So, ummm…this whole Grand Theft Auto thing? Yeah…
I’ve been waiting to cover this story for a good couple of weeks now, but it seems that whenever I sit down to write something up, a new series of events unfolds and I’m left wondering if I’ll end up leaving out a “valuable” piece or two of the puzzle by jumping on the bandwagon before we get anywhere with this one! But now it’s officially been about six weeks since “the filth” first hit the fan (so to speak), so quick – let’s dive in and get this over with before somebody finds something else to scream about…
To bring everyone outside of the video game world up to speed on what the big hubabaloo is all about, publisher Rock Star North made waves earlier this summer when word leaked out via the Internet that “hidden, explicit scenes” could be unlocked with their latest platinum release, Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas. First believed to have been added into the game play by a skilled hacker after the game was released, it was later uncovered that the code for these mini-games was, in fact, present on shipped discs the whole time, only requiring the use of a third party game enhancer (a la Game Genie, Game Shark, etc…) to be exposed. The scenes were justly dubbed “Hot Coffee,” as the story offers the player an opportunity to come inside for some “hot coffee” after a successful date with many of the game’s female persuasions, resulting in a handful of crude-at-best mini-games featuring pixilated (fully clothed) sexual promiscuity…not to mention one hell of an uproar from parenting and activist groups from around the country!
So fast-forward to present day – although the game was previously rated as M for mature audiences (17 and up) by the ESRB (Electronic Software Ratings Board), said uproar from sources left and right forced the ESRB to re-evaluate the title, taking into consideration this newly-discovered content and ushering forth an adults-only rating that would pull the game off of shelves with a number of major retailers (Wal-Mart, just to name one) around the nation. Rock Star North has reported that the game will be re-released later on this fall with the offending content removed to meet the original MA rating, and as you would expect, “original” versions of the game are going like hotcakes on eBay! Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get my copy yet… 
Now there are a couple of different aspects that we can look at the situation from, but first of all, just for the record – anyone who’s actually seen the screenshots from these scenes should understand that this is a classic mountain-out-of-a-molehill scenario. As I mentioned earlier, although both characters are technically “engaging” in an act, they are both fully clothed and it remains dry-humping at best – kind of like high school all over again, only this time you’ve got a nifty, little meter there on the screen to let you know just how well you’re actually doing! Anyone who can stand tall and shout allegations of indecency and lewd content most certainly hasn’t actually witnessed the scenes themselves and, although I don’t necessarily agree that it was right for the publisher not to divulge this information to the ESRB when the game was submitted for its rating, it even more so astounds me that such a fuss was made over a game…an entire series, in fact…that makes itself known for beating up hookers and running down cops.
And I really think that that’s what bothers me the most about this entire thing – it’s almost as if the people making a stink about this haven’t even seen the rest of the game. The Grand Theft Auto series has never really been a family-friendly franchise and no one has ever pushed it as such. Even looking back to the very first episode in the late 90’s where all we had was a 2d, overhead view, the original Grand Theft Auto introduced us to stealing cars and mowing down pedestrians in a mass carnage that instantly made Doom and Duke Nukem 3d old school, and it’s only gone downhill from there! Whenever I need to relieve a little stress, I know that the napalm and rocket launchers that I spent hours upon hours earning in GTA3 are only a hop, skip, and a jump away – I can be toasting innocent bystanders near and far in a matter of minutes…because I’m a mature audience and can tell the difference between reality and make believe…
I’ve got a feeling that the underlying issue here is honestly just a lack of parenting because otherwise, how are games like these falling into the hands of our impressionable youth to begin with?! I’ll tell you right now that when I do have children and they grow old enough to start playing video games, they won’t be dabbling around San Andreas anytime soon…and that’s not because of any alleged sex scenes buried within. When they get old enough to start watching the more mature movies and listening to music with explicit lyrics, then they’ll be welcome to partake in the video games that come along as well, but until then its first and foremost the parents’ responsibility to see that such rating systems are enforced – a twelve year-old shouldn’t be playing a game rated MA anymore than they should be playing one rated AO.
It’s pretty obvious that the new rating was more or less forced upon the ESRB simply because when you’ve got some of the largest conservative parenting groups in the country against you, it might not be considered in good business practices to go against the grain, and I can guarantee you that this certainly won’t be the last ratings challenge to hit the headlines now that the floodgates have been opened. Be prepared for an onslaught of hoopla in the upcoming months as we pair up our latest righteous activists looking to make names for themselves with all of the new titles readying to hit stores just in time for Christmas – it should be a feeding frenzy for the law offices, indeed! It’s too bad, really, because ultimately the industry as a whole will take the fall as more and more parents will likely be reluctant to purchase legitimate video games having heard partial or misinformation about this entire incident. Just like in any similar situation, the kids whom we don’t want getting the violent games will still have no problems finding them, and then rest of us will all have to make an extra trip to the mall to pick up our favorite titles…
Final Verdict: I, for one, do not agree with the ratings adjustment simply because I’ve seen these kinds of scenes in PG-13 movies, much less anything rated-R – shame on Rock Star for allowing the scenes to remain hidden in the first place, but even more shame on everyone else who’s made this so much more of a big deal than it needs to be. I challenge anybody to watch them for themselves and then tell me with a straight face that its still any more horrible than they had already imagined!
Feel free to get back to me on that one, but in the meantime, I’ve got some mobsters to gun down…and yes, I do have ID on me…
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
