UK gaming magazines are full of ads for porn, sex toys and dirty phone lines. Anybody who has bought an Imagine-published mag will tell you that they are, in fact, the best bits. However, one British father disagrees with this time-honored tradition, going so far as to send his daughter on a "sting" operation to uncover the sale of this sick filth.
"My eight year old daughter walked in ... On the lower shelf she picked out several magazines including Play (a Sony PlayStation 3 Magazine) and 360 (a Microsoft Xbox 360 magazine) both of which are published by Imagine Publishing," says the father, who calls himself Mayhem online. "Neither of these titles had an 18 or 15 certificate on them [Mayhem seems to think books have age ratings on them, usually]. She also picked up several Future Publishing magazines and Dennis Publishing magazines.
"She then proceeded to the check out were a young girl of about 19 years old had a quick look at the magazines and then scanned them in. My daughter then handed over the money and then walked out after saying thank you, and handed the magazines to me. After a quick look through all the magazine I found that only Imagine Publishing had any sort of pornography contained within them ...
"So over all its been a interesting day finding out that such a major publisher (Imagine Publishing) has no morals when it comes to making money, even if it means serving up pornographic content to children that may read their magazines ..."
That's when Mayhem realized he could keep sending his daughter into places to buy pornography for him. Now he's much happier.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
2:40 PM on 08.11.2009
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"I only read it for the articles, I swear!"
lulz.
Mainly because it's actually a good mag.
Cuz there's porn ads.
I wouldn't go far to say lack of morality, rather "poor taste".
"one could also pick up most any well respected newspaper and check out the classifieds... and also find "ads for porn, sex toys and dirty phone lines"... and even the phone number of a lovely lady or gentleman who'll come to your home and give you a massage!"
That's different. How many children pick up a copy of USA Today or the Boston Globe with their allowance money?
Because, as we all know, gamers are born without genitals, let alone sex drives.
Jim...you do realise that game magazines tend to have age ratings on them....
Christ, I remember being 12 and thinking Power Playstation was edgy for having Rachel Grant advertising controllers and a four page spread on the Dead Or Alive girls. Thankfully my innocence was spared as I only ever read Future Publishing magazines.
I don't know about you but I'm looking through my collection of gaming magazines and only the ones that came with cover discs have age ratings on them...
As I said, it depends on the advertisements... if they are mostly text - these can be found everywhere. If they are of a more graphic nature with explicit photos - then I can understand the potential problem.
I find RG's adds very appropriate; all for gaming (and sometimes film) related things.
I, for one, don't see the point of porn adds in gaming magazines... if someone wanted porn, they could just buy a PORN mag
It was just a girl with barely visible bikini(wich is acceptable) or a fat woman having sex with a mutant goat?
Now that was screwed up.
For me it was fine...I'm 28-years-old...ok...cool. But I was imagining some 12-13 year-old boy that started receiving Maxim after his EGM was canned.
Yes, I know that 12-13 year-old boys have seen much worse than Maxim by that age. But as a parent, I would still be absolutely pissed at whomever was in charge of making that idiotic decision for sending my kid a magazine like that.
Also, last time it happened I was five years older than the age I needed to be to buy the magazine. I'm either devilishly handsome or the clerk was a bit thick. Probably both.
First of all, I wish people would not call magazines 'books'. They're not freaking books! They're magazines!
Secondly, uhhh yeah - magazines DO come with age ratings, depending on the content. At least, here in Australia and I'm betting they do in the UK.
Uhhhh... No. No we don't. Coverdiscs are rated by the BBFC if they're DVDs or contain demos of 15 or 18-rated games, but magazines that aren't explicit pornography have no age limitations to speak of.
Our biggest selling newspaper, "The Sun", has a pair of tits on Page 3. "The Daily Star" and "The Sport" usually have an ex-Big Brother contestant with her tits or arse out. None of these are age-certified.
I subscribe to two games magazines, GamesTM and Edge, and there isn't a shred of porn or porn ads in them.