I don't want him to be locked up. It'll either fuel is fire ("everyone here played videogames...") or he'll be replaced by someone reasonably intelligent. His arguments aren't completely baseless, but he is so extreme in his delivery and conclusions of the arguments that he's not taken seriously (nor should he be).

If we had someone with actual decorum, and self control doing the fighting then the whole issue regarding sales/creation of video games might be very different than it is now.

 

Let's not let this veer into any religious or political discussion. Please keep this topic about the possible case itself. Thanks.

 

Frankly I do agree that GTA and such should not be played by kids, but I think it is up to the parents... but the problem is the parents are just stupid and lazy.

 

I love this man! Greatest entertainment on the planet right now.

*Grabs some popcorn*

 

The whole situation is just nuts. And Jack keeps raising the bar.

 

QFT.

This is exactly why I dislike Jack Thompson. He seems to feel that videogame companies should do people's babysitting for them. He's completely incapable of accepting that maybe the parents should be taking some responsibility for what their children buy/play, and that maybe there are some games that just aren't meant for kids in the first place.

I wouldn't bitch at Krylon if my kid started painting graffiti. This is basically the same premise.

 

In other words, he was too stupid and too lazy to check the box himself.

 

I remember the good old days when parents blamed themselves when kids did stupid crap. Whatever happened to that?

 

I do that a lot at work. Its awesome looking at the pure look of hatred on the kids face when you ruin his day.

The ones that really get the wool pulled over their eyes are grandparents who really dont know much about the whole games thing, and kids run rings around them.

Till they get served by me and suddenly Billy gets 'Over the Hedge' not 'GTA'

 

I had a similar story working at TRU.

I was covering a lunch break for the video game section. A mother comes up with her son who is about 9-10 or so. I ask her if I can help her.

"Yes I'm looking for that new Grand... Theft... game. What ever it is.." (I forget if it is VC or SA now. Let's say SA)
"Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas?" I ask.
"Yes that's the one." She replies.
I glance at the kid then back at the mom.
"What do you know about the game?" I ask her.
"Nothing. But I know he wants it." She says.
"Well let me tell you a bit about it...." I proceed to tell her of the hookers, carjacking, killing, etc. The look of horror on her face was priceless.
"Well.. He's not getting THAT!" She says and tells the kid to find something else.

The look of hatred on the kids face was priceless.

I swear how do you think a game with the title that is a major crime is any bit appropriate for a 10 year old?

 

I sorta don't want to see this guy go to jail. It's funny to hear about what he's doing to get games banned.

I do agree with some parents and what they say about video game violence and how it can affect your children. But do they acutally do anything about it, most of them don't. They sit there and blame everybody else for what their kid does and not themselves. Parents need to be responsible and actually talk to their kids about video games and it's violence.

Here is something for those parents to think about: Stop wondering what your favorite celebrity dumba** has to say and instead sit down with your kid and really talk to him.

 

Think of how much funnier it will be if he's trying to do all that stuff from jail! Besides, it's not like he'd probably get locked away for very long just for contempt of court. Think of it as a long time-out or a forced vacation. I doubt he knows how to have fun on vacation anyway, so jail wouldn't be too much different, except with visiting hours and worse food.

 

Ah Jack Thompson. Your antics are always a source of amusement for me.

How long has he been referering to himself in the third person, anyways?

 

I say it's more likely (like you said) that the kid probably fed him a line. And honestly he wouldn't be the 1st kid to do that

But kudos on the store clerk doing his job instead of just looking to make a sale. And I'm glad the kid's father made the right decision too.

 

So maybe the parent isn't stupid and lazy. Instead, the parent is stupid, lazy, naive, or any combination of the three. All the information they ought to need is still printed right there on the box. Right there. On the box. The same one they pick up, hold in their hands, and put down at the register. Yes, kudos to the clerks that go the extra mile, I guess, but the parent wasn't doing even this one very incredibly stupidly ridiculously easy part of their job, and parents not doing their job as parents seems to be a continually growing and much larger problem than something that relates just to game ratings.

 

I dunno about the states, but beyond the rating tag, which in Australia is the same rating tag that Star Wars Battlefront II and even Civilistation 4 gets here, there isn't much on GTA boxes except some scattered screenshots.

And they are usually the 'promo'ish' ones, you know, with a guy standing by a car in the sunset, the girl doing her wink, some ballers at a basketball court.

Theres very little blurb and very little informationg explaining to someone IN the know about the game, let alone someone out of the know.

EDIT: From what I remember the GTA boxset on XBOX here actually has no text, just some of those cartoon line art pictures and the title. Not much information at all.

And like I said, some buying the games are people like grandparents, who have it tough with little bastards pulling a swifty on them

 

North America is much different. It's clearly labelled on the front of the covers (much more prominently than with movies mind you) and a much more detailed explanation of the rating on the back of the game. There's no reason beyond laziness or illiteracy people shouldn't know what they're buying.