And the drama continues. Yesterday, EA sent a letter to the producer of the FOX News show, Live Desk with Martha MacCallum, concerning a recent report that pegged the popular game, Mass Effect, as having graphic sex scenes with full frontal nudity (which anyone who has actually played the game could tell you is not true). EA’s Vice President of communications, Jeff Brown, asked that the show issue a correction to this misinformation. Well, the producer, Trip VanHorn, responded with a single-line text message telling Brown to contact their PR department, essentially ignoring the issue. But Brown has stated he is not giving up that easily.

“We’re not giving up…EA is under new management now and [EA CEO] Riccitiello’s made it clear that we’re going to stand up for our creative teams and the games they make. We’re going to fight back. There’s a lot of nonsense about gaming coming out of politics, government and media – John wants us to start calling them out on it.”

Unfortunately, he also noted that they probably would not be seeing a correction from FOX News specifically anytime soon:

“I watch Fox news a lot and recognize that they tend to move fast to the next topic. It really stinks for the people who made the game, but I don’t think they should be waiting for a correction from Fox.”

*Sigh* A large part of me knew that FOX would probably ignore them, but I still hoped for a different outcome. On the plus side, at least it sounds like EA intends to be more actively involved in trying to control the misinformation that gets spread about video games sometimes. It would interesting to see Brown on TV defending video games himself. Good job, EA (and I never thought I’d say that without any sarcasm).

Via GameDaily

Hoo boy, what an interesting past 48 hours it has been. First there was that report on FOX News where an “expert” and a panel of other people who hadn’t played a game since the 80’s ripped into the critically-acclaimed game, Mass Effect, for featuring “full digital nudity” and the “ability for the players to engage in graphic sex.” Following that, a large number of outraged gamers took to Amazon.com to post terrible reviews of the “expert,” Cooper Lawrence’s, book (currently, the book has a 1 1/2 star rating and is tagged with such words as “hack,” “garbage,” and “ignorant”). And now EA have decided they’re tired of their recently-acquired game getting dragged through the mud and have sent a request to FOX News to correct the inaccurate statement broadcast on the show.

Jeff Brown, Vice President of communications at EA, recently sent a letter to Teri VanHorn, producer of the Live Desk with Martha MacCallum show. Here are a number of excerpts from that letter, where he argues for corrective action to be taken:

“As the parent company of BioWare, the studio which created the game, EA would like you to set the record straight on a number of errors and misstatements which incorrectly characterize the story and character interactions in Mass Effect.”

“Your headline above the televised story read: “New videogame shows full digital nudity and sex.” Fact: Mass Effect does not include explicit or frontal nudity. Love scenes in non-interactive sequences include side and profile shots – a vantage frequently used in many prime-time television shows. It’s also worth noting that the game requires players to develop complex relationships before characters can become intimate and players can chose to avoid the love scenes altogether.

FNC voice-over reporter says: “You’ll see full digital nudity and the ability for players to engage in graphic sex.”
Fact: Sex scenes in Mass Effect are not graphic. These scenes are very similar to sex sequences frequently seen on network television in prime time.

FNC reporter says: “Critics say Mass Effect is being marketed to kids and teenagers.”
Fact: That is flat out false. Mass Effect and all related marketing has been reviewed by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and rated Mature – appropriate for players 17-years and older. ESRB routinely counsels retailers on requesting proof of age in selling M-rated titles and the system has been lauded by members of Congress and the Federal Trade Commission. In practical terms, the ratings work as well or better than those used for warning viewers about television content.”

[Concerning the panel in the discussion] “They have had zero experience with Mass Effect and are largely ignorant about videogames, the people who play them, and the ESRB system that governs their ratings and sales.”

“The resulting coverage was insulting to the men and women who spent years creating a game which is acclaimed by critics for its high creative standards. As video games continue to take audiences away from television, we expect to see more TV news stories warning parents about the corrupting influence of interactive entertainment. But this represents a new level of recklessness.

Do you watch the Fox Network? Do you watch Family Guy? Have you ever seen The OC? Do you think the sexual situations in Mass Effect are any more graphic than scenes routinely aired on those shows? Do you honestly believe that young people have more exposure to Mass Effect than to those prime time shows?

This isn’t a legal threat; it’s an appeal to your sense of fairness. We’re asking FNC to correct the record on Mass Effect.”

I have to say, kudos to EA for stepping up the plate and trying to sort out this whole mess that’s been going on for far too long already. People being offended by existing graphic images in a video game is one thing, but being offended by things that don’t exist all because they can’t be bothered to do a tiny bit of research? That’s just plain ridiculous. Unfortunately, my pessimistic side is worried EA’s pleas might fall on deaf ears.

Via Kotaku

*UPDATE* Unfortunately, Amazon is now deleting any one-star negative reviews of the book.

After hearing the offensive and biased attack against Mass Effect on Fox News, I decided to check out some links on Cooper Lawrence, the psychologist who took part in the biased strike on the game. I came across her book on Amazon.com titled ‘The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace with Your Inner Overachiever’. It was interesting to see that the page was full of one-star reviews of her book mostly coming from gamers. Shawn covered the topic HERE yesterday. This is definitely one of the reasons I love the internet. She may think that it’s ok to bash a product she has never used and gamers are now bashing a book they have never read to drop her book rating on Amazon. Currently, there over 40 negative reviews posted. Check out the Amazon link HERE if you’d like to throw your two cents in or to just read some of the funny comments against her. Personally, I would never purchase advice from a psychologist who doesn’t do research on the topics she talks about. If Fox News and other media outlets want a war against gaming, they’ve picked an industry full of hard-core fans who aren’t going to sit back and take it anymore.

Some of the witty comments included:
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Martha MacCallum of FOX News hosted a debate on the network’s Live Desk program featuring talk show host/author Cooper Lawrence and Spike TV game guy Geoff Keighley facing off over the implied sexual encounter in Mass Effect.

Any expectations of a fair and impartial debate dissipated after the FOX News graphic title announced, “Se”Xbox? New Video Game Shows Full Digital Nudity and Sex.”

MacCallum: …a new role-playing video game that is leaving NOTHING to the imagination… in some parts of this, you’ll see full digital nudity. Imagine! And the ability for the players to engage in graphic sex and the person who’s playing the game gets to decide exactly what’s going to happen between the two people, if you know what I mean… Basically, Pandora’s Box is open. I mean, kids have access to these things… How damaging is it, really?

Lawrence: …the damage is this. We know that all the research shows that violence has a desensitizing effect. Well, sexuality does too… Here’s how they’re seeing women. They’re seeing them as these objects of desire, as these hot bodies. They don’t show women as being valued for anything other than their sexuality. And it’s a man in this game deciding how many women he wants to be with.

Keighley: That’s completely incorrect… first of all you can actually play as a man or a woman in the game. Cooper, have you ever played Mass Effect?

Lawrence: (giggling) No…

Keighley: …you mentioned it has full graphical nudity, that’s completely incorrect. There’s no full nudity… there’s the side of an alien boob… it’s a small sexual situation in this game which is about two minutes out of a thirty-plus hour experience… you can actually play through this game without the sexual situation ever happening -

Lawrence: (interrupting) Right, and a young boy’s going to be choosing not to have sex. That’ll be what they choose. I mean, let’s be realistic here -

Keighley: Cooper, it’s not a simple choice. You don’t turn on the game and it says, “would you like to have sex or not?” It’s through the evolution of a relationship with characters and the fact that this game has incredible artificial intelligence. You can actually fall in love in this game. It’s just like modeling your life…

Lawrence: (interrupting) Darling, I gotta go with the research. And the research says there’s a new study out of the University of Maryland right now that says that boys that play video games cannot tell the difference between what they’re seeing in the video game and the real world…

Keighley: You’re completely misrepresenting the game…

Lawrence: Let me at him, Martha…

Keighley: It’s a fantastic game and sex is a small, little part of it.

MacCallum: You know when you buy video games… you have to pick up the box and look at the back for the rating and you have to be involved in what your kids are looking at…

Male Panelist: Who can argue, possibly, that Luke Skywalker meets Debbie Does Dallas is a good thing. It’s not. And I’m definitely not going to let Mass Effect in my house…

Female Panelist: I’m not sure why it didn’t get an Adults Only rating. That’s the highest rating in can have. So, first of all, this board that rates them needs to have their head examined…

2nd Male Panelist: I would argue that the governement cannot and should not censor everything coming across the web and in video games. At the end of the day… it’s up to parents to control what their kids are seeing.

I find it disappointing and yet unsurprising that MacCallum obviously didn’t bother to play Mass Effect or even just watch the video in question before hosting a debate with an equally ignorant opponent of the game. I didn’t expect Lawrence, author of books on dating including The Cult of Perfection: Making Peace with Your Inner Overachiever; Been There, Done That, Kept the Jewelry; The Fixer-upper Man: Turn Mr. Maybe into Mr. Right in 5 Easy Steps; and Cosmo Girl’s Quiz Book: All About Guys to be unbiased or even well informed, but I did expect the moderator to at least attempt to present both sides. That’s sloppy, unprofessional work. Unfortunately, FOX has shown bias before: see How Fox Morning Show Sensationalized the Halo-in-Church Issue).

For those of you who enjoy watching disasters unfold, here is the video clip.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKzF173GqTU[/youtube]

via GamePolitics