I picked up Grand Theft Auto IV yesterday..........

I love the game. It's mindless fun at a higher level. A wide open city where you can do basically anything you want. Violence that is so over the top that it borders on cartoon-like.

I've seen a couple of things that really make me tired of judgemental people. First, there was a piece on the CBS Nightly News last night about the release of Grand Theft Auto 4. It mentioned how it will likely gross more than the highest revenue producing movie of last year. It also mentioned that the video game industry now makes more than the movie industry. At the end of the piece, the narrator said that 'the game is a great time as long as you enjoy hanging around with people like this' and then showed a guy punching another character in the game. They flashed back to Katy Couric and she decided to say 'No thanks!' in response to the reporter's question.

Pardon my french, but who the hell is Katy Couric to tell people what to think? Her job is to be an unbiased reporter and not to provide an editorial. Her job is to present the information, not insert her opinion. If she wants to interject her opinion, be sure that the words 'Editorial' is flashed across the screen.

Another fact lost on most people has to do with the age of people who play video games and how they acquire the games.

1. The average age of a video game player is now 32 years of age. The vast majority of gamers are way over the 18 year old limit for mature games. They obviously have every right to play a mature rated video game.

2. The constant argument against violence in video games is that kids shouldn't be playing the violent games. Guess what? There's a clear rating system in place. Responsible parents who monitor their kids and what they play should have no problems identifying the games that kids should/shouldn't play. Also, there's no way those kids can get a mature rated game without a parent to buy it for them. I'm 33 years old and I got carded to check my age before I could buy the game. They don't even card me in bars anymore, yet they card me for a video game. That's a clear statement that the safeguards to restrict mature games to 18+ are in place and working properly.

Matt Damon came out yesterday and said that he wouldn't do the voice work for the upcoming 'Bourne Ultimatum' video game because he didn't approve of violence in video games for kids. So instead of checking the facts that mature video games can't get into the hands of kids, Matt Damon decided to speak on a situation that simply doesn't exist. Kids can't get those games, Matt. Meanwhile, kids can watch sex scenes on network TV which are supposedly censored by being under the sheets. Where's the outrage, Matt and Katy?

When ignorance can be passed off as fact by these people, it's hard to debate it at any level without pulling your hair out thinking about how oblivious they are to reality.