the hot coffee mod for 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' has been all over the news recently, and has reignited the whole 'video games are the devil' controversy. and i think this is absolute crap. this is akin to the Mortal Kombat 1 controversy in the early 90's. hippy tree hugging democrats think that overexposure to pixelated violence and sex will spawn another Columbine. how many times do you have to be told, people?
VIDEO GAMES DO NOT INSPIRE SCHOOL SHOOTINGS!!!
if your kids shoot up a school and blame it on SOCOM or GTA3, then damn, theyre bloody idiots for thinking such a half assed excuse would work, and youre even more of a bloody damned idiot for believing them. i mean, why blame it on video games? why not blame it on more accessible media such as movies or tv? its incredibly easier for a 14 year old kid to sneak into a rated R movie than it is for a kid of the same age to buy a rated M or AO video game. trust me, i snuck into rated R movies all the time when i was a kid, and i occasionally still have to do it because my ID doesnt look like me.
but i digress...
hot coffee. the hidden porno mod in 'GTA: San Andreas.' it was a minigame that was left unfinished and unaccessible in the final game, but a h4x0r from the netherlands screwed around with the game's code and stumbled across the hot coffee mod. basically, what it does is allows you to do this: now, im sorry, but if that arouses you, youre probably bound in a straitjacket and locked up in a facility that denies any outside human contact where you can live out the rest of your sad, pixelated pr0n loving days.
the game was pulled from shelves last week because of that little 'feature.' i tend to think its unfair for barring the game from sale because of an unfinished mini mod that only around 10% of the gaming community would be able to access, even *if* they wanted to access it. lets face it. *most* people play GTA on playstation 2 or xbox, not pc.
now, the question is, does censorship belong in videogames? to a degree, i think it does, just in order to keep crap like this 'hot coffee' controversy from happening. its idiocy on Rockstar Games part for even thinking about putting this mod in the source code of the game without considering the repercussions of that action. the ESRB (entertainment software rating board) states that while theyre rating a game, they must be told of every kind of material in the game that might possibly affect the rating. im willing to bet that the developers 'forgot' about Hot Coffee just as to avoid an Adults Only rating (akin to the mpaa's NC-17 rating), which they knew would hurt their game sales in the long run since a large part of the GTA audience is adolescent teens.
illinois governor rod blagojevich proposed legislation this week that would bar the sale of mature, or M rated games, to minors. this is loosely based on a new study that links videogames with violent behavior. it should be noted, that all such legislation has never passed, because it cant be proven that tekken gives you mad fighting skillz, or that splinter cell gives you the ability to snap necks. it should also be noted that over one third of all medical related studies are absolute BS.
i guess that means that my craptastic ID will work for me a little bit longer...
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