New game releases of May 20-26
Killzone: Mercenary shoots onto Vita on September 10
Trion Worlds hit with more layoffs, Defiance team impacted
Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault defending Vita next week
Game & Wario was originally going to be pre-installed on Wii U
Beer Pong Wii Game Stirs Drinking Controversy, Renamed Pong Toss
by Chris Faylor, Jul 08, 2008 1:35pm PDTAmidst a flurry of controversy regarding its WiiWare title Beer Pong, developer JV Games has renamed the forthcoming downloading effort to Pong Toss.
Based on the age-old college drinking game, Beer Pong (real-life edition pictured left) tasks players with bouncing a ping-pong ball into a cup filled with beer, forcing their opponents to drink the alcoholic beverage.
Following the game's rating of "T for Teen" by the ESRB, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the label was "absolutely inappropriate" and promoted underage drinking.
Blumenthal further accused the ESRB of being "under the influence" for declaring that "frat party video drinking games [were] suitable for minors." After the title was renamed Pong Toss, it was relabeled by the ESRB with an "E for Everyone" rating.
"Since we never had any drinking in the game, we elected to change the name from 'Beer Pong' to 'Pong Toss' to better reflect it's [sic] true contents and cater to a larger audience," JV Games VP Jag Jaeger explained on the Frat Party Games blog.
Said to be the first in JV Games' Frat Party Games series, Pong Toss missed its projected June launch and is now expected later this summer for around $9.
Comments
1. A rating does not determine what a kid wants to play, case in point GTAIV...I hear plenty of kids in multiplayer (I wish I didn't, but I do)
2. Kids are not going to make the alcohol drinking connection unless you plaster it everywhere (news stations, I'm looking at you)
3. Kids are more imaginative than you think...if they want to drink and make up a drinking game, they probably can.
4. Ratings aside, who is this aimed at? people who want to play drinking games without getting beer all over the damn place, thats who!
And last but not least, don't leave the fucking alcohol in easy reach, is it to much to ask a parent to (please let me know if I'm going out on a limb here) to be a parent?
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 4 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 5 replies.
Why would a rating matter? Is there any actual alcohol consumption in the game? Is the word "beer" now suddenly inappropriate? What a load of hypocritical bullshit. So, now that the name of the game is changed (not the content), it's ok with Mr. Blumenthal? I guess we should then remove the word beer from any and all forms of advertising that might be visible to minors--otherwise, based on this logic there's a collusive effort on behalf of advertisers, distributors and local government to encourage underage drinking. The rating represents a standard to help parents judge game appropriateness--it's function isn't to recommend games to target groups. This is a blatant example of misconstrual.
Ultimately, don't we have layers of control to limit access of alcohol to minors? Does calling the game "Beer Pong" suddenly make beer readily available?
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
Can't I do that in my kitchen anyway, provided I draw the curtains and don't have any children in the house? Why do I need a simulator for this? I suppose it's less mess but it's also a lot less fun.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 7 replies.
You must be logged in to post.