Eurogamer recently sat down with "the man who uncovered gaming's greatest sex scandal." That being Patrick Wildenborg, a software engineer considered himself a casual gamer, until coming across Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. His obsession with getting a 100% completion rate led to him merging his newfound love with his occupation, in the form of modifications to the game.
To prepare himself for the PC edition of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Wildenborg decided to crack open the PS2 version, which came out beforehand. And that's where he discovered several files that where sexually tinged.
At first it was assumed that it was bits and pieces of the game that had been unfinished and abandoned, but by combining detective work and perseverance, Wildenborg realized that they were part of a fully realized part that has been configured to be inaccessible. A tactic was developed to allow this restricted part of the game to be accessible, for the PC version, and the rest they say is history.
The source does a great job of detailing all the fall out, on both economic and political levels. Included is how Rockstar tried to deny any responsibility of the content, by instead blaming the modding community, which backfired in a spectacular fashion. The forces that led the restriction in the first place are also covered, as well as Wildenborg's thoughts, after all was said and done:
"From my point of view, I think there is no reason why [this sexual content] shouldn't have been included. After all, the game was already R-rated.
Why would a 17 year-old be allowed to run around the city bearing weapons, a game in which you're free to shoot cops and beat up women but in which you're not allowed to make love to his girlfriend after dating her for a while? It baffles me how some Americans find two people making love more damaging for a 17 year-old than all the violence in the game."
