Saturday, July 16, 2005

Clinton Positions Herself

I'm going out to dinner, and then I have a certain book to read, so this'll probably be it for me tonight. Hillary Clinton is calling for a probe on Rockstar Games (in)famous Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video game. The already controversial game has re-entered the spotlight after an internet download allowed players to simulate sex acts with characters on-screen.

Clinton, in my opinion, is playing this exactly right. She is loudly condemning the explicit content of games as "spiraling out of control," while simultanously limiting the probe only to the question of whether the modification unlocks hidden code written by Rockstar, or, as Rockstar claims, "is the result of hackers disassembling and then combining, recompiling and altering the game's source code." This is an important distinction, as it determines whether Rockstar can be morally/legally liable. But this is unimportant on the political level, where Clinton will score points with the married white women who will be critical if she is to have a chance in 2008.

1 comment:

Karasoth said...

How well did that work for Al Gore in 88....

and Al Gore was going up against offical industry content, not mod content done by hackers ont he side