ESRB slaps AO on GTA: SA.
...the Entertainment Software Rating Board Wednesday rescinded Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ rating and advised retailers to stop selling the game.
Sometimes when you push the envelope, the envelope pushes back. Caught with its hand in the cookie jar, Rockstar games is telling retailers to sticker the game "Adults Only" or pull it from their shelves. They're also spending big bucks manufacturing R rated versions and offering a swap. While I don't approve of rating systems, Rockstar misrepresented the content of GTA: SA when it was submitted to the ESRB, so they should get spanked. Rules is rules.
The announcement was delayed until 4 p.m. Eastern Time to minimize the effect this would have on the parent company's stock price. Ain't that considerate.
Rockstar tried to suggest that the "Hot Coffee" hack somehow created the softcore porn episodes, which was a silly lie. Now they have to own up to the fact that somebody in their company put that content there, and they are responsible for it.
Sadly, legislators like Hilary Clinton will now ramp up their assault on video games in general, and much time will be wasted on Capitol Hill as your elected representatives meddle in things they have no right to be spending time on. And Karl Rove is still a free man.
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9 comments:
Aw, you beat me to it. I was going to write about this today.
Yes, it was stupid of Rockstar to leave that content in, even if it was turned off.
But let's look at the absurdity of the fine distinctions being made here.
M is for 17 and up. AO is for 18 and up. I don't remember my 17th year as being so formative that I couldn't have handled that content at the beginning of the year, but I was utterly prepared for it by the end.
Also, it shows, yet again, the double standard we have in our country where everyone is afraid of the human body and emotions other than anger and indifference. GTA: SA contained plenty of violence and prostitution (because it's okay for a seventeen year old to realize their character has had sex (albeit, not shown on screen) as long as you don't have any feelings for each other) before the hack, but only contained nudity and a consentual sex act in which the player is rewarded for pleasing their partner as well as themself after the hack.
(I haven't seen the hack, but I did read a transcript of sorts of it on Slashdot.)
So, here's the rundown:
Okay for 17+: Running people over, shooting people, carjackings, solicitation of prostitution, robbery, and assault and battery.
Okay only for 18+: All of the above, plus two pixillated nipples and consentual sex without a monetary transaction associated with it.
Thank goodness that rating system is there to protect our seventeen year olds from that filth.
Make no mistake, the Hot Coffee mod is soft core pornography, including simulated sex acts, oral and otherwise. You can see it online if you poke around a little. I found it boring and stupid, like all pornography.
I was just looking at the ESRB site and trying to figure out exactly what the difference between M and AO was myself. Just like the movie rating of NC-17, the AO rating is devised to say, "This is the dirty stuff and you can say with a righteous and supercilious manner 'Our store doesnt sell this' and feel good about yourself." When the next lowest rating is pretty much the same thing. In fact, as time goes on, the ratings standards slide anyway. Movies rated NC-17 in the 70s would now be rated R.
My point is, Rockstar submitted the game (you don't have to), and misrepresented it, and got bitch slapped. I don't like the system, but I like it when the system works. Cheating is bad. This means you, Michael Riboulet.
Well... the idea is for parents to know no one under 18 should be playing the game (AO) while mature teenagers - and I stress mature because some are at 13 while others aren't until they're 43 - can play this game... but have to get someone 17 years or older to guy it (M).
The interesting thing though is while companies like Target, Best Buy and Wal-Mart don't see AO games (they removed GTA:SA from their store shelves *and* websites on Wednesday), some of them will still sell you the guidebook for the game.
Also, I doubt Congress could get any more involved in restricting the way the games are rated and/or sold. Courts have found computer programs are in fact a language and that that is protected under free speech. That's why the ESRB is voluntary - and not selling AO games is also voluntary.
The real losers of this fiasco are:
(1) the makers & publishers of the game because they'll lose millions not having GTA:SA in mass market stores.
(2) individual citizens as politicans use this to push forth more crappy ideas on us (I'm not saying children should play this game - they shouldn't... but ir *is* up to parents to know what their children are watching on TV, what video games they are playing and what books & magazine they are reading... it's not for Congress to tell us as citizen what we can and can't do when it's legal... controversial, maybe... but legal).
To summarize the hypocrisy: horrific violence is OK in U.S. entertainment as long as we don't acknowledge our god-given bodies or the beautiful, natural things we can do with them.
I don't know much about the ratings system but you can't see the sequence unless you seek out the hack. Is a gun manufacturer responsible if I shoot someone?
Also, you can only hack the PC version. Are the console versions withdrawn from sale too?
Trust me, I've seen a video of the content, and polygonal sex ain't pretty. Yes, the ESRB determined that all versions of the game include the offending content.
But you can't hack an X-Box or PS2! Can you? Why remove it from sale when the content is inaccessible in those formats? Arg!
Can't you buy the Kama Sutra on DVD at Target, Best Buy and Wal-Mart? Or at least a dozen mainstream movies with sex scenes in them?
What makes computer nudity more offensive than a Greek statue? I guess I'm flogging a dead horse here but if they're really concerned about the state of the youth and don't want them to grow up all repressed and warmongery, they could a) trust them not to go out and commit rape because they played a video game and b) give them less hypocritical standards to begin with.
Two countries that accept maturely the fact that we all have bodies and like to use them and don't guard children from such a pleasant reality: Sweden & the Netherlands, etc. Take a look at their crime statistics.
This all feels like a wood/tree interface scenario to me...
You can hack your save file for PS2 or XBox with third party devices. The hack for all three platforms has been found.
Also, it wouldn't shock me if you couldn't buy a single movie or book in a Wal-Mart that had sex in it. They are particularly careful about this sort of thing, so they retain that "family" image.
Target, I think, is just slightly less stringent. Best Buy is probably a bit more liberal with its policy than either of the other two.
Wal-Mart has so much clout that many artists release a 'Wal-Mart' version of their albums which removes swearing and whatnot.
I remember someone I know (can't remember who) allowing their child to buy the Wal-Mart version of an Eminem album and I snickered a bit. I was pretty sure the parent still didn't agree with the themes on that CD, but it was okay because there were no swear words. Whatever.
Anyway, this is off the point. Yes, there is content (albeit, ridiculously hard to access) that doesn't fit the rating the original game got in GTA: SA. I have to wonder if the company at large knew the content was there, or if just a few developers knew about it and left it in as an inside joke. Hmmm.
This does not change the fact that many of us would agree that the rating system is pretty effed up, both in the age ranges given (that magic year between 17 and 18) and in priorities.
Then again, that's the way things are here, and it will change slowly over decades. Like Chuck said, if we re-rated movies from the 70's, many would get "easier" ratings than they did back in the day.
Best Buy's the one I have most experience shopping at.
Your Eminem story is fab. Swear words are only taboo because we make them that way, really. If everyone cursed all the time, they would lose their power.
Same w/ sex and violence. If it was on all the time it would get boring. Or the perverts and fighters would be at home watching TV making the real world a safer place for the rest of us.
Wow, this really got me riled up today. Be clear that this ain't an anti-America rant. My other country has its own problems and hasn't solved these ones fully either.
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