GamePolitics: Congress should grill Take Two
Dennis McCauley, the big cheese over at GamePolitics, is running an op/ed at industry-site Next-Gen.biz (the .biz is how you know they mean business!) about why, if he had his druthers, Take Two would be the ones in Congress' hot seat and not "intermediaries like [the ESA's] Doug Lowenstein and [the ESRB's] Patricia Vance."
The idea is simple: Take Two and Rockstar Games are, by and large, responsible for the increasing backlash against violent games thanks to a little bit of wayward code we've all come to know and love. Yup, Hot Coffee. Point is, instead of extrapolating this one case out to represent the the entire gaming industry, Congress should isolate their investigation on this one instance. Even notable game designers like Warren Spector have called Rockstar out for their irresponsible behavior and Take Two's bungling of the controversy (lying ... eh, not such a great idea) only exacerbated the issue. McCauley's even made a list of questions for prospective congress-peoples just to get 'em started:
Who conceived the Hot Coffee idea?
Who created the animations?
Who eventually decided to nix it from the final version?
Why it wasn't removed from the disc entirely?
Did insiders realize the active and highly-skilled GTA mod community would find the sex animations?
Why did Rockstar and Take-Two lie about Hot Coffee when it was revealed?
Why did they try to blame the mess on their biggest fans, the GTA mod community?
Ouch! Those are sure to leave some bruises. So what say ye? Should Take Two and Rockstar be taking the beatings for all this anti-gaming hysteria?
See also:
ESRB: Lie to us, pay up to $1 million in fines
Tepid Coffee: Take-Two gets foreboding slap on wrist by FTC
Spector clarifies GTA comments
