Political Theater

This is kinda amusing... Hillary is creating some noise over a GTA:San Andreas mod that allows "simulated sex" in the game.

Hillary is pretty obviously using this as an opportunity to position herself towards the center/right with soccer moms, fans of Weepin' Joe Liebermann, etc. in 2008, but I can't imagine anything ever coming of this.

"Mods," or modifications of the regular game material, are produced by fans who have too much time on their hands... it is not a product of the game or the company that produces it. As such, if you gave GTA an adult rating, you would have to do so for about any game. The Quake, Doom, Unreal, Warcraft, and Half-Life franchises have all been modded in this manner.

The other humorous item is the innocent stance of the company... sure, modding "violates the game's software user agreement," but programmers could make their games a lot harder to hack if they want to. However, they actually love modders... it helps the buzz of their game and sells copies. Quake II is still a great game due to the extensive number of awesome mods created for it.

Thus the dynamic... software companys push back against the most egregious infringements but generally allow politicians to bluster as much as they want, while politicians (both left and right) create their press releases and condemnations knowing they really won't be able to change any of it. A nice little cynical partnership...

BTW, what exactly is the "simulated sex" they are referring to? Do you have to stick it in the floppy drive or something? And at point, wouldn't the floppy drive now be a hard drive? Thank you, I will be here all week... try the veal, and remember to tip your waitress.