Guess GamerDad is too intelligent and not sensationalistic enough for Dr. Phil.

...

Thank Goodness. :)

Nightwng2000
NW2K Software

"teens addicted to Second Life."

Im pretty sure that the majority of Second Lifers are NOT teens.

As a part time journalist, I work part time for a local paper, I find it pretty bad that the researcher didn't find out what Gamer Dad was about from his website before calling.

@Yuki

phil maybe, but jack has proven time and time again by ignoring facts, harassing and insulting numerous peoples within the industry and the legal system, making racist comments and having a general bigoted viewpoint of the entire gaming subculture, that his crusade is more about self promotion and hatemongering than it is about the kids.

@ Chris

I would consider such things actions. His intentions, least as he's claimed in the past, but thats a seperate matters.

AS far as I see, the man had good intentions, and they were buried under his own hate and anger.

Not suprising that the show is an intentional one-sided crusifiction piece. But lets be fair- Dr Phil, like the bulk of midday television is built to appeal to the Soccer Mom. Its easier to play into their fears with sensationalism than promote real discourse.

@Sidewinder

Dr Phil as I understand it, I'm English we don't have Phil over here, wants to give out advice and doesn't want an argument or people who don't completely agree with him on the show because it undermines his authority.

It's basically an excuses for him to tell people to play less Computer Games.

[...] According to this story on GamePolitics.com, Dr. Phil — an Oprah-funded, hour-long glimpse into the depressing state of what America considers to be the psychiatric profession — recently approached Gamer Dad founder Andrew Bub as a possible guest for an upcoming segment they have planned on the perils of MMO addiction amongst teens. This seemed like great news, as Mr. Bub is one of the more highly respected, moderate, sane members of the gaming media megasphere, and in all honesty, I think he would be an excellent guest on any show that sought to realistically talk about the dangers of gaming and children. Of course, if it were as simple as that, I couldn’t have made that clever headline about sensationalism. [...]

@GamerDad

Wife Swap? Wow, everyone wants to get in the video game controversy. I wonder how they wer planning on pulling that one off.

I just really wish that "Dr." Phil will get this show over with. We all know the outcome. It is very apparent from the quality of guests they have accepted. They wanted Jack, but not Gamer Dad. So we can see where this is going.

@ GamerDad && E. Zachary Knight

I think the most important question is would Jack Thompson be the other head of the other family.

Another indicator of the sensationalist agenda the show has is the focus on Second Life- an MMO that gets more mainstream press than WOW despite its userbase. Since the focus is on the mainstream moral panic of games it makes more sense (for them) to use a title that the soccer moms have likely heard about.

Yuki, Jackhole does NOT have good intentions. He's in it for the money, fame and ego-stroking. Same with Dr. Phil.

I think that Dr. Phil should have on the below emailer to me to reveal to the audience the typical mindset of gamers who play games to excess and think blogs like this actually report the news. What do you gamers think?

Oh, and I plan to have this guy arrested when I get around to it.

----- Original Message -----
From:
To: [deleted]
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2007 10:15 AM
Subject: (no subject)

[The below quotation is part of my signature block on my e-mails]:

"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." G.K. Chesterton

What's behind you Jack? A dick in your ass? It's crazy senile bigots like you that abuse the first amendment! Thank god your generation is almost extinct.

Why would Dr. Phil want Gamer Dad on when Gamer Dad has ignored the wide reportage in both the New York Times and the Washington Post about V-Tech massacrist Cho's massive violent video game use?

Gamer Dad's comments to Dr. Phil's people about this were absurd, idiotic, and, uh, fallacious.

Jack Thompson

When does this Dr. Phil episode air?

Hey Jack, why didn't you answer my questions on why you lied about first supporting the California video game bill, then you now claim it was unconstitutional all along? Why did you and that other idiot, a professor, write an article urging the Governator to sign the bill if you thought it was unconstitutional?

And using the New York Times and Washington Post articles hardly qualifies as any proof that Cho supposedly "trained" on video games for hours on end, as you and other clowns like ex.Lt. Col. Grossman have been suggesting. The Post article referred to Cho playing video games in HIGH SCHOOL. Remember when Chris Mathews slapped you on national television when he said Cho was a fourth year student at Virginia Tech, and no one saw him play video games during his four years at VTech? Also, the New York Times article made absolutely no mention of what video games he supposedly played in high school, yet you claim they referred to his "massive violent" video game use. They just casually mentioned video games in one sentence (and that sentence also included Cho playing basketball).

And how ironic that you, Thompson, a so called "conservative Christian", are falsely citing the Washington Post and New York Times, two newspapers that are largely considered liberal, to promote your propaganda.

Jack how many times do people have to tell you the FACTS before you listen to them and stoprelying on your own personal and flawed convictions

FACTS:
Cho had no violent games in his room, he wrote and read, he hadnt played games in over 4 years smashig all of your theories out of the water.
then you said. 'they dont typically drop these things when they go to college' we apart from being based on your own flawed opinion thats alsolute BS. I had to drop CS when I went to university, due to workloads, just another bit of evidence that shows youre talking out of your ass.

And dont try preaching your 'typical gamer' stuff here, we're all gamers, we know better than you ever will the people who play games.

"Why would Dr. Phil want Gamer Dad on when Gamer Dad has ignored the wide reportage in both the New York Times and the Washington Post about V-Tech massacrist Cho’s massive violent video game use?"

Ummm, because the Washington Post retracted that statement because it was FALSE!!!!

"Gamer Dad’s comments to Dr. Phil’s people about this were absurd, idiotic, and, uh, fallacious"

Nah, I'd say you're better at statements like those.

Jack, I get personal messages like that almost every day, and my only 'crime' is daring to moderate a couple of online forums about Space Games, you'd be amazed how passionate people can get when I lock yet another thread about who would win between Star Wars and Star Trek, I've had everything up to and including veiled death-threats, possibly from Darth Vader.

Seriously, lol Internets and all that, the fact it's an AOL Email address in the first place should have set warning bells ringing, no offence to you legitimate users of AOL, but I've dealt with a high percentage of AOL users, in particular, who seem to get some sort of pleasure out of screaming incoherently over Email.

Other people have addressed your other points, and frankly, I'm tired of typing the same things over and over, but don't take abusive Emails so personally, you're in the Public Square, Doug Lowenstein got streams of abuse from yourself because 'he was in the Public Square', well, you're there too, why are you surprised when the same thing happens?

JT, you're the kind of guy who'll only read what you want to hear.

There are PLENTY of studies that refute your claims. You just pretend they don't exist. As far as you're concerned, the only studies that are right are the ones that agree with your agenda, or in your case, the ones that are related to your agenda but with the facts twisted to make it look like it supports your agenda.

The only reason you are doing this is because you have nowhere else to go. You're trying to be that German Psychologist who tries to link comic books with youth violence and various other immoral things. The only difference between you and him is that HE actually succeeded and sounded genuine enough to be professional. Of course, by the 1970s, 20 years after he managed to get comic books censored, he regretted everything he did and when he died, no one remembered him except comic book fans who despised what he did to American Comic books.

Seriously, you should stop. The only people who will remember you other than your family are the people you made enemies with ie. the gamers. No one in government will ever know about your existence.

Hm, a thought. Jack has said MUCH worse to use than the "dick in the ass" remark. If him getting that kid arrested would work could we get him arrested? And I wonder if Dr. Phil would like a link to Jack Thompson's wikiquote page to show the typical mindset of massacre chasing lawyers?

If GamerDad isn't going to try to scare parents into thinking that videogames will corrupt their children in to monsters, he's not going to get any air time on Dr. Phil's show.

More interestingly, if someone gets addicted to making money using the Second Life system, is that Game addiction or Workaholic tendencies?

I don't play Second Life, but if there was one thing that would attract me, it's the ability to create and sell my own items there, more as a question of marketting experimentation. At the moment, things move from the real world to Second Life, mostly, Coca-Cola, Kirby etc, but it will reach a point when things start emerging in real life that were designed in Second Life, it may already have happened with T-Shirt designs etc. So it makes for interesting market research to see what sells and what doesn't.

I'd certainly say there are two kinds of people in Second Life, the 'players' and the 'workers', I couldn't 'play' second life, I've got a first one, but I could work there if I felt there was money to be made in what I sold.

Can anyone tell me when this will air? And what channel is it?

This issue just goes to show that these talk shows are not all about the truth. The people in charge of the talk shows like this are just wanting people on their show that agree with them even though they are wrong on these issues. I had things very bad happen to me and I played violent video games to let out anger and feel better and have no criminal background. I felt that Mortal Kombat was making me feel alot better when I was a preteen going through getting messed with alot. I feel that games like Mortal Kombat and Manhunt make me feel better when it comes to acting out my anger towards bad people. All those people in the media can say all the bad things they want about video games and yet they can not do anything about the games because the games are protected by the constitutional rights.

John Bruce,
The answer to why GamerDad put video games into their true, proper context in regards to the VT shootings as opposed to singling them out as the primary cause of the shootings:
Unlike you and Dr. Phil, GamerDad isn't a massacre chasing, agenda seeking, demon-pretender-to-the-throne-of-Heaven worshiping, tin-pot-dictator wannabe, bigoted, lying, deceiving, dishonorable, unethical, corrupt piece of guttertrash.

You, John Bruce, blame video games for Cody Posey murdering his father and step family, while ignoring the overall FACTS and TRUTH of the case where Cody was, at the very least, returned to the custody of his reportedly abusive father after the death of his mother, where Cody was repeatedly verbally, mentally, and physically abused as well as nearly sexually abused. But that doesn't matter one iota to you.

You, John Bruce, blamed the events that revolved around Jacob Robida on video games, while wholly ignoring the Nazi propaganda in his room and the reported relationship he had, or at least BELIEVED he had with the woman he killed before killing himself. That, too, didn't matter one iota to you.

You, John Bruce, blamed the events that led to the Columbine massacre on pop culture in general, with a slightly heavier lean against video games. Yet ignored the complex overall FACTS of the case, including abuse in schools, mental illness of at least one of the killers, and many other factors which were described in journals and video recordings by Eric and Dylan. The only thing that matters to you is "pop culture made them do it".

Or the instances of suicides where you try to place sole blame on video games and video game addictions, while all the while ignoring the overall lives of these individuals, the good AND the bad, implying that the only thing that would have affected them was video games in general.

And how about the VT shooting? Shall we go into the FULL spectrum of issues that you completely ignored? Even leaving behind speculations about what Cho was feeling or thinking at any given moment of his life, you ignore the clear problems he had socially, long before any reference to video games entered his life. Social problems within the family that could have very well extended beyond into relationships outside the family. And apparent unresolved mental illness issues recognized by numerous individuals. Or how about the reported apparent abuse through religion where it was suggested that they attempt to "exorcise" some demon from him. Whether one believes in such things or not is irrelevant because in combination with his apparent mental condition, he would have viewed it far different than what any of us would have. In FACT and TRUTH, the only person who ever knew what went on in the life and mind of Cho was... Cho himself. And he's dead. But all that matters to you is "he played video games and killed people because of it".

And so many more I could mention that you've brought up. From your suit to demand that YOU be the one to decide if Bully were appropriate for other people's children, to your suggestion that police should seize video games from retailer's shelves in several states (thereby PROVING you have lied about not wanting any game totally banned), to many other criminal acts where you've tried to influence investigators and witnesses to solely blame video games for the criminal acts.

Just because GamerDad and others don't use your tactics and abuse other individuals', families', and communities' tragedies to push a personal, religious, and/or political agenda on others doesn't mean he's not good at what he does. In fact, it makes him a far more honorable, ethical, intelligent person than you or Dr. Phil ever will be.

Nightwng2000
NW2K software

@ Jack Thompson

Wow, you are a huge dumb ass. I mean, we all knew that to begin with, but you can't have that person arrested. He didn't threaten your life or anything of that nature. You're pathetic as both a human being and a lawyer. Who did you bribe to let you pass law school?

As for Cho being a dedicated/avid gamer, well, it was a lie which had to be retracted by the Washington Post when they were found to be false statements. Why do you keep clinging to the notion that Cho was a gamer when every other report and even the people who knew him said he didn't play video games? You're a lunatic who can't accept reality.

What the hell are you doing anyway? What do you even stand for any more? You don't act like you care about anyone, so I don't see how you can claim to be protecting anyone by going after video games. All I see you doing is lining your pockets with money for being controversial tragedy chaser.

You're pathetic.

What we really need is for someone to lie there way onto the show claiming that they are a victim of Second Life.

Then when there on the show gleefully screw the whole thing up by showing just how biased the other members are!

If enough of us do it then there may never be a show at all!

Stories get lots more comments now that we can all argue with Jack.

I think Jack should hit up comedy clubs with his rhetoric. I know I was holding my side laughing just reading some of his comments on this story alone.

Oh, and Dennis, please add a spell checker. These typos are killing me.

@ Black Manta

Get Fire Fox. It has built in spell checker for text areas. Comes in very handy for this site. :)

Also, I have found that Jack Thompson's threat carry no weight unless you happen to be Take Two or some other well established perveyor of obscenity to children.

Jack:

Good luck trying to get him arrested for asking a question, albeit a purile one. There is no threat in that email and only vague insult. If he can be arrested for that, I think we all have grounds to have you arrested multiple times for your conduct on here.

Keep us posted if you are successful in your attempts as it would be useful to know we can have you arrested the next time you call one of us a nazi.

*SIGH* Once again Jack post something and all you guys jump on and respond. It never fails. Why don't you try ignoring the attention whore for once? It's worse even than the Jack related stories.

@ Shagnscoob77

I think he's on the level, and obviously a lot better of than you if you need to take time out of your day to try and insult him.

Come clean; you're either Jack Thompson, Dr Phil or one of the retards in his viewer audience, or just a plain jackass.

Could be worse. He could of just taken your games away and banned you from gaming, ever. Heck, I encourage dads to get into gaming and salute Gamer Dad. If I ever to do a follow-up report on the one I did a while back on Violence in Interactive Media I'll be sure to contact him for comment.

shagnscoob77:

Get used to it. Most of us who grew up with gaming in the era of the Commodore 64 are mid-20s and over. And those who are my age now and above were into gaming back in the day before it was socially accepted.

GamerDad is a parent who takes pride in raising his kids properly and being knowledgable of their hobbies, and also seeks to inform others who don't find gaming either as interesting or as accessible as films/books/tv/music. Cut him some slack.

oh noes its teh video gamez@!! I am scareds!! Save me Doctor Phil!!!

Not teaching christian values, is no reason to ban ANYTHING. Not everyone in this country is Christian, not everyone adheres to the same values and there is no written law that says you must have values x, y, and z. So your point is moot.

I caught it, it said "I plan to show the public how this drug using monster is teaching kids that not only is killing good and fun, but so is injecting drugs into yourself. These games should be banned from sale, they do not teach christian values. "

I completly disagree of course, can he even be on a case involving take 2?

Mr. John Bruce Thompson,
You, sir, do not show any Christian values.
I really question your Christianity. It is really sad to see your claims of being Christian yet see you sin at every post you make.

No
it was there. GP probably deleted it.

I doubt that was really JT. It's not his style, and Dennis typically leaves his real posts intact.

Besides, JT capitalizes the C in Christian.

yeah, it wasn't the right IP... a faux Jack

 Kharne - he started posting from a new  IP a few weeks back while I was in the midst of my 4-part response to his ludicrous attack on me... I decided to let it ride for now. If it becomes a problem, we'll just block the new IP.

@GamePolitics:

I'm glad you've been letting him post. Sure, he's a troll, but the vast majority of us argue so vehemently for free speech that it would be hypocritical to deny our favourite opponent that right.

This quote, often misattributed to Voltaire, pretty much summarizes my views on the matter: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

oh well if it is the wrong guy I take it back... I thought the spelling was a little sub-par for Mr. Thompson...

@Hannah - thanks, but it's really not that simple.

It went far beyond that, so forgive me if I get a little frustrated by comments such as, "it would be hypocritical to deny our favourite opponent that right."

I've never objected to anyone's viewpoint and I refused to ban him despite numerous calls from readers to do so for a long, long time.

However it got to a point where potential legal issues were being raised against GP and GP readers as a near-daily occurrence. That we will not have.

So, we'll see how this goes.

@Hannah:

He's actually behaving himself this time around. The last time he was posting regularly on GP, he was *really* abusive and was constantly threatening everyone with lawsuits. I'm kind of surprised, to be honest.

Dennis, I really think you should blanket responding to Jack

I applaud your four part response and general mature attitude towards jack, but time and time again the man refuses to listen to any factually based arguement instead relying on his own convictions and little else, he never responds and comes here only spout his own innane drivel and insult you and your credibility. Ive been reading a lot of his quotes today and he does seem to have an unhealthy obsession with you and this site.

I'd say you ban him, if he seeks to claim his first ammendement rights to free speech, he can do it on his own site, what he is doing here is nothing but harassment and you have every right to refuse him. His arguements against such bans are like me demanding a collumn on a major news website. You can say what you want, but on the internet where you say it is a privelidge.

@ Dais

After seeing the gameplay videos and the very good recent
reviews I would be very disappointed if someone like Jack Thompson
messed with Bioshock.

@ Jack Thompson

Seriously Jack Thompson, since you brought the issue up at least by
now tell what parts of the game you think is extreme compared to
other recent shooting games.

Wow... I am just sick of people saying "cho played video games, thats what made him do it" (its not just JT and Philly, its alot of people I know), for gods sake; couldnt he just have been crazy? Did that ever occur to you people!? (Im not pointing any fingers, but you know who I am talking about.

Isn't there a qoute from the bible that states "Judge not, that ye not be judged?" and if so, why isn't Jack Thompson, a Christian, not following what the bible says?

Hey Jack, here is an article from the Washington Post that blames movies rather than games": http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/19/AR200704...


So which is it Jack, games or movies? And if it was movies are you going to go after the movie industry next?

I noticed that the Bioshock issue with Jack Thompson is spreading when I was on gamesages.com.

Just imagine if he talked about his plans for Bioshock on the Dr. Phil show.

IF HE MAKES IT ON THERE

@PHOENIXZERO

Then what's the problem if you already ignore it? *shrugs* Whatever

@Phil Harris

Unfortunately, that rule doesn't seem to exist anymore. I should know, having heard I'm going to their Hell (even though I don't believe in a Hell) over my sexuality and faith. They follow what they want, and ignore the rest; in the end, when you think about it, religion and politics seem almost the same. Bigotry, lies, egotisticalism, and the idea that their general opinion is the only true and correct opinion. And those two could be considered similar to hate groups, for the same reasons.

You know, when people mention colubine, Vteach and so forth, why dotn we ask how many of the victims were gamers, in a school or college I'm sure a lot of them were. I dont think theyd appreciate whats being done in their name.

Oprah has a leash around Dr. Phil's neck.

Fact.

@Jack Thompson, the hearse-chasing necrophile soon-to-be-a-former-attorney:
“This mendacious sleight of hand helps explain recent FTC findings that roughly 40% of the time kids under 17 can still buy Mature-rated games at major retailers with no parent in sight.”

Considering that 10% of all video game sales are to kids under 17, that means that based on all statistics out there, it's really roughly 4% of the time "kids under 17 can still buy Mature-rated games at major retailers with no parent in sight.”

What an idiot. Tripped up by easy math.

I live for he and zig's posts actually... among others :)

Wait......hang on a minute. People play Second Life?!?!?! :O

Seriously though, why is he focusing on a "game" with such a puny player base? You'd think go for a MMO that teenagers actually play like......oh I don't know, WoW maybe? Only 9 million active subscribers worldwide.

I kinda enjoy watching Dr. Phil once in a while, but I agree that he mostly looks good because the people he works with are idiots.

...and the fact that JT was invited as a video game expert just screams ratings...*shudders*
Here's hoping that he takes a direction that leads towards self-responcibility, because even if phil believes games are bad, its still not their fault people play them. I mean, its the same thing with any crime, just because I had the chance to attempt the crime didn't make me do it.

and I'll say it again and again, JT is a HORRIBLE example fo a christian. I'm sorry, but anyone who believes they are on some holy mission is putting themselves above god. That and he's got some real "love thy naighbor" violations going on.

madscientist


the bigrig example is kinda flawed, whether or not a bigrig is indeed coming down the street is a fact not an opinion.

@Mad_Scientist

Well, I guess then it goes into when do you consider opinion to cross into ignorance? He is ignorant of the oncoming object, but since it is a physical, real, object, he is struck. Anyhow, the point really wasn't about whether it exists or not. It's still not something you want to hear, even if you don't believe, not from context but the attitude behind it.

It'd be like if someone said "Gamers have no life!" You know it's not true, and it's not the comment itself that may get to you, but the reasoning and attitude of the person themselves that offends you, not because they simply think it, but take action from it.

"instead of your pontificating pronouncements about parental responsibility. How about corporate responsibility?"

So you'd rather people hand their kids over to the government than actually parent them? Right. VERY NICE.

"This rampant fraudulent trade practice is precisely what “Big Tobacco” did with its “Joe Camel” and other teen-targeting ads,"

I always thought that Camel was frikkin creepy.

"Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., the maker of the hyper-violent Grand Theft Auto games and whose Manhunt 2 has been banned worldwide for sale not only by governments but by Sony and Nintendo as well, is aggressively marketing its newest Mature-rated video game to kids under 17 years of age. This predatory corporate practice was supposed to stop in the wake of “Columbine” and industry promises made to parents."

I watch Cartoon Network a bit, Mr. Thompson, and the only thing i've ended up seeing advertised there over the past several months is a Naruto game and 'Boogie.'

There is a lot of difference between cartoons and wrestling.

"Oh, and I plan to have this guy arrested when I get around to it."

Really? for what? he hasn't threatened your life, harrassment involves you telling him to stop, so what?

@ Phil Harris:
Gideons version of what you were referencing.
Matthew 7:1-2
"Judge not that ye be not judged. For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."

[...] According to this story on GamePolitics.com, Dr. Phil — an Oprah-funded, hour-long glimpse into the depressing state of what America considers to be the psychiatric profession — recently approached Gamer Dad founder Andrew Bub as a possible guest for an upcoming segment they have planned on the perils of MMO addiction amongst teens. This seemed like great news, as Mr. Bub is one of the more highly respected, moderate, sane members of the gaming media megasphere, and in all honesty, I think he would be an excellent guest on any show that sought to realistically talk about the dangers of gaming and children. Of course, if it were as simple as that, I couldn’t have made that clever headline about sensationalism. [...]

@brandon

the problem is that we'v ewanted to do that for so long. No matter how far off or [insert crude insult] JT is, people for some reason listen to him. it may be scare tactics, it may be the "concerned parent" thing he's got going on, it may be his claim as a holy crusader. whatever it is, news outlets drink it up, therefore giving games bad rep and exposure from a bad source. if we try to ignore him, then there will be no voice to counter whatever he spits out, and he will be able to rant unopposed.

Hey, GamerDad, get a real name and a life. And read something sensible about the video game industry for a change, like the below, instead of your pontificating pronouncements about parental responsibility. How about corporate responsibility?


John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law
1172 S. Dixie Hwy., Suite 111
Coral Gables, Florida 33146
305-666-4366
amendmentone@comcast.net

August 19, 2007

The Honorable Deborah Platt Majoras, Chairman
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20580 Via Fax and e-mails

Re: Television Ad for Mature-Rated Video Game on Program with Huge Teen Audience

Dear Chairman Majoras:

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., the maker of the hyper-violent Grand Theft Auto games and whose Manhunt 2 has been banned worldwide for sale not only by governments but by Sony and Nintendo as well, is aggressively marketing its newest Mature-rated video game to kids under 17 years of age. This predatory corporate practice was supposed to stop in the wake of “Columbine” and industry promises made to parents.

On this Friday’s night’s 8 pm Eastern time airing of WWE’s wrestling program “Smackdown,” there were repeated ads for Take-Two/Rockstar Game’s Mature-rated, incredibly violent BioShock set to be released on August 21.

A check of the demographics of the audience of that program reveals that teens under 17 years of age watch that program in huge numbers. The live audience in the arena containing thousands of pre-17 teens. That is precisely why Take-Two’s new chairman, Strauss Zelnick, who was recently called by Fox News’ Neil Cavuto a “marketing genius” is outlandishly marketing BioShock to kids.

The FTC has continued to express concerns about the continued marketing of Mature-rated video games to children, especially by Take-Two, as indicated by the FTC’s news release found at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/06/videogames.shtm.

If there is any doubt as to the inappropriateness of BioShock for kids under 17 and thus the harmfulness of tv ads pitching it to them, you can see the content of the game for yourself at Take-Two’s site at http://www.2kgames.com/bioshock/bioshock.html. Video game enthusiast, web-based sites are thrilled with how violent the game is.

Remarkably, the video game industry is running ads for games like BioShock on teen-intensive television programs while at the same time its industry-captured “watchdog,” the ESRB, is running a self-congratulatory ad campaign to assure parents that the video game ratings system is working and that the industry can be trusted not to target their kids with these Mature-rated games. It is all a lie, as the BioShock ads prove.

This mendacious sleight of hand helps explain recent FTC findings that roughly 40% of the time kids under 17 can still buy Mature-rated games at major retailers with no parent in sight. The industry aggressively creates in kids a high demand for “Mature” games and then tells Congress and anyone else who will listen that they are doing “all we can to keep Mature games out of the hands of kids.”

This rampant fraudulent trade practice is precisely what “Big Tobacco” did with its “Joe Camel” and other teen-targeting ads, while at the same time lying to Congress that it was not marketing its adult product to kids.

Enough already. The Federal Trade Commission must act, finally, to stop the video game industry from routinely marketing Mature-rated video games to kids under 17, just as Take-Two is presently doing with BioShock.

Regards, Jack Thompson

Copies: Media
Governor Mitt Romney
Senator Hillary Clinton

@jack Thompson

So teasers for violent movies @8pm at night, snack food ads marketed to kids all day that have increased obesity rates, the violent footage in news programs that can be seen at any time of the day, certain sections of the bible, contact sports like wrestling, etc are fine, but my hobby is not?

So 60% of kids don't get games without parental consent, and your telling me the ESRB is broken?

jacks just pissy about parental responsibility because its something he cant bolster his career promoting. Well someone can, but hes too filled with pride and hate to do it successfuly.


And if all you have to go on is the times ads air on TV prepare to lose your case, because theres a large degree of the target audience (M) in those timeslots too, wake up and get a life jack.

Besides, the violence in bioshock is probably the least focused aspect in my opinion, its the whole ecosystem, the top notch graphics, the gameplay, the mood, the writing and the beautiful art deco environment that everyones raging about. I'd love it if it were just a non-violent adventure game if the rest was intact.

Jack never rebuts when people catch him in lies.

Fact.

I love his use of words. "Hyper-violent" and Copies: Media.