All Mod Cons (GTA Edition)

The latest (yawn) uproar engulfing the video-gaming world revolves around the PC (that's personal computer, not politically correct) version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which contains an Easter Egg that allows you to get it on with pixelated chicks.

"I ain't insecure," your character says as a naked honey bobs at your nob. "But tell me I'm great."

The Easter Egg, known as "Hot Coffee," is naturally causing a stir -- with some blaming "game modders" for creating the game's multi-positional boudoir scene. (Also, quite naturally, video of Hot Coffee is so popular that it's currently in the top-10 girl videos at iFilm.)

But Patrick Wildenborg, the Dutch modder responsible for "Hot Coffee," claims the kickin'-it was built in to the game by its developers at Take 2 Interactive, and that his mod simply uncensored existing content within the game, according to today's Boston Globe.

"It's no big deal if a Dutchman creates a pornographic version of GTA," concludes the thankfully libertine Globe gaming writer Hiawatha Bray.

That's true on a moral and economic level, of course. But as I pointed out in my All Mod Cons post last week (I had no idea this would become a series), while "game manufacturers are already facing a 'significant backlash from consumers' for their lack of openness" to source-code modifications (read: improvements), modders are facing something more serious: criminal sentences resulting from bogus EU piracy and copyright regulations.