Move along please, there’s no Hot Coffee to see here. Move along. The ESRB’s Patricia Vance has spoken out in answer to the complaints arising from the infamous Manhunt 2 hack which unmasks some of the more gruesome content that was toned down to earn the game a Mature rating.

News of this hack, despite the convoluted steps needed to make the content visible, was more than enough to get watchdogs, politicians and parents in a fresh tizzy about the violence in video games debate. Patricia Vance has explained in detail why this hack differs from the Hot Coffee mod that marred GTA: San Andreas and that the ESRB was made fully aware that the content still remained in its masked form, thus requiring “numerous changes to the game’s code […] and other unauthorized software programs to access it”.

End of story then? The hell it is. This certainly won’t kill the bad press that the hack and the very existence of Manhunt 2 is creating. The real shame is that Manhunt 2 isn’t even a very good game; in fact it probably wouldn’t sell half as many copies if it wasn’t for all the hubbub caused by people getting upset about it. We just hope that the public’s view of the games industry isn’t going to be permanently overshadowed by nonsensically violent titles like this. Rockstar’s attempts to justify the game by associating it with the games-art debate won’t help much though. It would be nice to point out that there are great many decent games out there that don’t rely on pointless torture porn to make sales.

Meanwhile, US retailer Target is heavily rumoured to be pulling the title from its shelves and, if true, it wouldn’t be surprising if more were to follow suit. Although censorship is not an ideal solution, it looks like the BBFC’s ongoing decision to refuse classification to Manhunt 2 will turn out to be in the best interest of both the games industry and UK games retailers.

Source
Game Politics

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