Congressional Coffee

The more I think about it, the more absurd it all is. The sex scenes in the porn studio(!) missions for Vice City showed more skin than the hidden ones in San An (before we added nudity, mind). And there are other games with known interactive sex bits that are rated M. Had R* submitted the game with hot coffee mode intact to begin with, I doubt it would have changed the rating. Being that half the textures used in the sex scenes are borked and unfinished, it would seem it was left out because it was unfinished.

Not to mention they play like crap and obviously weren't polished or playtested. :p

-illy

"Hot Coffee"??!!

This just made me angry, i thought it was totally stupid. Me being a gamer, i think that the increasing amount of violence and sex in video games is bad. Sure, some violence and blood is alright, but excessive amounts of it, like in GTA: San Andreas, is rude. the "Hot Coffee" incident is just a fault on the programmers. They shouldn't even have had it in there, whether it was behind this invisible wall or not!

Re: "Hot Coffee"??!!

listen........not all of us gamers want to play "god squad" jesus loving, tree hugging hippie games on our consoles. Get a life man there are different genres of games for a reason. If you do not like certain games do not play them but they should still be available for the people that do.

You obviously believe the same as Jack Thompson *cough* looser *cough*. You obviously must think that Video games turn all people into psycho maniacs. I have to disagree however, as I have been playing these kind of games for years, without any adverse effects, so I would appreciate it if you left me alone with the choice to play WHATEVER game I choose.

Re: "Hot Coffee"??!!

Why shouldn't they have left it in? I don't see anyone complaining about God of War which has a sex mini-game with blatantly topless women. Nor is anyone whining about the Playboy game or that "Singles - Flirt up your Life" dating/sex sim game (look up screens of /that/ on IGN [NSFW, btw]). If all of those are fine for M, then why, pray-tell, would fully-clothed dry humping be AO all of a sudden?

And if it's not AO material in other games the ESRB has rated, then why would R* "hide" it from anyone? Probably because it was, oh, I don't know, unfinished and crappy?! Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees this big gaping hole in the ESRB's logic. "Non-disclosed content" or otherwise, the re-rating to AO goes completely against the standards they have applied to other more sexually explicit titles. And they want to blame the mod scene for undermining their ratings...

-illspirit

It's good to see bipartisan stupidity in this day and age.

Thanks to Upton and Markey for showing us that the parties can work together in matters of no import whatsoever.

And meanwhile last Friday they voted to make permanent most of the Patriot Act. Way to go, guys. Good to see your priorities are in order. :P

I'm now offically sick and tired of the Hot Coffee mess. GTA:SA hasn't really done anything new, but they will be used as an example. I kinda feel sorry for them.

-- Walkin'

Congressional and Other Legislative Hearings Needed

John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law

1172 South Dixie Hwy., Suite 111

Coral Gables, Florida 33146

305-666-4366

jackpeace@comcast.net



July 24, 2005



The Honorable Leland Y. Yee

Speaker Pro Tempore

California State Assembly

State Capitol

Sacramento, California Fax: (916) 319-2112



Re: Distribution of Sexual Material Harmful to Minors by the Video Game Industry



Dear Speaker Yee:



I was privileged to be involved in the successful effort, as were you, to compel the ESRB to finally do its job regarding Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I have information for you, however, about a matter that may be an even worse abuse by the video game industry.



The Sims video game franchise is the most popular in history. These games are rated “T” for teen, which means they are supposedly appropriate for kids 13 and over. However, this game is a prime example of the “ratings creep” about which Dr. Kimberly Thompson of Harvard University has written. There is some rather remarkable sexual content in the Sims games which I and others believe would warrant an “M” rating as to the content that is patently in them.



Proof that parents should be concerned as to what is the sexual content in this supposedly “T” game is that one site on the Internet is offering parents a means to shield their kids from the known sexual content of the Sims games. But this gets worse.



It turns out that Electronic Arts, the publisher of all the Sims games, has allowed the player, with a simple cheat code that even the New York Times is distributing, to remove a “censor flag” in the game in order to make the players nude, including the Sims children. A similar cheat code allowed players to access the “Hot Coffee” content of GTA: SA. The nudity is not put into the game. It is already there, put there by EA to be accessed by all. But this gets worse.



Electronic Arts has encouraged the “mod community,” by comments of the game’s creator and by a failure to protect its copyrighted code in the game, to create “skins” for the nude figures that are explicit in nature as they depict genitalia, with some specific mods appealing to “fetishists” as well. The unlocked nudity dovetails nicely into this modding.



These mods are offered at all sorts of “porn” sites on the Internet, and they use the Sims name. EA is fully aware of this and is doing nothing about it. If Electronic Arts wanted this activity stopped, it believe they could shut it down in a New York minute. However, as you and I both know, this industry, including EA, has benefited financially from such collaborations with the “mod” industry. That is what is occurring here, and the damning admissions of the game’s creator, Will Wright, and his enthusiasms for “mods” prove it.



I should like to encourage you to conduct hearings on the full breadth of the scandal within the video game industry, which now includes collaborating with those who are putting sexually explicit material into the hands of children by making an “M” game that is labeled a “T,” then facilitating the unlocking of nudes in the game, and then looking the other way when others are apparently using their copyrighted code to modify the nudes into images that appeal to the prurient interest.



This is not artistic license, in my opinion. It is conspiracy to violate the law at the expense of vulnerable children, behind their parents’ backs.



The ESRB has always been a joke. Now ESRB is a cruel joke.



Regards, Jack Thompson

Re: Congressional and Other Legislative Hearings Needed

John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law
1172 South Dixie Hwy., Suite 111
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
305-666-4366
jackpeace@comcast.net

July 24, 2005

The Honorable Fred Upton
U.S. House of Representatives
Kalamazoo District Office
157 South Kalamazoo Mall
Suite 180
Kalamazoo, MI 49007 Fax: (269) 385-2888

and

Washington D.C. Office
2183 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515 Fax: (202) 225-4986

Re: FTC Investigation of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

Dear Congressman Upton:

I wish to thank you for your call that the FTC investigate Take-Two Interactive in the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas “Hot Coffee” scandal, specifically as to whether Take-Two lied.

I happen to have been in the middle of that scandal. Further, the current issue of Reader’s Digest (August) features an original article about our wrongful death lawsuit in Alabama arising out of the Grand Theft Auto games. Take Two’s alleged responsibility for the deaths of two officers and a police dispatcher was also recently aired on CBS’s 60 Minutes.

There is a lot I could tell your staff about Take-Two, including the recent $8.75 million fine Take-Two had to pay for fraudulent accounting practices and other matters. The “Hot Coffee” mod matter is just the tip of the iceberg. This is an industry totally out of control.

Please feel free to have your staff contact me at their earliest convenience.

Regards, Jack Thompson

Re: Congressional and Other Legislative Hearings Not Needed At All

I reiterate, the "wrestling defense" was a dismal failure for Lionel Tate; The "video game defense" will fail for Devin Moore.

The only person responsible for that rampage is Devin Moore and not anyone or anything else.

The only thing out of control in this country is you and your rampant McCarthyism.

== BearDogg-X ==

Re: Congressional and Other Legislative Hearings Needed

Wow... You really don't know the meaning of the word "responsibility", do you Jack? I think you're probably also pretty fuzzy on many of the words in the constitution...

But as a gamer and a parent, I would like to thank you Jack. Your incompetant and irrational assaults on the videogame industry make it hard for any reasonable voices to infringe on our freedoms.

Rant on my constitutionally challenged friend!

P.S. If you look hard enough, I'll bet you can find a game title with a dirty word as an anagram!

Re: Congressional and Other Legislative Hearings Needed

My friends, I have it on authority that if you rearrange the letters in SUPER MARIO you can spell ASS NIPPLES. Of course, you have to run the letters through my secret decoder ring first to make it work, but I stand by my outrageous discovery.

Re: Congressional and Other Legislative Hearings Needed

Ass nipples?

Ew.

Hot Coffee

Listen...Plain and Simple, The ESRB should not have changed the rating......If no one knows how to get to the Hot Coffee area then why should you change the rating. Ive been watching all the programs that said something about the Hot Coffee and i still dont know how to get it......I am not trying to Anyones side......but why would a major gaming company like Rockstar or Take Two make this program in this game. This is completely a stupid incident. I personally dont believe the rating should be changed..............................The game is completely harmless minus all the stuff thats been in the past GTA games......

Re: Hot Coffee

I wouldn't say that it's completely harmless...

But anyone who claims that the "HC" content changes their opinion as to it's appropriateness should be surgically sterilized. They are too irresponsible to reproduce...

Re: Hot Coffee

Listen that is not what i meant...........I ment that it is not going to turn all the kids in the world into a gunwielding gangster that kills prostitutes,emergency workers,civillians,and any one else.....Also i dont believe that a kid is going to hijack a helicopter and jump out of it with guns.....And So on.................One more thing This game doesnt have a big influence on kids.....Most kids shows could have a hidden message and not some videogames that r created by companies

American politicians are morons

It's nice to see that your well-payed politians are wasting your taxpayers dollars on useless crap like this. If i was american i would write to my senator/congressman asking them why there wasting so much time and money on non-issues like this. Thank God i'm Canadian.

Re: American politicians are morons

I hear what you are saying...

On the other hand, the ESRB investigation never disclosed some key points, so this was inevitable. I think I even predicted it last week, although I can't remember in which article....

Pathetic

That just shows how lame he is. I'm sure when Jack was in law school, he had dreams of being a great attorney, then a judge, and then who knows what. He wanted it all. But look where he is now. He's so low on the ladder of success, he gets into arguments with forum posters. Do you really think Johnny Cochran or other great attorneys would waste time arguing with people on the internet? Of course not. They're too successful. When Jack Thompson dies, his legacy will be one of utter lameness. On his tomb stone, it will say, "Here lies Jack Thompson. He tried to fight Super Mario-and lost."

Re: American politicians are morons

I think if we look we could find countless examples of politicians in any county being complete wastes of humanity.

Nice try for another dig on the U.S. but you need to pick something else.

Oh my, what's this?

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/004220.php

Scandal in Canadian Politics??? NEVAH!! lol

But, yes - Jack Thompson sux big time. This guy is a complete loser, Mr. Self-Righteous.

If you do some digging - you'll find that his other love is Medical Malpractice suits. What a greed ball - I'm sure if there's a way to squeeze money out of someone, Mr. Self-Righteous Thompson will find it!!

I just think we should all fight the system

stand together as one and tell them YES WE AMERICANS THINK IT IS OK TO PLAY GTA.

Re: I just think we should all fight the system

Yes, I'm going to play GTA with or without Mr. Thompson's approval. I am not a kid, nor am I a killer - but I do like video games.

I'm not an idiot either - Mr. Thompson likes to claim video gamers are idiots. I just perfer to play video games in some of my leisure time, rather than watch mindless TV.

He seems quite arrogant really. I wonder how he spends his free time - reading? What books like "Meine Kampf"? Probably where he's getting his ideas from.

Speaking of which, Mr. Thompson, perhaps we could start "video game burnings" for any video games you wish off the market. Once we burn all the video games, we could move on to DVD's, VHS Tapes, and then finally books!

What a novel idea.