by Daniel "Tanz" Lattanzio, staff writer

Man, what an interesting month this has been! Between Bush's Supreme Court nomination, the London bombings and Karl Rove in general, I have had a hard time starting this column. It hasn't been a lack of subject matter (I have been re-writing over and over), it is just whenever I write anything political, I seem to piss everyone off. So I decided to shy away from our so-called-appointed-government (until next column), and touch base on a subject near and dear to my heart: video games.

I've been following the “Hot Coffee” game mod story for the past several weeks, and I noticed it has finally surfaced in the mainstream news a couple days ago (I was wondering how long it would take).

In case you haven't heard, the uber-popular Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has been hit by controversy and has now been rated “AO,” as in “Adults Only” by the Entertainment Ratings Software Board, from its previous “M” rating. (This is the second highest rating, for “Mature;” it is akin to a movie's “R” rating.) To bring you up to speed: the ESRB is the independent group that video game makers created to police itself after Senator Joseph Lieberman held hearings on video game sex and violence, and their effects on the youth, in 1993. The ESRB rates games similar to movies from EC (early childhood) to AO. Game publishers submit game content to the Board, and the reviewers (who generally just watch game footage and not actually play the games) rate the game appropriately.

It is interesting to note that various states, including my home state of Michigan , have tried to pass legislature to fine game stores that sell games aimed at adults to minors. A few years ago, I even wrote my senators to support this law. The ESRB is to help parents choose what games are appropriate for their children, but many stores ignore the ratings – thus rendering the rating almost ineffective. (The movie industry analogy works well here; a twelve-year-old usually does not have the success rate of getting into R-rated movies that their video-game counterparts enjoy.)

Back to the present, several weeks back, a mod was released on the internet for the PC version of GTA:SA. (A game mod is usually software that modifies a game, usually for cheating purposes, or to unlock hidden things in the code that are not normally accessible to players. It is not to be confused with a game patch, which is released by the game makers to generally fix the game code.) This mod, dubbed “Hot Coffee,” allows the player to take his girlfriend back to her place and engage in a “sex mini-game” with her, where the point is to, basically, satisfy her. The player can control the main character's “actions” and even change position; there are video of the game mod in action, if you'll pardon the pun, floating around the ‘Net for those interested. The senators who brought this to the public attention were Senators Hilary Clinton and, once again, Joseph Lieberman.

Rockstar, the game maker, originally said that the code for the sex game was not in the game itself, that the person who released the game mod created all of it. Patrick Wildenbourg, the Dutch programmer who released the Hot Coffee mod, denied this, stating that the code was in the game and that he was merely unlocking it for the player to exploit. An investigation revealed that the code for Hot Coffee is in all three versions of the game; with the software mod, or game cheating device, it can be unlocked in the Playstation 2, Xbox and PC versions of the game. The ESRB then revoked the “M” rating and made it “AO.” Retail stores Target, Best Buy and Wal-Mart (big surprise there) are pulling the game from store shelves.

Rockstar is working to make the Hot Coffee mod harder to access and has ceased current production of the game; they are even sending out “AO” stickers for the games still in store stock. (Oh, if your wondering if the original release of the game will become a collector's item, I wouldn't think too much of it. This was last year's top-selling game with over 5 million copies sold, so you'd have a lot of competition. You'd be better off getting a copy of the much rarer Rings of Power for the Sega Genesis – known for its code to make the lady on the opening splash screen topless.)

So what does all this mean? Well, it is far from uncommon for game makers to leave unfinished code, whether it is unused game levels or extra features, in a game; this is usually due to time constraints to release a finished game by a certain deadline to get it on store shelves. A list of games to suffer such cuts would fill an entire column; it is pretty much a given in the industry. Plus, to get to the Hot Coffee mod, one must actively unlock it, so it is not a selling-point or even gameplay feature.

One might theorize that Rockstar left it in the game on purpose, knowing its discovery would lead to increased sales of the recently released Xbox and PC versions of the game. This theory doesn't make much sense because the GTA series has been under constant fire for its adult-oriented gameplay and has been the target of various parent and religious groups. There is pushing the limits, but doing something like this on purpose is almost self-destructive; it would justify what a lot of these special interest groups have been saying all along.

Plus, this is can possibly hurt the credibility of the ESRB. The ESRB had no idea of the content hidden in the game code, but because they stamped it with only a “M” rating, this could even be perceived as a sliding of the bar for what is and is not appropriate.

I am a major fan of the GTA series and have finished GTA:SA. Let's be honest here: how bad is the mod, anyway? This all goes back to the American hypocrisy of violence versus sex. Now, GTA has always been under the gun (second unintentional pun – sorry) for its over-the-top violence against women and police. Killing and gang violence are the main themes of the game, but think about it: how many games are NOT about killing? It is like they say about movies: if you graphically cut a woman's head off, you get an “R” rating, make love to her, and you get an “NC-17.”

Are the ESRB and publishers and senators overreacting? I think so. Remember, this mini-game is NOT readily accessible to the player. In a game, aimed at adults over 18 to begin with, where I have personally slaughtered thousands, an interactive sex scene isn't so bad. When Sen. Lieberman tries to pull his “save the children” card on this, I can only respond by saying that children are NOT meant to be playing the game to begin with.

The ESRB may have ended up with egg on their faces, but because of the “M” rating, they were already stating that the game was not for kids! They have already done their job, and they did it correctly the first time! And as for the retailers, a quick search of Best Buy's website shows various types of DVDs from Sex and the City to a rather interesting one I found called Secret Lives of Adult Stars. Everything I found was rated “R” or simply not rated at all (mostly because they were television shows, like Sex and the City). Do a search on Bestbuy.com for SEX in the movies category, and see if you agree with me that Best Buy needs to understand that two or more standards are too many.

(Let's keep in mind here that the sex acts are performed by video game characters, not real fully anatomically-correct humans. I saw videos of Hot Coffee – they are no worse than typical late-night Cinemax fare.)

And what about the mods that allow one to have a naked Lara Croft in the original Tomb Raider? Or the nude skins that can loaded into The Sims? I notice those seem to be conveniently overlooked and forgotten.

Rockstar should have done a better job to make sure that this game code was fully removed from the final game, granted. All they have succeeded in doing was getting more negative publicity for the video game industry from the media and government.

However, I am currently holding my copy of GTA:SA and allow me to read the rating: “Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs – rated ‘M.'” Notice it ALREADY states “Strong Sexual Content” right on the box? I don't see the point in labeling a game as “AO” when 97% of game owners won't even use the mod. Am I the only one who sees that a game aimed at ADULTS featuring UNFINISHED AND HIDDEN CODE already complies with its rating?