Jack Thompson Owned

[Black Snake]

Jack Thompson just got his ass handed to him by Adam Sessler on the G4 show Attack Of The Show.


Watch the recorded video.

www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/blog/AOTB/cat/84/The_Loop.html

Awesome.

[Otty]

I enjoyed seeing that. I especially liked the last speech of the middle guy saying that if Jack Thompson finds something objectionable he's in every right to keep his kids, relatives, family away from it. But he's not in his right to tell others... *interrupted by Jack "sh*t" Thompson saying that's not the issue.* But it is the issue.

[A.G.]

I have to be against about something like this. Games like Bully and and GTA are mindless, clueless source of violance. Will that have effect on impressionable kids? Given the VERY LOW sense of right and wrong in kids and people in general today, YES!

Games like that should not be released, nor should games like GTA.

Metal Gear is a violent game, but thought it all it teaches A LOT of positive values, one of which is the need to NOT kill.

Vast majority of games, and most mediea for that matter, carry a very violent message. And given how little the parents ACTUALLY raise their children it is an important issue to consider.

Think about yourself. Who spends more time raising you, you parents or the media (TV, movies, games)? Yeah, exactly. Now if you don't have much of a sense of right and wrong, or perhaps being in a bad environment to begin with, can you imagine just how much of an impact games like that will make?

The world of games, tv, and movies needs to be sensered. Freedom is a great thing, but not for a species that has such a naive and premitive way of looking at things.

That's why I'm not interested in the video game world anymore. With 3D imaging people can live out all their nasty thoughts and desires. It allows people to release the anger and evil nature that's in them. Things like that also make people oblivious and jaded towards real life issues.


It's all image training!

I was fortunate to grow up with innocent shows, limited action movies, and a great family that took the time to knock the sense of right and wrong into me. But even I at time see how much I get into a game. Look at the impact Metal Gear made on me, luckaly it was a good game with a positive message.

[The Dumpster Keeper]

In all honesty, AG, it's not the game's fault if the kid is an idiot with equally stupid and irresponsible parents.

[Black Snake]

Seconded. The game doesn't want to brainwash the kid, the kid can't comprehend the line between what is reality and what is A GAME. And the parents don't give two sh*ts, they think they're little boy is smart, and won't do anything. It's entertainment. That's what video games are created for. If video games were for brainwashing, we would see more milkings of Real War On Terror Iraqi stuff to teach our kids how to fire and reload an M4. But right now what do we see milkings of? Something we all know as World War 2. How many WWII shooters are on the market? Can't count em? They renact what happens in WWII, but that happened over 40 years ago. Why brainwash people to something that is history?

[psecody]

I personally think that stores selling games of a violent nature should put an age restriction on it and then be done with it. In my opinion its the parents responsibility to keep track of their child. Now just for the heck of it I will post a chapter from a book that me and my friend are writing that has just our random thoughts and views on how things should be, hope you enjoy.

[psecody]

This is an incomplete chapter because my friend hasn't sent me his half of the chapter so this is only my half.

Chapter : Censorship

This chapter deals with our views on the subject of censorship. As always we are only expressing our opinions you are entitled to your own opinion however wrong they may be.
Cody:
In the first part of my discussion of this topic I would like to start out expressing my opinion on television censorship then after I have covered that I will branch out into other forms of censorship.
Television is a great thing providing information, news, and entertainment; however in todays society I feel that television should not be censored or totally censored. What we have today is a lousy excuse for television censorship, channels like MTV barely censor anything out (yes they censor nudity) but as far as profanity they allow anything to be said as long as its not s*** or f***. They are perfectly ok with all the other words being used such as dammit, bitch, ass, and others. While MTV and other more "liberal" channels do little to censor their shows a good number of channels do quite a good job at censoring their shows. My thoughts toward this are that if everyone decides that television absolutely must be censored, then some guidelines should be laid out and then followed, no station should show excessive vulgar or obscenities.
Now let me proceed to express my true opinion on the subject. I believe that the only thing that should be censored is things to do with our government and the military, things that could possible hurt the moral of the troops or the country (I'll talk about this more in depth later). Other than those things listed television should be uncensored, now thats not to say that all the networks have to constantly show vulgar and obscene things no there should be networks tailored for certain groups of people like children, that way there will be programs appropriate for them. But channels who are targeted to a more adult crowd should be able to show more violence/language and not have to edit their shows. With this being said the responsibility of censoring the shows that could be offensive for children or certain individuals should fall on the shoulders of the parents or that individual, if you don't want your child watching an "R" rated movie tell them about it and explain to them the reason that they shouldn't watch it, be aware of what your child is watching. This would also be a swell time to learn about this contraption they call a "v-chip" its helpful for things like controlling what your children watch. Now for you adults that turn on the television to some random channel and start watching a program and become offended by the language being used or the graphic violence, you should just change the channel. "What, thats it?" you might say and I would reply simply yes. If you are offended by a show just don't watch it, but someone somewhere out there might not be offended by it and thats ok because we live in a free country and thats their right to watch it and enjoy it if they choose.
Ok now on to the media, the government, and the military. Personally I don't think the media should be allowed to broadcast to everyone what our military is doing, they're basically informing our enemies of what we're doing. Yes giving basic information would be acceptable but I feel like the media reveals too much about what our military forces are doing.
Moving on, our government, I believe that the media and the news stations shouldn't be able to talk about our president or the government in a negative way, I mean this just causes internal strife for the country that we could all do without. If you don't like the actions the president is taking it's acceptable to voice those opinions courteously and back them up with good well thought out reasons, but it's quite another just to spout off your distaste for him without relevant information to back up your views. Also don't repeatedly bash them just simply state your opinion and be done with it and move on. In my opinion that is one of the problems with television and the media today, by constantly speaking negatively about our government you bring down the moral of the whole country and that is just pointless.
Now I would like to move into other forms of censorship. Music censorship, I just don't understand some stores policies on this. Walmart, for example refuses to sell audio cd's that have a parental advisory label on them, normally I would totally understand and agree with them for trying to be a more family oriented company and not be responsible for selling those kinds of things, but if one was to walk an aisle over they would find the movie section, chalk full of rated "R" movies, and wait down here we have the video game aisle full of rated "M" for mature games (which you must be 17 years of age or older to purchase). So why does Walmart sell these other forms of entertainment and not audio cd's? Lets think about the brilliance of this a little more, with audio cd's the worst you're going to get is foul language and descriptions of violence, yet with "R" rated movies there are visual scenes that could contain hard language, tough violence, nudity, drug abuse, and more. Wow you really can't get that out of an audio cd, now lets look at the interactive version of an "R" rated movie, the "M" for mature rated video game. These "M" rated games are for audiences 17 and older and contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, and strong language. So after all that does a cd with a little bit of profanity in it sound so bad? At Walmart you must be 17 to buy "R" rated movies and "M" rated games, now why don't they just do the same for their music by putting an age restriction on cd's with questionable content? Instead Walmart carries "edited" copies of these cd's does this make sense? The song has a meaning to it, can you change its meaning just by taking out a few obscenities? No, and in my opinion that is damaging art it would be like editing a famous painting "just because you don't agree with what the artist painted". Walmart should either not sell cd's, video games, and movies with questionable content; or sell them all just put age restrictions on them.
There is a place for censorship, I think we just need to rethink what should be censored.

[The Dumpster Keeper]

psecody said:

I personally think that stores selling games of a violent nature should put an age restriction on it and then be done with it. In my opinion its the parents responsibility to keep track of their child. Now just for the heck of it I will post a chapter from a book that me and my friend are writing that has just our random thoughts and views on how things should be, hope you enjoy.

They already do. It's against the law for any store to sell an M-rated game to anyone under the age of 17. They are now required by law to check ID on persons that appear to be under 17, or they can go to jail, and face a fine of several thousand dollars.

[A.G.]

I'm not saying that a game causes the problem, but it adds to it. It makes kids oblivious to reality. If they go home and everday keep running over people, shooting them, or clubbing them to death in stunning realistic 3D imagery, that will make them jaded. Games like that do not teach restraint, they promote pure violence. It shows the kid that hey, not only is this OK, just look how COOL it is!

[Black Snake]

Well you do have a point AG, but the kid is still a numbnut for not knowing that violence in reality will cause an incedent, and the parents get the a-hole award for thinking that their little boy is fine, and he can't possibly be brainwashed.



Jesus that was long psecody. But a good explanation none the less.


I didn't mean for this to become a debate, I just wanted to show everyone that Jack Thompson got a kick in the nuts that was coming to him for a long time.

[Grey Fox]

Its obvious that the game designers are not purposefully promoting violence in children, like me. If they put an M rating on a game, it is not their job to monitor what kind of people are playing the games. All they should have to do is to restrict sales to minors. Then the parent must buy the game, therefore partly monitoring what thier kid sees. Its not like a maker of the video game is going to go to a kids house and tell him not to play a violent video game. Some people like violent video games, I for one do not care if it is violent or not. I can restrict myself from what I should and should not see. I was raised that way by my parents, not a designer of GTA. I control what I do, my guardians control what I should see, when precaution should be taken, not the chief staff of Bully. M rated games aren't made for immature Colombine shooters, they are made for mature minded thinkers. M=MATURE , for MATURE people.

[Black Snake]

Nicely said, Jonathan.

[Grey Fox]

Thanks Conehead. But honestly, its not like all hell would break loose. What can a company do about this problem? They don't control what or what doesn't happen. The only thing they could do is to pull the game out of existence. Then what will happen to the franchises? What about the companies who have invested in so many games that happen to be violent, yet still the most popular. Pulling a game won't do anything, because games have almost nothing to do with the current real world violence. That's like taking great violent movies out of the picture. Look at Scarface. Absolutely great movie. What if it was pulled? Because the "children" are copying it? How do most kids stop something bad? Parents. Parents restrict and punish the child. If it's anyone's fault, it is the parents of these retards who should be blamed, as Sessler said.

[Liquiduz]

Well I grew up playing violent games and watching violent movies, and am I a seriel killer or something? Ha! It's the parents' faults if the kid starts hitting people with bats after playing GTA. Is it so hard to look on the back of a game box and take a look at the rating? The damn "M" is huge! Not to mention it describes exactly why it's rated mature. I hate it when parents complain about these types of games, when they're the ignorants buying them for their children in order to please them.