Rockstar is going to Washington

[Shakermaker]

According to Gamespot the Federal Trade Commission of the US Congres will start an inquiry into Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The commisision will try to determine if take-Two Interactive and its publishing subsidiary Rockstar Games deceived the voluntary Entertainment Software Ratings Board when it submitted Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

The vote, coming on the eve of a five-week recess in Congress, means that Rockstar will now come under scrutiny by the federal government. It also raises the possibility that there could be a penalty imposed if the investigation finds that the publisher committed fraud in obtaining the M rating for San Andreas.

 

[Lucid]

Jesus...
Could this be the end of Rockstar?

 

[Ikerous]

Jesus...
Could this be the end of Rockstar?

Considering they didn't do anything wrong.. No.

 

[TechnoHippyChic]

Sigh. Yeah, this is really what congress needs to worry about...

 

[ray_MAN]

I swear if the feds ever come to my house concerning piracy (which I would never do, mind you) I would say, "Shouldn't you be worrying about terrorists, rather than a 15 year old kid who downloaded a few items?"
How is putting a rating on a game considered fraud?

 

[KagePrototype]

Moved.

 

[Murray_H]

How is putting a rating on a game considered fraud?

I think the logic is that by having something as AO = less sales than something as M, hide back the AO content -> M -> more revenue through deception = fraud

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

it's almost scary how crazy people are getting over something so stupid... doesn't washington have countries to bomb. But Rockstar is handling this like dumbasses so if they die so be it.. good riddance because they blamed the mod community. You put the content in the game so it's your own damn fault.. they know if there was content hidden from the public it would be unvieled at some point.. especially with the amount of copies sold, it's there own damn fault that all this is happening.

to hell with rockstar (lying corperate bastards)
to hell with the feds (having nothing more important to do)

I hate how in the country I was born and raised in it's ok to rip peoples heads off, beat up women and spray innocent pedestrians with bullets in the media.. but as son as sex comes up it becomes a legal issue. In fact it makes me sick.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

I swear if the feds ever come to my house concerning piracy (which I would never do, mind you) I would say, "Shouldn't you be worrying about terrorists, rather than a 15 year old kid who downloaded a few items?"

And you would be wrong saying that. CIA deal with the Terrorists, FBI helps every once in awhile but its mainly CIA. So they'd be worrying about you and piracy, I mean look at Razor1911, FBI took them down, so obvious their clients care.

 

[jdufault]

Good point Disturbed, the two different goverment orgonizations do different things, but I think what he really means is that.... Why is the goverment at all worried about something as unimportant to them as game piracy, when they have terrorists to worry about.

I suppose thats why they have different groups of people doing differnt things, but shouldnt they re-alocate their resources, and use more for terrorists, and less for 12 year olds in their basements downloading games...


On topic, this whole story has gone way too far, who the hell cares about san andreas anymore. For ****s sake, give it a rest people [the anti-game activists and courts]. I heard the other day they are trying to get Sims 2 to AO rating, because there is a "3rd Party" app that lets you take off the blurry aura.

Its sad what america is worrying about today, 2000 people lose their lives to attacks on this country, and we have these rum dums wasteing air worrying about video games. I say we send them to war, we are wasting too many correct brains out there, and not enough assholes who are taking advantage of america to win settlements over idiotic claims.

I will stop ranting now, but you have to see where im coming from.

 

[SidewinderX]

it's almost scary how crazy people are getting over something so stupid... doesn't washington have countries to bomb. But Rockstar is handling this like dumbasses so if they die so be it.. good riddance because they blamed the mod community. You put the content in the game so it's your own damn fault.. they know if there was content hidden from the public it would be unvieled at some point.. especially with the amount of copies sold, it's there own damn fault that all this is happening.

to hell with rockstar (lying corperate bastards)
to hell with the feds (having nothing more important to do)

I hate how in the country I was born and raised in it's ok to rip peoples heads off, beat up women and spray innocent pedestrians with bullets in the media.. but as son as sex comes up it becomes a legal issue. In fact it makes me sick.

I agree. This whole mess is Rockstar's own damn fault. I feel no sympathy for whatever happens to them.

 

[BlindTelepath]

I bloody hate this ****ing society.

 

[Baal]

People blame rockstar, but aren't they just the publisher? Just like Vivendi with Half-Life 2?

Sure, Rockstar is at their will, and right to check out the game before they give it their stamp of approval, but really it's Take-Two's problem, they decieved Rockstar with this information.

If it took this long for it to reach the public, how can Rockstar be expected to find this little bit of code embedded inside the game, in only a few weeks (or days) of play testing before it gets ready for shipping?

Take-Two is getting the screw over here, not Rockstar.

OR, it could be the complete opposite, and I'm 100% wrong about who publishes what.

 

[Burn]

 

[TwwIX]

I agree.
It's definitely Rockstar's fault but this is getting ridicoulus.
I've honestly lost all my faith in our Government.
Instead of focusing on and resolving the current global issues that are affecting all our lives they rather rant about stupid crap like gay marriage,abortion, the Terry Schiavo fiasco and now this shit.
Meanwhile the world's starting to melt,hundreds of thousands of people are dying of tsunamis,hunger and war.We even managed to piss off most of the population of this world,especially the Islamic Society.
So here we have our politicians go

"how can we **** up even more?"

"Hmm...we shall conduct a crusade!"

"Sir, that could to lead to a Holy War..."

"As long as it doesn't include any nudetitty like in them games,
is fine with me"

 

[Shakermaker]

"how can we **** up even more"

"Hmm...we shall conduct a crusade"!?

"Sir, that could to lead to a Holy War.."

"Hmm...as long as it doesn't include any nudetitty like in them games,
is fine with me"

heheheh, funny.

 

[Asknoone]

It is obviously Rockstars fault, and they did lie - so therefore they deserve the punishment however the government really are making a big deal out of something not really worthy of a big deal.

Meh. /Samon throws rotten tomato's at both.

 

[MiccyNarc]

Jesus...
Could this be the end of Rockstar?

No, this just means they will sell more copies due to more publicity, and the government loses.

 

[Dekstar]

I think the logic is that by having something as AO = less sales than something as M, hide back the AO content -> M -> more revenue through deception = fraud

Well their parents are still going to buy it either way :upstare:

 

[poseyjmac]

I agree.
It's definitely Rockstar's fault but this is getting ridicoulus.
I've honestly lost all my faith in our Government.
Instead of focusing on and resolving the current global issues that are affecting all our lives they rather rant about stupid crap like gay marriage,abortion, the Terry Schiavo fiasco and now this shit.
Meanwhile the world's starting to melt,hundreds of thousands of people are dying of tsunamis,hunger and war.We even managed to piss off most of the population of this world,especially the Islamic Society.

Ok, so you'd prefer a military draft then. then every qualified man would be fighting terrorism in one way or another, protecting the country.

really, this is one of the stupidest, short-sighted, and uneducated things ive read on the internet. do you really want the gov't to just 'allocate people' to fight terrorism? would you object if they allocated YOU?

and also, some of you have this child-like mentality that the more men you throw at a problem, the faster the problem will be resolved, but you need to open your eyes and realize thats not how the world works. for christ sakes. you probably think if all the game developers got together in a room, they would make the BEST GAME EVAR!

 

[Shakermaker]

Ok, so you'd prefer a military draft then. then every qualified man would be fighting terrorism in one way or another, protecting the country.

really, this is one of the stupidest, short-sighted, and uneducated things ive read on the internet. do you really want the gov't to just 'allocate people' to fight terrorism? would you object if they allocated YOU?

and also, some of you have this child-like mentality that the more men you throw at a problem, the faster the problem will be resolved, but you need to open your eyes and realize thats not how the world works. for christ sakes. you probably think if all the game developers got together in a room, they would make the BEST GAME EVAR!

First, you're getting way off topic.

Second, where did you get the idea TwwIX is in favour of a military draft? His point is: why do politicians keep bickering about stuff that really doesn't matter -like the hot coffee mod- when there is a world of problems out there?

 

[Eios]

Rockstar handled this in the worst possible way, they dug there own grave.

(this is babyheadcrab on Eios's computer)

 

[gh0st]

i agree bhc, why you people are mad at the government for investigating fraud is beyond me. they are setting the important precedent that you cannot put this shit in the game and still expect it to get a lower rating.

 

[Sui]

ACtually, there's so much extra content in games that makes the final cut. There are test levels in Zelda that can be acessed with "Xplosive" codes, which were never meant to be found, as in most games. The whole reason they don't take any of this test / cut material from the game is because then they'd have to spend weeks re-organising the disc before it went into production.

Mind you, there's no excuse for why it wasn't removed from the PC game. They had months to get rid of it, and they didn't, so they're paying for their lazyness. Personally I don't think Rockstar should be punished though, because sex, rape, murder and a whole lot of other crimes are flashed about all through the game, and I don't think a pair of boobs can possibly make the game any worse.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

No, this just means they will sell more copies due to more publicity, and the government loses.

Yes, how silly of me... I'll run to Best Buy right now to pick up a copy!

Whoops, they don't sell AO rated games... Neither does a LOT of the major places people go to shop... Walmart, Gamestop, EB Games, Wal Mart, Target, etc etc

Good luck for the average consumer finding it... Ebay is the only option that I can think of...

Oh, and who the hell thought of having sex as part of the game? Seroiusly, they started this whole mess and are just causing tons of sh*t in society... For example, there's been rumors that the ESRB is now holding the developer/publisher responsible for all user-created mod's out there... So now, if the devs are responsible for anything the user creates with their product, who would want to give them the tools to openly mod the game? I really want to hear VALVe's opinion on this...

I'm sick of all this sh*t that's been going around... Our gov't is all pissed because there's a sex scene in the game... I say the ESRB slaps an AO rating on the game, like they've done, and let that be the end of it... But no, we got Mrs. Clinton who got cheated on PMS'ing over this whole god d*mn thing... Then we got Jack Thompson who is laughing is ass off because now is his time to shine when he can try to ban video games forever....

I say us gamers break off, form our own country, and say to hell with the rest of the world and these f*cked up rules....


/major rant

 

[Jintor]

*agrees with above rant, especially the bit about breaking off and forming own country*

 

[Sui]

I actually think that would be a great idea. Then all those wusses would be completely stuck when they needed their computers fixed, or their emails sorted out!!!

The country would be a giant, floating island made out of gleaming metal and held aloft by stolen army Aircraft Carriers.

We'd have different sections to the country... "fanboy dump", where all the bitching Halo fans and CS noobs get dumped along with our waste products... "Consoleville", where all the controller- fans go to have massive 4 player tournaments on giant plasma screens... there's be "repair haven", where people would take their broken down consoles and / or PCs to be repaired, or buy new parts that have been obtained directly from hardware manufacturers... oh, and don't forget "PC Land" where there's a constant, 24/7 Lan with luxury beds next to each computer. In the middle would be a giant transmitter, the biggest Wireless Router in the world. There's also be a small luxury haven called "pro", where all the really amazing players have torunaments all day, and everyone else gets to watch in amazing viewing rooms.

Of course, we'd have huge anti-aircraft gins all around the city, just incase america want their stolen stuff back. We'd also have tons of submarines to stop an invasion by sea. The aircraft carriers can be used to drive us around the ocean, so we can "dock" with countries and repair all their PCs in exchange for food, booze and clean clothes (and we'd secretly dump all the fanboys into their contry before they became contageous).

The currency would be "frags", which are directly converted from RPG gold, FPS kills or hours spent without sleep. The most hardcore gamers would live in amazing, luxury apartments with tons of uber PCs, while the casual gamers live in huts with a decent PC and a console or two. Fanboys have to sleep in piles of steaming shit, and are whipped from day until night.

 

[Cole]

but as son as sex comes up it becomes a legal issue. In fact it makes me sick.

This statement is the best statement IN THE WORLD.
Infact South Park HAD THE BEST EPISODE IN THE WORLD ABOUT THIS.

It was the Episode where they made fun of JAPAN!.....and had alot of JAPAN ANIMATION.
Lets put it like this:
Kids buy ninja weapons.
Kids mess around with ninja weapons and roleplay with other friends.
Kenny throws a star and hits butters in the eye.
*Goes out of Japan view*
*You laugh like a mother ****er*
Then eventually near the end of the movie they needed to sneak past there parents on the stage. Cartman is roleplaying...says he is invisible...strips his cloths....goes down the stage....everyone see him..

At the end of the movie it shows the town committie all talking. At first it sounds like there talking about butters getting a star stuck in his eye...then you find out NO ONE CARES TAHT BUTTERS GOT A STAR IN HIS EYE AND ALMOST DIED...BUT THAT CARTMAN WAS NAKED UP ON STAGE.

Extremely funny episode...

 

[MiccyNarc]

Whoops, they don't sell AO rated games... Neither does a LOT of the major places people go to shop... Walmart, Gamestop, EB Games, Wal Mart, Target, etc etc

I'm betting most game shops will change their policy after this
Just a hunch.

 

[Sui]

Minrel, I've seen that, it's the funniest thing I've EVER WATCHED. I was in stitches.

 

[Moto]

Maddox says it best:

I want to shoot people in the face, bang prostitutes, traffic drugs, steal cars, and terrorize police officers without this filthy smut in my game. Frankly, I'm appalled that Rockstar would allow such wholesale corruption of our youth. Years from now when America has become a withered husk of the morality it once stood for, historians will look back at what triggered it all and point to one event: a boolean variable that unlocked a simulated sex scene in a video game.