Slashdot Mirror
Jack Thompson Continues To Talk
Lucerin Red writes "It seems the next game on Jack Thompson's censorship list is Killer 7. The article posted by IGN quotes Jack as saying "There is no question in my mind that a videogame containing 'full-blown sex sequences' cannot be rated anything other than 'AO' rather than 'M.'" The 'full-blown sex sequences' are no more then you could see in a rated R movie." Meanwhile, MowAlon writes "Those of you keeping up with all the latest in the Rockstar Games/Take-Two Interactive/ESRB/EA Games sex scandal may be interested in a radio interview just made available: ChatterBox Video Game Radio just posted an 80-minute audio interview with Jack Thompson, the Miami lawyer out to shut down Rockstar Games. The interview provides a much deeper insight into his views, opinions, and efforts than anything else I've read about him elsewhere on the internet. One highlight includes Jack saying "Will Wright said he wants Electronic Arts to collaborate with the porn industry to allow wholesale modification of their game"."
If he wanted to go after GTA and get it an AO rating for the violence, I'd probably be fine with that. Considering the amount of violence in the game, it's not too hard for anyone who's ever played it to say it may be innapropriate for a majority of younger teenagers. Consider, for example, the movie Titanic in which you could see a breast that wasn't a really poor and clunky animation rendered on 5 year old hardware. This movie was rated PG-13. Consider several R rated movies with sex scenes that are more pornographic than the comical and largely unerotic scene in San Andreas.
This is merely the latest Salem witch trial. Eventually the whole thing will blow over. Eventually, Jack Thompson, like Senator McCarthy will go so far over the top that he will lose credibility. I think that this has already happened to an extent when he went after The Sims 2. When he does go, I can honestly say that I won't miss him one bit. Goodbye, moronic fuckwad.
And I'd futher like to point out that if you glanced to the left of the page you would have seen that it says, very clearly: "The ChatterBox Video Game Radio show airs weekly from KFNX 1100AM in Phoenix, Arizona."
-1 (Troll) is antihammer
If he wants to lobby for something, perhaps they should make the ESRB ratings enforcable on game resellers or something. Perhaps levy fines on retailers who sell M or AO games to children under 17 (e.g. require ID to purchase these games). It'd probably be an easier fight than Jack's crusade to destroy the ESRB and Rockstar.
I used up all my sick days, so I'm calling in dead.
It seems the only people who print stories about Jack Thompson are gaming sites. How about we just ignore him? He's obviously been terribly ineffective at a mainstream media and lobbying level. It's only when people like Hilary Clinton start shouting that anyone listens.
He feeds on people hating him. I worry that games journalists are feeding off him too. IGN, Gamespot, Slashdot, Kotaku all need to stop running stories on him, then he'll have nothing left.
We don't all need a bad guy, people.
The US AO rating does seem to be completly stupid, no game is ever actually rated it.
In the UK we have a slightly stange situation where most games have advisory ratings from PEGI (who took over a couple of years ago from ELSPA), but under certain critera they can have the legally enforced BBFC ratings, like DVDs and films.
But in the UK, the highest ratings (18+ for PEGI, 18 for BBFC) have been used (although the 18+ PEGI rating is rare, as most of them go into the BBFC ratings). Indeed, both Grand Theft Auto (all of them) and Killer 7 are BBFC 18, and they're commonly availible, I can go into my local ASDA (owned by Wal Mart) and buy them. But in the US, it seems that everyone is allergic to the AO rating, even the ESRB. I'd guess it's some sort of weird market forces, where the shops have all decided that AO really means it's banned. And mysteriously the industry run ESRB avoids it like a plauge as well. If I wasn't pissed, I'm sure I could make a better essay on the US puritan streak etc. (it's half like the Daily Mail ran a country!), but instead I'll end up with a horrid steam of conciousness thing. I mean, it's only some dry humping FFS. How does that change the bloody rating...
I'd also like to note the BBFC said during all this ho-hah over GTA:SA, that even if the "Hot Coffee" had been in the game, it would still be rated the same.
(I should note that for BBFC, there is the Restricted 18 rating as well (can only be sold in licenced sex shops, used for hardcore porn), but no game has ever qualified for it AFAIK).
10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
20 GOTO 10
Jack Thompson is naked under his clothes.
Jack Thompson keeps talking about sex.
Jack Thompson has a poorly defined, but detectible penis.
ban Jack Thompson!
Seriously. The only reason the ratings have any power is because various stores refuse to carry AO games. If the rating system bows to this idiot, the gaming industry needs to respond by only producing AO games. If the top five studios went in together, they coudl do it. If the rating people refuse to 'overrate' games, include hidden content the same way Rockstar did...content you can't possibly get to, but is included in the data files anyway. Scan in hardcode porn and put it in the texture file or whatever.
And then watching retail stores that refuse to carry AO games either give in or get made irrelevant, thus making the entire rating system irrelevant.
Congrats, Jack. It's entirely possible you'll be the death of the entire video game rating system if you piss the industry off bad enough. They'll just make everything AO, and then where will you be?
Which incidentally will result in parents being trained to purchase completely harmless AO games, and thus not batting an eye when 13-year old Jonny wants Hardcore Rape Simulator 2: The Revenge, now with motion feedback.
But when has anyone who cares 'about the children' actually cared when their actions harm children?
If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
Oh but the video game industry DOES have a lobbyist and advocacy group! A few in fact! Here are some of the people who fight against Jack Thompson and WIN!
h omeent2005/homeentnews.htx
First we have the ESA, the Entertainment Software Association!
http://www.theesa.com/
Headed by Doug Lowenstein, a person Jack Thompson REALLY hates, the ESA is video game's no. 1 lobby group and is also the organization that developed the ESRB. While the ESA and ESRB are connected, the ESRB, headed by Patricia Vance, is a separate entity from the rest of the ESA because its sole purpose is to rate games. However, whenever a law, like the one in Illinois, passes, the ESA is the first one there to counter it. AND... they bring back up!
Back up like the VSDA, Video Software Dealers Association!
http://www.idealink.org/Resource.phx/vsda/events/
This group handles video games, DVDs, and much more in terms of video and digital entertainment. From movies, to music, to video games, although with an emphasis on video, the members of this group include retailers and other companies in the entertainment industry who seek to promote and discover new technologies in providing digital entertainment, and also back the stance of movies as well as video games should government legislation possibly impose on them!
While not as big a lobbyist as they are a partner, the IEMA, Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association, works with the ESRB and ESA in terms of what goes on their member's shelves!
http://www.iema.org/
The IEMA has members such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Target, and most members in the IEMA maintain a "Will not stock AO ratings" policy. This is fine since they work with the ESRB and listen to what the ESRB has to say about the games being given to them. This organization works well with the ESRB and ESA, and can come to support the organizations if necessary!
Second to last, one group that is close to the heart of the games industry, the IGDA, the International Game Developers Association!
http://www.igda.org/
This group of game developers is very well spoken in terms of how the creators of games feel about laws that go against their ability to make games. Whereas the ESA could best represent game publishers, the IGDA would represent the game makers themselves. The forum here is a great place for game designers to share ideas and voice opinions on current hot topics. A great community of minds, and should some Miami lawyer try and pass laws against them... well then they start showing teeth!
And last, one that I don't see much press about, but one that is behind most of my favorite hangouts, the CMP Game Group!
http://www.cmpgame.com/home.html
While not a lobbyist or advocacy group by any means, the CMP Game Group finances and provides several methods of information sharing and acheivement recognition in the game industry. They provide the website Gamasutra.com, publish Game Developers magazine, founded the Game Developers Conference, the GDC, the Game Developers Choice Awards, and the Independent Games Festival. If anyone can provide an accurate resource on what makes games the games they are, the CMP game group can provide it or find the person or persons who can!
So the game industry is not left un-defended. There are plenty of organizations out there to help out people at the ESA and ESRB should they ever come under fire. If you really want to stick it to Jack Thompson, then I suggest becoming a member of some of these organizations and fight with them!
After all, if not for gamers like us, they wouldn't have the power they do now!
~Otaku-Man