Video Games

Last year, we heard about GTA: Vice City’s infamous “Hot Coffee” mod, a in-game sex scene that could be unlocked via an internet hack.  However, the game was apparently rated as Mature by the ESRB without any knowledge of the aforementioned sex scene.  The New York Times says that this scandle “prompted debate in Congress about the violent and, in particular, sexual content in video games”.  Take Two, the publisher of the GTA franchise, modified the game to be in accordance with the ESRB’s prior rating of Mature (otherwise it would have been reevaluated as an “Adult-Only” game), taking out the sex game, and then restocked retailers with the amended version. 

But now, Take Two Interactive has recieved grand jury subpoenas from the “Manhattan attorney’s office, seeking information about a range of its business practices dating back to 2001 and the inclusion of sexually explicit material in one of its games”.  This development has caused Take Two’s stock to tumble “nearly 19 percent, to $10.44, a 52-week low”.  As the public catches whiff of Hot Coffee again, the online petitions are becoming all-the-more conspicuous.  For better or for worse, “Hot Coffee” is a stale brew of the past, re-heated again for a second swig.

Submissions are now being accepted for the Machinima Art Show at the Sex-in-Video-Games Conference. That’s right, video-games and sex have made their long-anticipated, unholy union and present themselves as the main course of discussion at the conference. Ten submissions will be chosen and viewed over the course of the two day event at the Lodge at Union Square, Kensington Park Hotel in San Francisco.