So the news is official: GTA San Andreas is now an Adults only rated videogame, after the ESRB evaluated the contents of the Hot Coffee minigame. I'm too lazy to find a link, but the news is everywhere. If you don't know about it here is the short of it:

It was found in the pc version of San Andreas that a minigame involving graphic sex scenes could be unlocked by modifying some code. Politicians got angry, and Rockstar claimed that they didn't write it, blaming the hackers (and I use that word in its proper form, since they were just playing around with the game code) for placing it in there. Then it was found that the minigame is also in the PS2 version of the game, and can be accessed through the use of Action Replay cheat devices. Because of this, the rating has to be changed to AO since it contains a sex scene, and future versions of the game will have it disabled.

After this, I have a feeling that the industry is going to be hounded by the gov't even more so than before, and maybe some of their hairbrained bills will actually pass. What annoys me most is the fact that this is happening because of the Hot Coffee incident. A lot of game bloggers have screamed "Those politicians are hypocritical. Its okay to have violence, but sex is a cause to go up in arms?", but that's not entirey true; pols. have been attacking violent games since Mortal Kombat. The hypocrisy lies in the fact that a lot more of them are probably going to come out of the woodwork and chime in with their worthless opinion because of this little minigame. It wasn't important to hound on the game industry before, when the old GTA's and games like Manhunt were coming out and let you murder people for absolutely no reason other than "because I can", but once there's some smut in a game its time to raise the red flags?

That is ridiculous; sex is something that pretty much everyone is going to experience at one point, gay or straight. So why is it so taboo in America, while hardcore shooting and beatings are accepted in pretty much every form of entertainment? Are our Puritan values of old still coming out in society? In the rest of the world censorship is the exact opposite; violence is not allowed, but sexual themes, to a certain extent, aren't a problem. I still can't figure out why we're completely backwards about it.

I'm also upset with Rockstar. Not because they put the sex thing in their game; I have no problem with any of GTA's content, and I hope the gov't doesn't try to censor them. But I'd venture to guess that 85% of game controversy from the last four years is because of their games. And rather than come out and explain their side of things, or even have the guts to admit their fault, they decide to lie. They act all badass by constantly releasing uber violent games, but when the heat is on they can't seem to take it. They weren't even gutsy enough to include Hot Coffee from the beginning; they had to sneak it in there and wait for someone to find it, which in turn stirred up more controversy and makes them look even "cooler" in people's eyes. And yes, I do believe they put it in there intentionally; it wouldn't be hard to delete code for something this crucial if they wanted to. All I know is that Rockstar's antics are jsut drawing more fire towards my favorite hobby, and I don't want to see it become censored or regulated because of they couldn't stop acting like teenagers.

Here's an idea Rockstar; instead of finding new ways to offend people, how about you try and make a game that is actually open ended? Just a thought.

Wow, that was a long rant. Tomorrow I'll write about what I planned on saying today: Blu-Ray discs and why they scare me.