GamerDad & Hot Coffee by Andrew Bub July 22, 2005

DMN "How do you feel about this as a parent?"

GamerDad I don't believe media should be censored and since GTA:SA is already infamous for being inappropriate for children, I don't think this makes much of a difference. The game is already Rated 17+ (M-Mature). Now it's rated AO (Adults Only which is 18+) - that's exactly one year difference!

DMN "You've told me you don't allow your kids to play games like this"

GamerDad My kids play games like Eye Toy, Donkey Konga, and old arcade games or Super Mario. Oh, and games featuring Dora the Explorer. They can play Grand Theft Auto when they're adults.

DMN "Have your feelings changed with the new rating?"

GamerDad No. But it's interesting that a game that features mayhem, murder, manslaughter, and actively portraying a criminal is suddenly worse if you add sex to the mix. GamerDad rated Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as ADULT simply because of the violence, now that we know about Hot Coffee ... we'll keep it with the ADULT SEAL.

DMN "Are you considering returning or exchanging your game for one without the code?"

GamerDad No, but that's largely because if the relative difficulty in getting the mod to work and because my kids are little. Parents with teens should curtail access to the and/or exchange it. But the bottom line here is that kids ALREADY shouldn't have access to the game. It was Rated M-Mature and all AO means is you can't buy it at certain chains. Oh and one year difference. Anyway, the bottom line here is that your kid shouldn't have access to the game before we knew they'd be able to see simulated naked people and sex.

DMN "How easily could this issue come up with other games?"

GamerDad Again we aren't sure who is responsible but every parent needs to know about mods (short for Modifications). They can be created and applied to ANY PC game. This includes Nude codes for the T-Teen rated Sims 2 to "skins" that make Quake players look like Presidential Candidates. It's a scary Internet out there, parents need to hold their kid's hands when crossing the street.

DMN "What's the best way parents can make sure they're not inadvertantly buying something inappropriate for their kids?"

GamerDad Visit GamerDad.com. Seriously, we review games more completely than a review body like the ESRB can. We didn't detect the Hot Coffee mod when we reviewed GTA:SA but that's only because it's very well hidden. But in general parents need to remember that GTA was an M-Rated game to begin with. That makes it the equivalent of the MPAA's R rating. The Hot Coffee sex scenes are pretty tame for an R-Rated movie, don't you think?

DMN "How big an issue is this anyway?"

GamerDad It's a small issue but it's serious enough to pay attention to. Sadly it's being exploited for political gain. The bottom line is that we don't know yet if Rockstar put the content in there (in which case Rockstar should be fined by the ESRB) or if Hackers came up with a way to add this content (if this is the case, then it's a completely different issue). But there's nothing in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that is worse than the things any enterprising youngster, if left unsupervised, can find on the Internet. The danger isn't a videogame; the danger is not paying attention to what your kids are up to.

Read Our Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Review

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