Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal must be bored. I mean, there’s only so much you can do in Connecticut; there are no “real” professional sports teams (sorry ladies, but the WNBA doesn’t count), gas prices are ridiculously high, and you can only spend so much time crying over the fact that you don’t live in either Massachusetts or New York. So Blumenthal decided it was high time to stir up some controversy and attack a video game!

The target: a new game coming out for Nintendo’s WiiWare service titled Frat Party Games: Pong Toss (the sub-title used to be Beer Pong but I guess that was too obvious). In the game, you play a virtual game of beer pong (which some call Beirut). From the information available, it seems like there is no actual consumption of the virtual suds involved, and the object is merely to win the game. Still, Blumenthal thought he would take this chance by the balls (get it?) and bitch about the ESRB’s ratings system.

As Game Politics reports, Blumenthal claims the ESRB is “under the influence” when it comes to depictions of alcohol used in game. In the recently issued press release, he noted his desire for the ESRB to change the game’s rating from Teen (13+) to Adults Only (AO)…

That’s right: he wants an AO rating because it involves alcohol. Not because you DRINK alcohol, because you VIRTUALLY throw a little white plastic ball into a cup that may or may not contain FAKE alcohol. Wow dude, you’re a real hero. He continues, saying, “The ESRB astonishingly downplays and dismisses alcohol depiction in rating the suitability of videogames for minors.” Uhh… GTA got an M rating. Most other games with booze in them get at least a T. And it says RIGHT ON THE BOX whether or not it contains alcohol reference/use (on the download screen, for WiiWare/XBLA/PSN games).

Head over to 1up.com to read the rest of this windbag’s comments. Probably the best part of the article, though, is the response from Patricia Vance, the head of the ESRB: “…many car racing games require players to barrel down city streets at high speeds — illegal behavior that certainly should not be encouraged…. Still, none of this changes the fact that racing games…tend to be rated E.”

There’s also the little fact that Game Party, one of the most popular $20 titles for the Wii - one that you can buy at retail, not via download - also includes a mini-game called Pong Toss. I wonder what Blumenthal would do if he found out this virus had infected so many homes already. And guess what: this one’s rated E!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 7:16 am and is filed under Game Chat, Gaming News, Incoherent babble. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.