GTA Sex Scandal Spreads Down Under

[TomO]

Pro-G (http://www.pro-g.co.uk) is reporting that the GTA "Hot Coffee" Sex scandal has now spread down under with Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification launching an investigation (http://www.pro-g.co.uk/news/nid/1065/) into claims that San Andreas contains explicit sexual material which can be accessed with the aid of a mod. The hidden sex mini-game supposedly found on the San Andreas game disc has been causing uproar, with the ESRB already investigating the sex mini-game claims.

[Savok]

Bah, now I have to go buy the game before it's banned entirely

[Savok]

Quick question, has the Xbox version of San Andreas got a widescreen mode? Might grab it there rather then PC if so.

[Kelegacy]

Those Aussies are always banning one game or another

[Pnikosis]

Those Aussies are always banning one game or another
Blondie said it already: One game, or another I'm gonna getcha

[Cupelix]

They were talking about this on one of the local morning shows here in DC when my alarm went off this morning. Thankfully, though I hate the host (he makes me get up and turn my radio off, great as an alarm), he was saying how they need to leave it all alone. At least he wasn't jumping on the bandwagon with banning everything touchy.

[Klade]

I'm surprised they let the game in the country in the first place. Figured for sure that they would ban it from the start. I mean didn't leasure suit larry get banned there?

[Savok]

Considering I own all the LSL games (played my first around age 7), they aren't banned here.

God only knows how they aren't, guess PC games aren't as policed as console games.

[Heretic Machine]

I -hate- that orginization. It is the very embodiment of what a group like that shouldn't be.

[Frogleg Special]

I thought no one plays PC games anymore in Oz, making this allegation irrelevant.

[zipR]

For me, the question is: did Rockstar intentionally leave this in (or add it) to generate controversy/buzz/sales, which seems to be in line with their usual marketing tactics, or was this just something that the programmers left in and figured would never be found and activated?

[Savok]

I thought no one plays PC games anymore in Oz, making this allegation irrelevant.

Fuck you :p

[Mrbunchypants]

For me, the question is: did Rockstar intentionally leave this in (or add it) to generate controversy/buzz/sales, which seems to be in line with their usual marketing tactics, or was this just something that the programmers left in and figured would never be found and activated?

I bet they left is in. My guess is that it was a mini game for makeing you more attractive. like how you can go to the gym and get buff.
More funny would be if they found this in the xbox/PS2 versions.

[TheHulk]

I'm not that big of a GTA fan so I usually don't read much about it... What exactly are we talking about here?

[Groo]

For me, the question is: did Rockstar intentionally leave this in (or add it) to generate controversy/buzz/sales, which seems to be in line with their usual marketing tactics, or was this just something that the programmers left in and figured would never be found and activated?

My guess is that they made it, with the intention of potentially putting it into the game. For whatever reason, though (not enough time to perfect it, or it didn't work very well, or they didn't think they could get an M rating from the ESRB) they decided to "cut" it from the final game.

However, instead of completely obliterating the everything, they just switched it off. Why did they do this? Probably because they were afraid of screwing something else up. A video game is a very large, and very complex thing. Taking out a considerable amount of code/artwork/sound from one area, could potentially mean bugs popping up in other areas.

Therefore, from a software development perspective, it's safer to just leave this stuff in, rather than take it out and potentially cause problems elsewhere.

San Andreas isn't the only game to ever do this. Just recently, people found extra dialogue in Knights of the Old Republic II that was just left on the disc. And before that, I remember people found unfinished areas in Soul Reaver.

So, leaving extraneous data on the disc is something that developers do. This "Hot Coffee" controversy brings up the question: are developers responsible for this extra content, from an ESRB perspective?

Personally, I don't think so. If you sat someone in front of GTA San Andreas, and told them to play the game, they could play for the rest of their natural life, and never see this hidden content. Because it's not accessible from the game itself. Rockstar never meant for anyone to see it. If someone is modifying the game, then it's not the developers responsibility anymore, no matter what they may unlock by modding the game.

[ackbrack]

If someone is modifying the game, then it's not the developers responsibility anymore, no matter what they may unlock by modding the game.

That's a good point. One would assume that the responsibility of Rockstar for the game is detailed in the EULA:

"As in typical legal contracts, the EULA protects both parties from liability if the software is used in a way not intended by the manufacturer or author."

At first, I thought that this issue fell into a grey area that could be illustrated by using the example of the "blood code" from the console version of Mortal Kombat. But, this is obviously different. With Mortal Kombat, the game was clearly developed to easily allow people to enter this code and run the game smoothly with all the gore they wanted. If GTA game has to be broken into and the code modified by the end user to find the "adult" content, then Rockstar cannot be held responsible for people seeing it. There was no intention of letting people access it with the game running as it was shipped. If anyone should have their game retroactively struck with a higher rating, it should be Mortal Kombat.

[splatstick]

I think we should not only ban sex from videogames, but ban sex in reality as well. What if the kids start doing it? How can we live with ourselves?

[A Lusty Alien]

I'm reminded of the scene in "Paint Your Wagon" where all the women of the town, former prostitutes, have become the very model of decorum; refusing to allow any impropriety in the town, as it is a reminder of their own pasts.

Australia, once a bastion of freedom and acceptance (not to mention a certain level of pride in it's outlaw past), now all wrapped up in the bondages of "civilized" society and respectability.

[Lon Lon Rabbit]

I'm surprised they let the game in the country in the first place. Figured for sure that they would ban it from the start. I mean didn't leasure suit larry get banned there?

Australia is a LOT more tolerant of violence in movies than the US. The problem lies in that there is no "R" rating for video games here, which is the 18+ restriction rating for movies.

If we only had an R rating for games aswell as movies, there would be no problems with GTA at all. GTA3 was only cut down to a censored version here because, again, we have no R rating. It wasn't a case of "letting it in" because it was offensive, just that we don't have a suitable ranking for it.

[Savok]

We revamped the game system recently, bring it in line with films. And the fuckers didn't add R18+ for games, the whole fucking basis for reform.

Worse yet communist New Zealand has R18+, us Aussies import from there when things get hacked up. We can't let those kiwi bastards have the one up on an Aussie.

And I think I'll go PC for draw distance.

[Last of the Red Hot Mamas]

For me, the question is: did Rockstar intentionally leave this in (or add it) to generate controversy/buzz/sales, which seems to be in line with their usual marketing tactics, or was this just something that the programmers left in and figured would never be found and activated?

There's a bunch of stuff in SA that you can't access normally (the hidden interiors) and things that don't seem to serve any purpose (an out-of-the-way mansion you can't enter and doesn't come into play at any point in the game), so I think it's reasonable to assume Rockstar just left some bits of the game on the cutting room floor without actually removing them and the sex game was one of them. It's not like the sex game is the only leftover hanging around in the code.

[inmostlight]

Quick question, has the Xbox version of San Andreas got a widescreen mode? Might grab it there rather then PC if so.

Since nobody else answered....yeah, there's a widescreen/480p mode. It seems like the anti-aliasing is a little glitchy on it, though, and increases towards the right edge of the screen so much that things start to look almost doubled/blurry. Not terribly noticable most of the time, but still kinda irritating to me. I wish I could just turn the anti-aliasing off altogether...

[Savok]

Thanks, pity I already have the PC DVD one now though :p

Still, sounds rather like the widescreen on Burnout 3, nice for racing as it kinda simulates speed, but don't think it'd go too well on GTA.