New rating slows down Grand Theft Auto

The entertainment industry has frequently seen battles over sexually explicit material in the movies and in music, but now it may have turned to video games. \nThe extremely popular video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" had its rating changed from "M", which meant "suitable for persons 17 and older", to "AO", which allows only adults to purchase the game, last Wednesday, and a storm of controversy has followed. \nThe move follows an investigation by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, in which they determined the game contained sexually explicit content, and was unsuitable for children. \nThe rating change has caused a swirl of controversy over the game, and many stores have pulled it from their shelves until a sex-free version is released.\nIn Bloomington, stores such as GameStop and Best Buy have followed corporate orders to immediately halt sales of the game, according to a public relations statements issued by the companies.\nA Bloomington Best Buy public relations employee said only, "As a policy, we don't sell 'Adult Only' games at all."\nAttempts at reaching the Bloomington GameStop public relations director were unsuccessful. \nBut, the recent controversy surrounding the game seems to be a non-factor in the mind of some video-game playing IU students. Frequent gamer Phillip Sanders, a sophomore at IU, said he believes the controversy will only make the game more popular.\n"I'm still going to play the game, and I think the rating change will only make people want to buy it more," Sanders said. \nBloomington resident Nick Vote expressed similar sentiments as Sanders.\n"If anything, all this has only intrigued me, and I would play it just to see how bad it really is," Vote said. \nThe sexually explicit scenes in question are not in the actual formatted game itself, but rather in a "hidden" area, that can only be accessed by downloading an Internet "mod" that is capable of unlocking the scenes. These "mods" are readily available on the Internet, and can access the sexually explicit scenes on only the PC version of the video game. \nRockstar Games, the producer of the GTA series, issued a statement in which they stated that they were in the process of creating a version of the game without sexual content. \nDespite the public outcry from parent, politicians, and special advisory committees like the ESRB, the game has still managed to sell over 5 million copies since its release in the fall. \nRockstar Games plans on releasing the clean version of the game shortly.