14 DAY TRIAL // The Fox News channel managed to piss off every single person who knows at least the basics of video games and have played that great game called Mass Effect for at least 30 minutes (like there would be somebody who could stop playing after just 30 minutes!). To keep it short, because you most likely know what it is all about, some girls from Fox news who would probably blush if they heard the word "joystick" (this means that they have no idea what video games are), talked some crap about Mass Effect. And that would kind of sum everything up (check the video at the end if you'd like to see the whole thing for yourself).
After this poor, incomplete and unworthy material which managed to upset most of the gaming community, EA probably got a little angry, too, so they sent a letter to Fox News, asking the news station to correct itself. Here are the most important bits from the letter:
"Your headline above the televised story read: "New video game shows full digital nudity and sex." Fact: Mass Effect does not include explicit or frontal nudity. Love scenes in non-interactive sequences include side and profile shots - a vantage frequently used in many prime-time television shows. It's also worth noting that the game requires players to develop complex relationships before characters can become intimate and players can chose to avoid the love scenes altogether.
FNC voice-over reporter says: "You'll see full digital nudity and the ability for players to engage in graphic sex." Fact: Sex scenes in Mass Effect are not graphic. These scenes are very similar to sex sequences frequently seen on network television in prime time."
The letter from EA ends stating that it was not a legal threat, but an appeal to Fox News' sense of fairness. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have that thing, since game journalist Geoff Keighly, who took part at the Mass Effect TV mess, tried to defend the title and explain that they are wrong, but nobody seemed to care. And that is the sad fact today: people talk about things they hear without actually trying them out.
"Games are bad" is a general statement made by those who have never ever played a video game before. "Games affect our kids" is a statement made by people who don't understand that, if kids play games they shouldn't, it's just their parent's fault. And "Mass Effect is all about full frontal nudity" is just crap and nothing more.
And, in the end, it is all just like EA's letter says: "Do you watch the Fox Network? Do you watch Family Guy? Have you ever seen The OC? Do you think the sexual situations in Mass Effect are any more graphic than scenes routinely aired on those shows?" And no, there's no need to answer these questions.
As promised, here is the Fox News controversial material (thanks to ScrewAttackEurope):