News Jack Thompson already moaning about GTA IV

So what you're saying is that either this rating system is retarded, lawyers in America are retarded or both?

Why is he bothering Bill Gates? He doesn't have any thing to do with MS anymore...

 

Jack probably just does this to get his name out in the open. He isn't stupid. He is persistent though, which is a good trait in any lawyer. I'm sure there's plenty of people financing Jack. The time and money to fight the game industry has to come from somewhere.

Nothing's wrong with the rating system. It's a very good system that i've seen it first hand. Friend of mine paid 19g for a lawyer that was not rated and he still went to jail from drug charges.

Another friend of mine pulled a gun out on a college campus. He paid 10g for a BV rated lawyer and he got his charges reduced to a misdemeanor C, which means no time in jail and no record.

 

I still say that I agree with his beliefs, games with adult content must not be sold if the retailer/shop assistant knows that the game will be play by a minor.

Untill parents start to take responsibility for their little ****s that they bring up then its the best solution we have.

I know people are going to say "Well I played violent games when I was younger and it hasn't affected me" and so-on, but please hear me out.

Would you like you son/daughter to go out and drink when they are 14? Would you like them to have sex when underage? Would you like them to perform any illegal activity in real life?

If you answer "no" to any of the above, why would you let them do it in a video game, entertainment and media is now such a massive part of kids lives that it is becoming their new modern "parent" they listen to what TV tells them and believe it to be true.

I know that people are going to say again "It didn't affect me" but you were the norm and now you are becoming the minority, times change, people change, mentalities change, taboos change.

Please understand, I'm not trying to anger anyone but I don't feel that we should all say Jack Thompson is trying to hurt us. We have a perfectly legal system in the UK which works in a similar method to what Jack wants, but the difference is that Jack believes that unless a games rating system in enforced (the current one is just guidance) then the game should not be sold. Which again I agreee with.

I am not trying to flame or troll here, just state some points of my view

 

You're the exactly the type of person that Jack Thompson is marketing towards.

 

eh? So it didn't affect us but it WILL affect people now?

I do not agree with parents buying games with an adult theme for kids either, but as its their kids, not yours or mine, then its the parents decision. People like Jack who have knee jerk reactions and want to hit us all with censorship don't help anybody. I find that fact that you think a game should be banned because it MIGHT be seen by a child ridiculous tbh.

 

Everything always boils down to one question. Does violent video games create suicidal children? It certainly doesn't but the blame has to go somewhere. Give children something to live for and that should solve most of the problems.

Here's an example. These parents took away this childs single most valuable thing in life, his after school activities. If you take away what he was actually good at and leave him with what he hates, what do you get? Someone who has nothing to live for.
http://www.abcactionnews.com/stories/2006/12/061213teenshooting.shtml

 

Yes because of what I said before, the way people are being bought up is changing, the things that are communicated to us via media is different now then it was.

We do not know how the human mind works enought to be able to sort this out for definate though.


In the UK we have a perfectly workable rating system as I say which in the way you interpreted my post conforms to "censorship" because it is designed to not allow people to watch stuff or interact with stuff innapropriate for their age.

I'm not saying a game should be banned because a child may see it, I'm saying that unless a workable rating system like the UKs is in place in the US large problems will still occur.

Look at Iraq - a lot of comments that came out from that originally about the US army was that they were treating it like a computer game. Now are you telling me that a computer game did not affect those people to behave like that?
I know that I cannot prove that it did, but equally you cannot prove that it did not, and that is the stalemate. Neither can be proven.

 

I think DougEdey meant that it affects childrens minds more because they are more influenced by the media suffocating them these days (childs minds are easier to influence than adults, anyway). 15-20 years or so ago, it was nowhere near as bad, violent games weren't mainstream and weren't used as a tool of peer-pressure.

 

Thats exactly what I mean kenco, even Nintendo have used peer pressure advertising in the US to get people interested.

 

It's because Doug is right and despite Jack coming across like an evanglist nutcase who we all love to hate, he does make one point that I agree with: Adult games should be for ADULTS and should not be played by children. It works in this country: games are rated like DVDs, as you would expect. You don't allow children to watch violence and sex in a cinema or on DVD, so why are games any different. It's still a form of media.

Im not debating whether or not they are "murder simulators" or crap like that, it's the exposure of children to stuff you shouldn't subject them to until they are old enough. It does NOT boil down to "does seeing violence create violent kids" because children should be treated like children. They shouldn't even be exposed to it unless the parents think it's ok, then it's up to them to deal with the consequences of their actions in bringing up their kids, not the ****ing devs.

Banning games is just stupid: people should be allowed to play and see whatever they like as long as it doesn't directly hurt or affect other people. If ADULTS are predisposed to doing something stupid it could be any number of things to set them off.

 

This is nothing new.

Years ago it was people like Jack trying to ban horror films, and all that has happened is its taken the attention from the Movie industry to the Gaming Industry. Its like the games industry is the in thing and new fashion for people to blame for children going crazy and killing people and what ever.

They have tried to blame movies, music and games now for children turning out bad. whats next when they are bored blaming games???? Blame Books or newspapers and ban them??? Nah they cant promoted the evils kids learn and try out, surely.

 

err...Step back and take a minute to think about the big picture. What is the point of banning adult videogames from children? If the question isn't, "violent games creates violent kids" then what is the whole point of a violent videogame ban?

 

Wrong question. The question is: Do violent games create violent children?

Additionally, if the "single most valuable thing in life" for a child is their "after school activities" (in this case video games - essentially an escapist activity) then there's something seriously wrong with that child's life.

@ DougEdey post # 24

 

Violent/Suicidal...same thing in the respect that high school teens go on a "suicidal" mission to kill everyone at their highschool.

 

There's nothing wrong with someone wanting to play a game or two to escape from the worries of life.
And where's the evidence that games are the one thing Children crave? I absolutely love Dystopia and I have for a while, but it ain't the thing I want to do the most after a hard day of science, science and yet more science.

You can say i've been brought up on games (I'm not a gamer though). Half-Life 1, Deus Ex, Doom, etc. have all been a small part of my Childhood, and I'm not some crazed lunatic who spends all day in a dark room fragging or all day crowbarring people to death.

 

You, sir, are a complete tool.

At the end of the day, in this day in age it's nigh impossible to enforce mainstream laws, let alone 'triviality' of a law about the age at which a person can buy/watch a game/dvd.

I could sit here and rant my views in a half-hour, essay based post. But I have GTA and a playstation doing sod all.

 

Please don't insult people in your first post, it makes people angry.

 

You insult Joe Public, thus I insult you!

Tis a fair swap, ses I!

 

I did not insult Joe Public. It is a well known fact that people are bought up by whatever they interpret as being a role model. Hence why ducklings take their "mother" as the first thing they see, why a kitten can take a dog as a parent.

Why do you think people grow up differently? Where do you think class divides come from? Genetic memory?

 

So: Martyn83 plays GTA and his first post here starts with verbal abuse - hmm, not making a good case there Martyn83. Try a slightly more reasoned, less hostile, approach.

If you have something valuable to say we will listen but if you are only here to insult then go away - We don't need trolls here.