GTA and the ESRB

**Geoffrey S** · 07-21-2005, 15:56

It seems a bit strange to base the age rating on the possibility of certain mods; if this were applied to all games any game featuring buxom female characters and enthusiastic skinners (just about any modern FPS) would have to be rated differently, if you get my drift...

**Steppe Merc** · 07-21-2005, 16:01

Yeah, Morrowind would be screwed...

But what rights do they have to call modders illegal? We're not selling it, are we?

I don't particullary care for GTA or those sort of games, but I am worried about how it may effect games that I like.

**Crazed Rabbit** · 07-21-2005, 17:00

I believe that GTA had the 'AO' stuff already, and was just 'unlocked' by a mod.

The real problem is what Cataline stated, that ESRB seems to want to crack down on mods. Since it'd be impossible just to stop bad mods, all mods would be skewered.

Crazed Rabbit

**IliaDN** · 07-21-2005, 17:02

What is AO?

**Geoffrey S** · 07-21-2005, 17:28

Adults Only.

**IliaDN** · 07-21-2005, 17:35

Thanks.
As for the game - I abondoned at the flight school.

**Spino** · 07-21-2005, 18:19

Rockstar games really shot themselves in the foot with this incident. Either they thought themselves too cute and clever for their own good and this unlockable content would simply fly under the radar of the 'powers that be' or a few programmers quietly slipped this stuff into the game without telling anyone. Lots of games ship with hidden content and features that are either inactive or are left overs from earlier builds. Just look at the stuff modders have discovered when perusing through the files for RTW. There's a good chance GTA:SA's racy content was never detected because most of the development staff and the beta testers never knew the codes to unlock it. Take Two's execs must be positively livid over this, it won't be long before the axe falls on a bunch of heads at Take Two and Rockstar Games. What's worse is the negative effect this is going to have on the gaming industry.

Compelling or forcing game publishers to 'lock up' their games and curb modding doesn't stand much of a chance. Speaking purely in terms of the bottom line the potential impact on sales thanks to user made mods is simply too great for publishers to ignore.

**Blodrast** · 07-21-2005, 19:07

shrug, I don't really see how they can enforce this.
take any piece of software, reverse engineer it, and voila, you have a mod.
besides, there's mod-making tools for lots and lots of non-straightforwardly-moddable games...once something like that is out, anybody can create mods of their own...

sure, changing the rating as in this case can and will hit companies, but not all games necessarily have "unacceptable" content...
And, just like Steppe said, there's "nude" mods pretty much for any game that has a chick in it... and because of this thingie called internet, they will always be "widely spread" (duh).

**Mongoose** · 07-21-2005, 19:23

LOL-I guess this means any game with a female character is going to get rated "AO"

That or they have try to stop modding...wait...doesn't EB plan on adding a special skin after release for the "Gasaetae"?

**Murmandamus** · 07-22-2005, 00:29

Originally Posted by Blodrast

shrug, I don't really see how they can enforce this.
take any piece of software, reverse engineer it, and voila, you have a mod.
besides, there's mod-making tools for lots and lots of non-straightforwardly-moddable games...once something like that is out, anybody can create mods of their own...

A mod is something external that is added to the game to modify it in some way. An easter egg is something that is already in the game and is unlocked. So, I'm a bit confused here. Why is this being called a mod when from everything I can read on it, it's quite clearly an easter egg.

Pretty low of Rockstar to try and blame "hackers" for something they clearly put in the game themselves. It wouldn't surprise me if it was intentional anyway. I wonder how many people went out and bought it because of this. Any publicity is good publicity.

This isn't the first time something like this has happened either. I remember there was a game where some devs put in an easter egg that made a parade in the game a gay madigras with something like a 1 in 1000 chance of it being played. They got sacked for it.

**Navaros** · 07-22-2005, 05:20

Originally Posted by Spino

Rockstar games really shot themselves in the foot with this incident.

on the contrary: Rockstar benefitted tremendously. they got themselves months worth of free publicity from every source imaginable

now that they got 'caught' and are being 'punished', they will just censor the game in the same way they censored Vice City for being too controversial

the censored San Andreas game will have an M rating, then it's business as usual for Rockstar

Rockstar loses nothing, and gains a ton of publicity/word of mouth