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Jack Thompson Files Take-Two, Rockstar Lawsuit
rtt writes "Jack Thompson is back on the video game scene and has followed through with his threat to file a law suit against Rockstar, Take-Two and Walmart for Rockstar's upcoming "Bully" title. bit-tech was sent a copy by the man himself which started as follows "Take-Two has until five o'clock p.m., Eastern time, Monday, August 14, 2006, to inform me in writing that it will forthwith provide me with a copy of Bully so that I and others can analyze it to determine whether it still poses a threat of copycat violence in our schools.""
A not so clever ploy for a free game methinks ;-)
(And Rockstar thinks, "Hmmm...give him a game so that he can try to sue us...Actually that will probably take care of all the publicity we need!")
Seriously, nobody gives a shit about him.
He's a self-promoting moralistic jerkoff. Stop giving him air by paying attention to him.
Not that I agree with ole' Jackass, but how does that make things different? To devils advocate for a moment, people like JT are the ones who blame things like the Columbine shootings on video games, and that was related to bullying (in that the perpetrators were themselves bullied and perceived their actions to be revenge).
In Thompsons warped view of the world, games make children violent. This isn't a particularly rational viewpoint, but his actions here are consistant with it. What does he care that the game doesn't condone bullying? It's a Rockstar game (which he hates), and it's violent (which gives him a chance to get up on his soapbox and preach).
Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
...the world famous comedian and one of the best actors there is.
Honestly, he has to be - he always makes me laugh with tears when he cracks one of his "how videogames [verb] the [noun]" jokes or when he retells the original classic "why videogames are root of all evil" one-liners.
Also, I really love the way he pretends to be the biggest, most bigoted dumbfuck on earth. I mean, this guy has pure talent - no one alive could be such an gigantic arsehole as he pretends to be.
+++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out of Cheese Error +++ redo from start +++
Now we'll have 5000 posts screaming about this, most of them adding nothing to the argument. Why preach to the choir? Can someone explain it to me? Do people just like patting each other on the back?
To file a lawsuit you need a small amount of money. That's it. This doesn't mean anything. Trust me. They have no standing, they have no legitimate cause of action, this will go nowhere. Just calm the hell down people.
Video games don't make me violent...
Being pissed off at what an asshole Jack Thompson is makes me violent.
But remember since colombine its not about preventing bullying. Rather than getting at the root problem they keep with the old kids will be kids line and dismiss the bullies...but with johnny who gets beat up everyday we need to get him into counseling and ostracize him further just in case he goes postal one day.
Notice that he phrased his request "...whether it still poses a threat of copycat violence in our schools." Not that there was proof that it ever posed a threat of copycat violence. "Hey Rockstar Games, are you still beating your wife?"
What sound do people on rollercoasters make? Hint: it's not Xbox 360.
I'd like to see this on a Take Two/Rockstar press release:
A warning for those of you lazy self absorbed and/or just plain inattentive parents: All the censorship in the world won't make up for bad parenting if your child is more influenced by our games than by Mommy & Daddy, both you and your offspring have much bigger problems than the gameplay. So before you go hauling us or any other studio into court, look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself if you did the best you could, because if you're considering taking us to court, you didn't.
Inspiration for above
I'll subscribe to Slashdot when I see a month without a dupe, a typo, or an article the "editors" didn't read.
no, unfortunately - just removed from a case where he was trying to but his nose in where it wasn't wanted.
can't remember the legal term, but he was trying to pretend to be a lawyer in an out of town case, and the judge basically said 'um, no - you are a retard' and kicked him out.
Gekido's Lair
Don't put advice in your sig.
Lazy parents. That's the problem, not violent content in games. If parents would actually PARENT their kids instead of being all self absorbed and/or just wanting to 'be their friend'. The vast majority of parents are lazy, do not want to take responsibility for their children's actions, and pay little if no attention to raising them properly. As a parent of a teenager I can say it makes my job all the harder too.
Instead of going after media (games, movies, whatever), why not focus on the ONLY place where social problems can be adequately addressed...the HOME.
Give him a copy early and get him to sign a nice solid NDA. Then sit back and wait for him to be unable to control himself and spew forth the special brand of vitriolic fervour that we've come to expect in his game 'reviews'.
Then sue him for slander, breach of NDA (assuming any of his comments are even vaguely related to the game, which may be tricky) and soak up even more free publicity.
Profit...
video game players are violent. You can get medieval on someone's ass playing the Telletubbies game if you try hard enough. What about all the times I crashed 747's into the World Trade Center in Microsoft FS2000? To be fair, I was trying to fly between them, but the frame rate on my Pentium ONE (with the floating point bug, thank you very much) was so crappy I often over-controlled and wiped out on one of them.
The converse is also true. I play World of Warcraft, an intensely PVP game but have never fought another player (mostly because they're all noobs and I'm too nice to pwn them severely). I could easily play an hour of GTA without killing a single NPC. It's not the point of the game, but I could do it if I wanted to.
Still, I'm thankful that the vast rightwing conspiracy is taking time off from the war on drugs, fighting against pr0n, opposing gay marriage, defending the rights of blastocycts, installing surveillance cameras, wire-tapping my home, and working feverishly to perfect SOME kind of mind-control device to protect me (a 47 year old man) from violent video games. Thanks, dudes!
John Bruce Thompson is just Fredric Wertham all over again.
Just because you get modded "insightful" on Slashdot doesn't mean you actually are in real life.
Does he really expect us to believe that there is any possible way he could play the game and then say, "Actually, I was wrong... this game is just fine for our kids"? I'm under the impression that his crusade will pick on the tiniest detail, completely oblivious to bias and context.
Blessed are the 1337, for they shall pwn the earth.
I believe he's going to seek an injunction against them to try to prevent them from releasing the game at all.
There's a legal term for that: "Prior Restraint".
Times have changed I guess. Back in my day lawyers in independent practice fought against it, but what the hell did we know? We were all fired up about about such quaint notions as "Civil Rights" and shit.
KFG
As a father of 5 children, I counsel my kids that it's usually their fault when they are the victims. They are responsible for themselves and their own well being, and they are the ones who suffer when they don't ensure this.
Yes, bad people do mean things, and you can't stop that. But you can do many things to ensure that the bad people don't do those mean things to you. Whether by locking your bike, (so it's not stolen) avoiding dangerous situations, or by demanding respect early in a relationship.
There's a kid who lives nearby (whom I'll call Ray) who is a classic victim. It seems like, no matter what, things just don't work out for this kid. It's sad, really. But recently, this he has been hanging out at our house, and we've been counseling the him to stand up for himself. He really had no idea how much of his bad situations he had personally been contributing to, and the result is that, even though we aren't his parents, he's really bonded with us.
When a child is victimized, if the authority does nothing to teach the victim how to handle the situation from a position of strength, it reinforces their position of weakness. They are given the message that they need to be coddled by the authorities against the bad bullies, and I think that's just wrong. This then prevents the situation from actually improving long term, and when it gets bad enough, the victim pops and mows down a schoolyard with an AK-47.
Bullies should be punished, and frequently, so should the victims.
When fights break out among our kids, we punish both parties equally. While the aggressor gets punished for "taking things to the next level", the victim is punished for allowing it to happen to him/her. They can develop means to encourage aggressors to leave them the !@## alone, and they do.
Forget "fair". Life isn't fair, and law is just a set of consequences that only take effect when you get caught. Teaching towards not being in the victim role helps people avoid the pain of being taken advantage of, and being hurt by the very authorities put there to protect them.
For the record, actual fights are very rare in our household. Our children are usually described by others as unusual in how close, polite, and considerate they are towards each other. Said children range from age 9 to age 17.
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
In Thompsons warped view of the world, games make children violent.
Not so sure his view is warped or even askewed in the slightest.
When I was in grade school, I was going to CAP (Civil Air Patrol). We flew flight simulators all day long. Come to find, every pilot has to pass simulator tests which are designed to assist the physical transition of sitting in a real cock-pit. Part of Navy SEAL training (among all the other simulation like trainings) involve them going through a controlled drowning, simulating what it feels like to actually drown, they are then revived as soon as they go under; this I believe is to eliminate a fear of the water, completely. FBI, CIA, KGB, Massad, Osama bin Laden... EVERYONE conducts simulation to condition their subjects for whatever task is at hand. Whether it's a SWAT team training to storm a building, or your local city cops training for a situation where a simple speeding ticket goes wrong. It's ALL simulation. And only a fool would suggest simulation is in pure vain.
There are many ways of simulating a scenerio to condition a person to be prepared for an actual hypothetical event. Cartoonish video game characters are no more comical and innocent than smiley faces drawn on water melons stuck on staffs for mounted calvary use to use to train for field combat. The blocky faces of the Unreal Tournament at least give a feel of depth and 3D, how can it be possible someone could take serious the traditional 2 dimensional spring loaded cardboard flap that pops up in many police simulations? And for those that might wish to draw the line of effective simulation for hostilities between mental capability and condition versus physical ability and condition... this is a very dangerous precedent. While physical ability is somewhat important, any person that has ever hunted large game, actually had shot another in combat will tell you flat out; 99% of the ability to perform your job in those situations to include pulling the trigger is all psychological. A computer simulation, can assist you in overcoming those psychological barriers... and it doesn't take much excercise at all to pull a hair trigger. You're done, and ready.
So don't try to make it out as if people aren't conditioned, affected, or change of sensitivity in the least by video games. Especially games today like Hitman, SOCOM and the like which actually try to encourage the player to think and discipline their actions as a real assassin or special ops soldier.
The military has used simulation for thousands of years... simulation of all the current technologies of their times. Given how much bloodshed has spilt throughout history... simulation and conditioning for battle is EXTREMELY effective. You can belittle this with calling it a "game" all you want though, noone has yet to stop you from that.
I hear this quite often - The parents are to blame for everything their child does because they are not home with the child and watching them 24 hours a day. However, it's impossible for kids to be "parented" 24/7. There are many people who have to work day AND night to buy food and clothes for their children. Please don't mistake this as support for Jack's crusade. I just think there are some really troubled people out there, where you can judge the parents, video games, society, etc. for the person's actions.
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
It seems wholly ironic that Jack Thompson is yet again trying to censor free speech in the state of Florida. You'd think that after the controversy made 2 Live Crew go double platinum, he'd realize that banning media actually encourages sales. He overlooks the fact that if parents were actually parents, the children that shouldn't have violent media won't have violent media.
why or how he has indoctrinated himself as some sort of authority here. Attempting to force them to hand the game over "so that I and others" can review it. What is Jack gonna say? "it's bad"? Who are these others? This is mind numbing.
The only people Rockstar has to let see the game is the ESRB so that they can rate it. That's an industry standard practive, not a government regulated practice.
I can't wait for the day a gamer is able to step toe-to-toe with Jack publically AND profesionally (i.e. not like Adam Sessler did last week)
I eat crayons
Games, as a whole, don't make people violent. Violent video games might make people violent (or just serve as a release for their violent tendencies) but that's why the very violent games are rated M (not for children) and parents are expected to determine whether or not a game is appropriate for children. Adults should be able to determine on their own whether or not it's appropriate for themselves. The biggest problem with this current move by Jack Thompson is that he wants to determine whether or not a game is appropriate for everyone else. That's just off-the-wall unacceptable, no matter how you look at it.
"What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
"The right-wing religious fringe?"
The left-wing nanny-staters as well.
There is a fundamental difference between training simulations, games, and the real world.
Training simulation try to keep as close to the original deal as possible in content and control. You will have cockpits set up to resemble or sometimes explicitly copy the cockpit of the actually vehicle, all the controls will be in the same place, the controls will have force feedback to simulate the true to life vehicles resistance, many time the simulation will even have hydraulics to simulate the vehicles roll pitch and yaw. This is all there so when you get in the actual vehicle there is little change.
There are some parallels to this in video games. Games can teach you how to sneak up to someone, the correct maneuvers to use in certain situations; it may help in some skill sets. However not nearly to the level of simulators. Games are not designed to teach how to shoot a gun or drive a vehicle; they are set up to be entertainment. The vast majority of the things you would learn in a simulation, you will not learn from a video game because they are not represented in the content of a video game. For example, go ahead and ask a counter strike player if they know where the safety latch is on a Maverick M4A1 Carbine, if they know it sure as hell isn't from playing counterstrike.
Simulations and game can make something feel familiar. However gaining skills in maneuvers and controls is not what this is about. The reason that videogames are under fire is because people believe that it will make children violent, it changes into killers. This just isn't true, and if you ask anyone who trains people on these simulation trainers they will say the same thing.
Video game and even military simulation can not teach killing intent, it can not remove moral and ethical values from the user and it can not make the user feel more inclined to use violence. They might make it easier to know where the trigger is, but they do not make it easier to pull the trigger
I grew up being the victim of bullies .. teachers, principals, guidance counsellors and psyciatrists all told me to ..
.. not video games (I do play violent games .. depending on how violent you consider Oblivion and most RPGs are, but they are in no way responcible for why I am and hopefully was violent)... that violence was one way to solve a problem and im still trying to get it out of my system. I know I shouldnt resort to it to fix a problem but 90% of the time its the only solution when everyone that tells you to ask for help doesnt help when you ask for it.
1) count to 10 - dont lose your cool
Always ended up in 10 more seconds of teasing and bullying
2) Walk away
Last I checked, bullys have legs too
3) Ignore them
Bullys find that to be more of a reason to tease/bully
4) Ask an adult/teacher for help
When I ask for help Im always told that hes not doing anything wrong and that I should be able to do the above 3 things to get rid of them
So unfortunately I ended up having to defend myself any way I could and the most effective being me beating the living snot out of them.
Of course this solution always ended the same way at school. The bully would get a slap on the wrist and be sent back to class ( if not bloodied up ) or sent home to be cleaned up and recover a little, and me being suspended/expelled from school because nothing the adults taught me worked.
I learned at a young age from adults
If it takes effort to do, let someone else do it.
You sound like the sort who would also claim something like paintball is some sort of death squad training sim.
A game is a game. You -know- it's a game when you're playing it. There's no personal sense of risk, of danger, of imminent death. Desensitizing someone to the point of being able to point a weapon at another human being and knowingly and deliberately killing them takes a lot more than playing UT and fragging your friends, or even lighting up those same friends on the paintball field.
There are exceptions to every rule or condition, of course. There are those who might be desensitized by such things. The problem lays with them, not the game they're playing.
Don't just stand there, get that other dog!
The guy is flat-out a complete, fucking moron. I thihk that about covers it.
Yes, and if we all clap together Tinkerbell will come back to life. Seriously, many lawyer's and judge's careers are based on fraudulent lawsuits keeping them employed to the detriment of more realistic lawsuits. Take a look at SCO and their lawsuit against IBM over the last few years for a prize example. The judge should have said "show me the code that they infringed" three years ago.
I almost agree with ignoring him... but it's litigious asses like him that destroy fun. They won't stop until all video games are as fun as a night at Morman bible study. I don't think I'm exaggerating.
It's not just games. Lawyers have completely destroyed the fun of playgrounds. As a parent, that pisses me off. You definitely can't have anything that spins because someone might fall off or get dizzy. Nothing too tall. Big slides & swings? Not a chance. It's even hard to find sand in a playground anymore, because a kid might throw some in another kid's eye.
Getting hurt when you do stupid things is an important life lesson that lawyers are ruining. Elementary schools have banned nearly every competative sport. No baseball, football, handball, volleyball, tennis, running or tag! No after school programs. No skateboards, rollerskates, or scooters. And definitely nothing that might offend anyone for any reason at all. Maybe Columbine would be less likely to happen if people like Mr. Jack didn't make life suck so badly for the kids he wants to "protect."
Mortal Kombat didn't cause America's youth to murder their parents any more than heavy metal music did during the 80's. Despite all of the concerns about young people holding hands, dancing, watching violent films, listening to gangsta rap, and such... violent crime is down. Youth crime is down. Why can guys like this spout off to politicians when their "concerns" have absolutely no rational basis? I'm not for book burning and I'm definitely against censorship for no good reason.
If Thompson is allowed to continue his bogus mislead fight, games will suck bigtime... like playgrounds, school recess, and everything else about childhood that guys like him want to destroy. He wants to make sure that every kid is having a fun time the Jack Thompson way, and that scares the hell out of me.
... how thoroughly flawed the video game rating system is, as the ESRB is actually paid for and operated, in effect, by the video game industry itself. This is a classic case of the fox guarding the chickens. Congressman Stearns has now introduced to Congress a Bill called the "Truth in Video Game Ratings Act" largely because of the illicit collaboration between the ESRB and Take-Two.
I guess Jack had better go after the Better Business Bureau next. After all, they're funded by the businesses who make up its membership. I think we need a "Truth in Business Ratings Act" to help counter this illicit collaboration between the BBB and its members.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
I wouldnt be surprised that rockstar bought him/ suggested to him that he do this... you cant BUY this sort of advertising... now everyone here wants a copy of that Bully game :D
that said... hes a dickhead.... but hey... its nice to know that even morons can be allowed to speak
also... i like the idea of a mod where you can just beat up JT... will there be a Dubya version also? (heck... you could make one with all the members of parliment)
It is my opinion that you are nothing more than a grandstanding egotist, with delusions of grandeur trying to draw attention to yourself, in an attempt to compensate for a childhood filled with loneliness.
Here's the problem.
There are people who see or read something and decide "Hey, I'd like to try that." Those people are choosing to do something, not being forced to do it and they aren't really copy-cats. They are only people who do not know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, nor have they been raised to have a sense of responsibility. If caught, they just say - "Uh, I played a video game, and it made me do it".... BULLSHIT.
If you do something, you and ONLY you are responsible for that action.
Why is that? I believe it is because of people such as yourself, who preach on about how "No one is responsible for their own actions" - they must have seen it in a video game, or a movie, or read about it in a book. You give them an out. If nothing else, all you are doing is making the problem worse. You're giving them their excuse to use before the judge. "Your honor, Jack Thompson clearly states that I only acted this way because of a video game!" You're making the problem worse, not better.
Let me tell you something else... There are a hell of a lot worse things to emulate on television. It's called the NEWS - maybe you should sit down and watch it some time. You know - the parts about people being blown to bits by terrorists or the military fighting the terrorists. Or the random acts of nature killing thousands of people.
Let's face it, what someone chooses to do is not the result of reading a book, or watching a movie, or playing a video game. None of these things *MAKE* anyone do anything. The people who do these things have not had a proper upbringing, where they are instilled with a sense of responsibility, and a clear deliniation between right and wrong, good and evil.
Schools are not responsible for this instruction.
Governments are not responsible for this instruction.
Parents are ultimately responsible for this instruction.
Jack - please, just - go away somewhere, and leave the raising of our kids to us. I don't care about your opinion. I don't believe anything you say. You have to respect someone for anything they say to have an affect on you. Trust me, you haven't earned anyone's respect by, in my opinion, acting like a blithering, idiotic, blow-hard.
** This used to be worded a lot harsher - however, I figured no one would take it seriously if I filled it with nothing but knee-jerk commentary.
Who is general failure, and why is he reading my hard drive?
From Jack's book, Out of Harm's Way, page 124: "From August 1992 until John [his son] went off to school, my job was to be his stay-at-home father." "We decided I would be the one to stay at home. It made sense. Patricia [his wife] had a great job, and my professional life, jumbled by a radio war [against Stern] and other efforts stemming from that endeavor, was less structured, to say the least."
So while I think that Jack did a wonderful thing in staying home to take care of his son, the fact is he hasn't had to have a job outside of the home in a long time. Now that his son is older, Jack must have a LOT of spare time on his hands.
Free time + moral indignation + law degree = lots of lawsuits
Is there a place where you can look up the cases a lawyer has tried in court? I am curious if Jack has actually won any of the countless lawsuits he has been involved in.
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
No video game in the history of the world ever shipped late, except because of his crusade. It can't possibly be related to needing more time to finish the game.
No, no - let him claim to have caused excessive delays! If Take-Two decides to sue him for lost income due to his interference, I'm sure those statements are going to be rather helpful.
Florida Congressman Jeff Stearns, who recently chaired hearings in the United States House of Representatives, discovered how thoroughly flawed the video game rating system is, as the ESRB is actually paid for and operated, in effect, by the video game industry itself.
Gee, I hope no one tells Cliff Stearns about the MPAA movie rating system. Then again, the video game industry doesn't have nearly the presence in Washington's wallets as the MPAA members do, and Stearns' big contributors are the telecoms anyway, so it's probably not big on his radar at the moment. In any event, it doesn't help Thompson's case that he can't even get the Congressman's name right.
I wish this asshole Thompson would pull his lower lip over his head and swallow.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
Yes, and we all know how the boy scouts are against resemblence to the military, what with the uniforms, marching, badges, antihomosexuality... oh wait. Also, a friend of mine's boy scout troop did a target shooting trip, using actual .22 rifles, and thats less risky than paintball?