July 16, 2007 -
Games are supposed to be fun, right? So why do they make negative headlines so often?Here at GamePolitics we thought it would be fun to track the most publicized gaming scandals ever and we'd like your help. Check out our Top Ten below and then vote (right sidebar) for your choice of the biggest video game scandal of all time.
25 to Life (2006) - Politicians and police groups decried Eidos' cops & robbers shooter; game reviewers hated it too, but for a different reason: it sucked
Hot Coffee (2005) - needs no introduction. Cheeky Rockstar programmers left hidden sex animations (accidentally or otherwise) buried in the PS2 code of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Modders made sure they didn't stay buried for long. Rockstar's denials only made things worse. And then Hillary got involved...
Xbox 360 Red Rings of Death (2007) - Microsoft hid the extent of the 360's hardware failures for far too long; even now they won't say what caused the failures or how widespread the problem is, but it must be a lot because MS has set aside a billion dollars to deal with it
SimCopter (1996) - a gay programmer making a social statement secretly coded animations of men kissing to appear during game play on certain dates; he got fired and Simcopter was re-released without the guy-smooching
Manhunt 2 (2007) - officialy banned in the U.K. and effectively banned by an AO rating stateside; was it the intense violence level or the ESRB's payback to Take Two for Hot Coffee? Either way, this drama is ongoing as T2 reviews its options
PS3 Launch (2006) - fights, riots, shootings - and we're not talking about the games - these were the unanticipated features of the PS3 launch, fueled by system shortages and overhyped consumer expectations
Columbine (1999) - when it was revealed that Dylan Harris and Eric Klebold were fans of Doom, the news fueled a firestorm of criticism over game violence that reached the Clinton White House and continues even now.
Resistance: Fall of Man (2007) - When religious leaders at Manchester Cathedral learned that PS3 launch title Resistance: Fall of Man included a level based on the interior of the house of worship they demanded a recall, drawing a dubious linkage between Resistance and local gun violence in Manchester. The story made international headlines and earned criticism from then-Prime Minister Tony Blair and Parliament. Sony issued an apology, but officials still aren't satisfied.
Super Columbine Massacre RPG (2006) - Designer Danny Ledonne wanted to use the video game medium to explore the reasons behind the Columbine shootings; Although some acclaimed Ledonne's effort, others hated it; the game was blamed by some for Kimveer Gill's shooting rampage at Montreal's Dawson College and made more headlines when officials of the Slamdance Competition yanked SCMRPG from the event.
Night Trap (1993) - the bloody Sega CD offering featured down on her luck actress Dana Plato and became the subject of hearings in the U.S. Senate over its violence; the controversy helped launch the ESA and, ultmately, the ESRB.
There's no doubt we left out some scandals, but we had to whittle the list down to ten. If we missed your favorite, feel free to let us know in comments, or use the "other" box on the poll.
And be sure to vote for the top video game scandal of all time!
Comments
I know that many find it hip to bash Christianity but don't confuse what the followers do with what the Man taught.
"Duh.
Jack Thompson, Attorney and You’re Not"
You know that's the kind of thing my 5 year old niece would say. When are you going to grow up Jackie boy?
Jack if you cannot prove how it is even feasible to train on Doom, then shut the fuck up. Do you know anything about the vast differences between combat in a game and using a gun in real life? Do you know that the gamers in our armed forces laugh hysterically at these claims? You may be able to convince knee-jerk ready soccer-moms of this impossibility but don't think for a split second that your bullshit is going to be spooned up here you baseless half-wit.
So what I'm telling you you Alzheimer addled law monkey is PUT UP OR SHUT UP.
Apparently somebody hasn’t done one bit of real research to realize that Night Trap has absolutely positively no blood in it.
Well, there was a scene where a guy (brother of main character?) was hung upside down to drain his blood into some device ala the cheapest horror effects possible. I think calling it "bloody" was just a throwaway intro line, nothing more.
You know, that Jack Thompson post might be the real deal. The combination of tinfoil hat logic and the fact that he's got quite some time on his hands these days makes me believe this is our Jackie Boy.
Jesus is tolerant. The people who run the Manchester Cathedral, however, are clearly a different story.
Think next time before you post something stupid.
All good points, all well made. I can agree that Night Trap was the most scandalously overblown "scandal" on the list. I never would have thought about the Libby analogy, but that's exactly why I like coming to these boards. Thanks!
Also, I'd add the "peek-a-boo" Smurfette from Colecovision's Smurf rescue, but I'm not sure anyone got upset about that one.
Now, back on topic... I wouldn't really call these scandals. But if I had to choose, I'd say that Hot Coffee was the thing that brought too much political attention to the whole video game industry. However, I will venture to say that Night Trap, while a crappy game, was probably a good thing, as it brought about the creation of the ESRB, which prevents the arguement that the industry never regulates itself. Besides, if Night Trap hadn't resulted in a rating system, then another event or game like;ly would have.
Sure Hot Coffee got mass media coverage, but Sim Copter came first and it was in a family friendly E game.
You are right, about the age crack. I realized some time later that many people might have legit reasons for voting Hot Coffee, but it seems like it's getting votes from being cross-linked from other gaming sites, and simple notoriety, instead of merit. And this is arguably due to the fact that younger gamers (the internet in general) have no recollection of the Night Trap fiasco, or have no knowledge of the existence of another ratings board, as well.
Others have posted that Night Trap wasn't violent or really that bad, and they are correct. That's another reason I voted for it: the most scandalous events, and their ensuing media blitz are known for making mountains out of molehills.
Take the Libby scandal. He outed a CIA operative, right? How is this an issue, when the husband of said CIA operative was on The Daily Show before that, talking all about his wife's secret CIA mission. So, in the great scheme of things Libby's 'outing' wasn't really that big a deal, but the media/political/vote-pandering makes it the largest scandal to date. The same explosion happened over Night Trap. At least in the Hot Coffee blitz, there was at least SOME small level of deception by TTWO. It amounts to a PR mistake, but I believe Night Trap's franzy was over absolutely nothing.
NOTE: I am making an example, I am not taking sides in the Libby debate and have no wish to de-rail this thread. If you have to debate this, PM me in the forums. I am open to that being a bad example.
Of course, since without body bags he doesn't have acase.
I think he alluded to praying for body counts in interviews(he made a comment regarding Columbine to the factor of ten).
Anyway, to comment on the actual story, I must be younger than I thought. I remember hearing a little about Mortal Kombat's bloody fights, and people making a stink about it, but I've never even heard of Night Trap (then again, I was 9 in 1993). In my opinion, its a close race between Columbine, Hot Coffee, and Night Trap.
I would almost put V-Tech in there, but, as intelligent people know, video games had nothing to do with it. Cho didn't even play a game, that anyone knows of, in 4 years. So there's no scandal in the sense that video games didn't actually have a part in the incident. It was just Massacre Chasers with an agenda to push. At least the Columbine kids did play games.
1) He "predicted" Columbine
2) He did nothing to prevent it from happening
Therefore, Jack's responsible for Columbine.
And if that's really Jacky Boy, he should quit whining about a Bar complaint that was justified.
Now practice what you preach, jabroni: Grow up and get a life.
Funny, especially how that BAR complain has to do with harassment and nothing to do with video games.
Also, you are not a prophet, not like you seem to like to believe in your little fantasy world. You said that something MIGHT happen and by chance it did, one of the worst shootings in history.
By the way, thanks for helping it along. It's far more your fault than any video game. If the shooters never got their names famous, there'd be no copycat killers.
You likely prayed for body counts too.
Sicko.
kurisu7885, sane and you are not.
You make good points, as usual, but Hot Coffee voters "showing their age" isn't necessarily one of them. I've been playing video games since the Odyssey was "current gen," and I voted Hot Coffee too. As you point out, Night Trap and Mortal Kombat were cited in the hearings that led the IDSA (I'm old enough to remember it wasn't called the ESA until 2003) to establish the ESRB.
This was monumentally significant in the industry, but it's debatable that those games themselves were as "scandalous" as Hot Coffee, which damaged the political standing of the ESRB, took months to fully vet because Rockstar didn't come completely clean from the start, led to FTC actions, and accelerated a cross-country trend of exactly the sort of anti-game legislation the ESRB was supposed to buffer in the first place.
@[regular GP messageboard readers and fellow fans]
Once again, this "Jack Thompson" poster is probably just a troll. Actually, now that I read the post, even if it is the REAL Massacre Chaser, it's STILL just a troll. I think we should try not to feed it too much, at least until it comes up with something on-topic or relevant to the conversation.
Still, there was the obvious fact that the game itself sucked anyway.
Perhaps you should focus on your current problems with the Florida Bar instead of this thing with Dennis you keep bringing up as if anyone here actually cares. We concede that every once in a while you come out on top. It's near impossible to be so bad at something that you lose ALL the time. What's funny to us is that for every victory you tout (half of which aren't actual victories anyway), there are a dozen instances where you've fallen flat on your prejudiced ass, yet you still present yourself as some sort of conquering hero. It still amazes me to this day what a deluded prick you are. Duh.
"Well, I said in a previous message that “it would be very interesting to have the opinion of video game critics”. I guess we heard one of them."
Yeah, so that we can laugh at the ignorance of them. Either way, the critics should learn how to stop embarrassing themselves in the public.
And do you know? That some policemen who did crimes also got jail time and lose their jobs? You could be the same.
Although you are a Christian, but to God's eyes you are just a filthy useless mortal.
One week before "Columbine" I was on NBC's Today show predicting that male teens would train on Doom to author more school shootings like the one in Paducah, whose victims' parents were there on the show with me.
Guess what happened? That led to my appearance on CBS' 60 Minutes the Sunday after Columbine.
But, Dennis, you missed one of the scandals. It was your filing of a Bar complaint against me on behalf of the video game industry that you failed to disclose to your readers and that was dismissed by The Florida Bar as baseless.
I guess we can't count upon the person responsible for one scandal to report fully on ALL the scandals.
Duh.
Jack Thompson, Attorney and You're Not
I voted for Columbine. Yeah the Hot Coffee thing probably was the biggest scandal but I don't think we would have even heard about it if it wasn't for Columbine and the other school shootings. Night Trap and Mortal Kombat DID lead to the creation of the ESRB but they didn't lead to FTC investigations and vast changes in the marketing policies of both the game and movie industries.
Upon which time the game, which was called a "Columbine simulator" by JT, and various other disparaging terms by the also-rans, was discovered to be...
... Absolutely harmless. Mean-spirited, sure. Slightly nasty, certainly. But probably less violent then your school days were, and certainly not a glorificaiton of school shootings.
The only thing that happened is that the game got renamed in England (I believe).
I think even JT quickly dropped the subject.
I'm not a big fan of Rockstar these days, but I applauded them there- They made a fool out of everyone.
"Spoke like a true atheist. Seems like you are very intolerant of Christians, making you mr hypocrite. Or are you just incapable of giving Erik a straight answer?"
You're wrong there, I am a agnostic. Anyway, are you aware that there is one stupid fucking Christian monkeying around in the old Gamepolitics livejournal? And I am not a fool, I had checked with some friends who are visitors of Gamepolitics and they said that there is a idiotic Christian in the site.
Anyway, I would give the person a big thank you who chased that insignificant person away. Oh, where was I? And do you know that when Sony apologized to the Manchester Cathedral? They don't give a shit! Manchester Cathedral keeps whining and bitching about Sony making their 'holy' place in their game.
Spoke like a true atheist. Seems like you are very intolerant of Christians, making you mr hypocrite. Or are you just incapable of giving Erik a straight answer?
"Really? I was unaware that Jesus made an official press release regarding the Resistance debacle."
Spoken like a true Christian indeed.
By the way, does someone have the full video or the full transcript of these 1993 hearings ? I'd be delighted to hear exactly what everyone had to say about it.
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http://www.HowToGetFreeWiiPoints.com
Pushing the envelope openly, whether to make a statement, make money or just plain be an ass, isn't scandalous. Also, incidents like Blagojevich's money-wasting aren't game scandals, they're game-related POLITICAL scandals.
I know I'm kind of splitting hairs, but I think "controversies" would be a better term than "scandals". Just because some goofball didn't like something the game industry did or released doesn't automatically mean the industry is the villain.
The non-appearance of the fiasco around the first Manhunt is an odd one, but some "other"-s I'd like to point out are mostly UK based, and predate The Internet, certainly in the mainstream, so it's not a surprise they're not here. But:
#1: Epilepsy- In 1993, a young boy died of an epileptic fit brought on by a SNES game, leading the UK's reasoned, thought-out tabloids to scream- as a front page headline, no less- "NINTENDO KILLED MY SON". The result was the typical media circus, and the inclusion of epilepsy warnings in all subsequent games released.
Sadly, the media never did let go of that one, and a BBC documentary on the financial successes of the company over ten years later felt the need to bring it up like it was a new thing.
That being said, Nintendo never did learn their lesson- an episode of the Pokemon cartoon in Japan gave a load of kids seizures, which was later parodied in The Simpsons.
#2: The Poppy Appeal- anyone remember Cannon Fodder? 1993 again, and Virgin was to release the Sensible Software-developed title with its anti-war message and everything, with a picture of a corn poppy on the box. The poppy happens to be the chosen symbol of WWI veterans and "rememberance day", a day commemorating the sacrifices of war veterans. PR disaster once more, including- and I kid you not- *the* famous headline: BAN THIS SICK FILTH. Oh yes.
The result? Sensible Software gave them £500 and they went away.
#3: Carmageddon- The *other* game the BBFC banned. Re-released with green blood. Then the company released a patch online to make it red again. Tsch. You'd never get that happening nowadays.
And, of course, PS3 price lol. ;P
/b
ya but the RROD is at least twice as much as the DRE's, so meh,plus MS has gotten off its butt and doing something about it,be it tho a bit late but non the less they have shown a reasonable level of consumer support,better late than never,sony keeps dcking around there is a slight difference in the levels of anti consumerness of them,MS seems to be doing a bit better as long as they keep up with the refunds,and free repairs for the next 2-3 years I really can not hate them for their lack of foresight on the 360,dosent mean I like them either :P
Thanks so much for that link.
I wasn't old enough to really catch wind of the Night Trap bit, but man, I have to cast my balot for that. How absolutely senseless. I can't stress enough how this constantly brings to mind the old Patricia Pulling nonsense with D&D and most other pen and paper RPGs (I wasn't old enough for that one, either, but given my current interest in the hobby, it's been a major point of study for me).
I can't help but wonder what new form of entertainment will arise that OUR generation will be so irrationally opposed to.