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Note: I apologize for the length of this little report of mine. However, I feel it is of the utmost importance and everyone on the boards should know that people other than gamers now understand that Jack Thompson is, in fact, mentally ill.
Jack Thompson.
The name of a man who for years, has struggled to bring the issue of violence and sex in the media to the front table. For years he's campaigned against the terrors of rap music, television and video games.
Why, do you ask?
Because children need a hero to save them from corruption? Because no one else is man enough to step up to the entertainment corporations? Because he's just a self-sacrificing hero who won't rest until the world is safe?
No, it's just because he's the biggest douche in the universe. And he's insane.
Yes, Jack Thompson. The man who has taken the biggest part in the fight against Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and the hidden sex-scene controversy. The man who openly ridiculed Janet Reno because she was clearly a better attorney than he. How so?
During their campaigning, Jack Thompson sent Janet Reno a note. The note read:
"I, Janet Reno, am:
(A) Homosexual
(B) Bisexual
(C) Heterosexual"
Yes, the man actually did that.
In addition, Thompson has rallied against games like Manhunt for excessive violence, Killer 7 for its solitary sex scene which is something you'd see in a PG movie these days (but later abandoned this fight when he realized that the game, and thus he, was not getting enough publicity), and even The Sims 2, calling it a "pedophile's paradise." Yes, Jack Thompson attempted to point a finger at EA for making it possible to see all the Sims, even children, completely nude, baring realistic genitalia and other obsene body parts. When EA claimed that such content was strictly an issue of third-party, independed modding (the truth), Thompson flipped out and claimed that EA was cooperating with "hackers" (since he thinks all modders are evil hackers). When he realized that even more people were growing aware of his obvious mental handicap, he shutup.
So, after The Sims 2 incident, Thompson found himself with nothing to do, since he had already conquered Grand Theft Auto, and clearly one victory which anyone could have pointed out is enough for this man to consider himself almighty and famous. In his downtime, Thompson mainly spent his days calling back all the people who sent...unhappy...emails to him, ranging from violent threats to intellectual criticisms of Thompson's character. Thompson's main target was the gaming culture media. Webcomic artists such as CTRL-ALT-DEL's Tim Buckley to VG Cats' Scott Ramsoomair.
Over time, it was apparent that everyone who didn't care about Jack Thompson was beginning to forget he even existed. He hadn't been on TV in a while, he hadn't been on the radio in a while, and he hadn't even been interviewed by some website that hated him. Thompson decided to take a day-off from the strenuous job of calling people and yelling at them, so he decided to turn to the profession no one expected: a video game designer.
Or rather, some crazy ex-lawyer living in a cardboard box who comes up with random stories, and decided to make up a videogame and cause some commotion. Thompson, desperate for publicity, decided that since he was too greedy to give money to charity out of the goodness of his heart, he'd only do it if someone did something for him in return. I know what you're thinking. That completely destroys the concept of charity. But this is Jack Thompson we're talking about, people. The man is clearly insane. He did so in one of his many "open-letters" that no one takes seriously:
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The Golden Rule
This writer has been saying for seven years that violent video games can be "murder simulators" that incite as well as train some obsessive teen players to be violent.
I've been on 60 Minutes and in Reader's Digest this year explaining how an Alabama teen, with no criminal record, shot two policemen and a dispatcher in their heads and fled in a police car--a scenario he rehearsed for hundreds of hours on Take-Two/Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto video games.
I have sat with boys in jail cells, their lives over because of murder convictions, after they, with no history of violence, have killed innocents while in a dreamlike state. Said one cop who investigated such a murder in Grand Rapids, Michigan: "The killing was like an extension of the game."
The video game industry, through its lawyers, its spokesmen, and its head lobbyist, Doug Lowenstein, the president of the Entertainment Software Association, all say it is utter nonsense to suggest that what is dumped into a kid's head hour after hour, day after day, year after year, could possibly have behavioral consequences. Cigarette ads can persuade kids to smoke, but interactive simulators in which these same kids punch, hack, bludgeon, and maim affect not a wit their attitudes and behaviors, notwithstanding the findings of the American Psychological Association, published in August 2005.
The video game industry says Sticks and stones can break my bones, but games can never hurt me. Fine. I have a modest proposal for the video game industry. I'll write a check for $10,000 to the favorite charity of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc's chairman, Paul Eibeler - a man Bernard Goldberg ranks as #43 in his book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America - if any video game company will create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game in 2006 like the following:
Osaki Kim is the father of a high school boy beaten to death with a baseball bat by a 14-year-old gamer. The killer obsessively played a violent video game in which one of the favored ways of killing is with a bat. The opening scene, before the interactive game play begins, is the Los Angeles courtroom in which the killer is sentenced "only" to life in prison after the judge and the jury have heard experts explain the connection between the game and the murder.
Osaki Kim (O.K.) exits the courtroom swearing revenge upon the video game industry whom he is convinced contributed to his son's murder. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay" he says. And boy, is O.K. not kidding.
O.K. is provided in his virtual reality playpen a panoply of weapons: machetes, Uzis, revolvers, shotguns, sniper rifles, Molotov cocktails, you name it. Even baseball bats. Especially baseball bats.
O.K. first hops a plane from LAX to New York to reach the Long Island home of the CEO of the company (Take This) that made the murder simulator on which his son's killer trained. O.K. gets "justice" by taking out this female CEO, whose name is Paula Eibel, along with her husband and kids. "An eye for an eye," says O.K., as he urinates onto the severed brain stems of the Eibel family victims, just as you do on the decapitated cops in the real video game Postal2.
O.K. then works his way, methodically back to LA by car, but on his way makes a stop at the Philadelphia law firm of Blank, Stare and goes floor by floor to wipe out the lawyers who protect Take This in its wrongful death law suits. "So sue me" O.K. spits, with singer Jackson Brown's 1980's hit Lawyers in Love blaring.
With the FBI now after him, O.K. keeps moving westward, shooting up high-tech video arcades called GameWerks. "Game over," O.K. laughs.
Of course, O.K. makes the obligatory runs to virtual versions of brick and mortar retailers Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, and Wal-Mart to steal supplies and bludgeon store managers and cash register clerks. "You should have checked kids' IDs!"
O.K. pushes on to Los Angeles. He must get there by May 10, 2006. That is the beginning of "E3" -- the Electronic Entertainment Expo -- the Super Bowl of the video game industry. O.K. must get to E3 to massacre all the video game industry execs with one final, monstrously delicious rampage.
How about it, video game industry? I've got the check and you've got the tech. It's all a fantasy, right? No harm can come from such a game, right? Go ahead, video game moguls. Target yourselves as you target others. I dare you.
Jack Thompson is a Miami lawyer who has for 18 years been involved in efforts to stop the marketing of adult entertainment to minors.
Jack Thompson.
The name of a man who for years, has struggled to bring the issue of violence and sex in the media to the front table. For years he's campaigned against the terrors of rap music, television and video games.
Why, do you ask?
Because children need a hero to save them from corruption? Because no one else is man enough to step up to the entertainment corporations? Because he's just a self-sacrificing hero who won't rest until the world is safe?
No, it's just because he's the biggest douche in the universe. And he's insane.
Yes, Jack Thompson. The man who has taken the biggest part in the fight against Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and the hidden sex-scene controversy. The man who openly ridiculed Janet Reno because she was clearly a better attorney than he. How so?
During their campaigning, Jack Thompson sent Janet Reno a note. The note read:
"I, Janet Reno, am:
(A) Homosexual
(B) Bisexual
(C) Heterosexual"
Yes, the man actually did that.
In addition, Thompson has rallied against games like Manhunt for excessive violence, Killer 7 for its solitary sex scene which is something you'd see in a PG movie these days (but later abandoned this fight when he realized that the game, and thus he, was not getting enough publicity), and even The Sims 2, calling it a "pedophile's paradise." Yes, Jack Thompson attempted to point a finger at EA for making it possible to see all the Sims, even children, completely nude, baring realistic genitalia and other obsene body parts. When EA claimed that such content was strictly an issue of third-party, independed modding (the truth), Thompson flipped out and claimed that EA was cooperating with "hackers" (since he thinks all modders are evil hackers). When he realized that even more people were growing aware of his obvious mental handicap, he shutup.
So, after The Sims 2 incident, Thompson found himself with nothing to do, since he had already conquered Grand Theft Auto, and clearly one victory which anyone could have pointed out is enough for this man to consider himself almighty and famous. In his downtime, Thompson mainly spent his days calling back all the people who sent...unhappy...emails to him, ranging from violent threats to intellectual criticisms of Thompson's character. Thompson's main target was the gaming culture media. Webcomic artists such as CTRL-ALT-DEL's Tim Buckley to VG Cats' Scott Ramsoomair.
Over time, it was apparent that everyone who didn't care about Jack Thompson was beginning to forget he even existed. He hadn't been on TV in a while, he hadn't been on the radio in a while, and he hadn't even been interviewed by some website that hated him. Thompson decided to take a day-off from the strenuous job of calling people and yelling at them, so he decided to turn to the profession no one expected: a video game designer.
Or rather, some crazy ex-lawyer living in a cardboard box who comes up with random stories, and decided to make up a videogame and cause some commotion. Thompson, desperate for publicity, decided that since he was too greedy to give money to charity out of the goodness of his heart, he'd only do it if someone did something for him in return. I know what you're thinking. That completely destroys the concept of charity. But this is Jack Thompson we're talking about, people. The man is clearly insane. He did so in one of his many "open-letters" that no one takes seriously:
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The Golden Rule
This writer has been saying for seven years that violent video games can be "murder simulators" that incite as well as train some obsessive teen players to be violent.
I've been on 60 Minutes and in Reader's Digest this year explaining how an Alabama teen, with no criminal record, shot two policemen and a dispatcher in their heads and fled in a police car--a scenario he rehearsed for hundreds of hours on Take-Two/Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto video games.
I have sat with boys in jail cells, their lives over because of murder convictions, after they, with no history of violence, have killed innocents while in a dreamlike state. Said one cop who investigated such a murder in Grand Rapids, Michigan: "The killing was like an extension of the game."
The video game industry, through its lawyers, its spokesmen, and its head lobbyist, Doug Lowenstein, the president of the Entertainment Software Association, all say it is utter nonsense to suggest that what is dumped into a kid's head hour after hour, day after day, year after year, could possibly have behavioral consequences. Cigarette ads can persuade kids to smoke, but interactive simulators in which these same kids punch, hack, bludgeon, and maim affect not a wit their attitudes and behaviors, notwithstanding the findings of the American Psychological Association, published in August 2005.
The video game industry says Sticks and stones can break my bones, but games can never hurt me. Fine. I have a modest proposal for the video game industry. I'll write a check for $10,000 to the favorite charity of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc's chairman, Paul Eibeler - a man Bernard Goldberg ranks as #43 in his book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America - if any video game company will create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game in 2006 like the following:
Osaki Kim is the father of a high school boy beaten to death with a baseball bat by a 14-year-old gamer. The killer obsessively played a violent video game in which one of the favored ways of killing is with a bat. The opening scene, before the interactive game play begins, is the Los Angeles courtroom in which the killer is sentenced "only" to life in prison after the judge and the jury have heard experts explain the connection between the game and the murder.
Osaki Kim (O.K.) exits the courtroom swearing revenge upon the video game industry whom he is convinced contributed to his son's murder. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay" he says. And boy, is O.K. not kidding.
O.K. is provided in his virtual reality playpen a panoply of weapons: machetes, Uzis, revolvers, shotguns, sniper rifles, Molotov cocktails, you name it. Even baseball bats. Especially baseball bats.
O.K. first hops a plane from LAX to New York to reach the Long Island home of the CEO of the company (Take This) that made the murder simulator on which his son's killer trained. O.K. gets "justice" by taking out this female CEO, whose name is Paula Eibel, along with her husband and kids. "An eye for an eye," says O.K., as he urinates onto the severed brain stems of the Eibel family victims, just as you do on the decapitated cops in the real video game Postal2.
O.K. then works his way, methodically back to LA by car, but on his way makes a stop at the Philadelphia law firm of Blank, Stare and goes floor by floor to wipe out the lawyers who protect Take This in its wrongful death law suits. "So sue me" O.K. spits, with singer Jackson Brown's 1980's hit Lawyers in Love blaring.
With the FBI now after him, O.K. keeps moving westward, shooting up high-tech video arcades called GameWerks. "Game over," O.K. laughs.
Of course, O.K. makes the obligatory runs to virtual versions of brick and mortar retailers Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, and Wal-Mart to steal supplies and bludgeon store managers and cash register clerks. "You should have checked kids' IDs!"
O.K. pushes on to Los Angeles. He must get there by May 10, 2006. That is the beginning of "E3" -- the Electronic Entertainment Expo -- the Super Bowl of the video game industry. O.K. must get to E3 to massacre all the video game industry execs with one final, monstrously delicious rampage.
How about it, video game industry? I've got the check and you've got the tech. It's all a fantasy, right? No harm can come from such a game, right? Go ahead, video game moguls. Target yourselves as you target others. I dare you.
Jack Thompson is a Miami lawyer who has for 18 years been involved in efforts to stop the marketing of adult entertainment to minors.
has little to do with making a game many times. All that matters now is how much $$ its going to make. Yes there are may game developers that have 
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