Jack Thompson

[Tony]

is the anti-video game lawyer not right in the head?

before you answer i suggest you fist go here and read the series of e-mails sent in between Mr. Thompson and Scott Ramsoomair of VGcats.com

[protosf]

Who the F**K he think he is.... Clearly the people who make the mods are at fault and this guy really needs to shut the F**k up and sit the hell down before I shove a 50ft. Sharp rusty pole way...WAY....WAY up his a**

[Xero Bloodline]

Reading those last few emails, yes, I think he's lost his mind. Personally, I agree with him on some issues. I don't think thirteen year olds should be allowed to play stuff like GTA and this Killer 7. But kids have parents too, let the parents decide what's fit for their kids. Its an age-old battle, censorship is....

[darkreaver]

After reading the emails I gotta say... He's nuts... I don't quite understand why 13 year olds couldn't play something like GTA3.. My brother is 13 and he plays it alot, it's ok chause he understands its just a game.. <<

[Nightmare]

I think he may have a point. But as long as the kid knows it's a game and is aware that it's not okay to do that stuff in real life, I think it's okay..It's just that kids nowdays are mind-nummingly stupid...But personally, I don't think anyone should be allowed to play GTA3, it's a horrible game that encourages just about every kind of crime imaginable..They were just asking for problems when they made that game... think it should be AO..But I have no problem with most other games..

[Fusion]

You will ALL get a good read out of this!

[Knuckles]

to tell the truth nightmare i think ur actin a bit sheltered, you see gta isnt tht bad if ur responsible, its only when people are irresponsible. see ive beat gta san andreas (NOW WITH MORE CRIMES TO COMMIT!!!!!! WOOO) and im a perfectly law abiding citizen, never steal, not even takin liek £1 from my mum or nothin jus cos i need it to go out, dont beat on people for no reason etc, heck i no people who havnt played gta etc and are far more criminal thn the people who do. you see for a responisible person its an outlet for when ur pissed off... liek a hyde to ur jekyll, u abide the law in real life, thn dont in gta, and eventually u get bored of it... and bein a crim becomes less interestin... trust me when u get abou 3/4 thru a gta game, it loses all appeal, and all u wna do is fly/drive around doin stunts

[Sonic]

I think even if those games got an AO rating, kids would still find a way of getting their hands on em. But yea, i think any kid under the age of 13 or 14 shouldnt play those games. Ive seen adult men commit crimes sayin they were influenced by GTA. Imagine kids...

[Knuckles]

yh... nut those are weak minded folks, and over here they all rated 18+ i think it should be down to the responsible adult for that child, and if u r influenced by a game u must b v weak minded.... and quite frankly shudnt be playin games... meb they should mhave a game aptitude test lol

[Fusion]

gr.bolt.com/articles/jack/jack.htm

Even more goodness.

[Sonic]

lol wtf? omg the buddy icon is gonna kill me! Douchebag, indeed.

[RELLIK]

Jakc Thompson needs to get a life...
i mean you spend all your time fighting for lower videogames ratings?
a sane person would not kill someone cuz its in a game.
what a waste of time try to stop something worth while like slavery and world poverty (live8 was the best effort and people united for that cause)not trying to stop video game ratings from being low.
there the next mass media format (most recent the internet)
you can have a way better story than romeo and juliete, better art than a van gogh (for some of us who prefer no dis) better drama (since you kind of are the characters) than the titanic and everyone will have aomething like that. as for his comment about first person shooters well its like shooting skeets (dunno how to spell) just with better storylines and more imagination (of course they keep the realistic fact that things bleed and can die). plus ive grown up around beer mary jane and other crap but i dont touch it like alter said cuz the best way to go about living is respect. "respect that and respect respect back"

[Knuckles]

yeah i agree, i liek the analogy ya used about drama, art and story, i mean nobody says casualty (a uk drama about a hospital) is bad cos it numbs people to blood and gore, nobody says that books which vividly depict crimes or acts of violence are bad for ya. i mean romeo an juliet (to use relliks example) and most of shakespeares plays basically involve killing for love, killing from spite and just outright killing in general, and theyre glorified!

[Sonic]

Yea, its just old farts like Jack Thompson who swear all kids are gonna go on a rampage just from playin an M-rated game. I cant stand old-fashioned people like that. Unfortunately, i know too many adults who are all like that....

[Tony]

well, i case some of you still think he's alright in the head. i bring you Jack Thompson's proposal.

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The Golden Rule

This writer has been saying for seven years that violent video games can be "murder simulators" that incite as well as train some obsessive teen players to be violent.

I've been on 60 Minutes and in Reader's Digest this year explaining how an Alabama teen, with no criminal record, shot two policemen and a dispatcher in their heads and fled in a police car--a scenario he rehearsed for hundreds of hours on Take-Two/Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto video games.

I have sat with boys in jail cells, their lives over because of murder convictions, after they, with no history of violence, have killed innocents while in a dreamlike state. Said one cop who investigated such a murder in Grand Rapids, Michigan: "The killing was like an extension of the game."

The video game industry, through its lawyers, its spokesmen, and its head lobbyist, Doug Lowenstein, the president of the Entertainment Software Association, all say it is utter nonsense to suggest that what is dumped into a kid's head hour after hour, day after day, year after year, could possibly have behavioral consequences. Cigarette ads can persuade kids to smoke, but interactive simulators in which these same kids punch, hack, bludgeon, and maim affect not a wit their attitudes and behaviors, notwithstanding the findings of the American Psychological Association, published in August 2005.

The video game industry says Sticks and stones can break my bones, but games can never hurt me. Fine. I have a modest proposal for the video game industry. I'll write a check for $10,000 to the favorite charity of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc's chairman, Paul Eibeler - a man Bernard Goldberg ranks as #43 in his book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America - if any video game company will create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game in 2006 like the following:

Osaki Kim is the father of a high school boy beaten to death with a baseball bat by a 14-year-old gamer. The killer obsessively played a violent video game in which one of the favored ways of killing is with a bat. The opening scene, before the interactive game play begins, is the Los Angeles courtroom in which the killer is sentenced "only" to life in prison after the judge and the jury have heard experts explain the connection between the game and the murder.

Osaki Kim (O.K.) exits the courtroom swearing revenge upon the video game industry whom he is convinced contributed to his son's murder. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay" he says. And boy, is O.K. not kidding.

O.K. is provided in his virtual reality playpen a panoply of weapons: machetes, Uzis, revolvers, shotguns, sniper rifles, Molotov guy thingytails, you name it. Even baseball bats. Especially baseball bats.

O.K. first hops a plane from LAX to New York to reach the Long Island home of the CEO of the company (Take This) that made the murder simulator on which his son's killer trained. O.K. gets "justice" by taking out this female CEO, whose name is Paula Eibel, along with her husband and kids. "An eye for an eye," says O.K., as he urinates onto the severed brain stems of the Eibel family victims, just as you do on the decapitated cops in the real video game Postal2.

O.K. then works his way, methodically back to LA by car, but on his way makes a stop at the Philadelphia law firm of Blank, Stare and goes floor by floor to wipe out the lawyers who protect Take This in its wrongful death law suits. "So sue me" O.K. spits, with singer Jackson Brown's 1980's hit Lawyers in Love blaring.

With the FBI now after him, O.K. keeps moving westward, shooting up high-tech video arcades called GameWerks. "Game over," O.K. laughs.

Of course, O.K. makes the obligatory runs to virtual versions of brick and mortar retailers Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, and Wal-Mart to steal supplies and bludgeon store managers and cash register clerks. "You should have checked kids' IDs!"

O.K. pushes on to Los Angeles. He must get there by May 10, 2006. That is the beginning of "E3" -- the Electronic Entertainment Expo -- the Super Bowl of the video game industry. O.K. must get to E3 to massacre all the video game industry execs with one final, monstrously delicious rampage.

How about it, video game industry? I've got the check and you've got the tech. It's all a fantasy, right? No harm can come from such a game, right? Go ahead, video game moguls. Target yourselves as you target others. I dare you.

Jack Thompson is a Miami lawyer who has for 18 years been involved in efforts to stop the marketing of adult entertainment to minors.