Wow. Grand Theft Auto has actually been banned in Australia, because of the sexually explicit content that is unlocked “simply” by downloading the Hot Coffee mod and installing it. (How on earth do you install anything on your Playstation, anyway? Mine seems to live a life completely isolated from any other computer on earth, and I imagined that was to stop me having any control over oh, you know, copying games, or installing mods. Maybe I just haven’t delved very deeply yet.)

The last episode of Grand Theft Auto had bits expurgated from its Australian version, due to the ban on sexualised violence. I blogged that a couple of years ago (ooh, what happened to my old stylesheets?), inspired by an interesting short essay about it by Josephine Starrs, “Do you know what it feels like for a girl in virtual worlds?”. Actually all the expurgation meant was that you could still beat up sex workers and get their money, but you couldn’t have sex with them first. The only visual that changed was that they took out the rocking car that symbolised your avatar having sex with a sex worker.

Anyway, Grand Theft Auto is releasing a new version, without the hidden sex scene, so no doubt Australians will soon be able to buy it again.