October 27, 2006 -
This whole user-created content thing is so confusing to some folks, apparently.GamePolitics was cc'd on cease-and-desist letter sent by Miami attorney Jack Thompson to Midway, publishers of the recently-released Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. The letter reads, in part:
"It has today come to my attention that the newly recently Mortal Kombat: Armageddon contains an unauthorized commercial exploitation of my name, photograph, image, and likeness within the game."
"You are commanded to cease and desist immediately from the distribution of this game because of this unauthorized, illegal content..."
"It would appear that your company has done this at least in part because I sued you all in the Paducah school massacre case and further because I appeared on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 when your company came out with your profane, violent, and idiotic Blitz: The League."
However, Thompson seemingly fails to take into account that the depiction of him to which he is referring is not part of the published game, but rather user-created content. A utility known as Kreate a Fighter is included with the game and lets players make their own combatants.
The creation of the Thompson character is detailed at Gaming Target, which describes the various settings and rationales behind the design of characters depicting Thompson, Hulk Hogan, Silent Bob and others. Documentation for the Thompson character says:
Jack Thompson is all legs and is a deadly mid-range opponent.
Jack's personality meshes perfectly with many of the Kreate A Fighter options. He fights with the Aggressive Shotokan stance as it gives him that puffed out self-important look... His projectile is a big fireball known as the Chi-Blast because he's always spouting flames on the Internet...
Comments
BWAHAHAHAHA
Seriously though. It would have taken LESS time to look up the fighters available in the game on midway's website or wikipedia or something than it would have taken to write a C&D.
Verify first. Threaten later.
Remember when they had that contest to out grief the police chief?
This is all just so familiar . . . :)
Ahhh, his fave words!
I love create a charecter modes, especially when you make someone you hate just for the purposes of beating the crap out of them :)
His weapon should be a giant placard with the definition of assault on it. You can use it to taunt but not attack or defend. Alternately, the weapon could be a bullhorn with no batteries.
His special move would be summoning a team of fighting "experts" who actually don't know how to fight; instead they accidentally run over Jack and he loses half his health.
He has no finishing move, although he can automatically lose at anytime by randomly shooting himself in the foot.
The issue is that, like many other old fuddy-duddies, Jack still doesn't seem to fully grasp what "user-created" means. The last games these people have played (assuming they have ever played any) were stuff like Galga and Pac-man, where such content was unheard of. Hell, a lot of politicians still talk about Hot-Coffee as if it were something you could access in the pause menu.
I'm not really sure how to make a template. The template I used used to be online, but I can't seem to find it. Jack might have threatened the person who posted it.
Wouldn't you know it? Just after I posted, I found it...
http://awel-cruiz.livejournal.com/
Andrew Eisen
Sincerly,
Teh World LMAO.
1. Wake up
2. Google "Jack Thompson"
3. Send harassing e-mail to anyone and everyone if the link titles bear the words "Jack Thompson" and "video games"
4. Eat breakfast
5. Gain respect in GTA: San Andreas
No, that would be beyond his character to gain respect even in the virtual world...
Paul
Awesome.
Praise for Midway for nifty features in their fighters.
And beer for the person(s) who made the JBT fighter.
The hilarity here speaks for itself, no further need to mock JBT.
Don't talk about the man's children, man. They're innocent in this matter. No one is able to choose their Dad and Mom.
Okay, that was mean, but that has a better chance of being successful.
im waiting for the GP headline "jack thompson found dead, suffocated with head upown rectum"
Sombody should school jack onuser created content, not that he would listen as he is an arrogant loud mouth but in most professions it helps to have at least a small idea as to what you're doing.
Poor old Jack, he thinks its the companies that dislike him, most of the them couldn't care less. The only people he's really managed to annoy, apart from Blank Rome and numerous judges and Louisiana politicians, are ordinary, everyday people.
Great work. LOL
Priceless.
I didn't actually say anything about his kids (if he has them...I don't know anything about the man's personal life aside from that he's married) that wasn't hypothetical. I was merely saying God help us if they turn out to be jackasses like him.
@Everyone:
Thompson will probably still try to sue Midway under the claim that they purposefully put in the pieces to build him in the game.
And if he somehow manages to win the day, Jack has no victory pose because, let's face it, he's never won.
What next? Will he sue Bic if one of us draws a crude drawing of him using one of their pens?
Or maybe, just maybe, he'll try to snap back with some reason why Midway is somehow in the wrong here anyway. "They should know better than to allow people to create their own characters! They willfully enabled these gamers to make fun of me!"
Shouldn't they have dropped the chi-blast in favor of Sindel's Scream?
Jack: You are making me look stupid! I'm going to tell mommy on you if you don't stop! *begins to sob like a little girl*
I'd love to see Mr. Thompson have a go at Microsoft. Microsoft is windmill that tilts back.