As GamePolitics reported recently, Singapore has adopted a rating system for video games.

While the move seems like a step in the right direction, not everyone is pleased with how the new ratings are to be assigned. People Like Us , which describes itself as "a Singapore gay and lesbian group focused on advocacy and public education" notes that that the government's Media Development Authority (MDA) lumps homosexuality with crime in an "Adult Theme" rating category:

People Like Us considers this new rule unjustifiably strict. Children should not have to be kept ignorant about the presence of gay people in society any more than they should be shielded from people of other faiths and ethnicities. The path to acceptance of gay people is through teaching children about diversity from a young age.

It is pejorative to lump gay sexual orientation with crime and drug use as the MDA’s new guidelines do, as if gay orientation is some kind of social threat.

The group reminds readers that Singapore's brief 2007 ban on Mass Effect was prompted by the game's rather mild lesbian sex scene (below). 

It would appear that Singapore's government is not especially tolerant in regard to its GLBT citizens. We note that People Like Us has informal group status in Singapore. Its website maintains that the government's Registrar of Societies refused to grant registration in 1997 and again in 2004.



Via: GayGamer

Watching Fox News’ recent Mass Effect hatchet job, it became immediately apparent that the network knew nothing about the game and was in fact making outrageous claims about non-existent sexual escapades.

Perhaps the most frightening thing is that when confronted with the facts afterward the network didn’t seem to care that it got the story wrong.

Perhaps it should.

Next Generation editor Colin Campbell opines that mainstream media is only hurting itself when it sensationalizes, scaremongers, and flat-out lies about video games.

The reason the [network execs and journalists haven’t] gotten with it on games is because they don’t play them; and neither does their rarefied social circle.

This is, in fact, a failure on their part because it’s not normal NOT to play games. Playing games is the thing regular people do. So when the networks start blustering about how it’s “interactivity” or “gore” or “porn” in games that does the damage, they look like idiots. And not just to some hardcore fraternity of die-hard gamers, but to millions of their viewers.

Only someone hopelessly out of touch could hold these antique opinions.

AE:  There’s no doubt that a large and significant percentage of the population plays video games but I have to wonder just how many of those gamers are familiar enough with Mass Effect to recognize that Fox’s report was full of it.

Campbell also takes news networks like Fox to task for being inconsistent in their concern for our “moral well-being.”  He points out that extreme violence and sexual imagery are commonplace on their shows and that other forms of media such as books, music, and movies are not being held to the same standard as games.

All of the above media businesses are self-regulated with rules in place that attempt to prevent the wrong people seeing inappropriate content. None of them succeed at this any better than games; and yet it’s games that get the brunt of the networks’ outrage.

-Reporting from San Diego, GP Correspondent Andrew Eisen

GamePolitics has been running a poll for the last two days in order to determine if the gaming community is willing to forgive (but certainly not forget) Cooper Lawrence's trashing of Mass Effect.

After all, the self-help author did come clean on the state of blissful ignorance from which she slammed the highly-regarded game on Fox News' Live Desk program on January 21st.

Moreover, many gamers apparently suspect that Cooper was simply the front person while Fox News is the real culprit behind the Mass Effect smear

So the votes are in. With nearly 2,600 GP readers registering an opinion:

• 52% say it's time to forgive Cooper


• 37% say "no way!"


• 11% are undecided

Stephen Totilo at MTV News has new comments from self-help author Cooper Lawrence, who likely needs no introduction to gamers following 10 days of nonstop coverage of the Fox News / Mass Effect debacle.

Lawrence's remarks, issued in a statement to MTV, were mostly conciliatory, although she dug her heels in on a couple of points:

In hindsight, I would have liked to have had the opportunity to play this game before appearing on the program. As a developmental-psychology expert, I was asked to appear on this particular show to discuss the broader issue of video games and their impact on developing adolescents, not as an expert on 'Mass Effect...'

I firmly stand by the research I cited that violence and sexual content in video games has a desensitizing effect on young developing minds.

Lawrence also criticized gamers' guerrilla use of Amazon.com's review feature to trash her book:

I believe that the customer-review feature on Amazon.com is not the appropriate forum to discuss an unrelated news segment. I appeared on a news program that provides an opportunity for debate on topics that have been previously covered by the media. Amazon's customer-reviews feature functions as a platform to review a product sold on their site, in this case my book, the topic of which does not relate to video games and/or 'Mass Effect.'

Previously, in an interview with Seth Schiesel of the New York Times, Lawrence said:

I recognize that I misspoke. I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke.

Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography. But it’s not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.

GamePolitics Poll: While Fox News rides out the Mass Effect storm unapologetically, Cooper Lawrence has borne the brunt of gamers' wrath.

Given that she has owned up to making inaccurate comments about Mass Effect, our latest GamePolitics poll asks whether it is time for gamers to forgive Cooper Lawrence.

The poll is located atop the right sidebar.

Be sure to vote!

Kotaku reports that frequent video game critic Jack Thompson has weighed in on the Mass Effect situation - with, perhaps, a surprising view.

Editor Brian Crecente quotes from Thompson from a recent e-mail exchange:

I don't see any problem with [Mass Effect]. The guy who shot his mouth off about it [on Fox News] had no idea what the Hell he was talking about... This contrived controversy is absolutely ridiculous. Report that, why don't you?

When last mentioned on GamePolitics, Canadian comedy troupe LoadingReadyRun was busy raising money for the Child's Play charity via their Desert Bus gaming marathon.

Now the LLR crew has come up with a great send-up of last week's nuking of Mass Effect by Fox News:

We didn't catch yesterday's Live Desk program on Fox News, but a sharp-eyed GamePolitics reader wrote in to tell us that host Martha MacCallum made mention of the Mass Effect debacle. From the e-mail we received: 

Martha MacCallum just wrapped up today's Live Desk with Cooper Lawrence's quote from the New York Times.

GP: That would be Ms. Lawrence's admission to the NYT's Seth Schiesel that she was totally winging it with her inaccurate remarks about Mass Effect...

Martha also reiterated that they had invited "Microsoft, BioWare, and EA" to appear on the show.

Still no apology [from Fox News]... I thought it was pretty dirty that they're letting Cooper take the fall. Personally, I feel that Martha's comments on the game BEFORE the debate/interviews were trend-setting, and Cooper was brought on with a pre-existing mindset that Fox planted.

GP: Agreed - and thanks for sending that in!

UPDATE: G4 has a transcript of Martha MacCallum's comments:

Last week we aired a segment about a video game called Mass Effect.  There has been some criticism from the gaming community about the segment – on Friday, Cooper Lawrence who was the guest who spoke-out against the game, had this to say in an interview with the New York Times:
 
(MacCallum reading Lawrence’s comments from Jan. 26th NYT article): “I recognize that I misspoke. I really regret saying that, and now that I have seen the game and seen the sex scenes, its kind of a joke.  Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had had heard, and they had said its like pornography.  But its not like pornography.  I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.”
 
MacCallum:  That from Cooper Lawrence in the New York Times.
 
MacCallum:  Again, we are inviting a representative from Microsoft, or BioWare or EA, the creators and distributors of this game for an interview with me, on this show to give their perspective of this story...

Hal Halpin, president of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA), has weighed in on the Mass Effect episode, calling on Fox News to correct its smear of the popular Xbox 360 game.

In a letter issued this afternoon to Fox News' Teri Van Horn, producer of last Monday's offensive Live Desk segment, Halpin wrote:

On behalf of the [ECA], the national non-profit organization representing American video game consumers, I urge you to correct and repudiate the misstatements leveled by Fox News’ Live Desk regarding the story and character interactions in Mass Effect.

Your show’s reporting was irresponsible and incorrect.  Your own “expert” Cooper Lawrence has subsequently disclaimed her misstatements... In the future, we ask that you book real gamer and industry experts on your show...

ECA’s members are disturbed by your news organization’s apparent disregard of the truth in this instance.  We represent a diverse group that cuts across all ages, with the weightiest portion in the coveted 18 - 45 age group, and with women accounting for 38% of gamers. Over the past week, our members have mobilized to speak out and set the record straight on Mass Effect, and we ask the same of you.

Full Disclosure Dept: The ECA is the parent company of GamePolitics.

The pop psychologist and author who so enraged the gaming community this week with her condescending attitude and false characterizations of BioWare's Mass Effect has 'fessed up to the New York Times.

Cooper Lawrence made her comments to the NYT's Seth Schiesel, who writes of the gaming community's intense reaction to Lawrence's Monday appearance on Fox News' Live Desk. From the article:

The Internet hath no fury like a gamer scorned...

Bound by global message boards, blogs, chat rooms and of course the games themselves, gamers are perhaps the single most intense subculture on the Internet — fiercely protective of their pastime and at ease with the byways of cyberspace...

Irate gamers have flooded the page on Amazon.com selling Ms. Lawrence’s most recent book, “The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace With Your Inner Overachiever,” sending its user-generated rating into oblivion... Many of the reviewers admit that they have not read Ms. Lawrence’s book.

Lawrence told Schiesel:

I recognize that I misspoke. I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke.

Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography. But it’s not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.

Meanwhile, BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka told Schiesel:

We’re hurt. We believe in video games as an art form, and on behalf of the 120 people who poured their blood and tears into this game over three years, we’re just really hurt that someone would misrepresent the game without even playing it. All we can hope for is that people who actually play our games will see the truth.

GP: We're delighted to see that Cooper Lawrence has come clean. But we'd also like to know exactly how the Mass Effect beat-down was orchestrated by Fox News. As GamePolitics demonstrated in an earlier case regarding Halo 3, another pyschologist was briefed on what to say just before air time (see: How Fox Morning Show Sensationalized the Halo-in-Church Issue). Did something similar take place in this case?

So far we've received no answers to three questions we posed to Lawrence earlier this week:

1.) Did Fox News brief you on the game, and to what extent?

2.) Were you instructed by Fox News to adopt a position critical of the game for the program?

3.) What study from the University of Maryland are you referring to in your comments?

...the one in which GP explains why EA's decision to fight for Mass Effect means as much to gamers as it does to the video game industry.

Catch it only on Joystiq...

There's a new twist in the Mass Effect saga...

MTV Multiplayer reports that an unnamed Fox News rep claims the network has invited Electronic Arts to appear:

A Fox News spokesperson, who declined to be named, stated, in full: “Fox News Channel has extended several invitations to EA through a company representative to appear on ‘Live Desk With Martha MacCallum’ to discuss ‘Mass Effect’ and the segment which aired on Monday. We have received no response.”

Meanwhile, EA VP Jeff Brown told MTV's Stephen Totilo that the online response to his protest letter to Fox News “has been a surprise and a little overwhelming.”

Via: Kotaku

Jeff Brown (left), VP of Communications for Electronic Arts, has requested that Fox News correct Monday's disgraceful trashing of Mass Effect.

As reported by Kotaku, Brown sent a letter to Teri Van Horn, producer of Fox News' Live Desk program on which the Mass Effect hatchet job was orchestrated. From Brown's letter:

As the parent company of BioWare... EA would like you to set the record straight on a number of errors and misstatements which incorrectly characterize the story and character interactions in Mass Effect.

Your headline above the televised story read: "New videogame shows full digital nudity and sex." Fact: Mass Effect does not include explicit or frontal nudity. Love scenes in non-interactive sequences include side and profile shots - a vantage frequently used in many prime-time television shows...

FNC voice-over reporter says: "You'll see full digital nudity and the ability for players to engage in graphic sex." Fact: Sex scenes in Mass Effect are not graphic. These scenes are very similar to sex sequences frequently seen on network television in prime time.

FNC reporter says: "Critics say Mass Effect is being marketed to kids and teenagers." Fact: That is flat out false...

Brown also named several of Fox's own programs for displaying a level of sexuality far beyond Mass Effect's single, rather tasteful love scene:

Do you watch the Fox Network? Do you watch Family Guy? Have you ever seen The OC? Do you think the sexual situations in Mass Effect are any more graphic than scenes routinely aired on those shows? Do you honestly believe that young people have more exposure to Mass Effect than to those prime time shows?

Like a bad penny, allegations that highly-regarded Xbox 360 title Mass Effect is porn disguised as a video game keep turning up.

The smear campaign crossed over to the mainstream yesterday with a Fox News report which aired on the network's Live Desk program.

Talking head Martha MacCallum hosted the segment, which featured a brief, tense debate between talk show host/author Cooper Lawrence and Spike TV game guy Geoff Keighley. While Keighley did a commendable job defending the game, right from the start it was clear that Mass Effect was in for a beat-down. As the segment opened, a Fox News graphic read:

"Se"Xbox? New Video Game Shows Full Digital Nudity and Sex

MacCallum: ...a new role-playing video game that is leaving NOTHING to the imagination... in some parts of this, you'll see full digital nudity. Imagine! And the ability for the players to engage in graphic sex and the person who's playing the game gets to decide exactly what's going to happen between the two people, if you know what I mean... Basically, Pandora's Box is open. I mean, kids have access to these things... How damaging is it, really?

Lawrence: ...the damage is this. We know that all the research shows that violence has a desensitizing effect. Well, sexuality does too... Here's how they're seeing women. They're seeing them as these objects of desire, as these hot bodies. They don't show women as being valued for anything other than their sexuality. And it's a man in this game deciding how many women he wants to be with.

Keighley: That's completely incorrect... first of all you can actually play as a man or a woman in the game. Cooper, have you ever played Mass Effect?

Lawrence: (giggling) No...

Keighley: ...you mentioned it has full graphical nudity, that's completely incorrect. There's no full nudity... there's the side of an alien boob... it's a small sexual situation in this game which is about two minutes out of a thirty-plus hour experience... you can actually play through this game without the sexual situation ever happening -

Lawrence: (interrupting) Right, and a young boy's going to be choosing not to have sex. That'll be what they choose. I mean, let's be realistic here -

Keighley: Cooper, it's not a simple choice. You don't turn on the game and it says, "would you like to have sex or not?" It's through the evolution of a relationship with characters and the fact that this game has incredible artificial intelligence. You can actually fall in love in this game. It's just like modeling your life...

Lawrence: (interrupting) Darling, I gotta go with the research. And the research says there's a new study out of the University of Maryland right now that says that boys that play video games cannot tell the difference between what they're seeing in the video game and the real world...

Keighley: You're completely misrepresenting the game...

Lawrence: Let me at him, Martha...

Keighley: It's a fantastic game and sex is a small, little part of it.

MacCallum: You know when you buy video games... you have to pick up the box and look at the back for the rating and you have to be involved in what your kids are looking at...

Male Panelist: Who can argue, possibly, that Luke Skywalker meets Debbie Does Dallas is a good thing? It's not. And I'm definitely not going to let Mass Effect in my house...

Female Panelist: I'm not sure why it didn't get an Adults Only rating. That's the highest rating it can have. So, first of all, this board that rates them needs to have their head examined...

2nd Male Panelist: I would argue that the government can not and should not censor everything coming across the web and in video games. At the end of the day... it's up to parents to control what their kids are seeing.

GP: Another disgraceful game bashing from Fox...

GamePolitics has previously demonstrated how shoddily some of these reports are thrown together (see: How Fox Morning Show Sensationalized the Halo-in-Church Issue). Nor are gamers likely to forget Fox's allowing Jack Thompson air time to bash video games while the Virginia Tech massacre was unfolding.

As for Cooper Lawrence's expertise with video game issues? It's apparently nonexistent. She is the author of several books - on dating: The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace with Your Inner Overachiever; Been There, Done That, Kept the Jewelry; The Fixer-upper Man: Turn Mr. Maybe into Mr. Right in 5 Easy Steps; and the unforgettable Cosmo Girl's Quiz Book: All About Guys.

What a week gamers shared with conservative talk show host and author Kevin McCullough (left).

On Monday GamePolitics reported that McCullough had wrong-headedly trashed Mass Effect, treating the popular and well-regarded 360 title with the kind of disgust usually reserved for snuff films.

On Wednesday we were outraged by McCullough's Thompson-esque bashing of "gamer nerds."

But now McCullough has backed off a good bit, even issuing an apology of sorts:

Based on the multitude of response by gamers who share my concern for decency in the entertainment of our children, it is obvious that I had been misinformed on at least two points of substance in my original column.

For this I DO apologize to the gaming universe!

...I still do concur with my original position that the objectionable content in Mass Effect is still offensive, and should be kept out of the hands of those under age.

GP: Well... To be honest, Kevin, your original position wasn't that Mass Effect was merely "offensive," but rather that it constituted digital sodomy and "virtual orgasmic rape." But we're glad you're willing to learn from other viewpoints (unlike some critics we know). McCullough continues:

Mass Effect fans have demonstrated that the three minute cuts on YouTube are only arrived at after hours of play. So in their argument the "percentage" of objectionable content is heavily outweighed by the overwhelming amount of content leading up to it. Point well made...

GP: While we respect and appreciate McCullough's about-face, the real take-away from this episode is the persuasive power of gamers when they unite against a common threat.

McCullough spent most of this week's radio program discussing the Mass Effect affair with some very level-headed gamers. It's worth a listen...

Conservative pundit Kevin McCullough absorbed one of life's harsh lessons this week:

If you want to condemn, you'd better be right.

McCullough, who savaged Mass Effect with some of the most outrageous nonsense we've ever heard in relation to video games, further raised the ire of the gamer community by following up with nasty generalizations about those who play:

The Gamer-Nerd universe exploded in anger over the tone and a couple of the specifics of my most recent column... If the few who wrote me are indicative of the rest of the gaming universe, we know at least they have passion - for their toy-boxes...

Look, if the Gamer-Nerds need their pervy outlets to find true release and inner peace - then make them drive to the outskirts of town and be forced to frequent those places that no one wants in the community to get them...

The inevitable backlash from the gaming community has popped up on places like Kotaku and in a variety of refutations of McCullough's off-the-wall premise, including this one on GamerDad. And, of course, in individual comments to McCullough's rants.

Penny Arcade, however, may have the most insightful take on what McCullough is up to.

Have some video game critics completely given up on the idea of verifying their claims before issuing them?

We ask because we're flabbergasted by what's been said about Xbox 360 role-playing hit Mass Effect in recent days.

GamePolitics reported last week on bizarre accusations by the conservative Cybercast News Service that Mass Effect featured "explicitly graphic sexual intercourse."

That those charges are just wrong didn't stop conservative blogger Kevin McCullough from picking up the CNS nonsense and running with it. McCullough, in fact, tries to turn the alleged porn in Mass Effect into a presidential campaign issue. In a (not so) cleverly-titled Townhall.com article, The "Sex-Box" Race for President, McCullough writes:

[Presidential candidates] all probably assume they have better, much more important, urgent, timely, things to campaign on, but I sure would like to get their individual takes on the new video game that one company is marketing to fifteen year old boys.

GP: Do we really need to point out that Mass Effect is rated "M" for players 17 and older? More from McCullough:

It's called "Mass Effect" and it allows its players... to engage in the most realistic sex acts ever conceived. One can custom design the shape, form, bodies, race, hair style, breast size of the images they wish to "engage" and then watch in crystal clear, LCD, 54 inch screen, HD clarity as the video game "persons" hump in every form, format, multiple, gender-oriented possibility they can think of...

GP: Has McCullough played - or even invested any time at all in researching - Mass Effect? Based on what he has written, we can't imagine that he has. His screed continues:

Here's a question [for the candidates]... "How much moral judgement should the President push into legislative issues that are likely to severely damage our children's innocence, function, and capability?..."

If a pre-teen, teen, young adult, or adult male plays such a game in which the women DO submit without choice, are made to appear as Barbie streetwalkers, and perform whatever act can be imagined, what's to stop that same male from assuming that the women in his "other world" shouldn't be forced to do the same.

...And because of the digital chip age in which we live - "Mass Effect" can be customized to sodomize whatever, whoever, however, the game player wishes.

With it's "over the net" capabilities virtual orgasmic rape is just the push of a button away.

McCullough wraps up with a call for legislation apparently designed to drive Mass Effect developer BioWare out of business:

How refreshing would it be for a President to... put his pen and signature to a bill that dealt with such simulated sex excess in a way that was punitive to its creators to such a degree that they would never recover from it?

GP: We've seen some ill-informed criticisms of video games over the years, but McCullough has definitely raised (or, perhaps, lowered) the bar in that regard.

Once again, for anyone who cares to actually, you know, research the well-known love scene in Mass Effect, here's the video:

The Cybercast News Service, a conservative site, claims in a report published this morning that best-selling Xbox 360 title Mass Effect contains "explicitly graphic sexual intercourse."

The charge seems to be based on a well-known episode in the game in which there is a romantic liaison between the player's character and an NPC. However, in our view, it's quite a stretch to describe what appears onscreen as explicitly graphic sexual intercourse, which generally denotes hard core pornography.

Mass Effect is far from that.

However, a lawyer (no, not that lawyer) quoted in the article specifically refers to the game as porn. From the CNS piece:

The game is "clearly marketed to minors," Cathy Ruse, a lawyer and senior fellow for legal studies at the Family Research Council, told Cybercast News Service.

"There are cultural implications for feeding porn to kids in this way," ...Ruse said.

In describing the scene, CNS writes:

The playable character can become romantically involved... This storyline culminates in a cutscene in which the characters copulate in full digital nudity.

The article also quotes Bob Waliszewki, described as a media specialist with Focus on the Family. Waliszewki seems especially troubled by the fact that two women are involved in the love scene: 

Unfortunately, Mass Effect... even goes so far as to allow homosexuality to be on par with heterosexuality and heterosexuality outside of its proper context of marriage.

Attorney Ruse also painted the love scene in the game as porn in the legal sense:

Most states have what's called 'Harmful to Minors' laws on the books that say that selling sexual material that a jury would deem 'patently offensive to minors, which lacks literary, artistic, political or scientific value.' ... might be prosecutable.

We need state and local prosecutors with spines and backbones to prosecute some of these companies that are violating the law.

Regarding CyberCast News Service, SourceWatch reports that:

Cybercast News Service (CNS) is a subsidiary of the conservative news monitoring group, the Media Research Center (MRC)...

Media Research Center Inc. is a conservative media watchdog group run by president and founder Brent Bozell. The Center... is funded by larger right-wing foundations...

Brent Bozell is also the founder of the Parents Television Council.

Here's the video. Do you find it to be "explicitly graphic sexual intercourse?"

It seems like just yesterday that GamePolitics reported that new Xbox 360 release Mass Effect had been banned in Singapore over a rather mild lesbian sex scene.

Actually, it was the day before yesterday.

But, as reported by Today Online, the game with the sexy, blue alien has now been green-lighted in Singapore:

After fanning the ire of the video gaming community with the ban of Mass Effect, the authorities have done a U-turn by rating the highly-anticipated futuristic space adventure by Microsoft and allowing its sale in Singapore.

In a statement on Friday, the Media Development Authority (MDA) said the game had been reviewed by the Board of Film Censors (BFC) and is now rated M18. The decision comes ahead of its planned implementation of a classification system for video games.

Singapore currently has no rating systed in place for games. Prior to its reversal of course, Singapore was also the only country in the world to have banned Mass Effect. Germaine Ong of Singapore-based gaming mag Gameaxis told Today Online:

The ratings system is a long time coming but any step now is a positive one...

This is significant because gamers would have obtained the game anyway, through parallel importers or illegal means. Now, gamers and parents are able to make a decision on which games are suitable rather than have the games prescribed to them by the authorities.

Ian Tan, a Southeast Asian Xbox 360 exec added:

We welcome the MDA's decision to allow Mass Effect for sale in Singapore with an M18 rating. We will continue to work with the MDA to promote responsible gaming here.

USA Today has more.

BioWare's Mass Effect has been banned in Singapore, according to GameAxis Online, a site operated on the island nation.

Apparently, the game's widely-publicized love scene between two women - one of whom is a blue-hued alien - didn't go down well with government censors. From the GameAxis Online report:

If you were expecting a raunchy Lust Caution movie-inspired sex scene, then you're going to come away disappointed. Of course, when a video like the one shown in Kotaku makes its round do you really expect our censorship board to let the game pass through its net? Of course they don't!

So here's the sad news coming from official sources. Mass Effect, the wonderfully crafted RPG from Bioware is now officially BANNED! The irony though, is that the ban probably only serve to intensify the game's demand here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Am0vf6GeXI