Connecticut

Time Looks at Beer Pong Controversy

July 31, 2008

Unless they've been playing too much real-life beer pong, GamePolitics readers will likely recall the recent flap over the Wii-ware title formerly known as Beer Pong.

Released this week with an E rating, the renamed Pong Toss from JV Games sparked earlier protests from educators as well as a call from Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) for the ESRB to re-rate the game as Adults Only.

Time has now bellied up to the bar to offer own examination of the Beer Pong controversy and finds that it was predictable given concerns over binge drinking:

Perhaps, in retrospect, JV Games should have seen this coming. After all, drinking games and video games may be two of college-kids' favorite pasttimes, but they are also a source of constant complaints from their middle-aged parents...

 

The controversy isn't entirely surprising. The point of beer pong is to get your friends drunk... Last fall, Georgetown University banned beer-pong... The University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Tufts University have also banned drinking games.

 

The anti-pong activism strikes JV Games' [co-owner Jag] Jaegar as somewhat fruitless. As long as students "have access to alcohol, they will create drinking games out of any activity," he says. More to the point, if students have access to alcohol, they'll drink it — no games necessary.

 

TV News Report on CT Attorney General vs. Beer Pong

July 10, 2008

Earlier this week GamePolitics reported on Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's concerns over upcoming Wii-ware title Beer Pong.

Blumenthal criticized the game for encouraging underage drinking and slammed the ESRB for not assigning Beer Pong (since renamed to Pong Toss) an Adults Only rating.

Shelly Sindland of Connecticut Fox News affiliate WTIC-61 has a video report, including additional comments from the A.G.

 

Connecticut Attorney General: ESRB Under the Influence Regarding Alcohol Use in Games

July 7, 2008

 Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (D) charged today that the ESRB is "under the influence" when it comes to depictions of alcohol use in video games.

His comments were prompted by Beer Pong, from JV Games. As reported by GamePolitics, the title has previously come under fire from education and substance abuse organizations. In response to those concerns, the game has recently been renamed as Pong Toss (although JV's website still lists it under the original title).

Blumenthal, mentioned as a potential gubernatorial candidate, issued a press release calling on the ESRB to change the rating of Beer Pong from T (13+) to what the AG refers to as "adult" (presumably the ESRB's Adults Only rating). The A.G. is quoted in the press release: 

The rating T 13+ -- suitable for teens 13 and older -- is absolutely inappropriate. The video game rating board is under the influence -- rating frat party video drinking games suitable for minors. Even as JV Games agrees to alter its Beer Pong video game, both it and the rating board stubbornly deny the damaging influence of alcohol depiction in video games.

 

The ESRB astonishingly downplays and dismisses alcohol depiction in rating the suitability of video games for minors. Parents have the first and last say over their children’s games -- but they deserve to know all of the facts. The ESRB, claiming to consider age suitability in its ratings, has a moral and ethical responsibility to consider all potentially damaging material in the products it rates.

 

This issue is urgent because the 'Frat Party Ganes' promoted by JV Games may soon offer others in this planned series.

ESRB spokesman Eliot Mizrachi responded to Blumenthal's criticism of the video game industry rating board in a statement:

Although we respect Attorney General Blumenthal’s right to disagree, the fact is that ESRB’s role is not that of censor.  Our job is to impartially and consistently label content about which there may be a diversity of views so consumers can make informed choices for themselves and their families. 

 

‘Pong Toss’ involves nothing more than players tossing virtual ping-pong balls into plastic cups, which hardly qualifies it for our most restrictive rating of AO (Adults Only 18+)... 

In addition, GamePolitics has obtained a copy of a June 12th letter from ESRB President Patricia Vance to Attorney General Blumenthal on the Beer Pong issue. It reads in part:

While the assignment of ratings does require that judgments be made about the age-appropriateness of different types of content, it would be improper to assign ratings solely based on the depiction of behavior which may be understandably discouraged by society at large. To illustrate, many car racing games require players to barrel down city streets at high speeds – illegal behavior that certainly should not be encouraged... Still, none of this changes the fact that racing games... tend to be rated E... That actions in a game might, in the real world, be associated with minimum age requirements or be generally discouraged does not, in and of itself, relegate that game to the most restrictive ESRB rating category, Adults Only. Such contextual elements are weighed in the ratings process, however...

 

This title is being made available solely as WiiWare, which means it will not be available at retail, but may be downloaded, for a fee, directly through the Wii console. WiiWare games, available by the hundreds, rarely have marketing or advertising associated with them, and typically draw scant attention. Given this, our concern is that a greater number of consumers (including the age group about which you are most concerned) will be made aware of this game and resolve to play it as a result of publicized statements of advocacy groups and others. Ironically, this is likely to result in more rather than less consumers being drawn to this game, particularly those very minors all of us seek to protect.

 

Safe Sex Game Coming... It's coming...

September 25, 2006

Hot Coffee it most definitely is not.

As reported by Joystiq, the University of Connecticut is soliciting proposals for a "safer sex video game."

According to UConn bid specs, the goal of the project is "to test the feasibility of using a PC-executable game (non-Flash) format to change the safe sex practices of an otherwise hard to reach group – urban emerging adults."

The University wants vendors to make the game "fun, motivating, and efficacious." That last one's not a dirty word, by the way.

If trials are successful - and no, GP does not know where you go to volunteer - the game will be distributed "broadly." As Joystiq notes, Europeans are already ahead of us in using game tech to teach safe sex.

Proposals from game developers are due back to UConn officials in November.

GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 09/07/08 at 09:07pm
BlackIce: If you asked me, the problem is that clothing exists.
Posted 09/07/08 at 08:05pm
Shadow Darkman Anti-Thesis of : @BlackIce: Most guys stare at what's showing instead of who's wearing it. There is the prob. Skimpy clothing is a distraction.
Posted 09/07/08 at 08:03pm
Shadow Darkman Anti-Thesis of : Once again GRIZZAM wins the Internet.
Posted 09/07/08 at 06:06pm
BlackIce: Ooh, you sound like you have a problem with skimpy clothing!
Posted 09/07/08 at 04:23pm
DarkSaber: Barely
Posted 09/07/08 at 04:21pm
BlackIce: I believe that a Bikini counts as clothing.
Posted 09/07/08 at 03:53pm
Brokenscope: I'll give a you a hint, its not a shotgun, and its not actually palin.
Posted 09/07/08 at 03:52pm
ZippyDSMlee: GRIZZAM PRIME:I know sad eh? but I try anyway :P
Posted 09/07/08 at 03:27pm
Adamas Draconis: admitidly its a photoshop, but the thought....http://punditkitchen.com/2008/09/03/political-pictures-sarah-palin-photoshopped-b.
Posted 09/07/08 at 03:24pm
Adamas Draconis: theres a pic of her in a bikini with a shotgun...horrifying
Posted 09/07/08 at 01:50pm
BlackIce: Sarah Palin does not look nice. She'd look worse with no clothes on.
Posted 09/07/08 at 01:06pm
sortableturnip: McCain is just a man...he even likes MILF boob ;)
Posted 09/07/08 at 08:47am
HarmlessBunny: @DarkSaber: ROFL
Posted 09/07/08 at 08:26am
DarkSaber: http://sameritech.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/mccain-caught-staring-at-sarah-palin%E2%80%99s-boobs/
Posted 09/07/08 at 05:44am
Matthew: Little-known fact: The LHC is designed to reveal the existence of a meal between breakfast and brunch.
Posted 09/07/08 at 01:38am
GRIZZAM PRIME: Zippy: Better jokes I have heard. Worse too...
Posted 09/07/08 at 01:34am
ZippyDSMlee: Shadow Darkman Anti-Thesis of : its humor...everyone was talking about eating "bunches" the cereal..I just could not ignore it. :P
Posted 09/07/08 at 01:20am
Shadow Darkman Anti-Thesis of : Zippy: WTF?
Posted 09/07/08 at 01:12am
ZippyDSMlee: zippy wants to know...why uuu all eating on poor bunchakneejerk ... =0_o=....LOL
Posted 09/06/08 at 11:38pm
Shadow Darkman Anti-Thesis of : The words of SounDemon in the Nuked Cat thread are LEGENDARY Win!
Login or register to post shouts