Adventure Game Studio

EDIT: Jack calls this "Satire" and has cancelled his offer

Jack Thompson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29), in case you don't know, is a lawyer who has been pushing around money and laws in America because he has some personal vendetta against video games.  He riles up the government about violent and sexual imagery in games and proposes censorship and legal penalties.

Now, the nutter has proposed (http://gc.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=5883) that the game industry publishes a game in which the main character is the father of a boy who was killed by another boy imitating his favorite video game.  The father then goes on a rampage across America, brutally murdering game executives of companies that make violent video games.

Jack claims that if a game company makes and sells a game that follows his proposal, he will donate 10,000 dollars to charity.

In his head, he is proving that the game companies know that gamers are influenced by the games they play and will act out the scenarios in real life.  He seems to believe that, the game companies will not make a game in which game execs are killed because gamers may act out the scenario in real life.

The fact is, game companies would never make a game like this because it would make a terrible game and no one would buy it. 

Regardless, Jack will claim that the fact that the game companies won't make the game proves his point that games make people more violent.

Here's the rub: Jack's proposal states challenges ANY game company to make this game, and reading his proposal, it's completely possible that one of us could make this game and sell it via cafePress or something, making a monkey out of Mr. Thompson.  Not to mention that simply making and offering to sell this game would get you instant media notoriety and probably a lot of novelty sales.

I believe that one could make this game to his specifications in AGS and, through the story, mock people who blame the easiest thing (video games) while ignoring the harder (but more likely to be valid) issues such as poor parenting, economic status, mental illness, etc.

Here's the full text of his ridiculous proposal that he mailed out to a number of game execs:

Quote from: Jack Thompson"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 cocktails, 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.

I don't personally have the time right now to work on such a project, but I want to challenge anyone in the community to make such a game, even if it completely sucks.  You can probably make a bit of money off of it as well!  Just an idea I wanted to throw out there.

You know, now that I think about it I believe that I'm a musician because of LOOM!

I never thought about it. God, I wish there were more games about doctors and lawyers. Then I would be one of them...

What a bunch of bullshit! If the money were going to the game maker and not a charity I would gladly make a game, and then take the money and find the best way to prove him wrong.

I just can't believe that people are so blind and are willing to put the blame on video games and Marilyn Manson and anything else, rather than poverty, poor education, goverment and whatever else.

Thanks Vince, this was... educational, really...

I wonder if he realizes exactly how many people want to decapitate him and urinate on his brain stem??? That right there is PROOF against what he's saying... People don't kill people because it is learned behavior... They do it because people like him are asshats.

I would make the game, but this is no adventure game. He seems to want a clone of GTA3. I would do it simply to offset his cockmastery. However, here is the thing: he could VERY WELL BE SUED for what he said here. This is as close to a threat letter as the moron could possibly have written without saying "I myself am going to perform these actions directly to the people parodied in the description of this game." He even used Paul eibel's real name, with an "a" added on to it. I say, rather than make this game, we attach incendiary devices to this man's hair and laugh.

Okay, do you see what I'm talking about? I DON'T play violent games... I tend to play more intellectually stimulating games. However, I would like to murder this man in horrible ways. Does this not prove that he's a fool? Just the very thought that he was able to think up what he thought up there is proof positive that he, along with ANYONE, is capable of the worst kind of offenses. People don't play violent video games and become violent. Violent people play video games as a way to release their violence without doing something that would lead to life imprisonment or the death sentence. People, as a whole, suck. That is why they do things that suck. And that is why game companies make such games... They are pandering to the suckage of people. If everyone liked to bounce around and eat mushrooms then every game would be like Super Mario brothers.

I'm a writer. I have had to rewrite my precious novels a billion times because, although I told the story I wanted told, it was not a story that people would pay money to read. Likewise, no one would pay 50 bucks a game if every single game was about chasing butterflies and playing hopscotch. I have a challenge for Captain Jackassery: Make a game the way you think gaes should me made, and sell half as many copies as GTA has sold... No... a quarter... Even a TENTH!!! It could not be done.



Fool.

Jack Thompson does not realise how many people play GTA etc. for the sole fun of doing something many players would never do, like holding up a Hardware store titled "Screw This", or driving an RC Red Baron, or obtaining a jetpack. I play GTA, i don't feel like going through a Police Station and torching everyone and anyone in there. Do you?
I play Leisure Suit Larry, and i don't-- err, anyway, the point is, some games are violent, yes, but gaming companies aren't evil monopolistic monsters. Well, they're monopolistic, but what company isn't? If Thompson's game is made, then doesn't he realise there is just as much chance that players may start killing game companies in real life?

(http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/images/comics/20051012.jpg)

From http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com

You know being a gamer is just fine.

I'm one. I hope my son will be one, seriously.

But sometimes I don't think of the monsters behind the gaming industry as well as the music industry as well as the IT industry etc... I do wish that independent games and independent music through the net probably will flourish and sent this big ashes to hell.

Which reminds me that thank god, here at AGS and at other places we make games for free and distribute them for free again so we don't need Vivendi or any of the fuckers.

I wish though that life was just so simple. I wish that I could give away my music, or make music lessons for free, but then how am I going to live?

More precisesly on the topic. I do feel that not everything that Jack says is wrong. Tim Buckleys' comic, although of high quality, seems a bit simplistic...

Anyway off I go once again, (to come back in a while...)

What a stupid thing I did...

I agree. While I applaud Guybrush for the post, the comic does lack logical argument. It seems to me that Jack Thompson is saying "The sky is red," but Tim Buckley is saying "No, it's blue, because I think you're wrong." While the former is still an asshat and the latter is still right, the latter is only right because he is, not because of any spectacular argument.

Fluke: you do realize that the last sentence of your post is not in favor of what we're talking about here, right? I think you meant to say, "People are as likely to do it whether or not the game is made."

Actually, I believe if there were no violent video games, there would be more violence in real life. People who play video games and find release from their violent urges would have no outlet for their ire, and very well may run around town pulling a GTA. I know, when I was in high school, there was this club we used to hang out at. One night, the cops showed up there before me and my friends arrived.

"Blimey, esp," says my pal Steve (yes, I go by esper in real life, too... And Steve is British) "I just had a hell of an idea. Let's swipe the pig's ride and take it across the bridge."

"That's ignorant," I said, "we'd never make it."

"The bridge is right there, out of state. They'd never be able to get us before we were out of their jurisdiction."

"The stateys would be on us like flies on shite."

He attempted to persuade me diligently to enact his plan with him. In the end, we went to my place and played GTA2. Thus, the urge was settled, and the po-po's maintained their cruiser without incident. Thus too was proven that violent and criminally-inspired games are actually more beneficial than... ummm... malefactoral...

Are there any plans out there amonst amateur groups to make this game yet? I think it could potentially make a hilarious point and click style adventure game. There are a few ammedments I would make to his plot though.
When O.K. leaves the courtroom he would be picked up in a private limo and taken to the evil underground fortress of Dr. Thompson. Here Dr. Thompson would brainwash and train O.K. to become his personal soldier.
O.K. would be unleashed on the world to commit his mass murder spree, the whole time under the command and guidance of Dr Thompson.
I could just see the whole thing being done with ripped graphics from the GTA games with puzzle and dialog based adventure game gameplay. Chock full of sick humour and jokes. It would be the game exactly as outlined by Jack, but with a very different feel to what I'd imagine he was invisioning.

Create, manufacture and distribute? He didn't say how many copies did he? hehe

You know, you're right! Let's make the next One week One Room, or the next MAGS competition about this. Let's ridicule this guy the best way we know. And while we're at it let's ridicule and all the copyright, music, game, blah blah industries.

That would be fun, having 10+ games under the same subject, distributed free over the internet...

I would almost tend to agree with Nik, but... but...

::burning with fury::

listen, before I wind up chucking a haduken the size of antarctica, or summoning a lv. 50 Greater Horror, or driving my car into a police station and stealing a cop car and then running vigilante missions in it, or one of the multitudinous other things I could only do in a video game, let me just say:

Let's ruin this cunt.

Someone make the game. I am good friends with the manager of my local game store, and he has sold some of my books in his store from time to time. If someone were to make this game (create), send it to me and I'll burn it (manufacture) and give it to my friend at the store (distribute). Under those conditions, he would have to pay up. He NEVER said how long the game had to be, how good the graphics had to be, or the size (or independence) of the company that was to produce it. He never said MASS distribute, and he never said MAINSTREAM game company... We could do this, and screw that bastard. Someone call the guy that made "Earwig is angry" and get him on staff :P

Seriously...

And I'm sure a lot of you people know store managers, etc... that would eat this up. As a matter of fact, this is the type of thing that becomes a web phenomenon. Someone make a web site, and we could sell it from there...

Jack Thompson could, very well, become our beeyotch.

I don't think a $10,000 tax deductable donation to charity is really going to ruin him unfortunately. If anybody wants to do this do it because it's funny and because making fun of tyrants is the best revenge, really. He isn't worth the energy expended on hating him, just laugh at him.

When you consider that here in AGS we have games that have been download 20000 times (!). Aprrentice for example. Imagine what would this do to his reputation.

Imagine a worthy try from most people in here, to try to distribute this game as best as they can. Imagine having a game that has been distributed a lot of time. It's not about money. Sarcasm is so much better than a financial attack.

And even though I find Moore, very low, I think that he's hitting Bush where it hurts. And that ain't money. Same here with Jack then!

So who's keen to have a crack at it? I'd be willing to contribute story/puzzle ideas, programming, music and sound fx.

AMEN! That's the whole deal. It isn't hating HIM, it's hating the type of ignorance he stands for. It isn't the payout, it's making him HAVE to pay out. It might not ruin him financially, but...

I'm totally in. I'll do whatever's needed. Matter of fact, I'll even contact Paul Eido-whatever-his-name-is and tell him our intentions. He might even make AGS the charity in question, if it goes through!!! (wishful thinking).

Besides, think of the fame that might incur on our ends. His negative notoriety would become our positive notoriety. It's totally worth it.

Something I just noticed: he never explicitly states that the player controls O.K.
O.K's murderous rampage can be depicted entirely in cutscenes, while the game itself could focus upon something else - for ex. how about some gamers who want to go to E3? They could have various run-ins with O.K. on their little quest to get passes.

How about in the end the man who was brutally murdering game execs realizes that the boy who killed his kid was a demented freak who went insane because his father brutally beat him whenever he played a video game?  Just a thought  :=

I say a man on a giant pink elephant rides in and kills him similarly to many of those sierra game deaths, with one of those text boxes telling how he died that pops up after.

You know, murdering video game execs isn't at all better than killing a person.  He should be shot by the police the second he tries to kill an exec.

modge: true, but that kind of denies the point. I like your idea better, but unless the player actually is controlling the murderous rampage, it makes Jackie-Boy's argument of little to no effect, which most likely calls all bets off. He wants the point to be that if the player controls a character rampageantly destroying video game execs that they will do it in real life. If we don't deliver that, then we aren't fulfilling our part of the bargain, and he would therefore have no obligation to fulfill his.

Nip: first idea is brilliant, and the second would be hilarious, but a bit out of place...but as for the third: he can't get laid waste like that because it would not fulfill Jack's "Game Design Document..."

And for everyone else: seriously!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!11!!

The only reason things like this don't get done is because no one takes the gumption and does it. This could very well put AGS, adventure games, and our community on the map. We could r0x0r people's s0x0rz. Think of it as Star Wars Kid, on a bigger scale. Instead of a bunch of punk kids stealing a video of a fat loser dancing an Irish/Jedi jig with a mop handle and posting it on the internet, we're effectively taking the stupidity of "The Man" and laying it bare for all to see. This isn't some fat Canadian. It's the Man. THE Man. C'mon, people.... add your strength to the hand that felled an imbecilic giant.

Making the game sounds fine to me, but do we need another violent-games-versus-violent-behaviour discussion? We had one not long ago.
I for one think it's ridiculous to blame computer games for all bad things that happen in society, but do I think they're completely harmless?
Nah, not really, together with violent movies and books etc they add to some sort of general  level of violence and bad energy that surrounds us daily. It won't affect the majority of people, prolly just a fraction, but it sure as hell will affect somebody.

Having said that, I'd love to see a game ridiculing that prick Thompson, who clearly hasn't got the big picture.

We had to think up a controversial topic for our presentation. I suggested Violence in computer games. The other guys didn't want that topic because it's a "non-discussion". Everbody knows that violence and games are as related as violence and religion.
So we chose Higher tax for SUV's instead.

When I saw the whole thing about anyone being able to make the game I instantly thought about a silly joke game a la DGMacPhee.

Well, back to the topic, which from now on is, who wants to make a game and is willing to help making it:

I'm in!

I can writte music, and throw ideas around the story/puzzles!

I can't script at all, though...

Maybe before we start messing around with these kind of things we should check with CJ? Just a thought...

But isn't there a catch to all this? From what i understand if some fool does recreate something from the game created (ala Jackass)  then cant this thompson guy sue the hell out of the creator?

Exactly my worry, chicky...

Cyber kill Larry Probst and Jim Ward!
Would anyone miss them?

If you write an outline for a game, say "please make this game," and then somebody does - can you really turn around and sue them for taking your idea? This is something that would need to be determined before the game can be made, I suppose.

One solution might be to give up on trying to make him fulfill his charity donation proposal by not actually selling the game. Just create it as a freeware, perhaps?

1) I would not worry about someone acting out the events from a point and click adventure.  And as modgeulator said, he can't sue us for making the game he told us to make.

2) As nik mentioned, $10,000 is not going to bankrupt the guy.  He probably won't even feel it.  BUT, it's a bruise to his very swollen ego.  The point is to point out his ignorance and idiocy.

3) When writing this game (and you know what, I volunteer to do it if no one else is into it) we have to make sure to keep it smart and clean.  You can't prove someone wrong just by insulting him, you CAN prove someone wrong by pointing out all the flaws in his argument.  But we don't need to result to mud-slinging and name calling.  Facts and parody, that's where it's at.

4) That ctrl-alt-del comic was hilarious.

Looks like somebody's already made the game!

http://www.technical-difficulties.com/osaki/


Still, I'd like to see something a bit better that this...

Quote from: Vince Twelve on Fri 14/10/2005 03:50:59
...he can't sue us for making the game he told us to make.

I didn't say that, I'm not sure if he could sue or not.

Errr... sorry I mis-commented on your comment.  I don't believe he could sucessfully sue, and I know he can't sue without looking like a complete tool.

And I knew some other people would certainly have the idea to make this game.  But Jack, being the lawyer that he is, could easily weasel his way around that one by quoting his proposal:

Quote...if any video game company will create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game in 2006 like the following...

the game may have to be made, manufactured, distributed, and sold in 2006.  Also, this game wasn't really manufactured, which is why I propose using cafePress.

Finally, these guys did a great rush job here, and the game is probably very funny, but I doubt that they get across the point that they should be expressing here.

Heh.  It's still pretty funny that a game has already been made.  I wonder what Jack was smoking when he wrote and mailed that proposal... what a nutter.

Well, that's unfortunate. Ah, I guess I have nothing to be zealous about now... ::sigh::

Still, the virtual destruction of ol' Jack is tremendous. I think the point he completely fails to see is that violent video games do not make violent players, but rather quite the opposite: violent players make violent games. I bet the people that make games like Postal, Manhunt, and GTA are all pacifists. The only reason they make the games is because it makes them money.

Why is it that there is no 800 number you can call to complain about idiocy?

So, going back to the game. We could probably still make it, more to JT's specifications, and win the bet, as it seems that the people who made "Osaki" were only interested in it for a gag. A serious attempt at this game might horribly cripple Jack's ignorance. I still say we do it :P

Ha ha!  Forget that idea.  Jack Thompson rescinded his offer.

http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000743063662/

And, he then got owned by PA:
http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000627063759

What a chickensh*t coward.

I can honestly say that I am thoroughly dissapointed with him.  I mean, aren't lawyers supposed to be charismatic, clever, and able to twist words like none other?  This moron's essentially saying, "Yea, about that... I was joking 'cause I don't want to pay the 10 grand."

Even though, of course, he's making a bigger ass of himself now that he said that.  To put it simply, all of the video gamers gave him a big FU, so he ran off like a coward.  We won.  Be happy.

http://www.vgcats.com/jack.php

Quote from: King_Nipper on Tue 18/10/2005 02:17:35
I can honestly say that I am thoroughly dissapointed with him.Ã,  I mean, aren't lawyers supposed to be charismatic, clever, and able to twist words like none other?Ã, 

I would say that of all the classes lawyers are the worst class. Not in matters of attributes, but certainly I would never pick a class who is able to twist words like no one!

I think really that while in training and education, lawyers are taught to lie, and generally to be bitches and not to care about anything.

Ok. before I am misunderstood, take the word lawyers from above and replace it with the workd Jackass!
;D

PS. And certainly not clever!

Yahtzee rocks. (http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/)

Awesome! Someone tell Yahtzee I love him, because I can't be bothered.

So great! Amazing! Yahtzee rules!

Lately, I 've been thinking "I wish Yahtzee would stop with these half-arsed, not particularly clever or funny updates, and make a new Chris & Trilby comic." But that's neither here nor there.

Did anyone seriously expect Thompson to make good on his offer? OK, I admit I thought he'd weasel out of it by claiming none of the games that got made met his critera, actually use his lawyerin' skills (like Nipper said) rather than just saying "Ooops, didn't actually mean it" when it inevitably backfired on him. But then I tend to expect the best of people. Which opens up the arguement: "Does Jack Thompson count as a person?"

Quote from: Petteri on Thu 13/10/2005 16:11:29
When I saw the whole thing about anyone being able to make the game I instantly thought about a silly joke game a la DGMacPhee.

Yeah, haha! DG makes his jokes games! Pfft, all my games are 100% serious! In fact, I will give 1 gajillion dollars to Chris Jones' favourite charity (which is called MPNFAHCJ: More Pot Noodles For a Hungry Chris Jones) if anyone can produce and mass market a joke game where a scrappy and incredibly handsome young man named MGDacphee writes an AGS game that turns out to be the BEST GAME EVER! I challenge you! oh boy, do I ever chalenge you! Consider all of you challenged!

o wait it was all satire. teh joke is on you lol.

"I will say this though, the 'video game community' (what's next, 'the necromancy community'?) surely seems exercised about someone who is a 'joke' and who is accomplishing nothing. You all seem rather bothered and worried about a nonentity. God is in this battle, and I am privileged to be a foot soldier. You all should be concerned, not about me, but about Him."

I know now what I must do.

I shall cast aside the shackles of my sinful ways of video game making, and take up the sword of bitchiness and whining lawyers!  And from this day foward I will do my best to prove that video games are evil!  That my very own character who I created, Otis the goose, is a satanist bent on creating a hell on earth!  And that The Prince of Shapir, one of the best heroes ever, is really a demon from hell using his evil sword of purity and honor to brainwash the world into hating god!

Thank you, Jack Thompson, for now I am free!

Praise the lord!



EDIT:  I was wondering... If there are going to be kids shooting people by mimicking those violent murder games, does that mean that we're going to have some kids dress up in gold armor with warhammers attempting to control "the light"?  Or trying to summon water elementals & hurl fireballs?  One can only imagine...

(http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3082/1422/200/badassbuddy_com-jackthomps.gif)
Learn more about Jack and his fabrications. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(attorney))
Note how he is responsible for almost every bad media hype about video games, and that he hasn't won any cases agains videogames. The guy is just full of lukewarm air. Ignore him.

"A fake/edited copy of Jack Thompson's email has also been spotted, possibly a "reply" email. In the edit the crazed father is shot dead by a security guard before he kills anyone."

Whoever made up that idea is a sure as hell genius  ;D
This is great.  Hillarious.  I have gained a new respect for the "Penny Arcade" webcomic.  I wonder if Thompson realizes how useless his life is... and how many people want to put him in an empty pool and piss on him until it's full.

Everyone should read jet's read (thank you jet!).

I quote something chich shows just how nuts Jack is:

QuoteThe Bible doesn't promote killing innocent people," Thompson said. "Grand Theft Auto does. Islam does. Islam promotes the killing of innocent people. The Quran requires the infidel, whether Jew or Christian, to be killed. … That's a core essence of the religion. … Muhammad was a pirate who killed infidels and who advocated the killing of infidels. Not a nice guy. Osama bin Laden is in keeping with his fine tradition.

Now, how about that?

Please don't turn this thread into a religous discussion, but fuck this guy is completly crazy!

http://www.penny-arcade.com/docs/jackdocument.gif

Damn those dirty employees of Penny Arcade and their dirty disgusting harassment schemes and donating cash to charities!

Quote from: Nikolas on Tue 18/10/2005 19:58:09
Muhammad was a pirate

Yay! Pirates of the Persian Gulf! yarrr! Cap'n Jack Saladin  at your serive, ye scurvy sea dog

I'm not so sure that "computer geeks" and "idiots" are valid legal terms...

I'd bet the people from Penny Arcade actually wrote that whole "modest offer" section, when it really starts insulting Thompson.  This guy should really go back to law school for a few years... I mean, he's just stupid with the way he says everything.

King_Nipper: I would like to believe that he's stupid, but I don't think so.

I would say that he's nuts! Somewhere along the line of his life he's lost it. He hasn't got a clue about planet earth!

How many people believe he really wrote that though? Do we know for sure? Seems a little immature, even for a crackpot. He IS a lawyer, and he doesn't use proper legal terms in that thing.

Quote from: Kinoko on Wed 19/10/2005 01:25:06
How many people believe he really wrote that though? Do we know for sure? Seems a little immature, even for a crackpot. He IS a lawyer, and he doesn't use proper legal terms in that thing.

I think that you do have a point, but on the other hand, would you believe that a lawyer of his status would attack the SIMS, for fucks shake? The whole thing is totally stupid. I'm starting to consider that the whole story is either fake or to shake things up a little, to create some noise.

Generally a good marketing solution if polarization (if I'm using the correct term here). And anyway all the information I'm getting is through the interent, where everything can happen.

And I just realised that I'm backing you up here Kinoko. I think you're right... I just extended it a little... :D

Or, Jack Thompson wants publicity.  And lots of it.  Not fake per se, just bullcrap this guy made up thinking "Hey!  This is a good way for me to give me the spotlight!"

I can see how you would like to believe that the things this guy writes and says are fake, but they are not.  He wrote that modest proposal and then retracted it, calling it merely a "parody" and also calling all of the people on the internet who started posting it everywhere "idiots" for not realizing how funny he is.   And regarding $10,000 dollars he promised to give to charity if someone followed through on his challenge, as the Penny Arcade guys put it so perfectly: "we must conclude that his financial offer was also satire, some new breed of satire apparently that I'm sure is just hilarious to people in need."

But this is also the guy who actually went up to Janet Reno at a public debate during his 1988 political campaign against Florida Attorney General Janet Reno (who would later go on to become Attorney General of the United States), which consisted of calling her a closet lesbian who was afflicted by various mental disorders and being blackmailed by the mob, and actually handed her a piece of paper that read:

I, Janet Reno, am a
[ ] Homosexual
[ ] Bisexual
[ ] Heterosexual

and demanded that she check one of the boxes. 

The guy is certifiable.

I agree with what some people are saying.  The guy deserves to be ignored.  Getting into an uproar only plays into his insane hands.  However, the nutbar is getting on CNN, 60 minutes, FOX News, any media source he can get his face on, and spreading the crazy to the general population -- the generally ignorant, believe-whatever-the-media-tells-us, population!  Someone needs to get onto a soapbox that's at least as high as his and let the world know that this man deserves no ones ear.  He's about as credible as the voices in my head.

The guy is just a big wind-bag looking for attention... It's like the old expression goes, "The squeeky wheel gets all the grease", or something like that.

I never even heard of this a-hole untill a couple weeks ago, but, hey, there's always some scum-bags like him trying to blame various social problems on the likes of video-games, music, movies, books, etc...

Everthing ya never wanted to know about this tool:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_%28attorney%29

I didn't mean the original offer was fake, just the letter to police. And, I didn't even mean that, I was simply throwing the idea of the possibility out there.

I'm sorry to say that Jack Thompson has now found AGS, and more specifically the Princess Marian games. Some of you may recall that in Princess Marian part II, the player character, Princess Marian, could hit Super Scottish Hero with frying pan. Jack Thomson represent a John Thomas filing for divorce in Gulliville, Ohio after being assulted by his wife with a cooking pot. Mrs Thomas had downloaded my game and played it, and this obviously establishes an irrefutable link to the violence being inspired by my game. I'm going to have to sell the car and house to pay for this if it is successful, so please any support from the AGS community is much appreciated.
:'(

Well, hell, so that explains the lawsuit being brought against me by the residents of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, whose ancestors that died in the WWII nuclear bombing felt inclined to get up and walk around town eating people after playing The Town on the Edge of Darkness...


:=

Wow.

Cirque de Zale may well be responsible for hundreds of missing people all around the world, deciding to get themselves sent to other dimensions.

Or possibly, yet another circus. What's worse?

Unfortunately I've not made any games yet but I can claim responsiblility for all the suicides in the last 10 years. This is the time that I started making serious music! Man, I would never believe that my music is so influencing!

So, you wrote Gloomy Sunday?

http://www.phespirit.info/gloomysunday/

Yes! you got me!

Although I'm dead since 68, jumping to my death, I still linger these earth looking for individualks to lure to their deaths! And in the meantime I surf in these forums!!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

He keeps his address and phone number on his website. I will not be surprised if his house is burned down by a GTA-fueled Jack Thompson hater. Or if he gets lots of phone calls asking for a Mr. Mike Rotch.

Honestly... does he mean to say that people are mindless drones who do whatever a video game says?  If so...

July 15, 2006...
Man in yellow sphere suit arrested today.  All evidence points to him being responsible for the mass murder of countless innocent dots.  It took 15 federal officers dressed as pink, white, and blue ghosts to take him down.  Luckily, only one 'power dot' was nearby, and only 2 officers were sent back to the starting square as floating eyeballs.  His trial will be held on thursday.

I can't believe you can joke about Pacman Fever like that Nipper...

You don't know what kind of Pacmania that caused...

I wish you'd be a little more sensitive...

Hehehe... nothing worse than a lawyer I say...  :=

Sure there is... a lawyer who doesn't do his job right, and thus ends up like Jackie-boy.

Just in case nobody mentioned this yet,

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/?t=archives&date=2005-10-12

Read.

http://www.idlethumbs.net/

TAKE THAT

I don't think anyone mentioned this one:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php?date=2005-10-14&res=l

Ah, Idle Thumbs... where fact X importance = NEWS!!!!

At this point Thompson should probably leave Penny Arcade alone--He's obviously too stupid to realize when he should shut up.  I mean, he thinks he's a a footsoldier of god. He says he's a crusader, and we're all sinners for playing video games.  He's convinced Penny Arcade that he's a nutjob, and he's screwing himself over by not shutting up at this point--And his refusal to pay up really damaged him too.

Just wanted to share a few bits:

You may have heard that the National Institute of Media and the Family has decided to publicly distance itself from Mr. Thompson's antics.  Well here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/gamepolitics/107140.html) are the two letters that Jack fired back.  Here's my favorite quote:

Liberals, like you, love to label things and then think that the labeling has accomplished something. If that had been the case, then Churchill's calling Hitler a Nazi would have ended the war. But no, people like me had to get into the trenches and stop the Nazis. And there were always those tut-tutting back home about what a nasty business it is to stop the bad people, and can't we all just "get along."

I'm not even sure where to start with that quote!

Also, thanks to his run in with Penny Arcade, the Florida Bar Association has been flooded with requests for his disbarrment.  The requests point out his un-lawyerly behavior (Yes, I made that word up) and make very good cases.  This may be very interesting.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051019-5458.html

He just gets funnier...

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6136188.html

I'll amend my statement of before:

There's nothing worse than an obsessed very very stupid laywer.  ;)

Quote
As these scum wish me their worst, I will continue to try to do my utmost for His highest.

Priceless.
This is all so exotic to me.

And now, I destroy him using his own ignorance:

Jesus' thoughts on the "people who played video games" of his day---
Ã,  Ã, "And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. (Matthew 9:10)"

Jesus' thoughts on the Jack Thompsons of his day:
Ã,  Ã, " O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?" (spoken directly to the religious leaders of Jerusalem)

This continues what we were talking about in the "evil" thread started by Nik. This man isn't doing God's will, he's doing what he wants to be God's will. Personally, I think God is playing "Smite the Ignorant Lawyer" on his PS777 right now...

This is seriously getting out of hand. How in fuck's sake can you think Halo trained someone in the use of a sniper rifle, and blame Bill Gates for that?! The man had NOTHING to do with it. And to call Doug Lowestein, president of the Entertainment Software Association a nazi, and worse than Saddam Hussein! COME ON!

I wrote a little rant too (http://s7.invisionfree.com/Largos_Lounge/index.php?showtopic=257&st=0&#last), but it's not enough. I'm currently trying to get community support with a friend for a JT flash movie. We've got some great ideas and we hope if the community backs us up we might be able to make a difference, even if the man seems unstoppable. It may seem pretentious, but it's worth a shot...

Yes, Halo trained that kid how to shoot a real sniper rifle... it certainly had nothing to do with the kid's military trained sniper father who actually killed most of those people when the two went on their little killing spree...  Definitely Halo's fault.

Largo, your rant is a very nice summary of everything that's happenned so far.  Or at least the most interesting parts.  Well done.  And good luck on your flash dealie.

And I thought that Atkins dude (someone who has something against rock music, especially christian rock music) was worse.

QuoteAs these scum wish me their worst, I will continue to try to do my utmost for His highest.

I personally believe that all His highest wants him to do is to shut up and stop giving a bad name to Christians.

A "Stop Jack Thompson" petition   :=
http://www.stopjackthompson.com/
Though doubtful it'll have any effect.

The site also links to current Jack(ass) Thompson news articles and such.

why "stop jack thompson"?  He's not doing anything aside from being annoying and making himself a target for people to flame.  It's not like he's accomplishing anything.  So what difference does it make?

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...

* 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,  :P
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,  ;D

Sorry to bring up this ol' thread again, but I had to share this quote I just read on the Game Politics (http://www.gamepolitics.com) 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?

And the President of the ESA is Hitler, apparently.

Quote from: Jack ThompsonWhen 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.

"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.

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...

Quote from: Afflict on Wed 02/11/2005 21:12:13
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"

That suc thanks ssh, maybe ill make a satire game  :-\

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

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

Gamepolitics (http://www.gamepolitics.com) 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:

QuoteGP: 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:

QuoteThe 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.

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

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.

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")  ;D