Thankfully, I think this whole thing is finally over.  Gamervision has been following the controversy surrounding the statements made by conservative blogger Kevin McCullough about the questionable content in Bioware’s action RPG, Mass Effect, and I think (pray) that this is the final chapter.  On Thursday, McCullough backed off a little on some of his statements and even issued a half-assed apology to all the “perv-oriented gamer-nerds” out there that he offended with his gross misinformation.  Said McCullough:

“Based on the multitude of response by gamers who share my concern for decency in the entertainment of our children, it is obvious that I had been misinformed on at least two points of substance in my original column.

    For this I DO apologize to the gaming universe!

    …I still do concur with my original position that the objectionable content in Mass Effect is still offensive, and should be kept out of the hands of those under age.

Mass Effect fans have demonstrated that the three minute cuts on YouTube are only arrived at after hours of play. So in their argument the “percentage” of objectionable content is heavily outweighed by the overwhelming amount of content leading up to it. Point well made…

Better than nothing, I guess.  McCullough’s podcast this week was squarely focused on the Mass Effect issue as well.  While he was somewhat contrite here as well, he was certainly more defensive than in his recent written statement.  He does concede some of the inarguable points, like the fact that players need to play for about 20 hours to reach the 3-minute scene of suggested sex, but still seems unable to admit that the scene itself really isn’t that explicit and, in general, comes off as backpedaling and uninformed.  You can listen to the podcast here (if you want to give him another page view).  Best part: at about 25:30, McCullough’s absolute silence at the caller’s effective Budweiser argument.  Regardless, I really hope this thing just goes away because I’m sick of hearing about it and even more sick of writing about it.