Rockstar’s latest controversy, GTA: San Andreas has stirred up more over the past few weeks over a mod that unlocks content hidden away on the disc in the form of a sexually explicit minigame.

Dubbed “Hot Coffee,” this little mod has been the target of the anti-video games and the shield the children’s eyes people, causing the media to report on another incidence of video games ruining our utopian existence. Succumbing to the pressure brought on by the media and the activists, the ESRB rerated San Andreas from the 17+ Mature rating to the Adults Only rating.

In all honesty, I don’t see how this makes any sense. The illicit content was locked away inside the disc, never intended to be seen by anyone. It’s not accessible through regular means. You can only get to it through the mod. Therefore, the original product was rated correctly.

There was a comment that said it best. Why are the politicians worried about the children concerning explicit material in a game that children shouldn’t have access to in the first place?

On the other hand, Rockstar was just retarded if they didn’t think this would come back and give them a swift kick in the nuts. They know they’re the subject of controversy. They know they’re being watched. They know that there are people who would love to give them a reason to be banned from the country.

And we have the anti-gaming peeps. These include a motley crew of politicians bidding for votes, talk show hosts looking for controversy, and people who just hate gaming. The most well known and hated is Jack Thompson. This guy spews out pure false testimony. The only reason I can see why people are paying any attention to him is because most people know nothing about gaming. Right now, their only impression of gaming is shooting things violently, and gamers are somewhat akin to people with rabies, frothing at the mouth, except that these people have guns.

Now Thompson is making claims that Will Wright and Maxis are evil perverted beings because apparently, The Sims 2 lets people look at not only naked adults, but children as well! Anyone who’s even passingly familiar with The Sims will know that is a bold faced lie.

The only comfort I have is that very, very soon, the electorate will be filled with gamers. What Hillary Clinton and her posse lack in foresight to realize is that gaming is not the province of children anymore. All of them grew up and are now ready to vote. What will the politicians do to gain votes then?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 26th, 2005 at 8:50 pm and is filed under Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.