Slashdot Mirror
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.""
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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?