So, it has all come down to this.

CNN.com reported that last Monday, Gov. Rod Blagojevich “signed a law that would bar stores from selling or renting extremely violent or sexual games to minors” and would also restrict the sale of video games to adults to major retailers. This bill was signed just one week after the Entertainment Software Rating Board changed the rating of Rockstar’s “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas”, the hottest selling video game of 2004, from “M” Mature, ages 17 and up, to “AO”, Adults Only. The rating change occurred because of the infamous Hot Coffee Mod, which unlocked sex scenes in the form of a mini-game. These events have already caused major retailers like Best Buy to take the game off the shelves.

For those who do not have a clue what a “mod” or “modding” is, MSNBC.com describes modding as a way for gamers to integrate their own levels, story lines and other intricacies into the games they have grown to love. In essence, it’s like adding your own plot or sub-plot into your favorite book or movie. Patrick Wildenborg’s Hot Coffee Mod, however, unlocked the hot polygon-on-polygon action that was already imbedded in the game and thus, changed the integrity of the previous rating of the San Andreas game. Even though Rockstar was apprehensive to admit blame for these scenes, it has maintained the scenes were hidden and never meant to be seen.

Honestly, what’s the big deal? The same MSNBC.com article says Hot Coffee enables a sex scene that “depicts the fully-clothed lead character having sex with a woman wearing a thong and T-shirt.” There’s even an “excitement meter” for this mini-game that speaks for itself.

This big controversy is laughable. For starters, you have to go through a lot trouble to download this mod. If a kid can find this patch online, he or she can probably get access to a lot more explicit material. And if Blagojevich really cares about minors viewing inappropriate material, he should be more concerned about children being able to watch Cathouse on HBO at the same time as the 10 o’clock news.

Regardless of all the restrictions and guidelines that are put on children (no matter how futile the efforts are), Blagojevich can’t censor this material from the public. If an adult from the state of Illinois wants to play a game full of violence, drug use, gang wars and hidden sex scenes, he or she should be able to buy that game. No one stops adults from buying raunchy music, books or movies. Why should video games be the exception?

If the video game industry loses its lawsuit, the Grand Theft Auto series could lose its innovative edge by softening its content just to lower its ESRB rating. It would be like watching the edited version of “Friday” or “The Sopranos”.

It’s obvious that the reason Blagojevich is doing this has nothing to do with protecting minors. There’s only four months left until 2006 – an election year. Nothing looks better to some voters than Blagojevich doing what he can to protect the kids.

How pathetic!

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.