Well does it. it seems any time a game does something a little bad. (partial nudity in mass effict, MW2 going gun happy at an airport, The damned GTA series! well a little less in GTA IV.) so i wanna ask you. do you think publishers should fear the media as much as they do. because if you recall GTA IV was not a raunchy and crud as the other games. do you think game publishers should go balls out and do insanse crazy crap, or keep it calm and fear what a few uptight people on the FOX news think?

I think the media's opinions should not matter a bit to any respectable developer. That doesn't mean that they should go out of their way to make big controversies. But to stop development on a feature, or to not include a level because the media think's it's "bad" is ridiculous.

Besides, It's the medias job to cry foul of anything, that's how they get ratings, by making people watch them, by making big deals of small things. Oh and, Fox news? That's a funny joke.

I can't think of a single time a developer has changed their game's content in response to media pressure. In response to pressure from the ESRB, yes. I don't really see what the difference between GTA4 and the others was aside from maybe a darker tone.

ghostshoot:
...fear what a few uptight people on the FOX news think?

Welcome to the Escapist.

When has anyone feared/acknowledged the existence of FOX news? The Mass Effect scare was debunked, and a public apology was made. They already figured out attacking GTAIV was like attacking a speeding train with a spoon, so they dropped that. Last but not least; Modern Warfare 2 was attacked, but that didn't stop it from selling 7.4 million copies in a day.

Short answer: No, the media does nothing to the gaming community.

The media does nothing to us. Developers make a game for the purposes of entertaining others and nothing else. All the people at FOX do is sift through a certain that may have a "bad thing" that could "affect the children in a negative fashion" and do 50 news reports on it and making a big deal out of something that shouldn't have been. The Hot Coffee mod for GTA San Andreas is an example that i can think of. Hillary Clinton and everyone in Washington got their panties in a bunch about a mini-game that someone would actually have to tamper the programming to get. Also Mass effect caused an uproar why? Because you could see a naked alien with blue skin.

They should be trying to make a game good, not controversial or noncontroversial

mabay but the bring this no-no's to lite. like The mass effect uproar. in biowares new game dragon age there was no nudity in the sex scene. and how GTA IV was a little bit lighter and less offense. and MW2 well i will tell i doubt they will make something like the air port mission and if they do it will be a reduced from me mowing down people for 3 mins to watching NPCs do the dirty work for 5 seconeds.