Gaming's 10 Biggest Scandals

GamePolitics has a list of ten of the most well known gaming scandals to hit the games industry. Starting back in 1993 with the senate hearings on Night Trap (a game that arguably led to today's ESRB), the list catalogs some things that the companies responsible would probably just as soon forget. "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 ..." At the post's close they call for additional nominations, as it's definitely not an exhaustive list. They left off the ESRB's decision to re-rate Oblivion , for example. What 'scandalous' gaming events can you see rating with this topics?

WhereTF is Mortal Kombat?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

WhereTF is Mortal Kombat?

e.g.,
http://www.gamespot.com/features/6090892/p-5.html [gamespot.com]

It looks like this "article" was written in about 5 minutes and would probably get a C in your average sixth-grade English class if judged for intellectual content.

Left out Carmageddon too

[El_Muerte_TDS]

Carmageddon was the first game ever to be banned by the U.K.

Re:Night Trap

[Akaihiryuu]

I actually have an old copy of the Sega CD/32X version sitting around somewhere. It's not a *terrible* game, gameplay is basically the same as Dragon's Lair, but it's not good for more than one playthrough as it is exactly the same every time. The amusing thing is, despite the controversy, if it were a movie, it probably would have *barely* gotten a PG-13 rating, if that. No nudity, no on-screen violence, no blood, nothing. The most "controversial" scene was a few women in nightgowns, nothing even remotely revealing. The fact that there was controversy over it was rather amusing.

Re:WhereTF is Mortal Kombat?

[Hemogoblin]

I find it very odd to see this Gamepolitics article on Slashdot. Why of all articles was this one submitted to Slashdot? Normally, Gamepolitics articles are very well written and insightful, but this article is one of worst on the entire site. Practically all others such as this one [gamepolitics.com] are more interesting.

Damn you submitter for portraying one of my favorite sites in a bad light!

Re:Night Trap

[Akaihiryuu]

Also, Resident Evil (any game, doesn't matter which one) was FAR FAR more violent/bloody than Night Trap ever was. The most violence I remember from Night Trap was someone dressed all in black grabbing someone and carrying them off-screen (usually through a hidden trap door). And that's only if you didn't prevent it (the object of the game was to prevent it).

The Star Wars Galaxies NGE should be there

[WCMI92]

The NGE was the biggest bait and switch EVER pulled on a MMO subscriber community, sell them an expansion containing content and enhancements for professions that would be removed 2 weeks later, publically say things like "The CU is here to stay", and "Jedi will never be a starter profession" then 2 days after charging for the expansion announce a massive change to the game that deleted 2/3rds of it. This was so egregious that a week later SOE was forced to offer refunds for the expansion (probably because spending time in a federal "pound me in the ass" prison for wire fraud didn't appeal to John Smedley).

The NGE also ruined SOE's reputation basically for good. Not that the rest of Sony wasn't helping.

Re:False

[Creepy]

are you sure? I remember something similar to the first poster, Oblivion defaulted to the male texture unless an override was present such as the female texture. There was also some odd naming, too, as I think female textures were all in a container _male (something like that - its been a while) and those contained the bra art. I believe all the first "topless" mods did was remove the _male files, skinning the female character with the male nipples.

Still, it was hardly the first game to ship with art that could be modded to be topless without adding any code - even before San Andreas - Gothic (I) shipped in Germany with a topless bathing scene and they covered it up with a bra for the US version to get an M rating. You could get the original version simply by copying the CD included art over the installed art. Still, it was difficult to get to the location where the woman was bathing because it was near the endgame and you had to wait for the scripted event.