GamePolitics 10 biggest gaming scandals of all time

by Jared Rea { Jul 16th 2007 at 4:25PM }

Where were you when Night Trap hit the senate floors? Our favorite watchdogs over at GamePolitics have compiled a list of what they believe to be the 10 biggest gaming scandals of all time. What's at the top of the list? Well, you decide that part via a nifty poll on their front page.

Their list covers all your favorites from the Hot Coffee debacle to a more recent headline darling, Sony versus Parliament. They even managed to track down some stories that you may have have forgotten about such as 25 to Life's cop (and robber) killing and SimCopter's spit swapping dudes.

Many folks have already pointed out the glaring omission of Mortal Kombat from their list. While we would have appreciated a choice that better reflected the creation of the ESRB, it's fair to say that Night Trap did most of the talking in that situation.

Tags: gamepolitics, hotcoffee, nighttrap, scandal

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mr Khan @ Jul 16th 2007 4:43PM

They do seem to miss Nintendo's monopoly court battle (the one that was basically a victory for Nintendo even though they lost the case, since the only remittance they had to make was a discount to all plaintiffs for $5 off of an NES game)

Also Mortal Kombat, and a few others

Tony @ Jul 16th 2007 4:55PM

There's other examples of religious usage in games too. I remember some complaints over Hitman and even Ocarina of Time concerning that...

But you'd definitely think the Nintendo monopoly issue would have been featured here even slightly.

Mr Khan @ Jul 16th 2007 5:36PM

I would've thought teh pyramidal boobies would've been the problem with Ocarina of Time

32_Footsteps @ Jul 16th 2007 7:34PM

You know, if the SimCopter thing made the list, you have to wonder if GamePolitics even thought there were 10 scandals worth mentioning.

Also, wasn't 25 to Life just sound and fury, signifying nothing? It was a whipping boy for maybe two weeks, then everyone forgot it. I bet even A Certain Anti-Video Game Lawyer couldn't remember what the game was supposed to be about.

With those two out of the way, we could easily throw in there the Nintendo anti-trust suit and Mortal Kombat. Also, while I know this might be before the time of most of the readership here, Custer's Revenge was hugely scandalous back in the day, and that scandal did affect industry behavior for over a decade.

Mr Khan @ Jul 16th 2007 8:00PM

Really? I thought that Custer's Revenge went by relatively unnoticed. I mean aside from the nudity there really isn't anything there in that game, which is why it consistently makes the top lists for "Worst games ever"

32_Footsteps, i haven't seen a comment of yours in months...

Antonio @ Jul 16th 2007 11:24PM

Yeah way too many recent scandals. Mortal Kombat and the Nintendo monopoly are good examples of missed points.

32_Footsteps @ Jul 17th 2007 12:30AM

It was a terrible game, but Custer's Revenge had much impact. The game was widely protested, and it forced game companies to take tighter restrictions on who could publish games as well as what kind of content could be in games. Also, the protests about both women's rights and Native American rights presaged many of the issues that video gaming still grapples with today.

As for my post frequency of late - I've been sadly rather busy. But I still read regularly, and hopefully can comment more soon.