7/11/2005
Grand Theft Auto's Dirty Little Secret
Allie Shah and Patrice Relerford, Star Tribune
July 9, 2005
Think Lara Croft is as sexy as a video game gets?
Think again.
A Minnesota organization issued a nationwide parental alert Friday about the video game, "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," claiming that it contains hidden pornography. A modification can be downloaded from the Internet that allows players to see female characters naked, and show a male and female character engaged in various graphic sexual positions.
It's the first time the group, the National Institute on Media and the Family, has issued a national warning to parents and retailers about a video game.
Now, the group that rates video games has started an investigation.
"By anyone's reckoning, these scenes qualify as pornography," David Walsh, the institute's founder and president, said at a news conference Friday in Minneapolis.
He said the benefit of alerting parents outweighed the risk of exposing more kids to the changes. "My guess is that very few parents know about this. Kids get this information all the time."
It wasn't clear whether the content originated with the game or with the modification. The game's publisher, Rockstar Games, wouldn't say.
The sex scene in the game is commonly known, was allegedly unleashed by a game enthusiast from the Netherlands who hosts a "modding," or modification, site. The modification, called the Hot Coffee Mod V2.1, has been available on websites related to the game since June 9. The name comes from the minigames in which scantily clad animated women invite the game's heroes to have coffee after dates.
The mod's author -- Patrick Wildenborg of Deventer, Netherlands -- said that his code merely unlocks content that is already in the game.
"If Rockstar Games denies that, then they're lying and I will be able to prove that," Wildenborg, 36, wrote in an e-mail to the Associated Press. "My mod does not introduce anything to the game. All the content that is shown was already present on the DVD."
Game designers have long tucked hidden elements in their work, some meant to be found, others not. Gaming magazines print codes that can be entered during game play that allow players to jump to various levels, get unlimited ammunition or become invincible.
Walsh called on the video- game rating group, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), to increase the game's rating from M, for mature audiences ages 17 and older, to AO, for adults only or those 18 and older.
Walsh also called on Rockstar Games to disclose what measures it is taking to alert the public. "We want to know what role they've had in the production and distribution of these pornographic scenes," he said.
In a statement issued Friday, Rockstar Games said: "We thoroughly support the work of the ESRB and believe that it has an exemplary record of rating games and promoting understanding of video game content. We also feel confident that the investigation will uphold the original rating of the game, as the work of the mod community is beyond the scope of either publishers or the ESRB."
Dawn Bryant, a Best Buy spokeswoman, said that the chain does not carry video games that are rated AO and that it checks the identification of customers who are buying the M-rated games. She didn't know if the chain would pull the game from its shelves.
Walsh said that the institute has long believed that the "Grand Theft Auto" games should be given an AO rating because of "the violence, gore and brutal treatment of women" in the games. But the scenes available through the modification raise this to a new level, he said.
"There are some in the video game industry who keep pushing the envelope," he said, adding that parents need to push back when the industry crosses the line of decency.
July 9, 2005
Think Lara Croft is as sexy as a video game gets?
Think again.
A Minnesota organization issued a nationwide parental alert Friday about the video game, "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," claiming that it contains hidden pornography. A modification can be downloaded from the Internet that allows players to see female characters naked, and show a male and female character engaged in various graphic sexual positions.
It's the first time the group, the National Institute on Media and the Family, has issued a national warning to parents and retailers about a video game.
Now, the group that rates video games has started an investigation.
"By anyone's reckoning, these scenes qualify as pornography," David Walsh, the institute's founder and president, said at a news conference Friday in Minneapolis.
He said the benefit of alerting parents outweighed the risk of exposing more kids to the changes. "My guess is that very few parents know about this. Kids get this information all the time."
It wasn't clear whether the content originated with the game or with the modification. The game's publisher, Rockstar Games, wouldn't say.
The sex scene in the game is commonly known, was allegedly unleashed by a game enthusiast from the Netherlands who hosts a "modding," or modification, site. The modification, called the Hot Coffee Mod V2.1, has been available on websites related to the game since June 9. The name comes from the minigames in which scantily clad animated women invite the game's heroes to have coffee after dates.
The mod's author -- Patrick Wildenborg of Deventer, Netherlands -- said that his code merely unlocks content that is already in the game.
"If Rockstar Games denies that, then they're lying and I will be able to prove that," Wildenborg, 36, wrote in an e-mail to the Associated Press. "My mod does not introduce anything to the game. All the content that is shown was already present on the DVD."
Game designers have long tucked hidden elements in their work, some meant to be found, others not. Gaming magazines print codes that can be entered during game play that allow players to jump to various levels, get unlimited ammunition or become invincible.
Walsh called on the video- game rating group, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), to increase the game's rating from M, for mature audiences ages 17 and older, to AO, for adults only or those 18 and older.
Walsh also called on Rockstar Games to disclose what measures it is taking to alert the public. "We want to know what role they've had in the production and distribution of these pornographic scenes," he said.
In a statement issued Friday, Rockstar Games said: "We thoroughly support the work of the ESRB and believe that it has an exemplary record of rating games and promoting understanding of video game content. We also feel confident that the investigation will uphold the original rating of the game, as the work of the mod community is beyond the scope of either publishers or the ESRB."
Dawn Bryant, a Best Buy spokeswoman, said that the chain does not carry video games that are rated AO and that it checks the identification of customers who are buying the M-rated games. She didn't know if the chain would pull the game from its shelves.
Walsh said that the institute has long believed that the "Grand Theft Auto" games should be given an AO rating because of "the violence, gore and brutal treatment of women" in the games. But the scenes available through the modification raise this to a new level, he said.
"There are some in the video game industry who keep pushing the envelope," he said, adding that parents need to push back when the industry crosses the line of decency.
