I shouldn't even justfiy this with a response but we all know we can't help it.

I wonder if the guy who got so ouraged refuses to use the internet anymore ... seeing as it has child pornography on it aswell. The difference being that Rockstar made a joke, there is no subject matter within the game other than that site (maybe a radio ad, not sure) but it isn't tied into the gameplay at all.

I'm sorry, but I can't agree.

This is one 'joke' that oversteps the mark. Whereas the furore over hot coffee was overblown and to a point a farce in itself, it's totally inappropriate to be making jokes about paedophilia.

Rockstar... poor judgement. It's not like I'm going to stop playing the game because of this, but it does take the shine off the game knowing that there is such an inappropriate joke contained within it.

Oh come on Brett! Let's not lose perspective here. This is surely down to the Currant Bun cooking up and over-sensationalising a GAMES! PAEDO! SHOCKER! story again and little more. Surely?

If this is true and i guess it is i really think this is too much. I really cant see the joke?

Like Jason has said they must of had a chat about putting it in the game?

child abuse is not a joke. Do they not have kids?

I'm sure the NSPCC could help change your mind?

Well it got what they wanted a headline in a paper.... Maybe they could give the money to childline or the NSPCC now that would be a smack in the face. Must looks like upsetting ppl is what they like!

Shame on you Rockstar hope EA buy you and rape you.

@dan: Come on, they aren't making a joke about child abuse!

They are making a joke/parody/mocking of the REAL WORLD and how crazy it is. GTA maybe a ficticious game but it simply exaggerates the elements of our society which actually exist. And in some cases it doesn't exaggerate them as much as most ppl think.

It's a well known fact that paedophiles are genetically more similar to crabs than they are to humans - and they smell of hammers.

They don't need punishment - they need gunishment.

WTF? Did I miss a meeting somewhere?

"Shame on you Rockstar hope EA buy you and rape you." - Now THAT is offensive...

A satirical website in an 18-rated adult game that anybody with two brain-cells to rub together can understand as SATIRE is not.

oh god here we go

everyone leap on their moral high horse:

it's a joke! provoking the exact same kind of instant knee jerk reactions that they are parodying

its satire- brass eye did it most effectively and that caused a stink too

"we must catch this paedophile- he really is a ****!"

Paedophilia is not a laughing matter, but I think some crucial detail of the context has been omitted from the story. My understanding is that this website is linked in with the virtual online dating or part of one of the other spoof sites.

I believe that the player is duped into visiting that virtual site and then is confronted with the warning messages and a 5 star wanted rating.

The gag is to do with people's paranoia about the internet not paedophilia.

Both The Sun and some of the comments here are reflective of the knee-jerk reactions that are so commonly seen when it comes to discussing more difficult topics such as this. Grow up!

Chris Morris was right....

@2:
So, simulating murdering people in a variety of ways and picking up prostitutes is acceptable in your mind, but an innocent paedo joke is just too much?

Bring back Brass Eye...

So what else do you think should be out of bounds for making jokes about? It's the british way, always has been always will be. You should come down the pub with me, you'll hear some right filth but it doesn't make me a peado or a murderer.
And of course they have kids but like sane people they know the difference between satire and reality.
Funny, Dan, how in your eyes its bad to satirise the sexualisation of children by media and advertising but your ok with joking about rape... Double standards mate, double standards... now stop reading reactionary papers and go get an education Pff!!

..always good to see :)

Child abuse is rape and if your all happy with that joke then good luck to you. I have know ppl that have been raped and they dont laff about it.

Yes we have killing and drugs but the more we joke about things the less impact it has.

So now we live in a world where ppl make jokes about raping kids?

Well i am not laffing at the joke.

I find it funny i cant say rape but rockstar can!!!

Again a bad day for video games...

Dan, please try to think through your argument a little before posting next time, it generally helps to stimulate a productive debate.

So GTA actually contains child abuse material? No, it doesn't. So missions simulating brutal murdering of innocent people is ok? But a small joke isn't? Albeit it of a controversial subject, but then again that's nothing Rockstar are a stranger to. "hot coffee" may have been momentarily devastating for Rockstar stock, but the press it gave the company and it's games was well worth it, GTA IV sold 3.6 million copies in the first 24 hours alone. All this is, is more press for GTA.

Rape & Pedophilia - not funny

This issue - storm in a tea cup

The majority of the responses here on serves to hightlight a couple of points about 'The Great British People'

1) The continued flow of fear and propaganda that has been forced upon them by the Labour government have made them stupid over time

2) And that they're all hypocrites.

Yes, bring back Brass Eye.

Paedo jokes are bad, just like rape is bad.....
imagine porky pig rapeing elmer fud...is that funny??

oh wait, that is. That's why they call him porky ;)

I take back my first line ;)

Anything can be made a joke out of, the important part is the exageration.

Racism is not funny. Rascist jokes can be (clever ones)
Sexist views aren't funny. Sexist jokes are.
Paedophilia isn't funny. Paedo jokes can be (again, clever jokes)

This country needs to stop worrying about upseting some wussy, over-sensitive soccer mum, and just have fun. Life is too short to be getting upset about a joke THAT YOU CAN AVOID!!!.

the spoof website is only there IF you ACTUALLY SEARCH FOR IT. It is not advertised within the game, so many people won't find it.

This country is turing into the pathetic nanny state that America is. Let's stop that by re-learning how to laugh, the way us Brits are meant to.

Am I the only person disappointed with the cheat?

Yes lets forget it all! Its only a joke no kids got hurt!

Lets get ready for when the oil runs out in 2012!

I will seat back and see all them hours i wasted typing **** when i could of spent all my cash b4 the oil war!

LOL

I'm a huge fan of the GTA series, and have always loved the satirical nature of the game, poking fun at gang culture etc.

I do, however, think this is taking things a bit too far. I doubt very much that it was an official design decision from Rockstar; more likely a bored developer who added it in for a joke without thinking.

This wont stop me playing the GTA games, but I hope Rockstar come up with an explanation very soon.

Storm + Teacup, anyone? C'mon!

P.s. "overnightbabies.com" LOL

Blimey Dan are you on the Board at OPEC?

Surprised you have time to play video games.

Sorry but i doubt this was just a bored developer, after Hot Coffee it became a lot harder to just sneak things into a game. In all likelyhood design would have known about this, QA would have seen it, PEGI would have seen it and the BBFC would have seen it, if not rockstar have just got themselves into exactly the same predicament they were in with hot coffee.

turning the British Isles into the Pedoph - Isles

If you get this upset over something like a joke as minor as this (pun intended), maybe playing a game like GTA isn't really a good idea.

Unless you actively seek things to whinge about.....
"Some developer has hurt my feelings, wah wah wah".

If this is you, go and play something safer like solitaire.

i think most people miss the point that its not a cheat. . . i t actually hurts you in the game by giving you 5 star wanted rating, which if you get caught (which almost everybody certainly will) the cops take a huge chunk of your loot and all your weapons, which in itself takes a huge chunk of your loot again to replace. as some one who actually PLAYED this game, it isn't so much of a cheat, as them punishing you for going there.

@Adam: I think you missed the point why people are upset, they don't like that it is even mentioned in the game, as we shouldn't be allowed to talk about such things, much less joke about them.

They don't care what effect it has on the gameplay, positive or negative. They just want it removed and censored, as they do not get the idea that they can choose to avoid it even if they play through the whole game normally. You have to find the cheat on the web in order to see it. If they are searching for (spoof) paedo sites in GTA, then that is more worrying.

[I know the cheat is a joke, and there isn't an obvious theme to teh spoof site until you visit it, but I thought I would use the same level of thought that they have come up with their arguments]

Am I the only one here that have seen this show? The other day I saw this show and I realized something. Media encourages attacking violent, or "offensive" video games, but when you see a show like Law and Order, the plot is more violent and outrageous than this. I do believe that this fake web site is there for a good reason. To remind us that, Pedophilia is no joke and the consequences for that are to be punished. If you access the site, you will automatically attain a five star wanted level. For anyone who has played the game this means that you will wind up in a flaming car in the Dukes Expressway or shot to death. Do I find the website being there funny? Of course I do... I remind us another thing: If a grown woman wants to participate in a beauty pageant, good for her; but a kid is different... Parents with failed dreams of becoming models, forcing there kids to walk down in an stage in bikini, while a bunch of people stares at you like if you were a piece of meat in display!?! The website is just to satirize that and how society looks at that in a normal fashion.
The game does not contain any type of mission, Easter egg, side mission or advertising to promote pedophiles. If you want to see that tune your TV and watch Law and Order: SVU. You will probably will find more of this "stuff" here, and you won't have to pay 60$ for an 18+ game...
PS: There are no kids in Liberty City…

Okay so let me understand, a fake paedo site with no actual paedo on it but causes the police to come after you is really bad but its okay to rob a bank and massacre a police force, sleep with a prositute and batter her with a baseball bat to get your money back is fine.

The sun is a joke, they go on about this kind of stuff then print pictures of the youngest people they can by law with their tits out.

It's obviously a satirical gag about the press (and people shouting "will someone please think of the children"), where in this topsy turvy world we live in, you get more attention and vilification for looking at a particular site than you do for killing someone in the street or a cop.

As pointed out above, the gag is not about child abuse ! What the story does do is make the knee-jerking readers buy more papers and that's just what they planned...

Chris Morris got it spot on with Brass Eye - like he did with the Day Today...

Reminds me of the whole Brass Eye paedophilia outrage when that was aired, funny how such taboo subjects are still no-go areas for comedy, when sexism homophobia and racism is fine.

http://en.wikipedi...ecial

For anyone not up to speed on Chris Morris' most contentious piece of work

hear the one about the black *** female vicar?

This is being blown out of proportion. The 'cheat site' doesnt even truly suggest pedophilia. You click on it, and all you do is get the cops after you.
People seem to forget that this joke is mainly a kickback to GTA: San Andreas in which a Little Miss Lacey pageant commercial aired numerous times on the radio station. This is perfectly harmless; and any body who even begins to develop a notion for pedophilia must have developed this from some out sided source; theres no way this is a viable threat.
Besides...theres not even a single child within any GTA game.

TRUE

Kids in GTA would be good though, I'd love to beat a few hoodies

I wish these sort of people would grow up; it sounds like the sort of thing a child says, 'It is totally sick. I won’t play it again.”
This game is meant for adults who can take a joke or two. If you are a homophobic then don't buy *** porno. It is the same priniciple here.

Actually, Little Lacy Surprise was in Vice City Stories as two radio commercials for kids lingerie. It was far more 'offensive' than its appearence in GTA4... it was also bloody hilarious.

So the guy who now "Refuses to play the game because of this content" must have (in the game) driven to a internet cafe, must have done a few missions which would have involved stealing cars and shooting cops and running people over or even killing prostitues - so thats acceptable to him is it???

Wow.

I shocked at how utterly over-sensitive some of you hypocritical idiots are.

It's HUMOUR. A JOKE. In an 18 game. Designed for people who know how to separate real life from entertainment and can place things in context. Which you lot on your high horses obviously can't do.

If you don't like it, don't play it.

Also, EXCELLENT point there 'ade'. Nice to see some people know how to use that 10% or so of the brain we're said to have access to.

Having the brain age of a seven year old,I can honestly say that I am in no way offended by the mention of "child funny business".Is it rape if you shout surprise?

it's not rape if they lick your hand first..

To you morons above who see it as a joke are ****ed in the head. ITS SICK! putting something in a game like that is wrong and whoevers idea to include it in the game (i know its just a webpage with no graphic content) should be sacked!

To you morons above who see it as a joke are ****ed in the head. ITS SICK! putting something in a game like that is wrong and whoevers idea to include it in the game (i know its just a webpage with no graphic content) should be sacked!

I stumbled upon this little website trick today when i was playing. And whilst I was (successfully) outrunning my 5-star rating afterwards, I didn't think at any time that Rockstar had done anything offensive, I just thought it was pretty funny.
I don't think the point of it was to portray actual paedophilia, I think the point they were trying to make is that in GRAND THEFT AUTO, NOT the REAL WORLD, the police are dumb. You see and hear them doing some pretty thick things all the way through the game. This little bit of the game was just emphasizing that they were stupid (or desperate) enough to try and trick paedophiles into coming right to them, when other sites like MyRoom etc. on the in-game internet have got girls practically offering themselves, with obvious paedophilic comments on their profiles.
It's portraying an amusing contradiction. and let's not forget - IT. IS. A. GAME. It's portraying Liberty City, a hyped-up version of the real world, not OUR world as it actually is.
And well done Rockstar for making such a fantastic game, too.

They should change their slogan to Rockstar Games: A PR Nightmare.

Just like with brass eye, this is another media frenzy where people who have no clue what is actually in the game, get in their heads some idea that a group is trying to promote the current "Worst Fear" (Current topic: Paedophilia, Previous Topic: Teachers who have sex with students.), and then start to rant about it to other people, untill you have all sorts of petitions, mass-emails, and other worthless wastes of human resources.
Going back to law and order: SVU, the reason they are not getting all this **** is because they are a tv show that so clearly, so no matter how stupid anyone is, demonstrates that paedophilia is wrong.
GTA4 is a game, and because it is watched like a hawk by the news groups (because the people sitting at home watching tv/reading the paper eat this **** up.) it will always be portrayed in a negative light.
@All the hypocritical players who say that this is "Going Too Far" and **** like that, i say that you should re-evaluate what you are doing playing a game where you need to become at least a mass murderer, car thief, assasin and drug dealer (this is just what you HAVE to do)
If you look at the facts, almost no pedos play games like GTA4 because its a mainly single player game, and no-one would become a pedo from playing it, or else we would have had enough shootouts recently to ban all virtual entertainment.
I wish people would stop looking for something to blame for every problem in the world, and instead try to help stop problems.

Another Sane Gamer.

It's satire not a joke, social commentary on the US Pagents. Dressing up very young girls in inappropriate attire and entering them into beauty competitions.
Something that is not questioned in the US as being innapropiate, sexualising underage girls.
In the UK they would not be allowed, like Channel 4's Minipops was taken off the air when people saw the content.
Rockstars commentry is, these pagents are unhealthy and appeal to some sick people.

Didn't Lois Threroux make a documentary on Pagents ? I suggest the knee jerk "ban this sick filth" people should do some research on Pagents and then decide what should be banned.

Well good to see The Sun doing its usual bang-up of NOT reporting everything to help make a balanced debate.Congratulations on your video-game nasty featuring illicit donkey-porn and kiddie fiddling. Oh yes. I wonder how many people out there, and even in here know about this site - BTW! NOT A CHEAT! JUST A WEBSITE! IF IT WAS A CHEAT IT WOULD SHOW UP IN YOUR CHEAT STATS! (facts people, please!) - and how many just jumped on the band wagon of "Let's all hate games again" without having a ****IN' clue that it even existed before some 12 year old pointed it out to the adoring parents who just bought this game for the aforementioned brat.

Jesus Christ people. Get over yourself please! They're already tearing this country into European regions come Autumn anyway. So why don't you try fighting a REAL cause and keep Europe's mitts off our island.

What appears in GTA is NOTHING! You don't see anything, you don't hear anything. The ONLY reason it has become a problem is because people get the wrong end of the stick and start lynching. NO one really knows what that site contained because you get redirected and chased. It's about as protect-worthy as two *** people kissing in Neighbours. I'm sick to death of this country and the idiots that supposedly lead it, not to mention the utter stringent muppets that dwell within its borders.