April 28, 2008 -
The Timothy Plan, a Maitland, Florida-based mutual fund group which offers a "biblical choice when it comes to investing," has issued a press release slamming Take Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO), publisher of Grand Theft Auto IV.From the release:
Take-Two Interactive... has done it again, releasing another video game that contains extreme sexual and violent content... Beyond the intense violence, blood and mayhem, during the game the character can have sex with prostitutes, visit adult clubs, request a private lap dance and drive drunk.
The Timothy Plan, a morally responsible family of mutual funds, refuses to invest in companies like Take-Two Interactive because of their involvement in the anti-family entertainment and pornography industry.
Timothy Plan president Arthur Ally (left) is quoted in the press release:
This $30 billion a year [video game] business is exploiting sex and violence more than ever in their products. We hope more parents will not continue to fall into a category that four out of ten often do by relying simply on the ESRB rating and leave their children alone while they are playing video games.
While the ESRB system is a step in the right direction, the ratings are confusing and incomplete at best.
Ally also criticized another Rockstar game, Bully: Scholarship Education, because protagonist Jimmy Hopkins can kiss other boys in the game.
Take Two is among several dozen publicly-traded companies listed on the Timothy Plan's Hall of Shame. Others include Starbucks, PlanetOut, Wal-Mart, Microsoft and would-be Take Two acquirer, Electronic Arts.
While it's not clear exactly how these firms have transgressed in the Arthur Ally's view, the Timothy Plan is anti-gay, pro-life and opposed to investing in companies which deal in alcohol, tobacco, gambling or pornography.
Comments
I really hate it when the same j-offs knock on my door around 8am on sunday morning wielding the 1 billionth addition of their version of the bible and tell me I am doing things wrong. Although, I do find it funny when they go home crying after about an hour of playing "explain your nonsense".
I hate to sound like the bad guy here but if it's legal I'll invest in it, I've never considered hamstringing myself in what is essentially business. Besides on whose ethics anyway? I doubt any of these funds share exactly the same values as their investors, that being the case why gamble your finances on what is basically someone else's political cause?
Gift (who is now off to cackle madly over his diabolical financial plans).
Those who know, know that sin mutual funds (alcohol, tobacco, porn, etc) have better and more solid returns anyhow...
The Wall of Shame leaves them with no big companies to work with!!
But still, thats their pregogative... just as long as they don't step on anyone elses!
are they hypocrites?
So there!
(And, once again, I notice a complaint by someone who screams about boys kissing boys in Bully but nothing about women kissing women in Mass Effect.)
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Content Descriptors:
Blood
Intense Violence
Partial Nudity
Strong Language
Strong Sexual Conduct
Use of Drugs and Alcohol
What more could you possibly want?
Who cares. There are plenty of investors out there that are actually interested in making money.
My guess is that they only invest in Bible publication companies, unless they also print the Quran or the Tora.
Good luck folks.
Rated Mature:
Violence
Sexual Themes
WHAT COULD IT POSSIBLY MEAN?! :|
It's like the hyperreligious, anti-gay dating site eHarmony. I'd never support them, but if they find that wooing fundamentalists is a viable business model, then that's their prerogative. And if they fail, so much the better.
Now what is that called?
It doesn't look like they invest in the media industry at all (from what I read in their annual report), so this looks like a pure PR campaign to take advantage of GTAIV's hype to sell themselves.
No you are just another moron who is too damn lazy to read the ratings. M for Mature, aka not got kids. The only people who find it confusing are the people who don't bother to take five seconds to flip the game box over and read what the game contains.
"the Timothy Plan is anti-gay, pro-life and opposed to investing in companies which deal in alcohol, tobacco, gambling or pornography."
Ahh so they are closed minded morons.
"The Timothy Plan, a morally responsible family of mutual funds, refuses to invest in companies like Take-Two Interactive because of their involvement in the anti-family entertainment and pornography industry."
Once again comparing games to porn to make them look like some sort of monster that will transform kids into perverts. Where the hell is all this porn they talk about in games? I must have a defective copy because none of my copies of the games people claim contain porn, have none in them.
More Cowbell.
M Mature 17+
Blood
Intense Violence
Partial Nudity
Strong Language
Strong Sexual Conduct
Use of Drugs and Alcohol
And what, exactly, is complicating and confusing about these discriptions. Are they stupid?
I don't care for sanctimonious hate-mongering either, but business is business.
Honestly, I hope Arthur Ally and his group receive some backlash from his statements.
I guess it's a good thing that Arthur Ally doesn't or can't read books.
My guess is that nobody actually reads the Bible.
Meaning the parents don't have to do a thing.
I just checked their Hall of shame and what irritate me the most is their way of expressing their conservative christian views. If christian religion is that strict, christians might as well put themselves into cryo-sleep until their deaths. They cannot do anything fun ! poor people.:(
Re "Actually interested in making money": If you look at their index comparisons, they outperform the market. Significantly. Whatever you think of them.
"Socially/Morally conscious" funds with a competent manager have a record of outperforming the market, actually. Probably because they tend to do better research and actually pay attention to their funds. There's also selection bias of course: being that they're typically smaller concerns you don't hear so much from the money-losing ones.
I don't care for the fundie ideology either, but it's just asinine to assume unrelated things not in evidence because of it.
Like anyone cares what they think.
To violate this category you the company must "officially recognizes GLBT groups (gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or trans-sexual)".
Would recognizing that company's recognize people of an alternative sexuality mean you have in fact recognized they exist in the first place?
Maybe we should all stick our heads in the sand.
What the hell does that even mean? Do they give you thirty pieces of silver if you betray your old investors by coming over to them?
Somebody didn't pass high school...
April 28th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
M. Mature. 17+
Content Descriptors:
Blood
Intense Violence
Partial Nudity
Strong Language
Strong Sexual Conduct
Use of Drugs and Alcohol
What more could you possibly want?
I know, that's soooo confusing and incomplete...
You're hitting the oldest bell there is. This concern has been more than adequately addressed already to equally ignorant people. Also, that lists of "Hall of Shame" companies is very trendy... I'd like to see how they screen the less well-know money makers.
"Beyond the intense violence, blood and mayhem, during the game the character can have sex with prostitutes, visit adult clubs, request a private lap dance and drive drunk."
For a game that is not released yet, he seems to "know" an awful lot about GTA4 to make claims like that. To that, I say:
POST PROOF OR RETRACT.
I am not saying he's wrong, I'm actually pretty sure that most of that is in the game. However, I'm waaay beyond tired of these organisations and individuals making baseless claims without anyone making them provide PROOF to back it up, and yet they're still taken seriously. They don't need to provide diagrams, videos or pictures of the "obscene" material, all I ask is to include a quote from a developer/publisher or a link to factual evidence that can back up the statements.
Also, I like the last paragraph where he plugs himself for potential interviews and talkshows. Give me a break.
It's like suggesting all forms of media should never cater to adults just because minors MIGHT see it. I dunno about you, but i wouldn't like it if every channel on the TV was PBS. I know that's going to the extreme, and it's not what they're literally suggesting, but that's honestly what people like that sound like, and it just pisses me off.
The way I see it is that they must have already received their copy early and have completed the game since they seems to be experts as to what the contents of the game is PRIOR to the release.
Just another j-off spreading propaganda.
Really, I do believe in free speech but I also believe that anyone who's intends to spread information that is completely false should be fined a substantial amount of money when in public form.
LEFT BEHIND GAMES!!! 0,012$ each share, it's one hell of a deal! Now that is a biblical choice!
Get it while you still can, who knows, it just might cost twice the price tomorrow (I mean, it "could" be worth a cent more tomorrow)
I would like to emphasis the word CAN. The game doesn't force ya to have sex with prostitutes and, in past games, it was something you needed to find out you could do or hear it from someone else. Complaints like this only help by making minors (and even some adults) go "what? I can do that? how?!"