The New York Times featured a story today that discusses the ongoing legal battle over the "Hot Coffee" scandal. For those of you who may have forgotten, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas featured a hidden scene where the star of the game was engaging in a form of sexual activity with another on-screen character.
After parenting groups expressed shock that developers could throw such a "disgusting" act in a video game, the ESA was forced to change its rating to Adults Only and Rockstar Games was brought under fire for having so-called pornographic material in a video game.
But as the Times is reporting, it seems the only people that care are the lawyers. According to the report, "Lawyers who sued the makers of the video game...profess to be shocked, simply shocked, that few people who bought the game were offended by sex scenes buried in its software."
Since the lawsuit was brought against the company, only 2,676 claims were filed and the lawyers have expressed displeasure over such a low number.
"Am I disappointed? Sure," said Seth R. Lesser, lead lawyer for the plaintiffs. "We can't guess as to why now, several years later, people care or don't care. The merits of the case were clear."
But were they? Was San Andreas really "sold as something it wasn't" and gamers were really upset to find out that sexual content made its way into a game even though they couldn't find it unless they had third-party software and some advanced knowledge of game development?
I certainly don't think so. Look, I don't see any problem with the scene and even if it was readily available, I wouldn't care. Call me a socially liberal loon or naive, but why should we care about sex in video games?
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