| Anti-game activist Jack Thompson under investigation
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Posted:
Tue Oct 25, 2005 6:07 pm |
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Anti-game activist Jack Thompson under investigation
this is true ive been following it along and was quite pissed off at this dude as i game alot. i took this from this site http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051019-5458.html.
Anti-game activist Jack Thompson under investigation
Jack Thompson, a Florida lawyer who became infamous in 1988 for accusing Janet Reno of being a closeted lesbian with a drinking problem and a strong candidate for blackmail, has recently been making waves with his crusade against the video game industry. Earlier this year, he launched a wrongful death lawsuit against Take Two Interactive and Rockstar Games, makers of the Grand Theft Auto series, claiming that the video game was directly responsible for 18 year-old Devin Moore's shooting of three police officers in 2003.
Jack recently appeared on CBS's 60 Minutes trying to drum up support for his efforts. However, this publicity was apparently not satisfying enough for him, as he went on to try and create more outrage on his own. Attempting to emulate Jonathan Swift, he issued a "Modest Proposal" that offered a US$10,000 reward to anyone who would create a video game featuring Osaki Kim, a father whose son was beaten to death with a baseball bat by a 14-year-old gamer. The game would feature Kim extracting brutal revenge on the video game industry itself, including beating game company executives to death, removing their heads and urinating on their brain stems.
What Jack did not expect was that the enterprising PC gaming mod community would turn around and make this mod a reality. Jack then reneged on his promise of a US$10,000 donation to the charity of the modder's choice, saying that his original bounty had been "satire", and therefore not a legitimate promise.
This is where Penny Arcade, the popular video game-themed online comic strip, entered the story. One of the co-creators of the strip, Mike "Gabe" Krahulik, emailed Jack Thompson and informed him that he thought his proposed US$10,000 charitable donation was pretty small in light of Penny Arcade's more than half a million dollars, raised as part of their "Child's Play" charity event. Unfortunately for Gabe, his email contained his phone number as part of the signature, and Jack took advantage of this to phone him directly. The phone call included a threat of a lawsuit if Gabe emailed him again. In response, Gabe sent a check to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) in the amount of US$10,000 with the note "For Jack Thompson Because Jack Thompson Won't" on the bottom.
The threats then escalated. Jack then faxed a letter to the Seattle Police Department claiming that Penny Arcade was "criminally harassing" him, and urging the arrest of "this little extortion factory".
At this point, the nerds swung into action. Penny Arcade forum members wrote, edited and sent letters and faxes to the Florida Bar Association detailing Thompson's activities and urging the review of his license to practice law. Jack Thompson has already received a reprimand by the FBA for his antics in 1998, and according to a spokesperson, the letters and faxes have been received and forwarded to the disciplinary committee.
Already, other activists against video game violence are starting to distance themselves from Jack Thompson. Earlier this month, the National Institute on Media and the Family wrote a letter to Jack, asking him to remove the link to their organization from his web site. While Mr. Thompson's fifteen minutes of fame may be waning, the issue of violence in video games remains a hot topic.
hooray!
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 FuNEnD3R |
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Posted:
Tue Oct 25, 2005 7:30 pm |
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Here is one thing you should always remember, in fact I knew about this but now I truly believe it and it took me 25 years to realize this. No matter what is said in the media, no matter how much trouble someone can stir to stop something, as long as money is involved, nothing will change.
If someone tries to close down the music industry, gaming industry, guns, tobacco industry, anything that is worth millions or billions of dollars, it will never happen. So I never pay attention to stories that say that gaming will come to an end, or anything else that is worth a ton of money. You may not believe me now, but pay attention to the news and let me know when a million or billion dollar industry is ever destroyed.
That guy can have thousands of people rallying in the streets to stop violence in games and nothing will change. The companies can do it legally and hire bigtime lawyers that will make them win every case, or bribe the judge, or worse threaten the guy and offer him money to just drop it.
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Posted:
Wed Oct 26, 2005 7:11 am |
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no i never really believed he could do it i just thought it was funny that he got his cummpance or however you spell it. seriously when i played gran theft auto san andreas i played the missions for ten minutes getting bored and realising it was the same game with a few new tweaks, so i did what i always do put on some weapons cheats and go on a killing spree, but do i go outside and beat up people with baseball bats. no. i just thought it was funny.
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| FuNEnD3R |
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Posted:
Wed Oct 26, 2005 9:07 am |
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Yeah, but I often wonder because like if I play Gran Turismo all day long, then need to go somewhere (in the real world) I cannot help but rev up my engine at the stop lights  Well that was about 8 years ago though heh, I do not do that anymore. However I would have to admit that racing all day long in GT made me naturally want to race my car in the real world as well. That was the only game to have that kind of impact though.
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Posted:
Wed Oct 26, 2005 9:21 am |
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can you really compare wanting to drive a car to killing. i mean i wanted to have sword after playing some of the ff games but i didn't want to stab anyone though. i do see where your coming from though.
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Posted:
Wed Oct 26, 2005 9:26 am |
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| locke_alvein wrote: |
| can you really compare wanting to drive a car to killing. |
Yes
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| FuNEnD3R |
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Posted:
Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:00 am |
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BTW I was only half serious 
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Posted:
Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:27 am |
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Krutsiey you being serious or what?
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Posted:
Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:22 am |
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Both. To avoid complicacies, I'll just copy Fun's comments and say I was half serious.
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| Nintendo_1987 |
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Posted:
Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:40 am |
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I hope he burns in hell
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Posted:
Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:57 am |
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No hes such a badass they wont let him in, god is currently thinking up something worse than enternal damnation. you see god always loved tekken for some reason.
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Posted:
Wed Oct 26, 2005 12:16 pm |
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Nah, no need to go to such extremities.
All God needs is to go "I'm the player and you're just a Sim" and remove any exit to the guy's room and let him play this game:
http://www.seanbaby.com/nes/egm19.htm
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Posted:
Thu Oct 27, 2005 6:13 am |
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i owned that superman game, trust me it really does suck ,five minutes of gameplay and i still haven't gone back. and yes that is evil what you suggest ,but its not quite ironic enough, he wants games like bible adventures and crappy superman games. but also he may strangle himself with the controller cord i know i would.
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Posted:
Thu Oct 27, 2005 3:16 pm |
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| Quote: |
| ET has never looked worse. Which is a pretty amazing accomplishment since he started out looking like a slimy little space turtle's *. |
this made me lol
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| Thoul |
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Posted:
Fri Oct 28, 2005 3:29 am |
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| FuNEnD3R wrote: |
| If someone tries to close down the music industry, gaming industry, guns, tobacco industry, anything that is worth millions or billions of dollars, it will never happen. So I never pay attention to stories that say that gaming will come to an end, or anything else that is worth a ton of money. You may not believe me now, but pay attention to the news and let me know when a million or billion dollar industry is ever destroyed. |
It almost happened in the 1920's, I believe it was, when alcohol was made illegal. Of course that didn't last, and there were plenty of gangsters and such that still made and sold it. The goverment did shut down all of the legitimate industry, though. If something happened like that today - with gaming, for example - the prices would skyrocket and the product would only be sold through illegal channels. The common person wouldn't have it available any longer.
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