Jeff has a good post on controversial Hot Coffee mod that has for some mind-blowing reason made its way to Washington where crass old politicians decide
Hey, I'm going to look out for the children and appeal to all the other old crass voters out there that I'm taking a stand on this evil culture that is... umm.. fucking shit up?
What I don’t really understand is that an R-rated movie that can show nudity, graphic sex, violence, etc (for some unknown reason length has something to do with the line between R and NC-17) with real fucking people! Where as video games are animated polygons and suddenly that is a big fucking deal?? It never fails to be an arbitrary line that makes no sense to anyone.
Politicians should not play the role of parents in this society. It is one of the things that always irks me to high hell. Politicians are not (and should not) be the caretakers of culture or whatever you want to call it. (I won’t start on the disproportionate influence big box retailers like Walmart and Target have on culture and media… that will be another post). The ESRB should review what the game is in retail. Not what someone could potentially do with the code once sold. While Rockstar should never have lied about it in the first place, I do not think they are culpable here. They released a game to retail which deserved the Mature rating (which is equivalent of Adults Only or at least should be for any reasonable parent). Thankfully the Internet is a force which can mitigate these influences (though I realize not completely).