Bane Macleod

Hot Coffee, Scalding BS

As someone who is very fond of Hillary Clinton and will be looking forward to (hopefully) voting for her in a future election, I was somewhat concerned when I heard about her recent stance on video games. Politically I can see the advantage, she has to find support from non liberal groups and make herself a legitimate contender across the board, overcoming the stigma attached to her from the Lewinsky deal would be nice as well. So I suppose one does what one can. I can also understand some of the heat over the GTA:SA game's easter egg, and how it is something that she, and everyone else honestly, should be concerned about.

For those of you unfamiliar with the issue, there was some code left unused in the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas game that was even more racy than the normal GTA fare. A mod was made by that allowed the mini to be opened, in which players can visit their girls in the game who will have a "cup of hot coffee" with them. Normally this would keep the camera outside the house and you heard some very suggestive sounds. With the mod the action moves inside and you get the scene in all it's late night HBO special glory.

Of course I haven't actually seen the mod save for a video, so can't really comment on it a lot. But if it's as they say it is, well it's pornographic, and should be labeled as such. If the code is in there waiting to be used (which was a brilliant move on rockstars part) it should have been given an AO rating instead of the M it wears as almost a badge of honor now. Then companies like wal-mart wouldn't even carry the game, it wouldn't have been marketed to kids, and no big stink. As far as the AO rating itself you really don't have to look a whole lot further to see that there are much racier games on the market. Singles: Flirt up your life has full frontal nudity and only an M rating. Movies with full nudity and sexual content are rated R. That's not XXX, that's R.

However from what I'm reading the publisher and maker of the game really aren't even at fault here, since the game does NOT run this unaltered, and the rating in and of itself is correct. So whoopie right? I mean lawmakers love GTA anyway, there is legislation on it in a few states now, what's a couple more?

The problem is that Senator Clinton and Senator Lieberman are looking to introduce legislation to institute a financial penalty for retailers who fail to enforce the video manufacturers voluntary ratings system rules. It would prohibit the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games to minors and put in place a $5,000 penalty for those who violate the law. Note the word voluntary. With legislation such as this available what encouragement is there for companies like rockstar to even get their game rated? More than likely more and more game companies would realize the loss and stop submitting games for ESRB ratings at all.

Honestly I'm a little tired of the debates over video games, although I can almost see where they are needed. Video games are becoming more violent, more graphic, more adult every day. Interestingly enough so are the people that play them. I'm an avid videogamer, I'm also knocking on 30's door. I don't need restrictions on my games, I'm a big boy. I can also watch a movie without putting my hand over my eyes when the nakey nakey scenes come on. Were I to have a son or daughter old enough to play video games but not old enough to hear foul language or see violence I... hold your breath here... wouldn't let them play this kind of game. That's why there are reviews, descriptions, and ESRB ratings. ESRB ratings that an apparently senile 85 year old woman who is suing Rockstar for the games content chose to ignore when she bought the Over 17 rated game for her 14 year old grandson. Somewhere in the future I am absolutely sure there will be a class action lawsuit regarding this, since nothing wakes America up like the smell of free money. There is likely a lawfirm drawing up the fliers now.

More legislation is not what's needed. What we need is less regulation, less legislation, more common sense. Parents need to pay attention to every aspect of their childrens lives, I'm sorry if not everyone is rolling with NES anymore and grown ups have moved into the market but it's a big world, lets try to get it together.