Jack Thompson takes on Microsoft!

[Rostum]

He's at it again. (http://www.gamealmighty.com/story-individual/story/Jack_Thompson_Lays_His_Legal_Sites_on_Halo_3/)

Discuss.

Edit: A translation of his letter to Microsoft.

Dear Mr. Gates,

Please do the job of the parents/guardians of the kids who are playing Halo 3, and the job of the store clerks who sell the game, or I'll hold you legally accountable.

Regards,
Jack Thompson

[MecaKane]

"Lee Boyd Malvo trained on Microsoft’s Halo to further enable him to become the remarkably efficient “DC Beltway Sniper.” "?
Halo 2's aiming sucked, maybe he should've gotten a PC game to train on!

[Spammerman]

Has Jack Thompson ever won a case?

[Xurts]

That guy needs to be punched in the face repeatedly.

[Markus. D]

shhhh. It's comments like that that fuel his rage against gaming and gamers :333

[Skyblade]

Dear Mr. Thompson,

As you apparently don't know, the game rating system is simply a rating meant to assist people with judging the content of games. It has no legal backing, and, while I know you will be greatly disappointed to hear this, you can't sue people for anything related to it. There is no legal imperative to even submit a game for rating, let alone for the rating's age suggestions be enforced.

Please be kind enough to read what you write before you send it, sir. In your own words, he "trained" on the program. That means that he was not brainwashed or driven to kill by the games, he used the games to fuel his own insanity. Thus, had the game not been there, he would have trained in other ways, and would still have been just as dangerously psychotic. If anything, that is an argument to provide such excellent training tools to our soldiers and law enforcement officers, since it obviously provides such realistic simulations of violent situations.

Movies and books also transport people to a realistic world with rules different from the real world that all of us live in. Books have been around for centuries, many with violent content, yet despite that, there does not seem to be any connection between their violent content and a rise in the crime rate. In fact, literacy is more often associated with a more cultured level of society. Interesting how such a brilliant man as yourself is applying double standards to various media which has identical content.

Then perhaps you should be writing to parents and ask them not to let their children play it. Further, maybe you could try showing some actual documented evidence that supports a link between violent games and violent activity in children, versus the current indications that the rise of gaming has precipitated a drop in the current crime rate.

For someone whose profession is supposed to be the law, you seem to be remarkably lacking in knowledge of how it works. There is absolutely no legal position for your views. Before you engage in a lawsuit against a company who can afford actual lawyers who will take every cent you own, I suggest you review your legal manuals.

Disrespectfully yours,
Skyblade

[Elite Lord Sigma]

Dear Jack Thompson,

As you obviously don't know, you can't have any control over who buys a game, outside of your own children (who I would assume would be out in the real world by now, and are thus not under your control). Trying to ban games is censorship, which, according to the 1st Amendment, one of the very documents that frames America, is unconstitutional.

Funny how you vent so much anger on video games, yet you stay silent about films, books, and songs which usually contain even more potentially offensive content. Again, why bother trying to ban all of this media, when you really have no legal control over it?

Please stop wasting your time with asinine threats. You're already disliked enough by a majority of people, and you're attempting to take on one of the largest companies on Earth.

I'll make this brief. Before you begin pointing fingers, ask yourself: Does Microsoft have any control over who buys their games? No. Therefore, your entire argument is quite ludicrous.

Oh, by the way, I'd take a look at the ESRB's ratings guides and review your legal books first, so you don't make an even bigger fool of yourself in a court of law and get countersued for all it's worth.

And how are you complaining about a game that isn't even rated yet? Sure, it's likely it'll get an M, but the violent content in the game (outside of shooting guns) is really quite low, and there's is very little blood in the game.

So, again, why are you complaining?

Cynically yours,
Elite Lord Sigma


By the way, this (http://www.gamealmighty.com/story-individual/story/Jack_Thompson_Targets_Wendys_Due_to_Wii_Promotion/) is far more absurd.

[Discord]

That's the sort of guy that makes the parents in the outback think that gamers are all murderous spawns of Satan.:mad:

[Tavrobel]

I love this guy. He just that awesome, that he can fail so miserably and repeatedly. I didn't think people could fail this much, but once again, my faith in the human race has been shattered.

[bipper]

I love this guy. He just that awesome, that he can fail so miserably and repeatedly. I didn't think people could fail this much, but once again, my faith in the human race has been shattered.

You have yet to meet Dignified Pauper (http://forums.eyesonff.com/members/dignified%2Bpauper.html), don't you?

[Fonzie]

http://img361.imageshack.us/img361/8052/00265f9hxq9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[demondude]

jigglypuff hates jack thompson http://www.epinions.com/images/opti/42/c6/Disguise_Pokemon_Jigglypuff_Standard_Costume_Toys-resized200.jpg
prepare to die mr thompson

[Rostum]

By the way, this (http://www.gamealmighty.com/story-individual/story/Jack_Thompson_Targets_Wendys_Due_to_Wii_Promotion/) is far more absurd.

Oh. My. God.

[Fatal Impurity]

I've said it before and i'll say it again...this guy is nuts!

[Meat Puppet]

This man is a true champion of Justice.

[Tifa's Real Lover(really]

i loled at this
The hyperviolent Microsoft Xbox 360 game Halo 3 is scheduled by your company for commercial release in September of this year. The Beta version that was released last week shows us all just how violent the game is and how inappropriate it is for play by anyone under 17, as the “Mature” rating it will surely receive indicates

[Fatal Impurity]

Halo 3 hyperviolent! HA! Don't make me laugh! I think this guy needs to go take a look at F.E.A.R on the PC to see what real gore and death looks like!

[Discord]

On July 10, an extremely violent video game will be released for “play” on Nintendo’s kid-friendly Wii game platform. It is called Manhunt 2. It will feature, according to video game news sites, beheadings with hatchets, bludgeonings with baseball bats, the jamming of syringes into eyeballs, cutting opponents’ testicles off, and “environtmental [sic] kills” in which common objects in the field of vision, such as electrical cords to strangle victims. I attach news reports in these regards.



What makes this Nintendo Wii game all the more troubling is the nature of Wii platform itself. Instead of holding in one’s hand the typical game controller, the player holds motion capture devices, so that by moving one’s hands and limbs one is actually acting out with one’s own body the violent behavior.


Bah! Who needs a PS3. I'll get a Wii instead. Thanks Jack!

[Giga Guess]

On July 10, an extremely violent video game will be released for “play” on Nintendo’s kid-friendly Wii game platform. It is called Manhunt 2. It will feature, according to video game news sites, beheadings with hatchets, bludgeonings with baseball bats, the jamming of syringes into eyeballs, cutting opponents’ testicles off, and “environtmental [sic] kills” in which common objects in the field of vision, such as electrical cords to strangle victims. I attach news reports in these regards.



What makes this Nintendo Wii game all the more troubling is the nature of Wii platform itself. Instead of holding in one’s hand the typical game controller, the player holds motion capture devices, so that by moving one’s hands and limbs one is actually acting out with one’s own body the violent behavior.


Bah! Who needs a PS3. I'll get a Wii instead. Thanks Jack!

Yes...Super Paper Mario, Pokemon Revolutions...a slew of E-Rated games, but the presence of one game, that will creep in the houses at night, and infect the game system, as we all know that these games just happen...it's not like anyone buys them or anything, warrants that Wendy's shouldn't even consider promoting this vile, vile system.

Seriously, does this man do ANY homework before climbing up on his soapbox?

And as for why the people behind the counter don't enforce the ratings, has he had to face the wrath of an irate mother after her precious child has been told s/he cannot buy said game as s/he is not old enough. There people aren't paid enough to put up with that kind of abuse (Or more of it, anyways) so why would they even bother?

[Discord]

I just hope there'll be enough gore and sex in Wendy too!

[Ashley Schovitz]

Dear Mr. Thompson,

As you apparently don't know, the game rating system is simply a rating meant to assist people with judging the content of games. It has no legal backing, and, while I know you will be greatly disappointed to hear this, you can't sue people for anything related to it. There is no legal imperative to even submit a game for rating, let alone for the rating's age suggestions be enforced.

Please be kind enough to read what you write before you send it, sir. In your own words, he "trained" on the program. That means that he was not brainwashed or driven to kill by the games, he used the games to fuel his own insanity. Thus, had the game not been there, he would have trained in other ways, and would still have been just as dangerously psychotic. If anything, that is an argument to provide such excellent training tools to our soldiers and law enforcement officers, since it obviously provides such realistic simulations of violent situations.

Movies and books also transport people to a realistic world with rules different from the real world that all of us live in. Books have been around for centuries, many with violent content, yet despite that, there does not seem to be any connection between their violent content and a rise in the crime rate. In fact, literacy is more often associated with a more cultured level of society. Interesting how such a brilliant man as yourself is applying double standards to various media which has identical content.

Then perhaps you should be writing to parents and ask them not to let their children play it. Further, maybe you could try showing some actual documented evidence that supports a link between violent games and violent activity in children, versus the current indications that the rise of gaming has precipitated a drop in the current crime rate.

For someone whose profession is supposed to be the law, you seem to be remarkably lacking in knowledge of how it works. There is absolutely no legal position for your views. Before you engage in a lawsuit against a company who can afford actual lawyers who will take every cent you own, I suggest you review your legal manuals.

Disrespectfully yours,
Skyblade

Ohhh, Killt him!

[Discord]

Great guy:


[...]Mr. Gates, your company is potentially legally liable the harm done at Virginia Tech. Your game, a killing simulator, according to the news that used to be in the Post, trained him to enjoy killing and how to kill. You knew five years ago that your on-line game, Counterstrike, so clearly figured in the massacre by a student in Erfurt that the event and the game impacted the race for Chancellor in Germany at the time!

Yet, here you are, five years after "Erfurt," still marketing Counterstrike. having done nothing to disable the server(s) for this mass murder simulator, and it looks like "Virginia Tech" is a consequence. There’s more going on in the world than Vista. Just ask the bereaved Virginia Tech families.

Mr. Gates, pull the plug on Counterstrike today, or do we need more dead to convince you? "Virginia Tech" was the 9-11 of school shootings, and it appears Microsoft is in the middle of it, in more ways than one.

Regards, Jack Thompson



This is also pretty good though,


In October 2006, Thompson sent a letter to Midway Games, demanding they cease and desist selling the latest game in the Mortal Kombat series, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, claiming that the game was illegally profiting on his likeness, because gamers could use the Kreate a Fighter option to make a character who looked like Jack Thompson[76]. Midway has not ceased distribution of the game.

[Spammerman]

Halo 3 hyperviolent! HA! Don't make me laugh! I think this guy needs to go take a look at F.E.A.R on the PC to see what real gore and death looks like!

Yeah. Nothing like blowing bodies in half.

[demondude]

I'd laugh if he tried to take on super smash bros brawl if he did ass kickings would be in order:)

[bipper]

I agree. The first amendment is so over used.

[Spammerman]

I'd laugh if he tried to take on super smash bros brawl if he did ass kickings would be in order:)

Even more than that, lets see him try to take on Bible Games or something else like that.

[Peegee]

(12:22:45 PM) verbophobe@hotmail.com: Jesus christ, that guy has a definite bone to pick
(12:22:54 PM) verbophobe@hotmail.com: You'd think video games killed his parents
(12:22:58 PM) Peegee, I choose you! ~~ Zzzzzz: I think he should be assasinated
(12:23:07 PM) Peegee, I choose you! ~~ Zzzzzz: preferably in a humourous video game ish manner
(12:23:17 PM) Peegee, I choose you! ~~ Zzzzzz: I suggest sending a 12 foot tall italian plumber
(12:23:20 PM) Peegee, I choose you! ~~ Zzzzzz: to jump and land on him

[Fonzie]

(12:22:45 PM) verbophobe@hotmail.com: Jesus christ, that guy has a definite bone to pick
(12:22:54 PM) verbophobe@hotmail.com: You'd think video games killed his parents
(12:22:58 PM) Peegee, I choose you! ~~ Zzzzzz: I think he should be assasinated
(12:23:07 PM) Peegee, I choose you! ~~ Zzzzzz: preferably in a humourous video game ish manner
(12:23:17 PM) Peegee, I choose you! ~~ Zzzzzz: I suggest sending a 12 foot tall italian plumber
(12:23:20 PM) Peegee, I choose you! ~~ Zzzzzz: to jump and land on him

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/1177/pbf213mariotoorx1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

:cry:

[Spammerman]

Maybe his father was teh korean guy who died after like 3 straight days of games.

[Shoeberto]

Great guy:


[...]Mr. Gates, your company is potentially legally liable the harm done at Virginia Tech. Your game, a killing simulator, according to the news that used to be in the Post, trained him to enjoy killing and how to kill. You knew five years ago that your on-line game, Counterstrike, so clearly figured in the massacre by a student in Erfurt that the event and the game impacted the race for Chancellor in Germany at the time!

Yet, here you are, five years after "Erfurt," still marketing Counterstrike. having done nothing to disable the server(s) for this mass murder simulator, and it looks like "Virginia Tech" is a consequence. There’s more going on in the world than Vista. Just ask the bereaved Virginia Tech families.

Mr. Gates, pull the plug on Counterstrike today, or do we need more dead to convince you? "Virginia Tech" was the 9-11 of school shootings, and it appears Microsoft is in the middle of it, in more ways than one.

Regards, Jack Thompson


"Dear Dell: Doom 3 is on computers, and I don't like it. I know you made the game! Don't even lie to me. Take it off of all of the computers you've sold or I'll be real mad! :mad2:"

[Ouch!]

I was unaware that Jack was based in Coral Gables, Florida. This is an interesting development for me. I have family there, and I've been going there regularly for the past decade. Further, I will spend the next four years of my educational career at the University of Miami in Coral Gables.

I can only hope I will find a method by which I can locate Jack Thompson and give him as much hell as entirely possible. Glee.

[fantasyjunkie]

I would love to see him take on Microsoft and it's army of lawyers, especially when he has no legal basis in the first place. I would pay for tickets to this drama! :D

[Jessweeee♪]

Here's (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=10330) something you may find interesting. He sounds especially whiny in this one.


(<3 @ Skyblade's letter)

[KasaiDraco]

Jackass Thompson is THE reason why I can't play GTA even though I'm 16, almost 17. I've seen MUCH more violent and misogynist things in movies my dad would take me to see. I think it's lame. Sadly, my parents didn't even know it was him making the comments about the game, all they heard was his quotes.

[Bloodline666]

This is the rare situation where I'm GLAD Microsoft has the power it has. What Jack Thompson is engaging in is legal suicide.

[Giga Guess]

Here's (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=10330) something you may find interesting. He sounds especially whiny in this one.


(<3 @ Skyblade's letter)

QUICK! We must ban Barbies! We can't allow children to gaze upon an area where the no-no bits should be!

[CimminyCricket]

Agreed! Giga, my friend, let us (using only our ignorance about something we know nothing about) wage an all out war on Barbie, until of course she is put on the "Adult Only Isle".