X-Play co-host Adam Sessler recently gave his rundown of the Cooper Lawrence/Fox News Channel debacle concerning depictions of sexuality in Mass Effect. Below, readers can judge Sessler’s challenge themselves - we find it to be strong and sophisticated, but with the expected level of wit and sarcasm thrown in for good (and entertaining) measure.

Source: Kotaku

Taken verbatim from the intro. for today’s Attack of the show on G4:

“Snakes on a Plane week continues, as we get some in-flight guidance from Julianna Murgulies,

Then, are violent video games dragging down society and corrupting the minds of America’s youth? Jack Thompson sure thinks so [cut to Jack Thompson] This type of product constitutes a clear and present danger.

And, is your girlfriend too dirty, or just dirty enough? Our sex experts have the answers. [cut to sex expert] Make sure to grab her breasts when you’re doing it.”

I think the headline says it all.

For video and a quick summary of the interview, check out my post on Joystiq

[UPDATE — 11:02 AM 8/9/06: Fixed some spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors brought on by fast typing]

T-minus five minutes to go until 6 PM Eastern time, when G-Phoria ‘06 Premieres. Not sure why they didn’t choose to put this thing in prime time — if I were still working in an office, I wouldn’t even be home in time to watch this thing. Anyway, I’ll be posting live comments on the show throughout the hour. Click the more link below and then keep hitting refresh to see the latest. Want to join in the fun? Send me an e-mail and I’ll try to address your thoughts in my blogging. And away we go!

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It seems like everyone and their brother is talking about Satoru Iwata’s exclusive interview with G4 from the Tokyo Game Show, and the thing hasn’t even aired yet. G4 has garnered a lot of attention simply by posting a short clip from the interview, in which Iwata mentions that he’s pushing Shigeru Miyamato to have a Mario game ready for the Revolution’s launch. If the clip gets people to watch the full interview tomorrow night, it might help cement G4’s slowly growing reputation for intelligent video game discussion. And shows about drift racing, of course.

Usually, the worlds of online games journalism and televised games journalism remain relatively competitive. Sure, an online outlet may report on the latest televised game awards show and members of the online media may sometimes appear on TV, but usually the two media are competing for the same eyeballs, rather than collaborating to create joint content.

That changed this week, though, when GameSpot and G4 teamed up to produce four half-hour episodes of Cinematech (the shows premiered over the past two days, but this is G4, so there will be at least 50 repeats in the next week).

I talked to Gamespot’s Greg Kasavin about the G4 collaboration, the differences between TV and the Web, and the future of putting video into video game journalism.

Video Game Media Watch: GameSpot has had a video presence for a while now through the “Let’s Gamespot” feature. What were the similarities and differences in creating content for G4?

Greg Kasavin, Executive Editor, GameSpot: We haven’t done an episode of Let’s GameSpot in a while, so I think you were probably referring to On the Spot, our live weekly show [That too, but Let’s Gamespot came first. There’s also Button Mashing -ed]. That’s probably our most heavily promoted piece of original video programming, though we’re also well known for our video reviews and for all our gameplay movies and trailers. GameSpot has been creating original video content since the ’90s.

Working in television is quite a bit different than working in Internet video. Our video production team is more accustomed to producing many smaller pieces of video content than working to cut together 30-minute shows. So it was definitely a good learning experience for us to see how things are done differently in the TV world. It was also unusual for us to work together with another organization to produce content, though I think the collaborative process was a success.

Video Game Media Watch: Video game journalism has traditionally been a print medium, but the past few years have seen an explosion of video and audio content about games, both online and on TV. How do you see this type of content developing in the coming years?

Greg Kasavin: Considering GameSpot is approaching its 10th anniversary in May of next year, I’d say traditions about video game journalism have already changed in many ways–I think most game players now prefer getting their information online. That’s partly because the Internet provides such a great combination of both written information as well as video. If you’re a game player, why just read about the game you’re interested in when you can see it in action to get a better sense of what to expect? And if you’re looking to spend $50 on a game, is 50 or 100 words about the game really going to be enough to convince you one way or another? I think the Internet will continue to be the best resource for game players, but television is certainly a good way to showcase the increasingly impressive production values of games. Simply put, games look good enough to where it’s entertaining to just watch them on TV. Look at the recent trailer for Final Fantasy XII–it’s like something straight out of the last Star Wars movie.

Video Game Media Watch: Have you noticed any difference in how your visitors use your original text and video content? In how they respond to it?

Greg Kasavin: I think some of the inherent novelty of our video content is gone–video is more of a commodity than a unique feature now. So whereas our audience used to be very excited at the mere idea of GameSpot offering a video review, now our audience is much more critical of the actual content and production of that piece of content. That’s good, because it helps us make sure that the video piece is as good for what it is as the written portion. As for our text content, I think our audience appreciates that we’ve held onto our standard of focusing on being informative while also making our writing noticeably livelier on the whole. There was a time when I used to be very draconian about editing out attempts at humor and anything of that nature, but I’m more lenient now, since I recognize that our written content effectively has to compete with our video.

Video Game Media Watch: In addition to original video content, you also offer gameplay movies and trailers for download. How do the audiences for these two types of video content compare? Do visitors appreciate the added value of the original content, or do they just want to see the games in action?

Greg Kasavin: It’s the same audience as far as I’m concerned. Trailers and gameplay videos are meant to be taken at face value. In the case of trailers, they tend to be carefully contrived by the publisher to show off a game in the best possible light. In the case of gameplay movies, they tend to give a glimpse into the reality of how a game actually looks and moves. I think all of GameSpot’s content is complementary, but it’s also there to give people different options as they consume as little or as much information as they care to handle about games.

Video Game Media Watch: What are some advantages and disadvantages of creating content for video as opposed to print?

Greg Kasavin: I’ve had maybe two or three articles published on paper in total, so I’m not a good person to talk to about the advantages of print–though, despite how I’ve been sounding here, I have the utmost respect for print publications, and credit Next Generation, EGM, GameFan, and Video Games & Computer Entertainment for getting me interested in writing about games. But as for the advantages of using video versus writing to convey information about games [this is what I was getting at -ed], I think the two still cater to slightly different preferences and needs. One important point of comparison is that written content is easier and cheaper to produce than video. It’s also still more accessible to some audiences than video, though more and more people are getting access to good computers and fast Internet connections. Video content can certainly be more compelling or evocative than written content, but in the end, I think both require skill and expertise to be put to good use. Together, I think video and written content can add up to more than the sum of the parts.

Video Game Media Watch: Do the guys at the Gamespot offices watch G4? If so, what are some of your favorite shows?

Greg Kasavin: I can’t speak for everyone, but I can honestly say that we don’t regularly watch G4 (at least we didn’t use to), probably for the same reason we don’t read a lot of print publications about games. We don’t need to go that far to get all the information we want. At any rate, the show Icons seems to have earned G4 the most clout, though X-Play, Attack of the Show, and Cinematech also seem to be well-liked with good reason. My own television viewing consists mostly of Seinfeld reruns, though. (Actually I just buckled down and ordered HBO because I’ve stopped going to the movies almost completely and eventually that’ll cause me to become culturally ignorant.)

Video Game Media Watch: A recent G4 e-mail newsletter jokingly said that “hell would freeze over and you’d turn into a frog before you ever saw any mention of GameSpot on G4.” At this point, do you see G4 as a competitor, or more of a partner?

Greg Kasavin: We partnered with G4 to produce these Cinematech episodes and the door seems to be open to the possibility of our two organizations working together again in the future. A lot will probably depend on how successful these Cinematech episodes actually turn out to be (i.e., how many people watch them), but regardless of what happens with that, I think our two teams enjoyed working together, and there’s a lot to be said just for that. In other words, by collaborating on a project with another organization, I think that organization ceases to be a competitor by definition, at least for the duration of the project.

Video Game Media Watch: Can we expect further collaboration between G4 and Gamespot in the future? Will G4 be providing content for Gamespot or is this a one-way relationship?

Greg Kasavin: Our collaboration on Cinematech should not be taken as proof that we’ll be working together again in the future. A lot naturally depends on how well the content we produced will be received by our respective audiences.

I just finished watching the premiere of G4’s special report on sex in video games, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how detailed and informative the whole thing was.

The hour-long special was divided into two distinct half-hour segments — the first an historical overview of sex in video games, the second a more detailed discussion of recent developments in the controversy of the “hot coffee” mod in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

While at least one reader wasn’t that impressed with the history portion, I thought the producers did a good job condensing 20+ years of sex in gaming into one half hour. The usual sexy suspects — Leisure Suit Larry, Night Trap, Tomb Raider, Playboy, etc. — get their due time, of course, but the special doesn’t pass over more obscure gems like Gotcha (an Atari arcade game with breast-like controllers), Softporn Adventure (an early text-based game), and You Don’t Know Richard (a humorous, full motion video dating sim).

In between a whole slew of blurred out scenes of depravity (which included many noticably repeated clips), G4 threw in some interview snippets from a variety of developers and journalists (including a few freelancers. Whoo!). The comments were mostly dry description, but the interviewees managed to throw in some color commentary here and there. The general consensus: sex is a part of life and part of games, so get used to it! Hardly the objective insight we were promised. There were also some issues of pacing and content — I could have done without the minute or two wasted on a relatively tame scene in Golgo 13. All in all, a fair, if not stellar, retrospective.

The panel portion, however, is where the special, and G4 in general, really started to earn my respect. Host Adam Sessler was the real star of the show here, handling himself in a much more serious and composed manner than his X-play doppelganger. Throughout the segment, Sessler managed to ask tough and interesting questions without getting caught up in the emotional nature of the issue himself.

He asked Microsoft’s Ed Fries about the reality of how “removed” code might end up on a game disc. He asked IEMA representative Hal Halpin if the controversy has actually been a boon for sales. And he treated the token opposition representative, the Parents Television Council’s Melissa Caldwell, with respect and dignity, asking challenging questions without being accusatory (I did notice, though, that whenever Caldwell spoke, the camera seemed to not-so-subtly switch to one of the other panel members looking perplexed or unconvinced).

The panel was punctuated by short, pre-recorded informational videos, including one of the most clear and concise explanations of the whole “hot coffee” timeline that I have seen. Included in these pre-recorded sessions were satellite interviews between Sessler and the ESRB’s Patricia Vance and California Assemblyman Leland Yee, who both go over the usual talking points (Hearing Vance say “The system works!” and Yee say “No it doesn’t!” is only interesting so many times).

Other notes:

• There were some interesting back-and-forth exchanges between panel members, particularly between Caldwell and New York Times reporter Seth Schiesel on the role of sex in culture.
• Halpin took the game journalism industry to task for failing to recognize that IEMA-member retailers have a better track record of denying M-rated games to minors than non-member stores. Not like he has any reason to promote that stat or anything.
• Caldwell and Yee both jumped on Rockstar for lying about the nature of “hot coffee” when the story first broke, a PR strategy that will no doubt continue to bite them in the ass for a long time to come.

Overall, though, the best and most surprising thing about the panel discussion was that it failed to turn into an emotional screaming match between the two sides of the issue. Everyone remained calm, rational and respectful while making their points, and Sessler kept the general tone from veering into cable-news-style alarmism.I’d reccomend that anyone with a passing interest in the issues involved keep an eye out for the repeats.

Thanks to Chris Mautner of The (Harrisburg) Patriot-News for sending in the following (reprinted with permission. Links added):

Kyle,

I meant to email you about this when I first saw the post but . . . anyway, we got a preview copy of the G4 special that’s running tonight. I watched it last week and, well, don’t bother. While it’s not particularily salacious, neither is it very interesting. It’s just a run down of popular games that had sexual content, like the Leisure Suit Larry series, and doesn’t offer up any thoughts on what made these games stand out, or what it’s like to develop games with X-rated content or where the industry is heading sex-wise. Honestly, it plays like one of those VH1 specials, with a lot of shallow information being thrown around but not anything of any real depth or significance being said.

Thanks for the thoughts, Chris. I actually tend to like those cheesy VH1 specials where they mention a lot of pop-culture detritus from the ’80s or list the top 100 music videos featuring exploding cars or something. For a big issue like this, though, I think a little more gravitas is necessary. I was hoping the round-table discussion part of the program would satisfy in this regard, but Chris seems to think otherwise. I’ll be in front of the tube tonight at 11 forming my own opinions, which will be posted here here shortly after the program is done (no live-blogging this time, unfortunately).

In other G4 news (and I know there’s been a lot recently), the network is teaming up with Gamespot to produce two epsiodes of CinemaTech this Thursday and Friday. Gamespot has been leaking information about the collaboration on their Web site, and the result seems to be an odd mix of piece on video game appreciation, recent history, gender equality and, um, pretending. The trailer on G4’s site teases with even more glimpses at the content. Quite a departure for a show that usually focuses on straight gameplay videos.