Reactions to "San Andreas" rating change

I've never been a fan of the GTA series, so don't ask

I DO think that the publisher/developer screwed up on this one. If you leave it on the disk, it will be found - period. If they really didn't want to distribute it, it wouldn't have been created, much less left on the master.

And if it was an accident, the scapegoat would have already been fragged.

-qor72

 

Agreed.

But you have to admit, it is good publicity. These guys know what draws people.

 

You can go into best buy and buy soft core p0rn, but you can't buy GTO because it has an AO rating?

C'mon. Walmart I understand, they are all upity about that, but Best Buy is just being stupid. How GTO wasn't considered AO all along is beyond me.

Their sales boom was forever ago, they've already sold 12 million copies, I hardly think this will hurt future sales.

 

It wouldn't help sales, hard to sell something that is not in the stores.

Rockstar knew the content was there but thought turning it off would avoid any issues with the ESRB. If games weren't the new evil of the day they may have gotten away with it with little press and a fine from the ESRB. But the fact that Clinton and others are using games as their call to arms, brings it to the for front. Thus the reaction.

I just love the double standard. You can beat somebopdy up in a game, show blood and gore and have to be 17 to play it. If you want to have sex you have to be 18. If you want to see an R rated movie you need to be 18. If you want to buy or rent a movie at the store there is no age limit and most stores don't card the buyer. If you want to buy or rent a game you need to have an ID.

Heaven for bid we teach kids about sex.

 

I just can't really care one way or the other. The arguement that it's fair game if on the disk is pretty weak.

True it never should have been in the final build, but is it any worse than anything else in the game? By no means is this the first time it has happened. Rockstar just makes it a better headline.

(Case in point, The Sims get pixelated when getting into the shower or making "The Sim with 2 backs". Yet mods can remove the pixelation, showing the content already there.)

All the media pimps screaming their heads off wouldn't be able to activate Hot Coffee on their own. Or even know what it was about if someone wasn't writing crib notes and talking points for them.

 

Well I think the developers were just stupid for putting in "hot coffee" into their code. Then they denied doing it and blamed it on "hackers." The ESRB should have given a harsher punishment, but they couldn't because they are an organization that does nothing but make empty threats. I agree with Hamma on this one, they need to fix the system badly.

 

ESRB does not give empty threats. Just me having been on the punshment side once they don't. Many retailers won't carry a product unless it has a rating and it wouldn't surprise me if the ESRB stops rating Rock Star Games for while.

I agree the way they rate games needs to be changed. Its to dependent upon the publisher / developer. They need to be able to take a game and play it. Right now they only look at 20 to 40 minutes of video of the game. There are some 30 poeple who work for the ESRB full time. Out of that 15 or so are lawyers and the rest are office. Not a game player or hacker in the group.

 

My God, the game was already rated M (Ages 17+, violence, sex, etc.). Any parent who bought for their children probably either didn't care in the first place or had no spine and succumbed to their child's every whim.


I don't really see the need for the AO rating in the first place. M is for 17+, AO is 18+. M has violence and sex, while AO has prolonged periods of violence and sex. The only feasible reason I can think of for AO to exist is for kids, to prove to their parents that M "isn't the worst thing out there."

 

That may not be enough for them to change it, but that wouldn't stop them from trying. (And I swear to God I didn't see this before I posted.)

Sims2 Under Attack

The real problem is that there isn't a standard really. Think about that. They just say what the content can be, they really don't limit it down to the code.

So if some Disney code writer drops the F-bomb in his comments, what rating should the game have?

However in this case, it was rated R. And had this been GTA the movie, no one would even bat an eye.

 

Thus it starts.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBZ53OVNBE.html

I don't think the woman as a leg to stand on but in this day bashing the video game industry you never know.

 

You mean for Hot Coffee!?

 

99.9% of the time I research what I am purchasing, especially anything over $25 dollars AND especially if it involves my child. These people that went in thinking they were buying their kids a harmless toy and missing the thugs and half naked prostitutes depicted on the cover - let alone the big M (ages 17+) in the bottom corner need to have their heads checked AND stop wasting tax payers money clogging our justice system.

In fact the government should pay me to slug these parents in the head and teach their kids about the birds and the bees...I'd do that for free.


Now you have ambulance chasers coming out of the wood work. Frivolous lawsuits are bringing this country to its knees. Bah.

 

Hillary needs to die.
First she put her plague on my state then she spreads it to NY then the US.


I'd almost welcome her getting sent home and not re-elected. She's nearly as bad if not on par with Jane Fonda.