Jack Thompson Gearing Up For GTA IV Fight

Next Generation reports on Jack Thompson's next big fight: Grand Theft Auto IV. A mass email was sent to news organizations entitled 'Bill Gates in the Crosshairs'. He vows to 'rally the troops' against the release of the next chapter in Rockstar's sandbox-style crime series. The game is due out sometime this year, on both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. From the article: "Thompson said that he would 'undertake various means to prohibit' the sale of GTA IV to minors, and added, 'Please have your lawyers [Microsoft chairman Bill Gates', that is] contact me in order that such sales will be prevented.' He also said that the ICCR report 'makes it abundantly clear that unless such prohibitions are in place, then millions of units of the new Grand Theft Auto game will be sold directly to minors.' He continued, 'I am quite intent upon making sure that that does not happen. I and others will endeavor to stop Microsoft from participating in any fashion, directly or indirectly, in such sales to minors.'"

Comments

Good Luck to him

[linvir]

This is the good side of what JT does.

If only he'd stick to keeping kids from buying adult games, the world would have no beef with him.

Re:Good Luck to him

[navygeek]

Whether you want to call it "flamebait" or not, the OP is correct. If JT limited himself to keeping M rated games out of the hands of those that are too young, he'd have support coming out of the woodwork. If he poured his time and effort into educating parents and those with the power about video games (and did it correctly, leaving the rhetoric on the curb) and lobbied to have the sanctioned rating system enforced (much like the movie rating system) - then he wouldn't come off as quite such a nut.

Instead he rambles endlessly about violence in video games, quotes decades old studies, and basically blames all of the evils of society on video games - leaving no blame for the abscent parents that allow their kids to play games with subject matter well beyond their years. He brow beats anyone that disagrees with him. He attempts to have games outright blocked/destroyed. And meddles in a rating system that, while flawed, he has no real perspective on.

I'm all for letting people play the games they enjoy and letting the manufacturers have freedom to develope the games they wish to make - but I'm also in favor of keeping game with content like rape, murder, drugs, and teletubbies out of the hands of those too young to *really* understand them.

Re:Good Luck to him

[Chris Burke]

As for porn, I cannot BELIEVE that people on /. are advocating restricting porn to people you would allow violent video games too.

Welcome to an American audience, where we have a bizzare fear of the sexual and a bizzare fascination with the violent.

Like Orwell's Junior Anti-Sex League and the Two Minutes Hate only without the deliberate control behind it -- repression in one area leads to expression in another.

Re:Good Luck to him

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"As for porn, I cannot BELIEVE that people on /. are advocating restricting porn to people you would allow violent video games too."

The reason for this incongruity is that teen pregnancy happens far more often than teen murder. In other words: Parents remember how they spent their youth and don't want their kids making stupid mistakes. They think that by being bombarded with porn they'll run out and try to 'score', ignoring the risk of tying up the next 18 years of their lives.

Whether they're right about that or not is a seperate discussion. I'm just pointing out why sex is far more taboo than violence.

Re:Mod parent up!

[jimstapleton]

I agree. Keeping such games out of the hands of minors, unless the minors have parent approval is a very good thing.

Better signage?

[GoNINzo]

Would something along the lines of 'Explicit Lyrics' stickers make him feel better?

How about the label: If you buy this for your kids, you are a douchebag and a bad parent.

If people would spend even 5 minutes understanding the ESRB, all these problems would go away. People understand R rated movied, why can't they understand M rated games? Jack Thompson should just get people to learn more about the ESRB, but I don't see how he can get paid doing that. heh

ESRB Rating

[nuggz]

I was pleasantly surprised to see a few things over this holiday season.
Parents asking about the rating system and what it means.
Game retailers pausing the transaction to point out it is a 17+/mature rated title and may not be appropriate for children.

I don't see anything wrong with carding younger customers (which I've seen). The problem is the outright bans some people want to have, or those who angrily react when someone suggests they make an informed decision.

Re:Mod parent up!

[Karl Cocknozzle]

"Show me your ID if you look under 25". Much harder for a 16 year old to look 25, and adults don't really care about being IDed.

As an adult, I do have a problem with being asked for ID. I have gray hair and I'm obviously older than the little fucks asking for my ID. It's a power-trip for minimum-wage clerks.... "Sir, the law REQUIRES me to card you for appearing to be under the age of 60...."

What I usually do is demand ID from clerks in those situations, because I've run into clerks who look too young to be SELLING liquor asking me for ID.

But seriously, "appearing to be under 60." How stupid is that.... Welcome aboard the slippery slope, my friend! Some municipalities in the U.S. now require clerks to ask for identification for anybody appearing to be under the age of 60! Used to be 40, but some fucking do-gooder somewhere probably saw a special on High-Schoolers with beards that he thought looked "40". And as we all know, the worst thing that can happen to a kid is if a sip of beer crosses his lips before his 21st birthday...

Some (even more ridiculously) require TWO forms of identification for liquor purchase. And yes, you do occasionally get the one arsehole clerk on his first day who makes the senior citizen in line ahead of you at the grocery dig out two forms of ID to buy his one friggin' bottle of wine... Wasting minutes of your life that you'll never get back watching the guy dig for his second id, then argue that he was fighting in wars while the clerk was still a horny impulse in somebody's eye... Meanwhile, the minors with the requisite "real-looking" two fake IDs walk out unmolested.

Laws like this are an idiotic over-reaction... Carding people who look underage is logical. REQUIRING people to ask for identification from all customers appearing to be under 60 is not only foolish and inefficient, but also ineffective. Minors attempting to buy liquor are generally doing so with FAKE IDs, or through straw-buyers. These rules don't stop those purchases--the only people it stops from buying booze are minors with poor-quality fake-IDs, and adults who don't have a drivers license handy at the counter.

What infuriates me the most about Jack...

[AbRASiON]

The main issue I have with him is not the fact that he doesn't like video games or violence, it's that he JUST PLAIN OUTRIGHT LIES - he does not get the facts, he does not get the scoops, he doesn't know things we don't know - he simply assumes!
"It's called bully, it must be bad!"

"It's GTAIV from Rockstar, it MUST be bad!"

None of us at all know a single damn thing about GTAIV - it's a mystery thus far and he's already started?
I wish this foolish, stupid little man would go away soon.

Re:Mod parent up!

[Karl Cocknozzle]

And big fucks like you are the reason my girlfriend hates her job! Here's a newsflash, asshole: those clerks really are required by law to ID you! In fact, in my state it's required regardless of age -- she even has to ask 80-year-old geezers, because she'd get fired if she didn't.

Tell you what, why don't you post your name and address, so I can come beat the shit out of you for abusing people like my girlfriend, who are only trying to do their jobs! How would you like that, hmm?

In my state, clerks are required to show their liquor license and proof of age on demand by customers... Liquor sellers are LICENSED here--you don't just get a job at a liquor store... You get a job, then get a license, and THEN you can work. One of the stipulations of that license is that it be presented on demand of a customer. I'm within my legal rights (its "the law") to demand her ID--but I don't see you lining up to defend MY rights... Maybe you should offer to beat up all the clerks who balk at being asked to present their legally required license and identification... After all, if I bought liquor from somebody underage I would be breaking the law too! (Yeah, that law sucks too.) Seems like rank hypocrisy to me... And before you ask, yes, I have communicated my displeasure with the liquor laws to my state representative/state senator.

I know that when I worked at the liquor store, I checked ID for people who looked underage and I can confidently tell you I never sold to any minors--the "law" was that I had to check everybody, but everybody including the Excise Police knew that we weren't checking everybody--through the use of something called common-sense (that your generation may not be familiar with) we managed to achieve a balance between a law written in a vacuum and the legitimate interest of the community to restrict minors' access to booze.

Your girlfriend needs to quit her job if she doesn't like it. Working at a liquor store sucks, (I know, I've done it)--My guess is she'd find one of the various other flaws in the work to hate if that law went away tomorrow. Reality is: Adults don't like being denied access to something they are LEGALLY ENTITLED TO PURCHASE, especially when the gatekeeper doesn't even look legal to vote... and DOUBLE especially when I'm old enough to be the girl's father.

Also, word to the wise on challenging somebody to fight... It isn't wise (or impressive) to challenge men you've never met to fisticuffs online... The fact that you did so publicly illustrates what an empty threat you're making. And it further underlines your cowardice... If you were serious about settling this between you and I, you would have used my email address in my Slashdot profile and named your time and place, instead of trying to post it publicly and "look tough." Go home and whine to your girlfriend about your minimum-wage customer service jobs... But a better use of your energy would be to learn some skills to get better jobs.

To the specifics of your threat: 1) You don't want my address--undesired/unexpected visitors here get a really unpleasant greeting at the end of my HK. 2) You are a hypocrite and coward, grow up and realize that customer service jobs suck in and of themselves, not because I don't want my time wasted while people on Social Security prove they're old enough to buy a 6-pack. 3) If you really want to challenge somebody to fight, send them a private message. Anything else just looks like bluster. You've got my email--it's in my slashdot profile...