San Andreas sex-scene mod has watchdog group barking; Dutch hacker unmasked -- claims his patch only unlocks what was already in the code.
In Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, gamers can play basketball, play pool, dance, grab some fast food, buy clothes, work out at the gym, base jump, have girlfriends, and race remote-controlled cars -- all completely legal activities in the real world. However, the game's main character can also shoot innocent bystanders, stomp the heads of prostitutes into a bloody pulp, and launch rocket-propelled grenades at police helicopters -- all decidedly illegal outside the realm of gaming.
But it's a new downloadable modification that can unlock sexually explicit minigames that the US-based National Institute on Media and the Family says has pushed the game "over the edge."
The Minneapolis-based watchdog group, founded by Dr. David Walsh, previously decried the game for its glorification of cop-killing with an online petition. Now the group is issuing a National Parental Warning for the game, giving concerned mothers and fathers a heads-up that their children could be playing with their joysticks in an inappropriate way.
The National Institute on Media and the Family joins an already active debate on the game, its content, and the appropriateness of its current M rating.
Rumours of the boot-knockin' romps first surfaced when a modder discovered unused code in the PlayStation 2 version while snooping around a hacked version of the game. PlayStation 2s aren't very hacker-friendly, so the minigames remained largely a part of lore among the game's fans.
PCs, on the other hand, are very susceptible to hacking, and within a week of San Andreas' release on the platform, a mod that went by the moniker "Hot Coffee" was released on the Internet. Now widely reported in the Associated Press and other outlets, the mod was authored by 36-year-old Patrick Wildenborg, a Dutch gamer and a member of the modder community, those computer users who alter a game's programming for creative purposes, often adding new character "skins," altering weapons, or adding new items as aspiring game developers.
The retail release of the game does allow for the game's protagonist, CJ, to indulge in blatantly sexual activity with his girlfriends -- any in-game activity of that sort takes place behind closed doors and is merely accompanied by suggestive sounds. The Hot Coffee mod lets gamers into the bedroom to watch CJ get in flagrante delicto with a lady and even have control over the participants' actions.
Wildenborg insists that the X-rated code is already in the game and that all his patch does is bypass the game's "censor flags." Rockstar has remained largely quiet on the situation, but a representative from the company say that the explicit code was not inserted by Rockstar or its agents in the retail discs. Attempts to reach Wildenborg by e-mail for comment were unanswered as of press time.
Meanwhile, Walsh, author of the teenage psychology book Why Do They Act That Way?, is asking Rockstar to fess up. In his organisation's National Parental Warning, Walsh pleads, "We are calling upon Rockstar Games to come clean with the ESRB, the nation's retailers, and especially America's parents. What is your involvement in the production and distribution of pornographic content in your game? What do you know about the 'Hot Coffee' scenes, and what are you doing to inform the public?"
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LordSmada
15/07/2005 07:48 AM
I can understand the anger over GTA's new modification. However, it's just that, an optional modification that Rockstar Games disabled in the game before final release. Is it the company's fault that they didn't delete the content. Perhaps, however anyone with enough know-how and computing skills can turn any game bad. Have you ever heard of a game called Wolfenstein 3D? Well back in the day before GTA, someone came out with a modification that turned a controversial game like that, into a pornographic Nazi shoot-em up. Why does the government feel the need to continually try to mediate what parents need to be responsible for. If you have a child who downloads the hot coffee mod, perhaps you need to download Net Nanny or Net Sister or some other cyber blocker to keep them off the net when you're not home. Rockstar games allowed coding to stay in a game and as in their terms of service, de-engineering of said coding is a violation of the conditions of proper usage of the game. If someone decides to decipher the code and release a mod or add-on pack. Rockstar games can not be legally held responsible. Is our society and culture so caught up in our own lives that we have to point fingers and complain about anything that we can find different from our own views instantaneously just to join the bandwagon of the media and government? At least research what's going on. And for god's sake, Hilary, for someone who's family values is easily questionable... try to sort out your own life before trying to blame an innocent company for the decision to keep someone's hard work in the company. If companies can be sued and blamed for modification packs that independent users and programers create for their core systems, then should companies like Blizzard be held responsible for mature content in Starcraft and Warcraft mods? I think not.
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Capattac
16/07/2005 03:57 AM
Before attacking RockStar for ANY game content, or any other publisher for that matter, consider the goverments involvement in our "skools" with all the hot topic sexual education cl****es being taught around the country in our "public" schools. My tax dollars do not fund a persons entertainment budget. I would like the congressmen to pay less attention to what is a PARENTS responsiblity and more attention to what they DO have control over. The ESRB does a fine job and will continue do to so. We as a nation we must stop being blamers....Take responsability for our own actions. WE DO HAVE A CHOICE...RIGHT?
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ggman
17/07/2005 01:22 PM
Somebody has too much time on their hands. If parents would care what their kids were doing and stop worrying about themselves, they would be able to monitor what their kids are watching and playing. How about all of the kids in this country that don't have food to eat everynight? How about worrying about the kids that have to endure seeing their mother getting beaten by some lunatic. Bottom line is make parents take some responsibility for what their kids are doing. Obviously there is an adult market out there for video games. The game itself costs 49.99, I never had that kind of money until I graduated high school. Get over it and do something to help the kids that are really in danger. The ones that are starving and abused on a regular basis.
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Ryan
22/09/2005 08:59 AM
No offence, but any parent stupid enough to buy this ****ing game for there children deserve the blame. You are told before buying it that it is rated mature, and you NEED a person over 17 to buy it. So now you guys want it rated "adluts only" HUGE I mean Huge difference between "mature" and "adults only" eh? One year, mature is 17 plus, Adults Only is 18 plus. Are you parents retarded? ****, its your falt your child has it, Rock star is not to blame YOU ARE! Oh and by the way, isnt hot coffee a MOD that some worthless tard made and sent to his friends?(A MOD is a modification that anybody can do if he knows his/her stuff). Jesus you parents are idiots. "Lets blame rockstar for making the sex sceen that somne idiot made that is not even working at rock star, then we will blame then for making us buy it!" Do you guys/girls like to push the blame on other people? Grow up. Throw the game out, then stop ****ing. You parents Have to buy it for them! And if your kid is 17 and still living with you and your concern about the porn, well if he can download the patch, he probally goes and watch's porn to! Jesus, you guys are ****ing about this when there is TONS of free porn sites. Get a life. Oh, and dont try to threaten me with ****.
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kbbbb
02/12/2005 12:56 AM
I love many of the features in teh GTA series. I wo't name which ones but I can say, I don't like this one. As a female, I don't mind seeing bikini-clad women on the streets, or paying prostitutes then killing them. But this mod goes too far and just plain distasteful. The T-shirt one of the women is wearing is gross. The idea of having a mini-game to have sex and having multiple girlfriends who can each be manipulated along long enough to have sex is just wrong. To me it just objectifies women and relationships in a very unflattering way, similar to the way the Footballers (AFL and League) were accused of treating women about a year ago- placing expectations on women that they're all the same and 'into that'. Rockstar seem to know when to draw the line, and their line was right BEFORE the 'mod' was discovered. I've seen enough screenshots along the way of looking up news on this issue to know I don't want to patch my PC San Andreas.
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Lineswine
01/01/2007 12:26 PM
Typical of America...saying that the violence within the game is OK, but you can't show sex. Witness the furore at the Superbowl - perfectly acceptable for kids to see 250lb. musclebound "athletes" knock 7 bells out each other, but completely abhorrent of Janet Jackson exposing a breast, pastie not withstanding. It would seem that it is Ok to kill people, but consenting adults (or in this case, pixels) NOT hurting anyone is a BAD thing. No wonder the USA is so farked up!
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