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Perspectives On Thompson's Latest Crusade

Posted by Zonk on from the wise-words dept.

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.

2 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Reality Check.... by Generalisimo+Zang · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I live near San Francisco.

    Within 12 miles of my house, I know of at least 3 bordellos/massage parlors/whorehouses that are pretty much openly run by various Vietnamese criminal gangs, and which have been in continuous operation for over ten years.

    And those are just the ones that I know about. I assume that there have to be hundreds of others that I don't know about.

    Now, if *I* know about these places, just from hearing it on the grapevine, then why is it that the places haven't been discovered and shut down?

    Um... obviously because they pay their protection money to the local authorities on time.

    What these fools who are lambasting the video game industry for its content are *trying* to do, is figure out a way to extort protection money out of legitimate bussinesses.... ..I'm sure the punchline to this whole incident will be when the anti-video-game crusaders set up some sort of "watchdog group" that (for a very hefty fee) will give a seal of approval to games coming out.

    Follow the money. It's probably all about extortion.

    1. Re:Reality Check.... by gameboyhippo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'm not sure why anybody feels that these politicians are anti-games. I'm very much a gamer, and I really don't like games like GTA: SA being out on the street.

      As for the Sims, I think the politicians are going for consistancy here. Think about all the posts people wrote about when the Hot Coffee Mod came about. They all said, "Why not the Sims?" So despite the fact that The Sims is not necessarily that bad, they don't want to be hypicritical.

      Again, I want to reiterate that people like me are happy about the AO GTA rating simply because of the amount of violence in that game. The Hot Coffee Mod was an excuse. But since we've used the Hot Coffee as the excuse, we have to be consistant. Otherwise we can't use it again.