I… simply don’t know what to say. How can he assume such vile things about the video-gaming community?
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/04/jack-thompson-p.html
The juicy quotes from this letter from Jack to Strauss Zelnick, the producer for Grand Theft Auto IV. Jack has been prohibited by the court from contacting Take Two directly, so sent it to Zelnick’s lawyer…
Dear Mrs. Zelnick:
Your son, as you may know (or maybe you don’t know), is Chairman of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., whose most popular video games are the Grand Theft Auto murder simulator games banned in some countries but sold to children here…
…Experts note that the recent plethora of cop killings is caused in part by your darling son’s entrepreneurial energy. There are three policemen dead in Alabama because of Grand Theft Auto…
…Is there a Ted Bundy merit badge? If so, your loving son deserves one now…
…Maybe you, Mrs. Zelnick, were so taken by your handsome son that you spared the rod and spoiled the child. That would explain why he has brought you, by the way he presently acts, “to shame.”…
…Your son, this very moment, is doing everything he possibly can to sell as many copies of GTA IV to teen boys in the United States, a country in which your son claims you raised him to be “a Boy Scout.” More like the Hitler Youth, I would say…
This man is sociopathic. Write a letter to the mother of a computer game developer, blaming her for the murder of cops in Alabama?
Shame on you, Jack. Grand Theft Auto IV may be violent, bloody, and not something a socially responsible parent wants their child to play, but you made it personal.
Disagree with the Method, but Agree with the Message
One point first: he addressed it to the mother, but sent it to the lawyer. So that makes it seem to me more of a publicity stunt than a personal attack.
Second point: I know nothing of Jack Thompson. He might be a right-wing nut job. I wrote a blog about a piece written by Ann Coulter once, not knowing her history, so I want to caveat this post by saying I know nothing about Jack.
That being said, he has a point, although he goes around it the wrong way (if you’re looking for the decent way to do it. If you’re looking for the most sensational way to do it, he hit it on the head).
In a perfect world, parents wouldn’t let their kids play this type of game, or at least would sit down with them while they played it to underscore the fictional aspect of it. However, we don’t live in a perfect world, and young children are playing this unsupervised. I don’t think a normal child would confuse this with reality, but at what point does the chance that some child with a predilection for mental illness plays this and get the idea to shoot a cop outweigh the rights of people to make their own choices?
Never? After 10 occurrences? 100? 1000?
America is anal about sex, but violence seems to be okay. Then they wonder why YouTube videos of kids beating each other start spreading. Should Take-Two have the right to sell GTA-IV? Sure. But it should be hard as hell for anyone under 18 to play it. That includes both parents and retailers blocking efforts to obtain it. Just because some parents have abdicated their responsibilities to prevent (and protect) their kids from this type of game doesn’t mean the retailers can just open the floodgates so they can reap the financial rewards.
Take Jack Thompson out of the picture. Suppose this letter had been written by the mother of a slain cop, or the girl who just got beat on YouTube, or even one of the many teachers here in Maryland who are getting attacked. If it was mother to mother, does that then justify the message?
I struggle with my belief that government shouldn’t interfere with my right to make any choice that I want with the failure of parents to take an active part in raising their children with common decency. I just know that my child won’t be playing GTA IV, V, or XXVI anytime soon. I just hope he never runs into the kid who does play it and can’t make the distinction between game and reality.
My $.02 Weed
Interestingly enough, a lot
Interestingly enough, a lot of the strongest advocates for video games completely agree with you, Weed, about the necessity for making games like GTA hard as hell for minors to buy.
Especially with the recent rise in enforcing the ‘R’ rating for movies, hopefully we’ll see a rise in the enforcement of video game ratings as well.
That being said, Jack Thomson does indeed have a long and sordid history with this issue. Possibly my favorite incident occurred a few years ago, in which Mr. Thomson, styling himself a modern day Jonathan Swift, put forth his own ‘Modest Proposal:’
If someone ever designed a game with this plot — a father, grieving over the death of his son because of a driveby shooting inspired by violent video games, goes on a rampant killing spree, murdering as many game designers as possible in horrifically gruesome ways — then Mr. Thomson said he would give $10,000 to the charity of the designer’s choice.
Two weeks later, an indy had designed exactly that game and released it as online freeware. When asked whether he’d actualy pay up, Mr. Thomson said that the designer clearly did not understand the finer points of ‘satire.’
But the true fantastic ending to ths story is that the boys over at Penny Arcade, who have had their own run-ins with Mr. Thomson in the past (as they are arguably the most powerful video game apolgists and critics out there right now), decided that rather than deny some charity $10,000, they would donate the money themselves. And the best part was, they did it in Jack Thomson’s name. It was written on the check and everything.
A little grandstandy? Sure. But it was like they were telling Mr. Thomson ‘If you’re going to showboat, this is how you do it with class.’
Ratings
And that’s where the self-policing falls down. Movie theaters, thirty years after the creation of rating standards, are just now starting to police themselves. The ESRB has been around for 10 years now, and is nearly to where the MPAA is as far as rating many games.
But, like the MPAA, there are a plethora of titles which opt not to get a rating, for any of a number of reasons: financial, practical, or idealistic.
I think Jack’s goal is to get the USA to follow the path of less freedom-loving nations by banning all materials from the country which don’t agree with his religious outlook. Although I personally prefer not to view those materials, banning something in the name of religious standards in the Land of the Free would be a horrible mistake.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
On the other hand..
If I were caught allowing 10 year olds to watch Porn in my house and with my knowledge, I would go to Jail.
GTA should be treated the same way.
(Weed said “Anal about Sex”)
Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com
There are plenty of violent
There are plenty of violent media-items in the world that kids shouldn’t be playing with / viewing. But I don’t see why that means blame should go to the designer.
All this focus on Grand Theft Auto and video games as if they’re _unique_ on this front strikes me as a parental cop-out. Much easier to always blame external forces.
Of course, people used to panic about comic books depicting monsters and space aliens, too.
A Century of Downfall
If you believed all the doom-sayers…
In the 1900s, the Mormons took over the US government after the Reed Smoot trial, and made polygamy mandatory for every male age fourteen or higher in the country.
In the 1910s, the growing anti-child-labor and labor-union movements made it impossible for US companies to make a profit anymore, so they closed up shop and caused the Great Depression.
In the 1920s, Jazz music and speakeasies created a generation of lawbreakers who helped the Italian mafia to take over the US Government and pass legislation mandating short-skirted Flapper costumes for women in all nightclubs. The Scopes trial sustained that teaching evolution was illegal in Tennessee, and as a result child atheists organized protest marches in their Atheist churches, overthrowing the Italian Mafia government and forcing God out of the government at gunpoint. God was not amused, and set up a shadow government in Korea to plan his revenge.
In the 1930s, repeal of Prohibition led to a nation composed exclusively of wife-beating, underage, jobless drunk atheist polygamists and their Flapper-costumed wives.
In the 1940s, Communist atheist polygamist spies took over most of the world and dropped The Bomb on every small farm town in America shortly after the end of World War II. Some of the children survived by crawling under their schooldesks.
In the 1950s, Rock And Roll poisoned the nation’s youth, causing them to have premarital sex in record numbers, making up for the lost lives due to The Bomb in the forties. All atheists were forced into foxholes in the Korean War, and as a result there were no more atheists in foxholes. His grand plan realized, God left Sun Myung Moon in charge in Korea and took a long-needed vacation.
In the 1960s, racial tension caused the Apocalypse and Jesus returned in His righteous wrath to destroy every integrated soda fountain and multi-racial restroom in America. He eventually got bored and went home to Jackson County, Missouri with a vacation home in the shattered remains of Israel. John F. Kennedy was elected, and invited the Pope to live with him in the White House. The Pope accepted, and converted the whole USA to Catholicism while brokering a deal with Moon to take over Asia in exchange for cheap child labor.
In the 1970s, long-haired peace-loving hippies and militant black vigilante groups toppled the Federal Government together, and used the heads of former leaders as grotesque bobble-head decorations on their communal tractor hoods and low-rider Chevrolet El Camino dashboards. The Pope narrowly escaped the slaughter, and took his revenge by financing the rise of Disco, pet rocks, and bell-bottoms. The Moonies took advantage of his distraction and took over the world by selling Moon Pies.
In the 1980s, Dungeons and Dragons corrupted the children and created a generation of Satanists who sacrificed every house pet in the US to their demonic ruler. The ensuing shortage of house cats put most Chinese restaurants out of business, leading Americans to let their children play in HIV-laden needle and snake-infested McDonald’s PlayPlace ball pits.
In the 1990s, the Internet created a generation of sociopathic lawbreakers through Napster, chat rooms, and indecent material. An entire generation of teenage males never left their houses upon turning 13, and died buried in pizza boxes, external hard drives, and soiled Kleenex remains. This did, however, serve to help preserve the appropriate male-female ratio for underaged polygamists, and the remaining survivors financed their living by forwarding emails from Bill Gates who sent them $300 per email.
In the early 2000s, violent video game “murder simulators” created gangs of bloodthirsty teens who killed without mercy, making US streets unsafe for travel and eliminating commerce among the few remaining corporations that survived the child-labor laws and Chinese Restaurant Industry collapse.
And Fundamentalist Mormons reasserted their control over the government, imprisoning every non-polygamist child until their parents married multiple partners.
And gays forced all the straight people to marry farm animals if they wouldn’t convert to gay-ism.
Yeah, these video games have ruined the nation all right.
—
Matthew P. Barnson
A point
Yes, as a parent the responsibility for making sure my children don’t play this type of game falls upon me. However, what if a parent is negligent is that duty? Do we wait and hope that the kid turns out okay? I doubt GTA by itself will make kid go shoot a cop, but if a parent isn’t watching what video games the kid plays, what else aren’t they paying attention to…?
I am a small-gov’t proponent. I think the less gov’t is involved, the better. But where I do think gov’t should be involved is protecting the people from corporations. GTA should be able to produce this game and make money. However, not one dime should be garnered by selling it to children.
But the problem is that the only entities capable of enforcing this are the retailers, who are out to make a buck. Since there’s no repercussions for selling this game to minors, why not make some more $$$.
The other entity is the parent, and we’re back to square one.
So the only option I see (unless there’s another?), is to police the retailers like they’ve started policing the movie theaters.
I know the kids are downloading hacked versions online anyway, but you do what you can. Perversly, I feel better about a kid pirating a game they’re not old enough to play versus the game makers profiting from selling the kid a game they’re not old enough to play.
Sorta like it’s expected for little boys to sneak looks at a Playboy, but if dad just lets ’em look at it, that seems wrong.
The best option would be for mom and dad to both sit down and look at the Playboy/play GTA with them and explain what’s going on. It would be uncomfortable, but you signed up for this when you became a parent.
My $.02 Weed
Playboy
My first exposure to Playboy was at age 15, when Ben’s dad finished reading it and handed it to Ben — then age 14 — to read 🙂 Ben shared.
Ben’s dad is the coolest Dad EVER!
—
Matthew P. Barnson
devil’s advocate
Late to the thread, sorry.
I have no problem with government intervention to stop people from “training” to commit crimes. If people want to make adult games that don’t involve violence, that’s obviously different (because it could involve consenting parties), but in this case you’re fantasizing about hurting other people. Not space aliens or opposing soldiers, even, just folks like you see every day.
I don’t think only kids should be protected from this. What if they had an “office slaughter” game where you could submit pictures of actual coworkers to make it more lifelike? A game where you use GBH to rape college girls at frat parties? How about a game that simulated wire fraud ideas in ways you could actually apply? Or how about a “rape the elementary school kids” game? Hey, no harm right–jus’ playin’. No, I think simulating immoral behavior is a bad idea, unless it’s to teach the lesson that bad things will result. In these games I assume you’re rewarded for antisocial behavior.
Note there is no religious aspect to this…just humanist morality (do not defraud or harm others unless in defense) and a commitment to saying, “Our society values morality and will not tolerate counter-advocates.” There aren’t many things like that, but we certainly don’t allow threats or incitement to violence under the guise of free speech.
mute shock
I’m sorry… I think I had a massive neural meltdown as soon as I got to “I have no problem with government intervention…” 😛
That’s actually an interesting argument, that a violent video game could be considered an “incitement to violence,” and therefore not fall under protected Free Speech.
I think it begs the age old question (well, by ages old I mean since the dawn of Nintendo) whether violent video games make us more prone to violence or rather act as a form of catharsis, purging our more violent tendencies.
Speaking as an actor, I can say from personal experience that actually playing an evil character on stage or film (or say, running someone through with a sword on stage) is in an incredibely liberating feeling. Everyone has to deal with build ups of anger or stress, and having the chance to scream bloody murder on stage at someone genuinely does reduce the likelihood I’ll actually do it in real life.
I’d say there are many, many methods of role-playing negative and immoral tendencies that reduce the need for such actions in real life.
However, I don’t believe this to be the case with video games, for the simple reason that they’re (ironically) not yet lifelike *enough*. Forget graphics, I’m talking about the actual bodily experience. If I have the chance to ‘punch’ someone in the face on stage or let out my character’s rage through a rant that makes some other character cry, that’s catharitc. But I don’t get that same kind of cathartic release from just pressing a button that tells on on-screen character to punch or screen.
Don’t quote me
Yes, that was a very hard sentence to type indeed. But I thought I’d put it out there lest someone ever accuse me of being an irrational zealot!
Thought-provoking response, by the way. I don’t have strong opinions and I haven’t read any of the studies on VG’s and violence but I’m sure they’re collectively inconclusive. I just think about how the military and police forces regularly use simulations to practice for the real thing. Seems to dehumanize others, too.
Military Application
Combat simulations for the military are part skills readiness and part psychological habituation. “When somebody is shooting at you, you are going to shoot back” is the surface statement everyone in the military provides when asked how they deal with the realization that they’re shooting took a human life. The reality is that the consistent and persistent training is to numb soldier senses to the horror of killing and make live combat situations a technical, professional action. This is why soldiers who have spent years training consider live combat an execution of their professional training in a live environment.
I’m not writing whether this is good or bad, I’m just writing this is how it is.
Now, the good news is that when it comes to video games, each player should (hopefully!) recognize the death-and-kill games as a fantasy. Similar to the stage acting. It’s a role play. They’re not training for the real thing. This would normally lead people to think that violent video games aren’t truly a virtual appetizer for a real-life main course.
But man, when we were teenagers, the games were larger puzzle and conquest scenario games in which fighting and death aspects weren’t glorified or gorified, but obstacles to overcome with strategy. The games I’m seeing today are just basic monkey kill games that have everything to do with reaction and release and nothing to do with any problem-solving. It’s pretty sick.
Good old puzzle games
The pendulum is starting to swing back, thankfully… Nintendo has been dominating the market with the Wii, and a lot of those games are very brain-engaging and ‘family friendly.’ Not to mention the Nintendo DS, which is owning the handheld game market right now. They’ve got stuff like “Brain Age” and “Big Brain Academy,” I think one called “Flash Focus” which is supposed to improve your perception skills… there’s even one in the works that’s supposed to help you quit smoking.
Yeah, we’ve still got a lot of Grand Theft Autos and the equivalent out there, but I expect that percentage to drop over the next few years. At the end of the day, mindless violence is… well, boring. Probably because it’s mindless. Deep down, I think most of us enjoy games a lot more when they engage our brain in new and creative ways, even if we don’t realize it consciously.
Gangsta..
I enjoy my share of Eminem, Dre, and the rest of that crew.. but I have to admit (shifting the tone to music) that it scares me to think about teenager driving all day listening to music about randomly killing and raping people. Same songs.. over.. and over.. again… Sure.. to 99.9% of people it is harmless.. but that last person might just have a gun and a bad day.
Look, there’s no question that media affects us. Girls’ body image are affected by models, Music and Movie stars have people flock to them , like it or not. I fear that Music and Games that spend hours upon hours upon hours inching into the psyche of children (who are, by their nature, designed to have impressions placed upon them) and do so by allowing them to be externally flash-exposed to them like Malcom McDowell in Clockwork Orange – it is a recipe for badness.
Visit the Official Justin Timpane Website Music, Acting, and More! http://www.timpane.com