The Cybercast News Service, a conservative site, claims in a report published this morning that best-selling Xbox 360 title Mass Effect contains "explicitly graphic sexual intercourse."
The charge seems to be based on a well-known episode in the game in which there is a romantic liaison between the player's character and an NPC. However, in our view, it's quite a stretch to describe what appears onscreen as explicitly graphic sexual intercourse, which generally denotes hard core pornography.
Mass Effect is far from that.
However, a lawyer (no, not that lawyer) quoted in the article specifically refers to the game as porn. From the CNS piece:
The game is "clearly marketed to minors," Cathy Ruse, a lawyer and senior fellow for legal studies at the Family Research Council, told Cybercast News Service.
"There are cultural implications for feeding porn to kids in this way," ...Ruse said.
In describing the scene, CNS writes:
The playable character can become romantically involved... This storyline culminates in a cutscene in which the characters copulate in full digital nudity.
The article also quotes Bob Waliszewki, described as a media specialist with Focus on the Family. Waliszewki seems especially troubled by the fact that two women are involved in the love scene:
Unfortunately, Mass Effect... even goes so far as to allow homosexuality to be on par with heterosexuality and heterosexuality outside of its proper context of marriage.
Attorney Ruse also painted the love scene in the game as porn in the legal sense:
Most states have what's called 'Harmful to Minors' laws on the books that say that selling sexual material that a jury would deem 'patently offensive to minors, which lacks literary, artistic, political or scientific value.' ... might be prosecutable.
We need state and local prosecutors with spines and backbones to prosecute some of these companies that are violating the law.
Regarding CyberCast News Service, SourceWatch reports that:
Cybercast News Service (CNS) is a subsidiary of the conservative news monitoring group, the Media Research Center (MRC)...
Media Research Center Inc. is a conservative media watchdog group run by president and founder Brent Bozell. The Center... is funded by larger right-wing foundations...
Brent Bozell is also the founder of the Parents Television Council.
Here's the video. Do you find it to be "explicitly graphic sexual intercourse?"
Comments
Re: Conservative Site Charges "Explicitly Graphic Sexual
Fox News...
Yet another reason to become a hermit.
i think that this article is irrelevant. this game isn't marketed at minors, and any responsible parent would consider carefully before letting a child play this game.
Just how many games handle this kind of situation this tastefully? Or for that matter, AT ALL?
You want gratuitous sex in a video game? Play your cards right in Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecies for you Yanks) and you get two or three sex scenes, including one that you use the controller in. Of course, I think it was cut in the American version but still, this is like the foreplay to that scene.
I was waiting for the sex to start. There was no real nudity!
Besides that, how much longer are these shills going to pretend that the ESRB rating doesn't exist on the box?
I'll be glad when people finally start leaving the job of parenting to the parents.
"this game is bad, I can't play it right, I must be doing something wrong OHMYGODBLUEBOOBIES! I can get them in trouble for this, that will show bioware for making games that I suck on!"
or not...
Conservatives need to QQ more.
Clearly marketed to minors?
1) ESRB rating
2) The word "game" does not exclusively mean "for children". You wouldn't get that stupid over the use of the word in reference to gambling, nor if "drinking games" were mentioned, so why here? Grow up.
Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes,
Violence
" The game is “clearly marketed to minors,” Cathy Ruse, a lawyer and senior fellow for legal studies at the Family Research Council, told Cybercast News Service.
“There are cultural implications for feeding porn to kids in this way,” …Ruse said."
Its being marketed to minors? Oh yeah, every video is marketed to minors because video games are for kids. Duhhh. *Rolls eyes*
"Most states have what’s called ‘Harmful to Minors’ laws on the books that say that selling sexual material that a jury would deem ‘patently offensive to minors, which lacks literary, artistic, political or scientific value.’ … might be prosecutable."
I don't think a minor can buy Mass Effect.
And yeah, that video clip is something that should be expected from a game that is rated "M". Sorry, but when I hear\see "Rated M for mature" how is it marketed towards minors? If the parents are going to let a game like this into their house, that's their own problem. End of story.
Also "clearly marketed to children"? What the hell? The person make these claims seriously needs a punch in the mouth for just being lying piece of garbage.
It would be nice if these assholes with the word "research" in their group's name would actually do, you know, research.
I let my 13-year-old play *selected* M-rated games. I'm fucked in the head? I've raised the kid, I know the kid, and I understand what he can handle and what he can't (we've watched films like "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List" together). The rating system by the ESRB is a *guideline* and particularly useful for non-gaming parents. For those of us who DO game, however, it's just a starting point. Why is the game rated M? For shooting zombies in the head or electrocuting genetically mutated crazies? Since there are no zombies, and he's never likely to be able to electrocute anyone (crazy or not) by merely pointing his hand at them, and he realizes this, I don't think I've got a whole lot to worry about. Perhaps I should make him drop his marital arts class as well? This is a kid who let himself get get "shot" during a game of laser tag so he could go help a 6-year-old pick up a handful of tokens he'd dropped and reads to his baby brother every day.
I'm not being defensive, just making a point. Because my young son plays the occasional M-rated game doesn't make me a bad parent any more than it turns him into a violence-prone degenerate.
Oh, and as for the clip - the damn thing is so dark you can barely see what's going on. Of course, this is out of context too - I'm sure if you know the story, you know what's going on. Would I let him play Mass Effect? No, if for no other reason than we don't have a 360. If we did, though, I'd ask his 25-year-old brother if HE thought it was appropriate (and he's often more strict than I am about these things - he advised me to wait till the kid is at least 14 before I let him watch "Akira.").
Meh.
The fact this article quotes him shows how off base or fanatical he is. Just look at www.pluggedinonline.com and see how they review movies, music, and games. They even had an article once that was titled "Halo 2: Save the world; lose your soul." The actual article wasn't as crazy as the title implies, but that's the public base they appeal to. Also, their music reviews can be borderline racist when they review rap (in the fact it seems the reviewer is more vitriolic than when he reviews Manson), and in movies anything morally short of veggietales is deemed unacceptable.
Sorry, I'll stop ranting about this particular organization. It just incensed me when I read the name as some sort of moral authority. I'll just end with this: Post-9/11, they still have more anti homosexual articles than terrorist ones.
Mass Effect is an awesome game, too. There's nothing "explicit" in the game, it's rated M, and it's not marketed to minors.
And I've seen worse in a Bond movie. But right, Bond blasts those evil atheist commies. My mistake.
"Conservatives need to QQ more."
Okay, broad, sweeping generalizations don't help anywhere. I happen to be a conservative and a republican (not really interested if anyone likes that or not), but I happen to disagree with just about everything the article author wrote (his general sentence structure was okay, I can agree with that). He is a moron, one that is even more zealously pathetic than Jack Thompson - at least Jack knows violence when he sees it, this guy can't recognize 'full nudity'.
a) Bioware sue them for libel
b) they sure bioware for the nudity, which is practically an unwinable case (the scene can easily be seen as artistic)
Hello
Your article “Sex in Video Game Makes Waves Through Industry”, is apparently attempting to point out that sexuality is now making its way into games.
First let me start by saying that I am a 32 year old father of 3 (like the demographics of current gamers in your article). Gaming has been my hobby since the introduction of the Atari 2600. As I have grown the market has grown with me to offer games to adults who have stayed with the hobby over the years. Games have introduced more mature subject matter (like graduating from cartoons as a kid to more serious films as an adult). These games are clearly rated as M for Mature and as such is not marketed to minors (as claimed in your article) as this rating indicates it is for those 17 and older.
Now specifically to Mass Effect (which is far from the first game to have sexuality in it), you do state the game’s rating as being M, therefore it is meant for a mature customer base. But you continue to characterize it as being targeted to children throughout the piece, while at the same time admitting that “the average game player is 33 years old and has been playing games for 12 years”. What you don’t mention is how small of a percentage M rated games are as compared to games rated Teen and lower.
I own Mass Effect I have played through it and have seen the love scene (which is totally optional and avoidable). And that is how I would describe it as a “Love Scene” because it is certainly not “explicitly graphic sexual intercourse” or “graphic sexual material“. Those statements are false which makes me wonder if you have even played the game. The scene is the equivalent of a PG or perhaps PG-13 love scene in films from the 1980’s. I agree that it is inappropriate for children, that’s why I don’t allow my children to see it. It’s not for them anyway. But for it to be said that “They (Bioware) don't care about what they're doing to kids” and that “They're making money at the expense of children in America” is reprehensible. The game is made for adults, it’s like saying wine makers don’t care about underage drinking. So what now, I can’t have a glass of wine, I can’t have other things tailored to my age because some child might get a hold of it?
You need to look at the real customers for videogames today and stop looking at games as toys for children and start looking at them as entertainment like films. They have grown. They are called games because they are interactive, not because they are for children. Perhaps then there will no longer be this reflexive over reaction in the future.
They should spend less time watching FULL DIGITAL PORN and more time learning to write properly.
Personally, though, I'd also love to point out that nothing rated M is "Marketed to minors". It's Marketed to adults, and minors just happen to look at the Marketing.
So then, to them: Shut the hell up and find a new media to bash you misanthropic imbeciles.
In one chapter he talks about the christian right and it's unlikely marriage with postmodernism; the emphasis on creating a 'narrative' than actual truth.
Really, anyone here who is arguing that the facts are wrong is missing the point...
It's not about the truth, it's about the story. It could be an innocent disney game that supposedly had full-frontal nudity, it doesn't matter. It's all about constructing the reality they want to construct.
It reminds me of that famous quote from one of Bush's aides:
"[you're] in what we call the reality-based community... we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
John Bruce isn't any better. He was the one who claimed that Bully contained homosexual sex. The most sexual content is a kiss between boys.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Though I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they learn that fact and try to pass it off as inter-species sex instead...
"Mass Effect teaches children to have sex with bears!"
It doesn't change the fact that manipulative twits like them - Bush's aides and Cathy Ruse - deserve to be exposed for being the big liars they are.
A lie is a lie - they're just making excuses for their actions. Actions that should be punished with brutal intensity.
1) Claiming an "M" rated is market towards minors, thus stereotyping all video games as kid stuff.
2) Grossly exaggerating the actual game content to make it seem controversial. (i.e: "Explicity Graphic Sexual Intercourse")
3) A minor detail, but they left out how the game got un-banned in Singapore after a day
4) Demonization of a video game company "BIOWARE IS OUT TO MAKE MONEY NOT CARING THAT THEY MENTALLY SCREW CHILDREN"
5) An undertone of fear against homosexuality (which if you think about it, contradicts the article's initial charge of "sexual intercourse")
6) Conservative source.
We have a winner!
Seriously, this is the exact same thing that the Religious Right did with homosexuality. It's different, thus is must be wrong, cherry pick six verses from scripture that might refer to homosexuality, ignoring the rest, and declare homosexuality a threat and if you really want to stop it you'll tithe half your income to our organization.
Because James Dobson really needs a new boat. That's what I got out of the article. You guys?
yeah, but the argument is that picking holes in their stories doesn't ever seem to do them any damage and often simply reinforces the belief of those who are taken in by their 'narrative'.
i wasn't saying that they should be left to their own devices but simply attempting to understand their mindset when they talk such utter bullshit. it's hard to fight the irrational with rationality which is what most people try to do.
They're just busy spinning their reality with all it's moral outrage and don't really care whether it's true or not or whether a minority might know they're lying. After all pointing out that the game is an M just seems to most people like arguing-the-toss over what colour jumper someone was wearing yesterday, especially when there's the more important issue of the corrosion of family values to worry about.
you can't fight that by arguing over the details.
the industry needs to come up with it's own stories to feed the public :)
"3) A minor detail, but they left out how the game got un-banned in Singapore after a day"
They did mention it was unbanned with the sentance "The game is rated "M" for mature, as are many video games, and was banned in Singapore last year, though the decision was later reversed"
All you see is some kissing and a couple asses. You don't even see any tits.
Has anyone seen some of the sex scenes in film these days? You can show thrusting, moaning, breasts, even genitals in some cases. Funny how they're not complaining about that.