Knyte wrote:

Or maybe, their trying to see if showing male genitalia will have anywhere near the impact that showing female parts does.

If they had to do it, couldn't they have done me a tiny favor, and made it a good looking guy, and not some old, bald dude?

I mean, female nudity in games I can understand. It moves merchandise. (For better or worse, that's a fact.) Male nudity I could understand if either a) they thought they could bring in women with it, or b) it was somehow necessary to, or enhanced, the story.

This seems to do neither. Ergo, I call gimmick, and what I expect will be a short-lived one at that.

Cameron wrote:

Now that I think about it, they could've included the male nudity to create a gross-out moment, like "raunchy" comedy. Rather than getting that out of it, however, they got controversy (big surprise, there).

Lol, that's so far off my comedy radar I didn't even think about that. Definite possibility.

Maybe they just do it to get themselves in the news. I mean, they know damn good and well now that they aren't going to be completely yanked off the shelves, so...free advertising maybe?

Pandajuice wrote:

I really think Rockstar is testing the waters with it and making a bit of social commentary at the same time. As if it were some bizarro dimension, in America anyway, male nudity is far less offensive to people than female nudity I've noticed and I'm not sure why that is. So I think Rockstar is trying to prove that retarded point by putting that in the game, and then seeing if it creates nearly the amount of backlash a pair of tits would have. Then they can say, "A-ha! You hypocrits!"

REALLY? I actually understand things to be quite the opposite. I always thought male nudity was the height of taboo (as far as nudity goes) in any form. Maybe I just haven't seen enough movies, but I've seen plenty of female boob and crotch shots in R rated movies. I've only seen full-frontal male once (and that was in "The Life of Brian.") Maybe I just have a selective memory, but... *shrug*

Greg the White wrote:

SoldierHawk wrote: Pandajuice wrote: I really think Rockstar is testing the waters with it and making a bit of social commentary at the same time. As if it were some bizarro dimension, in America anyway, male nudity is far less offensive to people than female nudity I've noticed and I'm not sure why that is. So I think Rockstar is trying to prove that retarded point by putting that in the game, and then seeing if it creates nearly the amount of backlash a pair of tits would have. Then they can say, "A-ha! You hypocrits!" REALLY? I actually understand things to be quite the opposite. I always thought male nudity was the height of taboo (as far as nudity goes) in any form. Maybe I just haven't seen enough movies, but I've seen plenty of female boob and crotch shots in R rated movies. I've only seen full-frontal male once (and that was in "The Life of Brian.") Maybe I just have a selective memory, but... *shrug* Yeah, there does seem to be more of a controversy over male parts than female parts. Hell, Afro Samurai had exposed breasts, but I didn't hear one word of it until GTA came out. Think about it: How many R-rated movies have bare breasts versus exposed penises. I think Rockstar made an interesting move, whether it's a statement that there's an ungodly amount of violence, and people will lose their minds over a penis, or whatever.

I'm usually not one for companies making "statements" with their games (I just want to play a good game, dammit, and leave the politics out of it), but in this case I agree with you on what their motivation probably was, and actually agree with them doing it, for a few reasons:

1. Its a DLC and the 'message' as it were doesn't co opt the entire game or story. Plus the game has been out for a while and has already been judged (by gamers anyway) on its own merits.

2. Its a statement that needs to be made. Not that I'm a fan of EITHER rampant violence or blatant sexuality in games (not for their own sake anyway), but the puritan hypocrisy a lot of people exhibit about violence and sex drives me crazy.