Worried about the wrong thing

I know I live in a country that has some very odd conception of sexual mores. After all we were founded by puritans. Although it is rather odd to find out that if you study history you will find that the Puritans actually had a fairly practical approach to sex (Thanks Dr. Tillman). But the latest scandle brewing in the Video Game industry over the so Called HOT COFFEE mod to Rockstar Games release "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" has to take the cake.

For those that do not know the Grand Theft Auto series has been going for some time now. The first release was in 98 which in terms of Video games means it is an ancient franchise. The premis of the game is murder and mayhem. Not sure how better to explain it. You hijack cars, kill hookers, Cops, Bad Guys, Random Pedestrians, Rob banks and pretty much any other number of nefarious deeds. You start as a petty bad guy and work your way up to kingpin. Along the way the game keeps stats of such things as various kill totals (gang members, cops etc... ) cars stolen and even rainfall. You can kill people with guns, rocket launchers or just your bare hands. You can drive up to a hooker and go get a 'health bonus' in a quite alley then kill her for all her money. These are all legitimate game play elements that have sailed past the game censors with a mature rating since its inception.

The Hot Coffee scandal is about an aftermarket mod (read you cannot do this in the game as it comes from the store) that has been released on the web that allows you to have your character participate in explicit sexual intercourse as a part of the game. The irony ? Unlike the game mechanic of picking up Hookers the mod actually requires that you do something to get the prospective partner to invite you in for some 'Coffee'. If you are successfull you are then presented with some kind of interactive cut scene (you control rythem/position) of two digital game characters in various sexual poses. It seems the main character is always drawn fully clothed but the female may be in various stages of undress including fully nude. Though we are certainly not talking hustler here... most kindergartners could drawn more sexually arousing figures.

So... lets get this straight. Picking up a hooker and watching a car bounce around in an alley while your health meter goes up is fine. Killing random pedestrians including said hooker or any likely joe's for their pocket money in the area also fine. Setting off massive cop car chases, killing cops, blowing stuff up and generally being a nations most wanted thug on steriods making Al Capone look about as dangerous as a jaywalker is all fine and dandy. But asking a girl out on a date and then doing a bump and grind fully clothed ? Oh my dear lord what is this trash ?

Now I am not one that buys into the whole children scarred by violent video game crap. Hell if that is true then I am one seriously messed up person. Well come to think of it I might be.... but I am not exactly eyeing high places and thinking how good a sniper location they would make or anything like that. I have played and enjoyed the GTA games. Few things come to mind as better for blowing stress off in a digital environment than trying to evade a 5 star pursuit in Vice City. And at the end of the day your not killing cops, pedestrians, or anyone else. You are pushing buttons and watching interactive computer animations. Granted these animations have meaning and represent some fairly reprehensible actions. But geeze louise people. If your worried about what these interactive animations represents it seems to me that you could pick something better to be horrified about than a date that leads to sex.

As I said in the title... these people are worried about the wrong thing.