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Perspectives On Thompson's Latest Crusade
Game Girl Advance has a much needed perspective piece on Jack Thompson's crusade against the Sims 2. From the article: "Tabling lying to the ESRB and even putting the whole Sims2 points aside (because honestly, I find any of Thompson's arguments against Sims2 to be hollow at best, I just included them to show a trend), isn't it just a lot bit late for anyone to be complaining about the sex issue? I don't mean us complaining, I mean I find it almost laughable at this point that people might think that there's any seventeen year olds who haven't seen worse than Hot Coffee already, and those that are playing GTA:SA need to have their virgin eyes saved. Let's face it: you've already lost that battle. If a kid has the ability or inclination to mod GTA:SA for Hot Coffee, they've probably bit-torrented their fair share of porn by now." My own commentary below.
I just don't get this one. You want to go after GTA? Fine. There's enough ho-slapping and cop-killing in that game to make a politician's career. But the Sims? The raciest bits you find in there are the kind of stuff you see on a reality TV show shown at prime-time on one of the big networks. The Sims has been one of the cornerstones of game sales in recent years. Hundreds of thousands of people are going to play that game today, people that might not have otherwise gotten into video games if not for the easy to understand controls, intriguing gameplay, and the ability to project yourself onto the gamespace.
Blood-sucking remora like Thompson are the biggest dangers to further acceptance of gaming as a healthy passtime. He is taking the specific case of GTA and the ESRB ruling and broadening it out such that a 3rd party mod is affecting perceptions of an excellent game title. I have no doubt in my mind, either, that his righteous fury is entirely motivated by a desire for personal profit and prestige. He is using the prevailing winds of U.S. society to increase his place in the public eye, at the expense of gaming as a hobby and game-making as a profession.
My hope is that the mainstream media, when they pick up this story, will be able to see beyond the smokescreen Thompson has created to the real issues at hand.
I posted this on my wiki site, but figured I'd put my own $0.02 here since it was appropriate. (Besides, I'm not so sure my server could handle the traffic ;) ).
Whenever I run across people who are against something, I usually ask two important questions:
What exactly are you looking to protect?
And
Do you profit by it?
For example: people who are against abortion would probably tell you that they're doing it to save human life (in this case, unborn children). Now, whether you agree with that statement or not, that's the point: protecting life.
People who are against dumping chemicals in our water are usually trying to protect the environment and our health.
People who are against pornography are usually doing so because they feel, or have studies that show, that pornography can cause other addictive behavior (including increased sexual promiscuity, abuse, etc).
Again - people can argue one side or the other until they are blue in the face, and since I don't feel like looking like a http://www.smurf.com/homepage.html Smuff, I'm not going to debate that here. That's what the "discussion" link up at the top is for. (Go ahead - click it if you need to. I'm not going to stop you.)
But the second question can often be just as important. When Microsoft gives talks about how Free Software Movement is just http://cs.senecac.on.ca/~selmys/quotes.html communism, you know that if Open Source software usage drops, Microsoft's will rise. When a group promoting nuclear energy comes out against the use of oil and coal, you know they're really saying "Nuclear energy is better - buy it!"
Some people protest things for good motives - some are less than pure. And if there's anything that protesters soon learn, it's "use what works", over and over again.
Take the case of Jack Thompson. Not too long ago, there was the "Hot Coffee Scandal". Here's the short version: somebody discovered there was a sex mini-game in "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" (GTA: SA), but no way to play it. In other words, Rockstar shipped a game with unplayable content, feeling that nobody would ever figure out how to turn it on.
Stupidly, they forgot that unlike the PS2 and Xbox versions, people are more than willing to modify PC versions of the games. In fact, PC modifications of "Grand Theft Auto III" are very popular, including the mod http://www.mtavc.com/ "Multi Theft Auto", which modifies the PC version to allow multiplayer use.
So, when the PC version of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" hit the shelves, of course people started looking at what they could modify. Next thing you know, the sex game is found, someone releases a mod that turns it on, and to the horror of religious conservatives everywhere, people can watch polygons of a naked woman and a man with no penis having sex.
Trust me. I've seen the video. It's not that hot.
Once the news is out, politicians are going nuts. Senator Hillary Clinton wants senate hearings. The ESRB, under major pressure, changes the game's rating from "M" to "AO for Adults Only". Stores pull the game from the shelves. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1441534/p osts Dogs and cats are sleeping together - mass hysteria!
Chart out the steps you have to get to this content: First you have to buy the game. Since the game is rated "M for Mature", this means that you should have to be at least 17 or older to even purchase the game. Second, you have to willingly install the game on your computer. Third, go online and find the mod. Fourth, install it.
The number of steps here are very important: it's not like you can just be play
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel