Pessimistic Politics: Grand Theft Expression

So politicians are taking another shot at video games. Big surprise. This is in light of a new “feature” recently discovered in the controversial Playstation 2/Xbox/PC game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which is having the fanatics screaming louder than usual, and you can expect the screaming to get much louder and less factual as the story makes its rounds. Before we go on, I’d like to say one thing: SHUT UP! I can’t hear myself rant.

That’s better. Now, apparently, this controversy stems from a modification of the PC version known as “Hot Coffee.” In GTA: SA, the lead character, CJ, can date women on the side. After building up the relationship enough, the girlfriend will invite him in for coffee, after which, CJ starts jacking her car, if you catch my drift.

But these scenes are “censored” by having the camera outside of the house during the deed. However, this “Hot Coffee” mod not only puts the camera where the action is, it lets you control the action, allowing you to do acts no computer geek would dare attempt. You actually have to work to satisfy the girlfriend, or you lose, but there are apparently rewards for winning. This is a tad unrealistic; in real life, even if you accomplish a similar task, you lose anyway, with women.

Just kidding! Anyway, this is just a case of hormone-crazed game hackers giving the audience a cheap thrill by altering the game, which is technically against the rules of the game’s user license agreement, so it shouldn’t be a mark against Rockstar Games or Take2 (the creators)?

Not so fast. It seems that this “hack” can actually be found in the Playstation 2 version of the game, though it takes some extra equipment (no pun intended) to access it. Since the PS2 uses DVD-ROMs, the content would be extremely difficult to alter (not impossible, but it would require the additional hard drive and some programming knowledge). Once the contents are burned on the disc, it’s impossible to alter it without burning a different program or getting the hard drive, but in the case, the code is already in the game.

With the help of an external cheating device (that allows users to modify the code of games to give things like extra lives), players can actually act out the above mentioned scene right on you home console, though there’s a lot of steps to do it, and it’s so buried, kids aren’t going to accidentally stumble over it (the real question would be why kids are playing a game rated “Mature” in the first place. What’s your excuse, parents?). However, because a cheat device can’t add this much content to a game, this means that the sexcapades were actually part of the original design.

Rockstar denied any wrongdoing (as they should; it’s their game, and the rating reflects its content), but stated that some elements were programmed in the game, but later removed for whatever reason. Instead of removing the content completely, though, they left it in, but “broke” the code, making in inaccessible to gamers. At least gamers without cheat devices and sex drives.

This little slip made politicians pressure the ESBR (the independent board that rates games) slap GTA: SA with the dreaded “Adults Only” rating, prompting major retailers like Wal-Mart to pull the game from their shelves. Rockstar has since halted production of the title and will be releasing censored versions of the game. This left me with one thought: I gotta get a copy before the smut versions are all gone!

Okay, two thoughts. Frankly, I’m disgusted with the politicians. Okay, I’m always disgusted with the politicians, because they’re really nothing more than loud windbags like you or me who have opinions people just happen to listen to and they get paid to spout off, changing your rights while they’re doing it. I’m also disgusted with Wal-Mart and all other retailers that chose to pull the game.

My rationale about the retailers is simple. Consider this: the scene in GTA takes place with both characters fully clothed without showing any unmentionables; it’s just the movements and positions that graphically depict sex, not the skin (okay, you get to control the action, but let’s talk about that one in a minute). I implore these retailers to check out all of the “R” rated movies (and even “PG-13 ones) they have on their shelves that contain depictions of sex, not to mention the music they have that goes on violently about sex. Why focus on a video game with fully-clothed shenanigans that aren’t even part of the original code?

Because it’s a video game, and video games are toys for kids. Wrong again. Video games are an entertainment media that’s aimed at all ages, and adult content should never be considered a gimmick or a device to corrupt children. A game with a “Mature” rating like GTA shouldn’t be in the hands of minors, but they’re getting there because parents aren’t keeping a closer eye on what their kids are playing, instead using defeatist tactics like “He’ll just play the game at a friend’s house anyway.”

Not that I’m saying the application of these ratings are always written in stone. I’ve played “Mature” games before I was fifteen because I was mature enough to handle it and my mother never saw a problem because of it. Parents, it’s good to keep an adult game out of your kid’s hands, but it shows trust and commitment when you look into the game itself and see how your child reacts to it. It’s okay to expose your child to certain “mature” content if they themselves are mature enough to handle it. It may require some extra (GASP!) work, but I’m sure if you love you kids enough to watch what they’re doing, you can handle it.

It’s the politicians that really deserve some of the ire. Due to some of the conservative narrow-minded outlooks of these public servants (I’m even lumping in the Democrats as well. How stereotypical do you expect these parties to be? You can’t expect all political party members to sway one way on everything), they propagate the notion that video games are toys and not legitimate expressions of art. First of all, I ask you politicians this: who are you to judge art? You’re a politician. You signed up for the job so you wouldn’t have to be creative.

Obviously, I believe any creative expression is legitimate and fully support pushing the envelope. We all know I push the envelope until it rips in two and spreads its controversial contents into the laps of constantly congested (no comment), and it sickens me that any video game company is having their contents censored, especially when that content can only be accessed via extra peripherals and hacks. No harm, no foul, right?

Oddly, anti-video game advocates have been yelling about how video game violence causes kids (who shouldn’t be playing the types of games they rant about, but let’s overlook that tidbit) to imitate the violence. While the logic in this is flawed at best (does every kid that plays a GTA game shoot up the town and steal cars?), it’s been the cornerstone of the video game censorship argument. This anti-sex business has less merit. Since it’s unlikely kids are going to imitate the sex scenes (they’d have their cloths on anyway), I only see this latest hoopla as an outcry against something that offends the morality of outsiders.

This is obviously not the first time this has happened, but in keeping with the subject, let’s rewind to the last Grand Theft Auto game, subtitled Vice City. In it, there’s a scene that involves rival Cuban and Haitian gangs fighting each other. One of the lines the Cubans mutter is “Kill the Haitians!” You can bet the Haitian demographic didn’t like that.

Protests began and legal action was pressing, and, again, Rockstar folded and said they’d take the line out of the game. Now, hate crime is a terrible thing; it’s irrational and tragic, and should never exist, but the line was used in a certain context to display a point, yet the protestors decided the line should be taken at face value and was obviously a mass hate message slipped into a child’s toy. By the way, no one seemed to mind the missions where lead Tommy Verceti took out the Cuban gang.

It annoys me when ethic groups claim victimization when there was no attack in the first place. I might even suggest that we’ve become a little too politically correct, reaching the point where are own stereotypes are way too real, so we viciously deny them to save face. Many of you are probably upset at me for downplaying the plight of minorities, being a white suburbanite who hasn’t been truly discriminated against (to a negative effect, anyway) in my life. However, I sat through Undercover Brother, one of the most racist movies I’ve ever seen, and this time whites are made out to be the evil inferiors, and therefore the victims. Taking shots at the “big guy” is always fun, but it can lessen the validity of the fight.

On the issue of violence, video games have been a serious target since the mid-nineties, with Mortal Kombat and Night Trap making the politicians’ hairs bristle. It’s really interesting how conservative America (especially the Christians) have it out for violent content when the Bible has plenty of gristly stories that we happily invite into our children’s minds with a smile and a prayer. For example, we have innocent shepherd David punch evil giant Goliath’s skull in with a rock, and then decapitatie him with a sword, the moral of the story being “Question God and die!”. Come to think of it, didn’t Duke Nukem basically do the same thing? Except he saved humanity, not just God’s people. I know comparing the Good Book to Duke Nukem may seem a little off, but let’s consider that depictions of violence are depictions of violence, no matter what the message is.

It’s also interesting because the laws of Christianity don’t oppose depictions of violence (how could they with the Bible being their textbook?), or arguably violence for that matter. Sex, yes, but I’m I still think the Christian conservatives are making up rules as they go along.

I’ve never understood why some parents are so adamant about fanatically shielding there children from reality and vilifying that “evil” that manages to get through their defenses. These kids are going to grow up and have to deal with the world some time. And since the world was never like a fifties family sit-com, the kind where parents sleep in separate beds and the only emergency calls involve cats in trees, there’s no basis in reality for the parents’ cautions. After the kids grow up, they’re booted into the real world and are suddenly expected to deal with it. It’s sort of like the Garden of Eden story, where Adam and Eve “grew up” by eating the apple (after being tempted by “the real world” or the serpent) and were kicked out into the harsh outer world. No wonder Christian child rearing techniques are so messed up, with the Big Father and his abilities. Just look at Jesus. God sent the poor guy down exclusively to die. That kind of behavior would find any other father in jail with a new wife named Lou.

The new Grand Theft Auto stink is just more proof that politicians and parents don’t have a clue. I’m sure most of the protestors to “lewd” or “offensive” content have or still do enjoy viewing, interacting, or even carrying out such activities with no irony whatsoever. We’ve accepted “offensive” content in just about every other form of media, so it’s high time that we as a society start accepting video games as legitimate forms of expression, questionable content and all. Saying what goes and what doesn’t is censorship, especially when the content has already been voluntarily laid out to consumers so they know what they’re getting. Getting our social tail feathers ruffled over fully clothed sex that requires some technological know-how (and extra accessories, in the case of the PS2) to access shows who selectively we take our political correctness and moral outrage.