• news
  • THURSDAY JUNE 8 2006 4:00 PM

Rockstar Games, FTC Chill Out Over Hot Coffee

Submitted by WilWheaton

Edited by WilWheaton

Rockstar games gave parents nightmares and delivered a huge gift to opportunistic, moralizing politicians when it was revealed that, by jumping through several complicated hoops, gamers could unlock a mod, called "Hot Coffee," in GTA: San Andreas that revealed the ultra-hot sexiness of blocky simulated sexual activity.

Massive lawsuits were threatened, gamers rushed to pick up the mod, and game retailers around the country -- who previously had been entirely happy to sell San Andreas, complete with its cop-killing, hooker-fucking, drug-dealing glory -- pulled the game from shelves. You know, to protect The Children.

Even if you ignored the fact that this game was already rated M, and shouldn't have been sold to anyone under 17, the reaction was, shall we say, a touch extreme, but it did seriously threaten the financial future of Rockstar games.

Today, it was announced that Rockstar and its parent company Take Two Interactive have settled a lawsuit with the Federal Trade Commission, that should put this whole sideshow to rest, so cable news can get back to covering things that really matter, like that girl in Aruba, or that celebrity couple who had a baby.

The FTC has stated that Rockstar and Take-Two must disclose all content to the ESRB when rating games, or face an $11,000 fine per violation if undisclosed content is discovered. 'Parents have the right to rely on the accuracy of the entertainment rating system. We allege that Take-Two and Rockstar's actions undermined the industry's own rating system and deceived consumers,' commented Lydia Parnes, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

This is a fatal blow to congressmorons like Hillary Clinton, who called for a congressional investigation of Rockstar games at the same time the NSA and Valerie Plame scandals were unfolding, and pandering dipshits like LA City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, who filed a huge lawsuit on behalf of everyone in Los Angeles that totally had nothing to do with his political aspirations.

So, has anyone seen the "Ho Chi Minh" unlock in Table Tennis? I hear it's really hot.

  • PERMALINK
  • PRINT
  • Digg This
  • Email To A Friend
 

Previous

PAGE: 

1 | 2

Next

Comments
ChrisSick

ChrisSick

Philadelphia, PA
March 2008

JUN 08, 2006 04:20 PM

'congressmorons'

God bless you, Will Wheaton, and the fine work you do.

attn_ho

attn_ho

Brooklyn, NY
February 2004

JUN 08, 2006 04:30 PM

thanks for coming back, wheaton.

BiXbYGrendel

BixbyGrendel

Saskatoon, SK
August 2005

JUN 08, 2006 05:01 PM

FOR CRYIN OUT LOUD!!!!! IT"S A FUCKING VIDEO GAME!!!! AND M = NO KIDS!!!! FUOR FUCKS SAKES!!!!!!!

Jeff_Fries

Jeff_Fries

Humptulips, WA
September 2003

JUN 08, 2006 05:03 PM

WilWheaton said:
So, has anyone seen the "Ho Chi Minh" unlock in Table Tennis? I hear it's really hot.


They don't call him "Hoochie Man" for short for nothing.

chilung

chilung

Australia
April 2005

JUN 08, 2006 05:42 PM

malkav11

malkav11

Saint Paul, MN
July 2003

JUN 08, 2006 08:52 PM

Gamespot is saying that this could be one of two things: 11 thousand dollars per game released that constitutes a violation, or 11 thousand dollars per game sold....which would be 79 billion dollars on San Andreas alone, and probably smash Rockstar to tiny little bits.

So this could still be scary.

StarBelliedBoy

StarBelliedBoy

Philadelphia, PA
December 2003

JUN 08, 2006 08:59 PM

There was sex in Indigo Prophecy that didn't need to be unlocked.

Did anyone play that? Sure was fun.

malkav11

malkav11

Saint Paul, MN
July 2003

JUN 08, 2006 09:01 PM

StarBelliedBoy said:
There was sex in Indigo Prophecy that didn't need to be unlocked.

Did anyone play that? Sure was fun.



It was fun, and yes, there was sex in the European version...it was censored out of the US release, though, or I expect there would have been some outcry.

theseeman

theseeman

Asheville, NC
December 2002

JUN 08, 2006 09:42 PM

Yeah H. Clinton hasn't done much for Americans regarding the Bush admin's civil rights violations. If she runs I'm calling Tonya Harding's boyfriend.

spamtwo

spamtwo

United Kingdom
April 2006

JUN 08, 2006 09:49 PM

I hope Rockstar burn in hell.

I wa disgusted after chainsawing off a hookers head to get my money back after a BJ to find out that there was sex in this game, completly corrupted my mind.

mokole

mokole

Canada
June 2004

JUN 08, 2006 10:14 PM

maybe someone can one day explain the leap or logic, in that sex = bad, violence = good. there were a lot of real things to be offended by in san andreas, illeagally modding the game to play a horrible sex mini game isn't one of them,

ThisIsWhoWeAre

ThisIsWhoWeAre

Oakland, CA
July 2004

JUN 09, 2006 12:12 AM

Like keep saying, what would you rather take a blast of to the face, semen or buckshot?

joker_

joker_

Minneapolis, MN
October 2005

JUN 09, 2006 12:34 AM

mokole said:
maybe someone can one day explain the leap or logic, in that sex = bad, violence = good. there were a lot of real things to be offended by in san andreas, illeagally modding the game to play a horrible sex mini game isn't one of them,



The American brand of monkey is very afraid of sex.
Cultural influences stemming from some of the westerners settling over here.

http://mb-soft.com/believe/txc/puritani.htm
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/colonial/book/chap5_2.html

Just my view. Puritans suck.

mrcheese

mrcheese

United Kingdom
May 2006

JUN 09, 2006 01:33 AM

I find the whole lawsuit thing laughable. The sheer fact you have to download AN UNOFFICIAL THIRD PARTY GAME MODIFICATION which was NOT CREATED BY ANYONE AT ROCKSTAR means this whole thing is blown out of all proportion.

It's like purchasing a copy of cosmopolitan, drawing boobies over the clothes of all the girls then suing claiming it contains hardcore pornography.

malkav11

malkav11

Saint Paul, MN
July 2003

JUN 09, 2006 02:12 AM

mrcheese said:
I find the whole lawsuit thing laughable. The sheer fact you have to download AN UNOFFICIAL THIRD PARTY GAME MODIFICATION which was NOT CREATED BY ANYONE AT ROCKSTAR means this whole thing is blown out of all proportion.

It's like purchasing a copy of cosmopolitan, drawing boobies over the clothes of all the girls then suing claiming it contains hardcore pornography.



That was true up until the very same minigame was unlocked on the console versions with third-party cheat devices. Trust me, those are not capable of introducing new code, they just muck with what's already there.

So, sorry, but Rockstar did make that content. It's just that by any realistic definition it's not in the goddamn game. And ratings absolutely should be based on the actual content of the actual goddamn game. Not what someone might hack out of the data files.

Previous

PAGE: 

1 | 2

Next

featured interviews