I am about to send an email to Jack Thompson (website), who is responsible for changing the rating on GTA:SA, and is now trying to ban The Sims 2. I am posting it here so that the community can proof read it and give some suggestions for things to include. If you want to send your own email, his address is jackpeace@comcast.net. Here is the letter: Please either respond to this thread with corrections and ideas or send me an email. [edit]Should I include a link to the Maddox article concerning this issue?[/edit] [edit]Maybe the Penny Arcade thing too?[/edit]
Dear Mr. Thompson, I am a 17 year old gamer who enjoys a good variety of games. While the Grand Theft Auto series, which you are so adament about, are not games that I enjoy, your targeting of San Andreas, and more recently, The Sims 2, are absolutely absurd. The content that you argue so heavily against is not, and I emphasize, NOT, normally accessible unless extensive action is taken on the part of the end user even for Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. It was the action of end users to put the content youre against into the forefront; it has always been the end user's choice what they do with a game, and forcing a company to change its ratings because of changes made to the retail version of the game are absolutely rediculous. But what is even more absurd are your objections to The Sims 2. Saying that The Sims 2 should have a mature rating because of it's editing capabilities is absurd. Why not rate a blank canvas X? Who knows what offensive things might be put on it? One of the reasons the Sims 2 is a good game is because of the way you can make modifications to personalize the gameplay. Not that I approve of adding genitalia to Sims, but as the game is sold, there is no need to put a mature or adults only rating on it because someone decided to make extensive changes to the game's original content. If you don't want those things, or have your children to download that type of modification, then block those kind of sites from your computer yourself, and dont force your personal views upon millions of others. Electronic Arts didnt create The Sims 2 to give people the opportunity to make it Pornographic for users and escape with a T rating. They made it to give people to make a social and architectural simulation game with customizeability for the people to enjoy. What people choose to do with it is up to them. A company should NOT be held responsible for the content created by third party individuals. We live in a country called America, and we have a little thing called the Bill of Rights, including such things as freedom of expression and speech. Its time to get off your Soap Box preaching about claimed corruption and violence induced by video games. If you payed any attention to such things as statistics, people have been killing each other since Cain and Abel, and in this nation, things have actually gotten better in the last two decades, despite these "evil things" called video games. I hope you take these things into perspective before screaming about the horrors of consensual sex and the organs of the human body. Sincerely, Avery Powers P.S. http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=ticket_to_hell
I think for 15 and 17 year olds you have too much time on your hands but, my, you writing prowess is great!
whoa people slow down. he wants Sims 2 banned. you know like banned , taken from the shops and burnt in the desert. thats a really really good thing.
hi, did you know if anyone want to play a game then they nearly always can so stop wasting your time and my time and... ^this is pretty much true but put it in a different way what is wrong with sex, its human nature and by 16 anyway people can leagly choose weather they are mature enough to have sex or something.... it's all down to 3rd party the creators didn't do it, hax and mods did use and example. e.g so because someone ran someone over someone with a nissan car then nissan cars should be banned or because someone spraypainted *** on a building it's the manufacturers fault for missuse these are oviously realy crap examples
I don't really think he gives a ****** about what 15-17 year old gamers think. Starting your letters by saying that's what you are is a great way to make him not read them. But good luck with it, I applaud your motivation.
Maybe someone should tell him he only makes the games more popular by giving them more media attention, I haven't seen the hot coffee mod but if I want to the only way I would have found out about it is through this guy in the media. There is no way he could win, i mean staticically there are 1 in every 100,000 who are mentally unstable. some online games have over a million people playing. so thats at least 10 people who might do something with a condition who might play the game and "take it to another level" (no pun intended). I don't think a game could be a cause but it might bring out underlying conditions some people might already have. Still thats a very small minority and they would prob do what the do any way. So why should the majority be affected.
Before long we will have to be at least 18 before we can go outside. From the moment we are born, until our 18th birthday we will live in a large white room. Then finally we will be let out into the satanic world, surrounded by the evils of BREASTS. In the near future: No condoms, as they promote SEX. THE HORROR. Page 3 to become page 7, because its harder to find. You cannot see a person of the opposite sex until you're 18. No TV until you're 18. No internet until you're 18. Coconuts, melons, banannas, nuts, and oranges are to be blendered before put in the public's view.
I read this man's website and it is the purest, most concentrated madness since I listened to the paranoid rantings of a schizophrenic with delusions of persecution. They're out to get us, man!... I think that writing to this man just gives him the credibility and attention he so doesn't deserve. Moreover like most people with paranoid delusions, he will not listen. If anything, arguing with him will reinforce his beliefs. Just set Net Nanny to keep your kids away from his website. Harmful influence.
Mushky, I told him my age, and the fact that I play lots of games, so that he could understand who is effected by his (attempted) changes. I do realize that he may put this off because I am not old enough to buy the games, but the doesn't seem like a good reason. Piratetaco, if you don't like the game, don't buy it. This issue is more about censorship than it is about game quality. Kickarse, what else should I do with my time? Summer is wrapping up and school starts in three weeks, so I thought that I should spend my remaining time doing something remotely useful. Anyways, if you want to support this cause - fighting against Jack Thompson - send him an email. He might not listen to one teenage gamer, but a forum full of them might make a little bigger impact.
Nexxo, The problem when you leave an idiot like this alone is that he finds converts. And on high in the political ivory tower (who love to listen to lawyers, who know the answer to life, the universe, and everything), converts are a-plenty when it comes to 'protecting' our youth from 'the dangers' of 'sex, drugs, and rock & roll.' Now, we'll add video games to that list. However, dear writers: He's an ATTORNEY. That means that he will stand by whatever position he's paid to...and the far right will have him all wrapped up. The very fact that you're underage for the target game will tell him that these controls NEED to be implemented, and that other games need to be banned as well (Like CS:S). Because, clearly, you can't tell how warped these things have made you, and he and his values need to protect you. And I could write to him, as a person who does not want him controlling the content that *I* choose to buy for myself and my future children, as I am a card-carrying over 21 white male. And he will say that if I were to not want the same thing he does, then obviously I am sickly depraved and want the youth of our nation to grow up with indifference towards death, a penchant for drugs and trouble, and the belief that even blacks and muslims have feelings. And that is just sick, clearly...and so he needs to make sure someone like me doesn't have the option to expose more youth to this sick culture. The point is, anything you say to him rationalizes his view further. No matter what, no matter who. A forum full of teenage gamers is going to tell him simply that this problem is wider spread. Once someone so megalomaniacal absorbs such a myopic view, it is nearly impossible to dislodge. Rather than preaching to him, you have to find his converts and talk some sense into them...because he is about useless. I applaud your efforts, but you need to refocus them to a different target. Erode his support base by talking to your church groups, youth leadership, stuff like that...
The only problem with your approach, Da Dego, is that it isn't powerful enough. Even if I convinced every person in the town that I live in that games are not harmful to children and do not cause homicidal tendancies, it wouldn't matter. GameStop would still restrict "under-age" purchases and nothing would have changed. I might also consider writing my state senator, or someone else in power. People in Washington D.C. need to understand what the issue is, not what the media portrays it as.
@hacker 8991, Your local groups can help a lot more than you think. They elect the people who represent you. Talking to them can help put a greater change in motion than writing to the people who are supposed to make the change. Stores listen to purchases, and the only thing that stops purchases and freedoms is the government. The way you stop a right-wing wingnut is to give everyone who would *want* to agree with him a better, more logical perspective. These people then prevent other people who would listen to him from being elected. A lawmaker doesn't give a rip about censorship or not, it's all about how he can spin either position. It's all about raising issues with the people who the issues affect...the grass roots is where to start anything.
Guys you know Nexxo is a shrink right? Now whilst you might question his compitence, he's probably right when he says that this guy will take your attention as re-enforcement. This is real textbook stuff. Now if you really want to help. luer him to london, convert him to islam, and dress him with a rucksack, and send him to the tube station, telling him to jump a ticket barrier, and run towards a tube station, screaming something about alah.
Typo Yeah, I know that he is a shrink (I read it in another thread, I think). At any rate, my letter will probably be ignored anyways.
On the same note, anyone hear about the old dear over in the US that is now trying to sue Rockstar/Take Two because she bought GTA for her 14 year old grand son! Dear God, what is the world coming to?
