Jack Thompson vs. Microsoft

Kon-Tiki · Post by **Kon-Tiki** » Fri May 25, 2007 10:05 am 0

Link
That guy simply doesn't know when to stop

MadHippo · Post by **MadHippo** » Fri May 25, 2007 10:12 am 0

This should be interesting.

chub · Post by **chub** » Fri May 25, 2007 10:26 am 0

Halo 3 is not just violent, it's "hyperviolent" according to Jack's letter.

darkladywolf · Post by **darkladywolf** » Fri May 25, 2007 10:29 am 0

How on earth does one train to be a better shooter with a gamepad?

HGFB · Post by **HGFB** » Fri May 25, 2007 10:31 am 0

That's violence turned up to 11. It's 1 harder.

Mr Dom · Post by **Mr Dom** » Fri May 25, 2007 10:37 am 0

Well except for the slight loony bias JT always slips in, he has a decent point.

Mature (18) games SHOULD NOT be sold to kids.
Ive been in the queue in game and watched parents buy GTA for their 10 year old sons, had the sales person ask them if they are sure and do they understand it is an 18 game, and the parents just get narky and say 'look, he wants it so Im buying it'.
Makes me wonder if it was a video shop and little johnny asked his mum to buy 'Hardcore Donkey Pr0n 3, Even More Ass' whether they would be quite as happy...

I would like to see parents who buy 18 rated games for their kids prosecuted - a couple of them get a hefty fine and people will start to realise that an 18 rated game means it contains sex & violence just like an 18 rated film.

Bubba · Post by **Bubba** » Fri May 25, 2007 10:38 am 0

God, it's really pushing it, isn't it

In a "you're completely wrong you moron" kind of way I can understand him going after counterstrike and the likes, even if I think he's a complete and utter cunt. But halo is clearly a work of fantasy - you're either shooting at aliens or spartans, neither of which are human, or act like humans.

Oh well, this should be interesting for at least three minutes until he's killed by an angry mob of Halo fans who've trained for *years* on this simulator of death. Is it possible to file lawsuits from beyond the grave?

Cheers

Bubba

Kon-Tiki · Post by **Kon-Tiki** » Fri May 25, 2007 10:45 am 0

Mr Dom wrote:Well except for the slight loony bias JT always slips in, he has a decent point.

Mature (18) games SHOULD NOT be sold to kids.
Ive been in the queue in game and watched parents buy GTA for their 10 year old sons, had the sales person ask them if they are sure and do they understand it is an 18 game, and the parents just get narky and say 'look, he wants it so Im buying it'.
Makes me wonder if it was a video shop and little johnny asked his mum to buy 'Hardcore Donkey Pr0n 3, Even More Ass' whether they would be quite as happy...

I would like to see parents who buy 18 rated games for their kids prosecuted - a couple of them get a hefty fine and people will start to realise that an 18 rated game means it contains sex & violence just like an 18 rated film.

Aren't they usually labeled "Parental advisory" as well? In that case, if the parent agrees to it, it's ok.

Also, in your example, the parent is past 18 (unless it's a VERY young teen parent, already having a kid that's old enough to play videogames like Halo consciously, but they themselves not being 18 yet), and they're taking the game to the counter and paying for it, so technically, it's the parent who buys it, not the kid

Bubba · Post by **Bubba** » Fri May 25, 2007 10:45 am 0

Mr Dom wrote:Well except for the slight loony bias JT always slips in, he has a decent point.

Here, maybe. In America, no

. America has an incredibly relaxed culture to violence. Maybe they should look to change that, but the acts of JT really aren't going to help...

What's more interesting is your "Sue the parents" line of thinking. What makes a video game any more special than a movie? I'd say it's up to parents to be more aware of what they're buying for their children. I got my dad to buy me the original GTA on the PC when it first came out (many years before I was 18 ). It was great fun, played it through many times. Same with all the subsequent GTAs (athough San An / Vice City I bought myself). Yet now I drive a car I don't have the overwhelming urge to run people over. Or jump out and shoot rockets at other cars. For every nut job who shoots up his school there are 1000 other kids who realise that while yelling over voice chat in counter strike and shooting people through the face are fun, they belong in video games not in the classroom.

Cheers

Bubba

teamonkey · Post by **teamonkey** » Fri May 25, 2007 10:51 am 0

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=76897

Kamineko · Post by **Kamineko** » Fri May 25, 2007 11:07 am 0

chub wrote:Halo 3 is not just violent, it's "hyperviolent" according to Jack's letter.

Is that more or less violent than 'ultraviolent'?

Flabio · Post by **Flabio** » Fri May 25, 2007 11:08 am 0

The difference is, if it has a BBFC 18 on it and you sell it to a minor, you're breaking the law and can in theory be prosecuted. But in the states, they tend to view such things as unconstitutional censorship, so any rating is only a guideline.

Until they're willing to have legally enforceable age ratings on something, then they're going to be looking for other, more insane, solutions to the problem.

RageMatrix · Post by **RageMatrix** » Fri May 25, 2007 11:11 am 0

darkladywolf wrote:How on earth does one train to be a better shooter with a gamepad?

By ignoring the reality that doesn't gell with your particular vendetta

Jamesac · Post by **Jamesac** » Fri May 25, 2007 11:32 am 0

Legally enforcable ratings suck. Get them the hell away from my country. We've had a lot of shit go wrong the last 8 years but I'd like at least one thing to stay right.

Right now, most stores have a policy against selling M games to kids. Yeah, some places break it, but getting stuff you shouldn't is part of the fun of being a kid. I was there, I remember that particular detail.

I'll grant that parents shouldn't be buying GTA for the kids, but making it illegal for kids to buy the games isn't going to change that. Will making it illegal for kids to play M games be more effective? Will arresting and fining parents when their kids play the M games help anything?

That's not a ridiculous extreme, by the way, just the next logical step. Legally enforcing ratings at the counter will have zero effect on kids getting the M games. Seriously, no effect at all. When this becomes obvious within the first five seconds of passing, the anti-M crowd won't snap their fingers and say "Shucks, we tried." Nope, they've got an agenda and kids and M games is just the sugar-coating they're using now. Or did it fail to escape people's notice that the first thing the Jack Thompsons of the world did was point the finger at violent video games despite Seung-Hui Cho being 23. That means he would have been legally able to buy them for five years, if it wasn't for the fact that he didn't actually care about gaming.

I don't want my country to become Germany. I want to be able to buy Dead Rising, and the legal rating people don't want it to exist. They haven't proven that legally-enforced ratings will prevent anything, but they have shown themselves to be utter cunts interested in nothing but control.

James

Ratsoap · Post by **Ratsoap** » Fri May 25, 2007 11:40 am 0

Wait, no legally enforcable ratings in the US? Does that mean little kids can buy pron? Cool.