Unlevel playing field for video games? -- Q&A w/ ESRB President Patricia Vance

Iria

The video game industry found itself embroiled in another controversy earlier this summer that invited denunciations of excess and calls for a government inquiry.

The ruckus broke out after the public learned that top-selling video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" included sexually explicit scenes that could be accessed using code that quickly spread across the Internet.

"GTA: San Andreas" had already been seen as a fairly extreme game, given that its players could routinely shoot police officers, beat up prostitutes, carjack at will and more. As such, the gaming industry's rating agency, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), had given it a rating of M, for mature. But in the wake of the revelations about the additional, sexual, content, the ESRB was forced to change the rating to A, for adults only. Such a rating would likely mean a big drop in future sales for the game, and indeed, it has been banned outright in Australia.

Before long, the so-called "Hot Coffee" scandal, named after the modification that unlocked the extreme scenes, became a hot news item, and fodder for politicians, who used it to attack the gaming industry. Sen. Hillary Clinton seized on the scandal and castigated the game's publisher, Rockstar Games, for distributing immoral material.

But through it all, the ESRB kept its cool, maintaining that the Hot Coffee modification meant nothing more than that "GTA: San Andreas" needed a different rating. Meanwhile, the ESRB kept on reviewing new games and bestowing upon them one of the six distinct ratings it gives for games, including C for early childhood, E for everyone, T for teens and the aforementioned M and A.

CNET News.com spoke with ESRB President Patricia Vance about the "GTA" scandal, the fallout, the board's ratings process and more.
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