And in other news, the sun rose in the east today.

Of course there is going to be controversy, everything Rockstar outs out gets attacked by all the self-appointed watchdog groups. I think someone even had a problem with Table Tennis.

This is what's going to happen; Jack and the Fruit Loop Brigade will release reports and pres releases about how awful GTA IV is without ever having played it. Much of what they say will be complete bollocks (of the "you get points for killing cops" variety, but also expect at least one "You can recreate 9-11" in there), but there wil be just enough truth that the mainstream media will latch onto it.

The medi will drag out Thompson and/or other members of the Fruit Loop Brigade to come on and talk about how awful this game (and games in general) are. If anyone who is pro-game is allowed a voice they will be picked for their inability to speak well, they will be mocked, or they will just not be allowed to speak. One has to remember that mainstream media dislikes video games since if you are playing a video game, you are probably not watching their network.

One or two stores, seeking to get in on that free press, will announce that they will not carry the game, but most stores will. The game will sell out pretty much everywhere on the first day, and the stores that so proudly trumpeted that they will not carry the game will quietly start carrying it once they realize how much they lost out on in sales.

same old same old.

Slow news day?

I don't blame him.

"I expect [controversy]..."

Uh, no shit.

"Thompson will, in the days and weeks ahead, be contacting state and federal officials to stop the improper sales of Grand Theft Auto IV to anyone under seventeen years of age…"

Good! the whole lever people are using on stopping video games is that they're being sold to unnacompanied children/teens below the recommended rating, which is against store policy.

if retailers can reach an acceptable level of enforcement (i personaly would like to see 95%+) then the 'protect the children' argument will be over, because we'll all be doing our part to ensure it, whilst not infringing on parental rights on the matter (hence my use of the word unaccompanied)

SSDD

@C'tri,

Quick question for you, why are games singled out? After all, the enforcement rating is dramatically higher than music and movies enforcement. Books have no enforcement. Why are retailers being painted as society corruptors because Lil Billy Sunovabitch got his hands on Devil May Cry from the bargain bins but nothing is said if same Billy bought a copy of American Psycho unchecked? I don't understand why video games are the least violent media out there yet the most attacked. I mean, between Billy playing a game where he is killing demons and reading a book where a yuppy rapes a severed head, I cannot for the life of me figure out why DMC is the more evil of the two.

But also let's put it this way. Parents, according to the FTC, are present for well over 90% of video game purchases for children 16 or younger. I worked retail, I know this to be true. Now, when you work retail, you get people angry when you point out game ratings. You're trying to raise their kid for them? How dare you, blah da fucking blah. Eventually cashiers and store clerks get to a point where they just give up on the warnings because of the headache. A 13 year old isn't going to have the $60 for GTA IV, his parent is. See Hot Coffee scandal. The sex portion was the part that made all these parents upset they bought this game for their preteenagers... EVIDENCE!

So as a society, I say fuck protecting the stupid. I'm tired of showing ID at Best Buy everytime I buy an M rated game. I'm nearly 30! And in the lane right next to me is another soccer mom too busy to look at the game she's buying her kid and Lil Billy Sunovabitch is pleased as punch his mother doesn't have the slightest clue what Soldier of Fortune is...

@Monkeyface

Rockstar's controversy's are a good and bad thing. On the good, it helps push boundaries. The medium is able to grow up because they are constantly proving more than children play games. On the bad, it makes them a target.

But when we have an MMO aiming to be the bloodiest MMO ever, Ninja Gaiden II showing sickening displays of dismemberment, and Soldier of Fortune perfecting their gore engine, do you REALLY think Rockstar leaving the industry would save us all controversy? Really?!? Look, for every Rockstar game you list, I can find you 10 worse games from the same era. In some ways, Rockstar diverts attention...

This just in...

Scuba divers said that they will get wet when they jump in the water.

News at eleven.

Thompson will, in the days and weeks ahead, be contacting state and federal officials to stop the improper sales of Grand Theft Auto IV to anyone under seventeen years of age…

That's provided of course he's got any semblance of legitimacy left with anyone, especially if he's disbarred!

[QUOTE]Rockstar is a huge publicity whore if one of their games dosent piss off jack they dont bother finishing it[/QUOTE]
Rockstar's Midnight Club series contradicts that statement.

Expect? They're relying on it.....

Well, we've all said this before, except this time they added one to the title. Word for word, outrage for outrage, this "controversy" will be the exact same as the ones before it for the other GTA's.

@sheppy
"After all, the enforcement rating is dramatically higher than music and movies enforcement."

Just because other media get a pass does not make it right... essentially all media should have good self-regulation, games, movies and so forth a like. Really, video games should continue their self-enforcement and other forms of media should follow them by example. Just because someone says video games should increase their self-enforcement does not automatically mean that they are fine with the current standard of other media... that's jumping to conclusions and putting words in their mouths

@sheppy

I've often wondered that about books myself. When I was in junior high I was already reading Stephen King novels like "Pet Sematary" and "It", both of which contain graphic content. I would go into stores and buy books like these and no one questioned it.

I have come to a couple conclusions about this;

1. We consider books to be somewhat sacred. With historical instances of censorship and book burnings, people are afraid of really speaking out against books in general.

2. This is the important one. I do not think your average Joe Gangbanger is a big reader. Reading is usually indicitive of some intelligence (IMO), and your average street thug is generally lacking in the brains department. I know this is a sweeping generalization, but it fits my expereicne with these types of people (some of the gangers around when I was in school would actually have trouble with the word "the").

BTW, I am not drawing the above generalization along any racial lines; stupid comes in every colour.

If Rockstar want to make controversial games, it's up to then, what I find so rib-achingly hilarious about this is that the main reason that this series makes so much money for them is thanks to censorious idiots such as Thompson and Clinton, if it hadn't been for their efforts, I suspect that GTA IV wouldn't have the level of media interest and advertising that it now has.

That's what is so damn funny, the censors are the cause, not the cure, and they're too far up their own self-importance to realise it.

That Dan Houser guy looks like Jimmy Hopkins (Bully) all grown up, lol. I wonder if he was the inspiration for the character's look.

If it's controversial it may be because of all the racist jokes and radio broadcasts. I've heard some insider tells which lead me to think there's more than a healthy amount of gay-bashing and jokes about Jews and Blacks in the game. that said, it was based on an early beta so you never know how it's going to end up.

I agree children under 17 shouldn't play this. However, I also think that parents should be required to raise their children.

As far as I know, children can still see rated R movies if accompanied by a parent (or is it just an adult?).

I also don't want to be prevented from buying the game if I am of the right age. JT's usually want to prevent the game from falling into anyone's hands, by claiming they are preventing it from falling into childrens hands. However, any place that sells rated R DVD's should already have a system in place to check for ID, this includes WalMart, Target, BestBuy, etc... I know GameStop has cranked up the internal heat, the others should have also. I just don't think it should be a federal crime, mearly a standard company policy, of which any company policy has always had a penalty "up to and including termination."

Honestly, I wish the guy from Rockstar would be honest.

He doesn't just expect controversy, he actively wants and supports it. While I actually enjoy their games, its time they were honest and just came out and said "we make shocking games because it gets us headlines".

"stop the improper sales of Grand Theft Auto IV to anyone under seventeen years of age…"

So is he not trying to ban it or is he just omitting that bit?

Either way I honestly doubt that GTA IV will cause controversy. It's set in a fictionalised New York but has no mention of ground zero. You can fly helicopters, and yes you could crash them into buildings but unless that building is smaller than a house I highly doubt that you could destroy the building with it so that's moot. Rockstar would have to be the biggest idiots alive to not delete anything that could cause Hot Coffee, and there is very little chance of an AO rating so we probably won't see a repeat of Manhunt.

Oh and of course the game doesn't really add anything new in terms of noteworthy controversy. Yes you can still kill cops and prostitutes, yes it will still be super violent. But come on that's all ready been exaggerated to ad naseum for San Andreas. What will the news headline be "Rockstar games released Grand Theft Auto IV, which besides more realistic graphics and physics is still the same exact game we caused a hissy fit over last time . . . now onto the weather."

Give me a break.

is it just me or have the stories gotten a little predictable.

@void

Personally I doubt they will "you can recreate 9/11" then they show a video of a helicopter slamming into a skyscraper and blowing up, I doubt that most people would be convinced.

Although they could get someone else to say it.

In any case I don't really see why they would bother unless it gets blamed for some random murder.

well, this disproves the statement "no news is good news"

Meteor - And Rockstar's Ping Pong title was also a game that could contradict that theory.

I suppose it's like 'Lady Chatterly's Lover', or 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre', though oddly enough both were more explicit in their own way than GTA. Neither of those two became famous because they were particularly good, Lady Chatterly's lover is not far from something someone might write for Penthouse as an 'erotic tale', and Texas Chainsaw Massacre probably achieved nothing more than a shortage of red paint and tomato ketchup in whatever state it was filmed in. Neither would really of got past the bar of 'they happened' if it had not been for the controversy caused by other people.

GTA is, for me, much the same thing, it's not an exceptional game, it's interesting, I like Sandbox environments, and I won't deny that I'm looking forward to sampling the atmosphere of the city in GTA IV, I played GTA 3, and was far more impressed by it's scope than by the storyline itself, which I never completed. What made it a legend in the computer game industry is, once again, the controversy caused by other people, right from it's first release, if it hadn't been for that, it probably would have never got to the number of iterations that it has, and clones certainly would not have begun to appear.

I am sure that if the Chicago mall shooter got caught Jack Thompson would demand to find out if the shooter had any of the Grand Theft Auto games so he could start trouble for Grand Theft Auto 4. I remember about a month ago Jack was demanding to know if the Omaha mall shooter had a owned any GTA games. If the Chicago mall shooter is caught and has GTA then he could have Jack try to defend him.

"Now remember lets not let the truth get in the way of our fear mongering!"

http://fanboys-online.com/index.php?cid=6

Meh. Why can't GTA IV come out nine days earlier!?

>.