Not to sound like your mom, but it’s hard to deny that video games have always stirred up a bit of controversy.
Games have been accused of encouraging violence, oversexualization, and addictive behavior, not to mention the classic complaint from grandma about ‘rotting young people’s brains.’
Over the years, gaming has certainly faced its fair share of criticism.
The game, originally launched in 2004, is nowhere to be found in stores today and has even been banned from being streamed on platforms like Twitch.
This game, called The Guy Game, was developed by TopHeavy Studios. At its core, it’s a trivia game where up to four players can answer various questions. Sounds pretty innocent, right?
If players answered the questions correctly, they were ‘rewarded’ with an image of a topless woman.
Initially, the images were censored, but with enough points, the censorship decreased until… well, you get the idea.
While the nudity and objectification of women in the game was criticized and viewed as tasteless by many, it wasn’t exactly illegal or enough to get someone in trouble on its own.
To gather footage for the game, the producers attended a spring break party in South Padre Island, Texas.
Reportedly, the producers approached young women at the event, checked their IDs, and offered them $20 to answer trivia questions – with the added twist that they’d have to take their tops off if they got the question wrong.
The girl, whose identity was kept private under the name ‘Jane Doe’ in legal proceedings, decided to file a lawsuit against TopHeavy.
During the court case, it was revealed that the girl had provided false information about her age. In reality, she was only 17 when she participated in the video shoot.
However, the court did not make a ruling on whether the content could be considered child abuse images.
Jane Doe won her case, resulting in an injunction that put an end to the game’s distribution – and it was swiftly pulled from stores after that.
TopHeavy responded to the backlash by posting the following on their website: “The Man has decided that our fun and hilarious presentation of spring break revelry just wasn’t appropriate for the world of gaming.”
