For the most part, it seems the Hot Coffee controversy has been put on the back burner pending the outcome of the FTC investigation. So what have the critics done to channel their self-righteous rage and stay in the spotlight? Well, in Thompson’s case, as you’ve surely heard already, he’s simply widened his fear-mongering campaign against The Sims, Bully, and Killer 7, among others. He also found time in his busy schedule to do an 80 minute radio interview over at ChatterBox Video Game Radio. At one point in the interview, he all but agrees that Hot Coffee was okay in an M rated game since the actors were all fully clothed, while attempting to further demonize The Sims 2. The best part of the interview was when he attacked Rockstar North…
Infact, we have got a bunch of sociopaths in Edinburgh-Scotland sitting around in kilts sipping their single malt whiskey, spreading racial and hurtful stereotypes.
And now we have a lawyer sitting in Miami spreading racial and hurtful stereotypes about people he accuses of doing the same. Brilliant. Someone send this man a dictionary so he can look up the definitions of irony and hypocrisy.
Elsewhere in the “land of the free”, the Governor of Michigan is also trying to help protect the children by preventing adults from buying San Andreas. As reported on GamesIndustry.biz, said Governor is pressuring retailers in her state to refuse to stock AO games, and the Michigan House is contemplating legislation to make it law. So, let me get this straight, the goal of this new anti-game McCarthyism is to protect kids, but now lawmakers want to make it illegal for stores to sell them at all? Even to adults? Sounds an awful lot to me like outright censorship, albeit in a dodgy, roundabout manner. The funny part is, while there’s all this hooplah over retailers selling M or AO rated games, a number of chains which pulled San Andreas continue to carry NC17 and unrated DVDs with no resistance.
And on a final note, GamesIndustry.biz has a story about Bully which further demonstrates that the critics just don’t get it. In this story which mentions that the folks at Bullying Online have been invited by Rockstar to preview Bully (which is news in and of itself), the anti-bullying group’s director, Liz Carnell, was quoted as saying the following:
At the end of the day, computer firms are in the business of making money and if they can’t be sensible and police their own activities I foresee more controversies like the one over Bully. As most youngsters rely on their parents for pocket money, if the parents don’t like violent games then ultimately the games industry may find it’s shot itself in the foot.
Do these people need a 30 foot tall chart with neon letters showing that over 60% of gamers now are over the age of 18 to realize that games aren’t just for kids anymore? If, in some bizarre twist, all parents actually did do their jobs and stop letting their kids play mature games, the industry would carry on just fine selling these games to the massive 18-34 year old demographic for which the games are intended. Since when is it shooting oneself in the foot to make products for the most profitable market share? That’s almost like saying the automobile industry would go bankrupt if parents stopped buying cars for 8 year olds.
Correction: ChatterBox Video Game Radio doesn’t just air on the web, but on traditional broadcast radio too. Sorry about the mix up.