If you think that the political fallout from Hot Coffee is fading, think again.
The GTA San Andreas scandal not only continues to be a public relations thorn in the side of the video game industry - it's also an inviting target for politicians.
Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) is no stranger to the Hot Coffee affair. In July, 2005, just as the publicity over the incident was peaking, Upton proposed a resolution in Congress ordering the Federal Trade Commission to look into Hot Coffee. The motion passed 355-21, leading to the FTC's June, 2006 report on the scandal.
Upton, however, was not pleased with the FTC's findings, saying:
"I guess I thought the FTC would have had some more teeth than they apparently have... I'm not at all happy... In essence there are no consequences. None... I would like to have thought that (Take-Two and Rockstar) would have been able to be fined for millions of dollars for the trash they put out across this country."
Upon finding out that the FTC has no such authority, Upton declared:
"I am going to be looking to write legislation giving the FTC the authority to impose civil penalties. I didn't know that they didn't have the authority."
Now, Upton has kept his promise, submitting H.R.6120, the Video Game Decency Act of 2006. The bill would make it illegal for a game company to fail to disclose content with the intent of gaining a less-restrictive ESRB rating.
Violations would be treated as "unfair or deceptive practices" under the rules that govern the FTC.
Fourteen colleagues have signed on as co-sponsors, including Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Joe Pitts (R-PA)
Comments
I got here a little late, I know, but I'd like to read that exchange.
riffraff1138 at yahoo dot com.
Heh, could you send that exchange to shroomofinsanity[at]gmail[dot]com. It would be greatly appreciated.
@the general arguement
We can go for days bickering over details, or we can all get off our lazy asses and send letters to Upton about this. He may not be as far gone as our beloved Thompson. He may treat us as adults if we treat him like one.
Unfortunately, I do not have his email, so if anyone would like to throw that out there, all the better.
Nayaz Trimycos,
--shroomofinsanity--
I was actually going to write him, but his website says he will only respond to letters from people who reside in the 6th District of Michigan, and he probably won't even read most of those.
I've mentioned this before, but I've been writing to all of GP's featured individuals and I seem to get the best response from the non-politicians, although it might have something to do with the midterm elections coming up.
- There was no way to access it except through Gameshark codes and modifying the data directly. Without a leak from Rockstar as to a) the existence of this feature and b) the means of enabling it, the likelihood of anyone figuring out how to access it was extremely small. As it turns out that did happen, but only because they released it on PC, where assets are easier to search and modify than on consoles.
- The feature was obviously incomplete and half-implemented. Anyone that saw the video or actually used the patches to enable hot coffee realizes that it was shoddy and can easily come to the conclusion that it wasn't intended for public consumption.
I work in game development, but not for Rockstar, and trust me... stuff like this happens all the time. Features are requested, prototyped, maybe even implemented... and then they're cut. Game development is very deadline driven. If a feature is cut, it tends to be cut in the quickest way possible that keeps as much other stuff working as possible. Sometimes this means the content is forgotten about and left on the disc. Sometimes it means that gameshark or other devices could be used to reenable it. I bet 70-80% of games have half-implemented features that it's possible to enable... obviously not all of them being this inflammatory.
There were problems with Hot Coffee when it happened, and there are problems with it today. The first problem is ignorance. Politicians and journalists really don't understand what happened or how it happened. Because of this we get people like Fred Upton up in arms over some percieved injustice against the nation's children.
The second problem is the ESRB. Due to the political pressure they were facing over Hot Coffee, they decided to re-rate it and in the process set a terrible precedent: that 3rd party modifications can affect your rating. They then re-rated Oblivion partially over the same precedent. A more correct solution would be to force the use of a disclaimer on packaging that use of cheat tools or 3rd party modifications could invalidate the rating much like the online play notice. Does this protect children? Not from parental ignorance, but hey ... neither does legislation or re-rating. Does it get the political pressure off the ESRB? Nope, but hey... neither did re-rating games.
Personally, as a game developer, I'd like to see the ESRB replaced with a different voluntary ratings board that has both a backbone and a good set of rating standards. A terrible precedent like the one the ESRB has introduced should not be allowed to stand. My greatest fear about all the stupid legislation flying around is that it will legitimatize the ESRB's place as a rating's body and make its removal even more difficult.
Like I said in the reply to your email; you win the internet for that smackdown. And it seems that Upton's claim to only care about mail from the 6th district is just so we won't all attack him with our alien "logic" and "facts" that his kind fear so much. It is the crucifix to their vampiric skin.
@Dan Olsen
Damn. That is a large chunk of text which translates, roughly, into "politicians lose." But seriously, I, while not employed at a game development company, have worked with programming for years and I know how much easier it is to just cut off access to a piece of the program than remove it and rewrite new code in its place. I have also had to write complex programs by very specific deadlines. Everything you say, from what I know to be true about the programming world, is correct.
Nayaz Trimycos,
–shroomofinsanity–
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,216886,00.html
"nothing the courts haven't shut down sir."
"no matter, hot coffee still works, facts are overrated."
omg, i hate hot coffee so much. they cant let it go.
if he is worried about the FTC having the authority to impose fines, why not support them doing this for all media, not just videogames? couldnt you (poorly) aruge that that scene in "The rescuers" was hidden to get a lower rating? oh, but thats not a problem, its not like that was marketed for kids or anything...unlike GTA which was obviously meant to sell to a young audience despite the big Mature rating on the cover. wtf do they think mature means anyway! IT MEANS MATURE! as in MATURE CONTENT! as in don't buy it for your 12-year-old!
@hayabusa
Really late, I know, but I'd like to see that exchange.
minddragon2002@yahoo.com
riddlinbunny@yahoo.com
but how can politicians focus on and say that video games influence children and not strike down on movies or books- they ignore the gamers vote. the reason: there isnt one- there arent enough gamers that realize all the politics involved in gaming nowadays- gone are the days where we only needed a bag of cheetos and our 12 pack of coke and we were set for the weekend. If they did the same thing with movies, music, and books there would be a public outcry- we need to get more gamers aware of whats going on with the government and gaming today and if we dont get more involved then by the time the next gen of games come out were gonna see a completely new, and definitely not better, world of video games...especially if hillary clinton gets into office- if anyone else has any comments on this go ahead and email me.
ZeroXPhoenix [at] gmail.com
As for Upton, thank you for proving more than once that relatively 99% of politicians are uneducated, grand standing idiots.
"I'm a gamer myself...I was an expert in Pong, that was a great game..bip, beep, bip bope.."
Ah yes, Mr. Upton. Clearly you are a gamer because you played freaking PONG. >_