Jack Thompson: a bit confused

[Nikolas]

I do know for a fact that the best way to stop him is to ignore him!

Let's lock this thread and never speak of him again. What is he going to do if no one cares about what he says, if everybody rejects everything he thinks and he is rejected as a lawyer...

[Barbarian]

* Warning, this post may contain a sense of humor (and some typos)Ã,  *

Heck, I don't wanna really stop him... the more he opens his mouth, the more he proves what an ignorant ass he truely is. And if he was really "stopped", then someone with some real intelligence, sense and charisma might take up his lame "crusade against video games" instead.Ã, 
Ã,  Ã, Sort of like that old "Hogan's Heros" show with the POW's group working incognito in a WWII German prison camp run by the bumbling "Col. Klink".Ã,  They always found a way to keep Klink out of real trouble and in "charge" of the camp, otherwise they knew with the incompetent Klink of out of the picture, then some real strick SOB with some keen intelligence would ruin everything for 'em.

Ahhh, got off track there, so... Anyways, I just posted that "Stop Jack" link as I thought it was amusing to see how far people are reacting to this windbag.Ã,  Really, I couldn't care less about the whole "JT" situation and the stir he's trying to cause.

On a different note (but somewhat related to topic at hand I guess), is I noticed Rockstar Games put up a preview of a cool looking new video game they are soon to release, based on one of my old time favorite movies, "The Warriors":
http://www.rockstargames.com/thewarriors/home.html
Ã,  Ã, Looks like it might be a fun game!
Ã,  Ã, Ahhh, gotta love 'em violent video games. Now, someone hand me a bat *Whack* Heheh.Ã, 

[Vince Twelve]

Sorry to bring up this ol' thread again, but I had to share this quote I just read on the Game Politics website.

Thompson is gearing up for a case this week in Alabama in which he is suing Sony and Take Two for making the game (GTA of course) on which a sixteen year old boy "trained" to kill three cops.  Thompson is representing the families of the three cops.  Without getting into a conversation about the merits of said case, I just want to point out a bit from a press release that Thompson sent out today regarding the suit:

"Oh, and certain regional governments in Japan have banned the sale of the Grand Theft Auto games to minors, but Japan's Sony has no problem whatsoever dumping this garbage into American kids' brains. Looks like Pearl Harbor 2 by Sony/Take-Two...'"
                                           --Jack Thompson

I... Wow.

He also said that this case was going to make the OJ Simpson case look like a quilting bee.  Delusions of Graduer much?

[Redwall]

And the President of the ESA is Hitler, apparently.

When Hitler invaded Russia, opening up an Eastern offensive on the eve of winter, Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill noted that 'Hitler must have been rather loosely educated, not having learned the lesson of Napoleon's autumn advance on Moscow.' Your Doug Lowenstein [President of the ESA] is similarly 'loosely educated' about the United States Constitution.

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

"dumping this garbage into american kid's brains" almost seems like they're forcing GTA on us.  It's a game that's sold to people old enouhg to buy it.  Hell, all my friends played that game before, It's a wonder I'm still alive.  But then again, they also play Medal of Honor, so they must all secretly be facists, they have a game about WWE wrestling, so they must plan on offing me with a steel chair, and they play "extreme beach volleyball" so it probably involves some cruelty to volleyballs in the end.

Oh, the confusion.

[Afflict]

I dunno I kinda like ripping people off, giving them a taste of their own medicine...
May I add we might humour him but we can easily turn it into our advantage..
I think I should work on a story script for this was that post on the first page
the description the whole discription and nothing but the discription?

Look at it like this guys, Chris hosts a charity called AGS charity. We select
this as our charity we want the money paid to. The charity will be for hard
working adventure game builders that with funds can buy a ligit copy of
I dunno PSP to distribute to all members? Whatever... Details.

Now we include conditions the game will be made and will not be published
until its completed by this " jack Thompson" However due to the fact that we
created it, it will be difficult as hell. He wont be able to complete it period.

NO WALKTHROUGH ETC.

I dunno i didnt read all five pages of posts but has anyone shown interest
in making this game? I can write or co write in a group and then the community
will test etc. Someone will have to make graphics and stuff. Music will be good 2

*All gruesome scenes can be covered with (A tommy screen )
*Will have a larry questionare (of all retro adv games) and how big is your bank account or pin you answer this and you automaticly fail cause even an idiot knows not to disclose his pin.
*The main character could be Jack Thompsun
*He wil be a lawayer or something

ok I will have to read his stupid discription and write !

Love stuff like this...

[SSH]

I dunno i didnt read all five pages of posts

Which is why you missed that Jack withdrew his offer claiming it was only "satire"

[Afflict]

That suc thanks ssh, maybe ill make a satire game 

[Paper Carnival]

I don't think this was mentioned before, but it's a good article http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/28/tech/gamecore/main992768.shtml

I hope he read it

[Vince Twelve]

I'm sorry for bumping again, but... too funny...

Gamepolitics followed up with JT about that Pearl Harbor Comment.  Here's the comment again:

Oh, and certain regional governments in Japan have banned the sale of the Grand Theft Auto games to minors, but Japan's Sony has no problem whatsoever dumping this garbage into American kids' brains. Looks like Pearl Harbor 2 by Sony/Take-Two...

And here's the follow up conversation:

GP: Jack - Some readers are taking offense to the Pearl Harbor comments in your press release, and I have to say that it does read as a somewhat insensitive remark. Would you care to comment on that section or elaborate further on what you were trying to convey?

JT: Insensitive? What the Japanese are doing to our kids is insensitive and racist. The Japanese have for a very long time dumped pornography into this country in a fashion they would not tolerate in their own country. It is another version of Pearl Harbor.

GP: By porn, I take it you mean violent video games? Are you referring to various Japanese-made game platforms? (i.e. PS2, Nintendo, etc.) But Take-Two is an American corp., and Rockstar an English subsidiary. Most of the games I can recall you criticizing over the years have been American-published.. (GTA, 25 to Life, Bully, The Warriors, The Sims, Blitz: The League, Everquest, Doom, etc.)

JT: Sony is a Japanese company.

GP: But Sony only makes the player. I don't recall you criticizing any of their titles in a major way. If you take that approach, wouldn't TV, VCR, and DVD player manufacturers be equally complicit? Since their products play violent movies and even actual porn? And are also needed to play video games?
Toshiba, etc.?

JT: GTA is a Sony/Take-Two game. It was made by Take-Two exclusively for Sony's Playstation 2. Sony has led the planet in the distribution of mainstream porn. I don't have time to document it for you. As for the offensiveness of the Pearl Harbor comment, it's accurate and it's needed. The Japanese have a contempt for our culture which is patent. There (sic) dumping of garbage into our culture is a slow motion version of Pearl Harbor.

THEN, Jack sent a brief fax to the Japanese Ambassador to the United States:

The Honorable Ryoko Kato
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Japan to the United States of America
2520 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. Via Fax to 202-xxx-xxxx

Re: Sony's Ongoing Distribution of Violent and Pornographic Material to Minors in the United States


Dear Mr. Ambassador:

As a United States citizen who has been active and visible in opposing Sony's distribution of hyperviolent and sexually explicit video games to children in this country, I would respectfully request that your nation's government assist me in making this harmful distribution stop.

This request comes in the aftermath of recent news reports that certain local/regional governments in Japan will not allow, for example, the grotesque Sony/Take-Two/Rockstar Grand Theft Auto games to be sold to children in your country but Sony is more than delighted to distribute these games to our children in our country.

This is hypocrisy, and it must be remedied. Japan cannot allow to be done to our children what it will not allow to be done to its own.

Regards, Jack Thompson

I think he's a little confused about how the game business works.

[Redwall]

I don't think he cares whether what he's saying is true or not as long as it will get him more attention.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Good grief. I second Redwall - at this point he doesn't even seem to be thinking. I love the interview:

"The Japanese are fucking us over with Sony."
"How so?"
"Because."
"Why Sony?"
"It's Japonese."
"What about all this other data you haven't considered?"
BLEEP! BLEEP! OVERLOAD! RESET!
"The Japanese are fucking us over with Sony."

It's either crave for attention... or a really nasty delusion of grandeur. Much like the one that seems to afflict some American governments (no offence meant to any Americans), the one which makes them go "We're the policemen of the world" on a good day and add "Whether you like it or not" on slightly worse days.

[Huw Dawson]

Maybe he sould go after Terry Pratchet, because he occationally writes violence into his books.

Or maybe JKR, because she has had several people die in her books.

Of cource, if he did that, he'd only get attention in this country, and this is FAR to small a group of people for his ego to be filled. 

(Thought: He could go after the british offices of infogrames, because they made the "war" game Hogs of War")