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So, I made Jack Thompson angry
etoychest
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Registered User regular
Ok, so after lunch I wrote a story for Gamasutra about a new law that Jack Thompson is penning for Massachusetts. Nothing inflammatory, since we don't go in for those back door shennanigans over there. But anyway, it was basically picking up on a story broken by Gamepolitics:
Anyway, we just got sent this email from Thompson:
This is the second time I have written a story that he didn't agree with. This must be what love feels like.
Anyway, I thought you all would find it amusing.
Politically centered site GamePolitics has reported that the Massachusetts legislature plans to consider new video game legislation drafted by notorious anti-game lawyer Jack Thompson. Like other bills proposed by Thompson, the legislation aims to categorize violent video games as obscene in an effort to keep them out of the hands of minors.
According to the report, the proposed bill introduces a number of vague concepts in an effort to block underage consumers from purchasing any games that feature violent content that is “patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community, so as to appeal predominantly to the morbid interest in violence of minors.â€
In addition, games that could be considered “patently contrary to prevailing standards of adults in the county where the offense was committed as to suitable material for such minors,†as well as those that lack “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value†would also be blocked from being purchased by minors should the bill come to pass.
The report notes that the bill, which is based upon Utah's failed HB 257 'games as porn' bill, is backed by members of the Boston community, including Mayor Thomas Menino, who apparently requested Thompson draw up the bill.
“The Mayor of Boston asked me to draft a bill, on his behalf, for the Massachusetts legislature,†commented Thompson. “Mayors get to do that in Massachusetts. Secondly, it is very much like Louisiana. The difference is that these people intend to win the court fight, unlike the knuckleheads in Louisiana. That bill was constitutional. They took a dive because of (ESA boss Doug) Lowenstein’s threats.â€
Louisiana's HB 1381, which was blocked by U.S. District Judge James Brady in June 2006, was also drafted with Thompson's help, and aimed to permit a judge to rule on whether or not a video game meets established criteria for being inappropriate for minors and be subsequently pulled from store shelves.
Anyway, we just got sent this email from Thompson:
Your "news" story about the Massachusetts video game bill is utterly flawed. do you journalist wannabes EVER talk to an original source, or do you just quoting other pro-gaming sites? this is ridiculous!
Jack Thompson, Attorney
This is the second time I have written a story that he didn't agree with. This must be what love feels like.
Anyway, I thought you all would find it amusing.
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I keep falling asleep wondering if tomorrow I'll wake up and he won't be a joke and people will take him seriously.
It was a fun punctuation on an otherwise dreary day.
The sooner we stop talking about this man, the sooner he stops being relevant.
It's okay -- I still
It's Massachusetts, capital of the wingnuts. I should know, I live here. Good old Mayor Menino though. He can't solve the violence in Boston but damned if he can't help make games banned!
This man has a child. I really feel bad for that kid, as his life will be a heavily sheltered one.
Really? What has Jack Thompson ever accomplished? The only reason anyone even hears about him is threads like this. If the video game media quit reporting on him, we wouldn't hear about him any more, and he'd continue to have no effect on the video game community. The only way a man like Jack Thompson succeeds is by drawing attention to his name and his cause.
"Mr. Thompson, did you know there's a book out there that's caused more war, segregation, hate and violence than all the videogames and television shows in the world COMBINE? That book is the Bible, Mr. Thompson, and if you can provide a rebuttal for that, I'd like to hear it."
That outta shut him up.
wait.
better idea: interview him and then ammend the story. Everyone wins, he gets fair journalism. we get to laugh because he is a cockwit.
Also, what professional uses the word "wannabe".
Cockwit indeed.
<ProfMoriarty> oh yeah. one time I PMed a picture of my penis to a forumer, and then I got a PM from Thanatos saying "nice girth"
He is impervious to logic or reason.
Actually there was an interview with him where the reporter did something to that effect. Thompsons response was basically a lot of "but.. uh.. the bible.. it's. a.. uh.. It's a holy document!"
Then the reporter was like "the bible has tons of violence in it. I mean how did David beat goliath? By shooting him with a slingshot and cutting his head off. If they made a David and Goliath video game would you be opposed to it?"
And Thompson said something like "Well I wouldn't want my kid practicing murder on it all day."
I swear, Thompson is by far the biggest jerkwad I've ever had the misfortune of becoming aware of. He is unbelievably self-absorbed, unable to see any opinion other than his own as right. But the thing I am most curious about Jack Thompson is why no one has beaten the shit out of him yet.
Why is it so bad for someone to limit minors' access to materials that is deemed not appropriate for them? How is this any different from R rated movies?
People always attack Jack Thompson like "Oh Jack, he crazy," but if you're an adult you have nothing to worry about.
Why aren't the people that are pissed about Jack's position pissed about movie ratings or pornography laws?
People get angry mostly because Jack has stated several times that his intent isn't just to limit the sale of games to minors, but to outright ban what he deems unacceptable.
Only lately has he started coming to his damn senses.
I guess that's my point with my earlier post, then. Jack is "coming to his senses" because he's never been able to accomplish anything. The only power Jack Thompson has ever wielded is the power to piss gamers off.
There is already an admittedly somewhat lax system to rate games, if it were better enforced by the industry that created it, we probably wouldn't be having this problem.
The problem is that he isn't targeting us with anything but his attacks. He's targeting the mainstream population and trying to rally their support against us. While he's failed, for the most part, at that. Some of the laws he's helped pen have come dangerously close to being passed, they only got overturned when the ESA stepped in and got the supreme court involved.
Jack's intent is not to limit minors access to M-rated games.
Jack's intent is to be the one to decide what games are inappropriate for whom. His blatant attempt to outright ban Bully was proof enough of that. Added to his tendency to attack games not based on their content but on their level of success, and you have a prolific idiot who has duped countless uninformed yet powerful people.
He doesn't deserve any of what he's "accomplished". He's an ambulance chaser manchild and a hypocritical bible-thumping moron.
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<ProfMoriarty> oh yeah. one time I PMed a picture of my penis to a forumer, and then I got a PM from Thanatos saying "nice girth"
What... the... fuck...
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
In the UK, if something cannot be legally sold to minor's, it's normal, not commercial suicide. As I recall, our reaction to Hot Coffee was "meh?".
Rule of Rose was the first serious controversy I've yet seen.
I'd love to hear his response.
I actually did, mainly because I am curious.
That's because Spongebob is about the gays.
But to make it unlawful to sell something to someone would be unconstitutional here, it's the first amendment.
It should be the parent's responsibility to police their children, not the government's.