The content was on the disk, and the "mod" just unlocks it. Thats the difference.

[Adagio]

I don't see any difference since it wasn't something that everybody could easily find.
If they had made it to enable it all you had to do was to edit some text file in a line that says (just make it true):
interesting_coffee: false
If that was the case I can understand the complaining.

There's also "nude skins" in The Sims 1/2 included in the game, all you need is some extra file to be able to view it. Not really any difference I'd say

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Adagio
I don't see any difference since it wasn't something that everybody could easily find.
If they had made it to enable it all you had to do was to edit some text file in a line that says (just make it true):
interesting_coffee: false
If that was the case I can understand the complaining.

There's also "nude skins" in The Sims 1/2 included in the game, all you need is some extra file to be able to view it. Not really any difference I'd say

I dont know about the sims stuff being already in the game. From what ive read rockstar wrote a whole sex minigame (not just some skins), and more or less commented it out. I dont know how hard it was to unlock. But from what I understand they are SUPPOSED to tell ESRB, the rating board, about any questionable content that ships with the game. And they didnt. Its really embarassing to ESRB, which now looks like it cant do what its supposed to do.

[child of Thor]

I think Lotm is right about it being an 'unlockable' feature of the game. In which case Rockstar could be in trouble defending itself against the critisism?

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
its not a "mod" in the classic sense. The content was on the disk, and the "mod" just unlocks it. Thats the difference.

Quite!

Though by all accounts it's not that explicit anyway. Because of the violence it already has a rating right?

[lord of the mark]

its rated M for the violence. Which mean you must be over 17 to buy it. The sex would make it AO (Adults Only) which means you need to be over 18 to buy it. Which seems like a really trivial difference EXCEPT: Walmart carries M rated games, but does not carry AO rated games. And Walmart is a huge piece of the sales for a mass market game like GTA.

as for explicitness heres how its described on quartertothree (edited for poly community standards)

"The sex mini game is not (abstract) - it's a rhythmn game in which you decide whether or not have a girl bl** you, f*** her up the a**, or do her missionary, and then you pound on the controller buttons in time so you can eventually orgasm all over her. "

From that description (and i can say no more, as ive been warned not to talk about GTA if I havent played it) this seems like its pretty explicit, even if it lacks female nudity. Its not like nude skins for the Sims. Hell, maybe its unamerican to say this, but nudity isnt unhealthy, and isnt always about sex.

[snoopy369]

Eh, it's commented out or whatever - which means it's still not part of the game, as shipped. It's part of the code - which you have to, voluntarily, modify, to allow it to run.

Therefore, to me, Rockstar is clean. Perhaps not squeaky clean - this should have been deleted not commented - but anyone who can unlock this, can also download a real porn mod for it (if someone made such a thing).

[DrSpike]

I disagree. If it you deem this material offensive you have to blame Rockstar for leaving it in, whatever you have to do to unlock it.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Eh, it's commented out or whatever - which means it's still not part of the game, as shipped. It's part of the code - which you have to, voluntarily, modify, to allow it to run.

Therefore, to me, Rockstar is clean. Perhaps not squeaky clean - this should have been deleted not commented - but anyone who can unlock this, can also download a real porn mod for it (if someone made such a thing).

Exactly... it's not like the players can accidently turn the game into a porn game. If they find a mod and installs it they know what they're getting themselfes into. Who cares if it's in the code or not, as long as it doesn't ship enabled with the game.
I don't see any difference in this and a game where you can mod the game to contain the same level adult content


But why don't game companies just release two versions of the same game? In GTA SA's case this could be the normal M rated game (but this time without the possibility to enable that mini-game) and another version that is AO rated (and clearly says so on the box) that has this option enabled... or at least makes it possible within the game to enable
What's wrong with doing this? This way they can get the best of both worlds

[pg]

rockstar just gets attacked because they make gta, which sells loads, which means lots of publicity for politicians. i don't think anyone really cares about anything else.

[:) Smiley]

Originally posted by Adagio
But why don't game companies just release two versions of the same game? In GTA SA's case this could be the normal M rated game (but this time without the possibility to enable that mini-game) and another version that is AO rated (and clearly says so on the box) that has this option enabled... or at least makes it possible within the game to enable
What's wrong with doing this? This way they can get the best of both worlds

Could be a great marketi opportunity as well, start out with the regular game, then put out an expansion.