Hot Coffee is more like Hot Water for Modders

Finally, the uproar over GTA:SA's Hot Coffee mini-game is slowing to a simmer. For those not bothering to tune into "making it more than it is" news story, here's the express version: Game modder in Europe finds a way to quickly enable a "secret mini-game" in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PC version) - one that allows the character you control to have sex with his girlfriend. The modder claims he did nothing but enable the mini-game and nothing he did was custom content. Rockstar remains suspiciously quiet during this time as press grows around it; of course, subsequently, sales of GTA:SA go through the roof. Politicians become enraged and begin bible-thumping, the ESRB slaps a new maturity rating on the game and some stores stop selling the game altogether. Meanwhile, the game modder continues to state he didn't add anything to the game. Shortly thereafter (and something I mentioned in an interview with Rolling Stone), the same minigame surfaces in different versions of the game (PS2, GameCube, etc.) - further proving the orig game modders position that he only enabled the mini sex game. Finally, Rockstar comes clean and states that the mini-game should not have been included and it will be removed from future versions.

Ok, done.

While I don't approve or disapprove of the inclusion of the mini-game, my real concern is how it effects the modding community - which came under some real scrutiny after Rockstar's uneasy silence and then finally putting the blame on the mod community. People modding games was starting to look like devil's work when the media started focusing on what people were doing to games post-purchase. Rockstar's silence (and eventual finger-pointing) allowed for this - basically letting the mod community take the Hot Coffee heat until it became abundantly clear that they weren't at fault. To shake more salt, Jack Thompson, a Miami-based attorney that's been shouting to the rafters about how videogames are the bane of our society, is now focusing on the Sims 2, stating that its an adult playground.

Modding games is the one area that makes video games so unique. It placed Doom and Quake on the map and built communities around it. It's that practice that made Machinima grow. While there's no plan to clamp down on modding, it would have an extremely adverse effect on gaming in general. Customizing the game to be "yours" is what makes most games such best-sellers - that sense of ownership (not real ownership, mind you, but a perceived being-part of). Most game developers know this - building up game loyalty cements a player base and helps continue sales.

Of course, the real issue for me is how this could effect Machinima development. If game developers become more concerned with the Jack Thompsons of the world, and less concerned with the players interests, some Machinima work could be affected. The inability to custom create assets for a game (without lots of hacking) would be a shame for both the game community and Machinima.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), the gaming community is one of "if there's a will, there's a way." Modders can enable ways to add custom content to a game if there's enough desire to do so. I would just prefer if it was with the game developer's (and the public's) support.