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Getting older, apparently, means getting wiser but I'm finding this doesn't apply to everyone...

Flipping through the BBC's site this morning I came across this article which concerns attempts by US lawyers to sue Scottish videogames producers Rockstar North after an incident in Tennessee where two teenagers shot at passing cars with firearms after playing Rockstar's hit PlayStation/PC/Xbox title Grand Theft Auto Vice City.

Ok, this isn't a new story to those of us who read the industry press and scandalsheets regularly, but it's raining this morning, my new car is still knackered and I'm in the mood for a rant.

First off, the fact that 16-year old William Buckner and his 13-year old step-brother Joshua killed a man and seriously injured a woman in the shootings is abhorent and is not something I would like to be accused of making light of - that would be plain wrong.

However, I think it's only fair to protest the lunacy behind the idea that lawyers for the dead and injured are attempting to sue Rockstar for producing the game and WalMart for selling it.

This is just another flagrant attempt by asshats in the US to screw cash out of anybody they can think of. Suing the boys and maybe even their parents (as they are under 16) seems fair enough, but WalMart and Rockstar - patently ridiculous.

What's even more mystifying is that the manufacturers of the guns weren't implicated - why the hell not? And how about some rock musician or another - none of them included in the "guilty" list.

It seems to me the only thing Rockstar are guilty of is producing an interesting and exciting videogame that people want to play - after all you don't see the families of drug abuse victims suing Namco are producing Pacman do you?

The whole episode serves only to cheapen the lives and deaths of those involved as the family and the scum lawyers involved attempt to turn genuine tragedy into a profit-making business.