The latest stupidity is this Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas controversy. For those that don't play video games, the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series are games where you play a criminal. In GTA : San Andreas you play a south central L.A. African American gang member stereotype. In the game you can walk and drive around 3 cities that are based on LA, SF and Las Vegas. In the game you kill people. You can punch them until they fall down and then stomp on them until they are dead and bleed all over the road. You can walk into a fast food restaurant, shoot your gun and all the other customers will cower including little old ladies. You can then walk up to them and blow their heads off. You can solicit prostitutes while driving a car, the girl will get in the car and when you park it somewhere she will proceed to have sex you. You don't get to see the sex but the car will bounce and you will hear sexual dialog between the main character and several different prostitutes including moans and sexual screams. You can have girlfriends in the game and you can buy vibrators and dildos for them. This is all in the shipping game which is rated "M" for Mature 17+ (ie, NOT FOR KIDS)

The supposed controversy is that if you have a special device connected to your PS2, a "cheat box" that lets you hack games and if using that cheat box you enter a simple code, a part of the game that was blocked will become unblocked. In that part of the game you can have sex with with your girlfriends. It's called "Hot Coffee" because the segment starts by her asking you into her place by saying "Hey, how about some hot coffee?" If you answer yes it cuts to you two in her bedroom having sex. It's not very explicit by movie standards. It's short, nearly comedic, there are no genitals. You can see more explicit sex in American Pie the movie.

Supposedly this somehow makes the game controversial but dammit look at the box. Video games are rated in the USA and it says right on the box this:

Given the content of the game which is no more violent than any Tarentino movie, given that it's already rated "M 17+". Given that is says right on the box "Strong Sexual Content", how can a nearly PG−13 sex scene matter at all? WTF is the controversy?

The most resent event is some "grandma" claims the game was misrepresented and that because it was misrepresented she mistakenly bought it for her 14yr old grandson. HELLO! Grandma! Did you even look at the package? It says right on it "Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs. If anything they should lock you up for giving your grandson such a present when it was CLEARLY LABELED!!!!

The GTA series is for adults! It says so right on the box. For those of you that don't play games I can personally testify that the Grand Theft Auto series of games are some of the best games ever made. In the category of games this series is high art. It's redefined games and started it's own genre, not because of the theme of being a criminal but because it's so well made, so fun, and gives you more freedom than any other game to date. Because it actually reproduces living cities including foot traffic, car traffic, train and subway systems, airports and plane traffic, boat and ship traffic, traffic lights, draw bridges, weather including rain, fog, clouds, sunsets and it does all of this far far better than any game to date. GTA deserves the same treatment as an R rated film. No more, no less. There is nothing controversial here.