GTA:SA gets AO rating

[clips]

can we post that coffee stuff in here?...i mean even tho it\'s a game would that still be considered porn?

[Evi]

^^^^^^

It\'s so far from porn it\'s not even funny. They\'re blowing this crap way out of proportion.

Oh no! The kids saw come crappy animated characters in a promiscuous scene that really doesn\'t show much anyway! Oh no! Guess what? Kids aren\'t supposed to be playing this game in the first place. Parents don\'t have a clue WTF their kids are playing these days. This 9 year old kid in a store a few weeks back brought San Andreas up to his dad...and he had a strange look on his face. I was like "*cough*...look at the rating". The dad then looked sternly at the kid and said NO. Freakin\' lazy people, I swear. Takes 2 seconds to flip the box around.

[clips]

^^^in that case,...for those that haven\'t seen it yet...heh and i like the way carl gets down..:fro:  


http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=6810&type=wmv

You know, for being video game fans of the more hardcore or passionate sense, I\'m surprised how few of you know how the ESRB rating system works.

Go visit them at ESRB.org and learn that AO rating means graphic depictions of sex. Retailers won\'t carry them and up until this, apparently, the only titles were FEW and far between because they sell like shit, and they were basically just pornos with some interactive menus or whatever.

An M rating means violence, some nudity, drug use, profanity, etc. It can be sold to minors legally, but some stores have policies to the contrary, i.e. WalMart.

You\'re welcome.

-Dan

Heh, so I watched the video of the offensive material and see that on ebay the game is fetching upwards of $65.



I wrote up an article to replace the Indigo Prophecy one I wrote for Sunday\'s paper. It\'s a rush job so I hope it\'s comprehensible:

Title: “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”
Platform: PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC
Publisher: Rockstar Games
ESRB Rating: Adults Only
Naughty Feature: When hackers discovered an explicit, sexual scene involving the game’s main character buried inside the game’s source code, its rating was changed from Mature to Adults Only and the game was pulled from store shelves.


“Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” has been pulled from store shelves after its content was reevaluated by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, nine months after the game’s launch for PlayStation 2.

There’s been a lot of criticism – recently from politicians such as Sen. Hillary Clinton – that the video game industry’s self-imposed content ratings are too lenient.

If the feelings against the Entertainment Software Ratings Board are heartfelt and not just a hollow attempt at pandering to a particular voting group, then the former First Lady found something to smile about on Wednesday when the Board changed its rating on the previously Mature-rated “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.”

Now rated Adults Only, Rockstar’s most recent controversial title is no longer on store shelves. The WalMart chain refuses to sell the game to anyone. A call to the local WalMart resulted in a suggestion that auction sites such as ebay.com are the only way to go.

Another call to a local Electronics Boutique confirmed otherwise. Electronics Boutique did pull the game from its shelves, but the game was still available on Friday if the customer requested the title and presented photo identification as proof that he or she was 18 years of age or older.

So what happened? After nine months on the PlayStation 2 as well as debuts for the PC and Xbox, why all of a sudden did the game get pulled from shelves?

You can thank hackers for that one.

Computer games are always being hacked so gamers can substitute in new images, words or characters into their favorite titles.

But when hackers peeked at the source code for “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” they found something hidden inside, apparently unavailable through normal play.

Other game developers have left coding artifacts behind: unfinished levels, unused images. But the folks at Rockstar left behind a minigame for main character Carl Johnson’s visits with his girlfriend.

During normal play, gamers can win the affections of a select few female characters. After some courting, they will invite CJ into their apartments for a cup of coffee.

The sounds and moans that come from inside the house suggest CJ is getting more than a cup of coffee. Gamers listen for a few moments before CJ appears outside again, ready to pursue other Mature-rated activities such as car jacking and gang warfare.

But the lost minigame – available in the code of the game but accessible only by modifying the software with a hack – takes players into the house where a clothed CJ practices three different forms of intercourse with his naked partner.

Gamers control the rhythm, position and camera angle of the event in order to fill an onscreen meter.

Rockstar initially claimed hackers had inserted something into the source code with the hack. This is possible with a PC game, but not on the PlayStation 2.

And that’s why the Entertainment Software Ratings Board was upset to find similar code hidden in the console game, which some gamers learned could be opened with a commonly accessible, store-bought cheating device.

The Ratings Board, which assigns a rating to a game after reviewing its most offensive content, had not seen this minigame before. On the PlayStation 2, CJ’s girlfriend was wearing a t-shirt and panties, but the graphic depiction was still enough to see the rating change to Adults Only.

Before now, the Adults Only rating was only handed out to a few pieces of software that were essentially pornographic videos with some kind of interactive feature. These “games” were never carried in video game retail shops and never enjoyed wide distribution.

As gamers undoubtedly begin the scramble to secure the remaining copies of “San Andreas,” Rockstar games is removing the offensive code from its software so it can get the game back on store shelves. Until then, it’s probably thankful for the sudden stream of media attention that has put its slightly aging title back into the limelight.



Caption: On Wednesday, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board changed its rating of “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” from Mature to Adults Only. This unprecedented change resulted in the game being pulled from store shelves while some retail chains such as WalMart now refuse to sell the title to customers of any age.

-Dan

(Oh yeah, and they added the E10+ rating since after I had made this image...)

Eiksirf, I think we understand WHAT the rating system is.

But that isn\'t the point. The point is, atleast in my mind, that this is the first step from WITHIN the industry itself to censor itself due to government pressure. Prior to this distributors put limitations on who they sold certain games too, which is in my mind pretty silly first of all.... But now there is a clearly defined movement to use  ESRB and retail pressure to limit what content will be put into a game by designers. No one will take any risks and code scenes of intense violence or sex at the risk of the game not being sold in stores, a major blow to any company.

I\'ve read a lot of what Clinton-demon and others have said, and they grouped in 3rd and 1st person shooters/violent action games along with GTA. If the ESRB and gaming stores are willing to bow down to the pressure of stupid politicans on a sec scene that involves no nudity, I see no reason to believe that some day, maybe even some day soon, we will see an increase in what games they rate as AO, which would then stop people from making more mature games.

[clips]

ok well what i want to know is how can i get this code for ps2..

google. you need a cheat device or you can download a save file if you have the means to get it to your ps2 memory card.

I see the implication, but I trust the ESRB. They recently made the E10+ rating as a sign of good faith, and now they\'ve made a line at intercourse, or at least, enforced an existing line.

The M rating includes intense violence and some nudity so I\'m optimistic that this won\'t change.

The GTA thing was definitely graphic. He holds her head as she goes down on him, for instance. That crossed the line and they made the change. Scene will be removed and the M rating will return.

Hopefully that\'s the end.

I really wish politicians would leave the shit I like alone. Go after drug users and criminals and shit. Please leave me with my pro wrestling and video games and music with curse words.

I just want to be entertained. I don\'t want to drive drunk, work illegally, commit insurance fraud, organize a crime ring, sell crack to children, shoplift, mug eldery women, and I only sometimes want to prostitute my body for cash.

Leave my entertainment alone and go worry about those people.

-Dan

[clips]

Originally posted by Eiksirf
google. you need a cheat device or you can download a save file if you have the means to get it to your ps2 memory card.

I see the implication, but I trust the ESRB. They recently made the E10+ rating as a sign of good faith, and now they\'ve made a line at intercourse, or at least, enforced an existing line.

The M rating includes intense violence and some nudity so I\'m optimistic that this won\'t change.

The GTA thing was definitely graphic. He holds her head as she goes down on him, for instance. That crossed the line and they made the change. Scene will be removed and the M rating will return.

Hopefully that\'s the end.

I really wish politicians would leave the shit I like alone. Go after drug users and criminals and shit. Please leave me with my pro wrestling and video games and music with curse words.

I just want to be entertained. I don\'t want to drive drunk, work illegally, commit insurance fraud, organize a crime ring, sell crack to children, shoplift, mug eldery women, and I only sometimes want to prostitute my body for cash.

Leave my entertainment alone and go worry about those people.

-Dan

couldn\'t have said it better myself...:fro:...thanks for the info...

[Titan]

Eik is definitely 100% right. I really don\'t see why politicians have to attack music and say it must be censored. STFU, the ratings and warnings are there for a reason and if a parent still gives an M game or an explicit CD to a 10 year old and then complains, then they are retarded.

[Living-In-Clip]

Originally posted by mm
rockstar needs to sell the AO version straight from it\'s website and make billions

True.

On the same note, Rockstar needs to suffer massive lawsuits from the industry and parents. The ESRB is there for a reason (like it or not) and companies are suppose to present a game with the content. Not hide the content. When they hid the content, did not notify the ESRB of the content and got a lesser rating, they directly violated it. Hope they come under a massive lawsuit for this. Then again, a bunch of \'tards will go out and buy the game, due to this, which in the end, is what Rockstar wanted.

But it wasn\'t part of the game. It was just forgotten code. Like the old hidden wrestler in one of those N64 wrestling games. You could only pull him up with a GameShark. They never finished adding him.

This wasn\'t part of the game. It was going to be at one point and then they probably thought it was too graphic and went with the suggestive moans instead.

Problem solved... Except they didn\'t figure people would hack it out and so the code was still there.

I can understand why they didn\'t show it to the ESRB the first time, it\'s just too bad they didn\'t delete it entirely.

-Dan

[Living-In-Clip]

Originally posted by Eiksirf
But it wasn\'t part of the game. It was just forgotten code. Like the old hidden wrestler in one of those N64 wrestling games. You could only pull him up with a GameShark. They never finished adding him.

This wasn\'t part of the game. It was going to be at one point and then they probably thought it was too graphic and went with the suggestive moans instead.

Problem solved... Except they didn\'t figure people would hack it out and so the code was still there.

I can understand why they didn\'t show it to the ESRB the first time, it\'s just too bad they didn\'t delete it entirely.

-Dan

Problem is, they took that risk. They made a choice to do not delete it out of the game entirely and they have to be responsible for that content.

That\'s true. And they\'re owning up to it with recalls, AO stickers and removing the code from future copies of the game.

They should have taken it out before. Since they didn\'t, they\'re handling it now in the best way possible.

-Dan

[Living-In-Clip]

Originally posted by Eiksirf
That\'s true. And they\'re owning up to it with recalls, AO stickers and removing the code from future copies of the game.

They should have taken it out before. Since they didn\'t, they\'re handling it now in the best way possible.

-Dan

Yes, they are. They still need to face lawsuits over it tho\'. The best way to get through to companies that this is not acceptable is to hit them in the pocketbook.