February 17, 2008 -
With his Friday appearance on Fox News, Miami attorney Jack Thompson has managed to once again introduce the video game violence issue into the aftermath of a tragedy.In the past, some observers have referred to Thompson's media tactics as massacre chasing. Frankly, it's hard to disagree. Beyond that, one has to ask - given that NIU shooter, Stephen Kazmierczak, was 27-years-old - why are video games an issue at all?
Even if you buy into the notion that violent video games lead to real-world violence (and there is zero scientific proof to support that), the NIU shooter was far closer to 30 than 15. Short of an outright societal banning, how would Counter-strike - or any of the far bloodier games on the market - been kept away from Kazmierczak?
The bottom line at NIU, as at Virginia Tech, is that the shooter was a heavily-armed, deranged, homicidal adult. No video game rating system, no amount of retail enforcement of same, could have kept him from playing Counter-strike. No video game law - even if it were somehow constitutional - would have blocked him from buying Counter-strike or any other M-rated game. That's because such legislation typically seeks to prevent under-18's from purchasing violent games.
Moreover, Thompson has said in the past that the goal of his anti-game violence crusade is to keep mature game content out of the hands of kids. Stephen Kazmierczak was no kid. So, what's Thompson's point?
TV face time, perhaps?
UPDATE: Thompson e-mailed this to me in response:
Do you think the NIU shooter started playing these murder simulation games last week? You do know how long ago Doom came out, right? His friends say he was into this crap for years.
A follow-up question elicited this from Thompson:
He started on them years ago. They retarded him. Are you retarded too? apparently
Comments
That's all I can say.
Once again Jack Thompson shows us how much he twists wha he reads as "proof" for his cause even when his conclusions are far from what was said. First, his dormates said he played CS in 2003 so that's 5 years, he was an adult and well within his right to play a M-rated game. Second, they were not his friends, they were his dormmates but those facts do not matter to Thompson. He still values the words of Cho's high school aquaintances over the words of his family and dormates when it comes to CS.
"He started on them years ago. They retarded him. Are you retarded too? apparently"
Since he fails to grasp very simple statements I think something "retarted" Jack Thompson. Apparently.
Don't hold your breath for that response. At least any response that's coherent, anyway
Also considering Jack's history with Dennis, he'll probably also fire off some responses along the lines of, "Are you a moron? The answer is obvious. I've been repeating the same thing to you and your braindead cronies for years! Duh." You can almost anticipate like clockwork what he's going to say. Like I've said before, he's practically sounding like a broken record. Sad, really.
"If this is what video games did to an adult, imagine what it'll do to a child!"
Is Thompson even really still relevant? I'm just not sure anymore.
I think the issue with Kazmeirczak gaming credentials is when did he start playing violent video games. Considering he's roughly my age, it wouldn't be a far stretch to say that he had the potential to stat playing FPS when he was 11. That would give him roughly 7 years to be desensitized by them before he was of age to purchase the games like a responsible adult.
I've read of other red-flag things the media should concentrate on. I think it's foolish for anyone to say that his troubles are exclusive to his video game habits.
That being said, video games are a great form of entertainment. One that unfortunately has the capacity to desensitize kids to violence. All video game advocates should support legislation that fines retailers for selling M rated games to children. Just as they should support legislation that fines movie theaters and rental services that allow underaged people access to R rated movies.
We should also fight legislation that circumvents the current rating process by defining what is inapproprate themselves...
Oh, there will be a response. It just wont have anything to do with the question. We all know Thompson's far too cowardly to even attempt using actual logic to back up his arguements.
But, in fact, it has merely been an issue for a desire of hearing The Truth, The WHOLE Truth, And Nothing But The Truth.
One might hear various familiar names and attach them to violent acts, including murder, both in and out of school. They may merely say the individual is a school shooter or killed their family.
The fact is, whether games, or particular types of music or TV shows or movies or religious beliefs or any other form exposure one can name, there were far more direct reasons that these individuals committed the acts for which they, and others, are attributed to. The exposure of various media and such are, at best, peripheral. There is NO factual evidence that removing such exposures would have prevented the acts from still occuring.
It doesn't mean that having mental illness, or having been abused, or just being pissed off in general, is an excuse for what was done. But we, as a society, need to fully understand (no matter how irrational the act may seem to us) what set these individuals off. To do that, we need to know The Truth, The WHOLE Truth, And Nothing But The Truth.
You won't get that with John Bruce or FOX News (or the other outlets owned by the same individual apparently) or other agenda seekers or tabloid trash news media.
But there are plenty out there that DO try to find out as much of that WHOLE Truth as they can and share it. And we should put more faith in those sources.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Examples:
Cody Posey. Killed his father and step- mother and sister.
John Bruce says: video games made him kill them.
I say: Look up various articles. They include how Cody's mom was given custody after his abusive father gave up Parental Rights. Mom killed in car accident. Father granted custody by the state. Father continued verbal, mental, physical, and Cody was almost sexually abused by step mother at the behest of his father. Do the research to get as many details as possible.
Joshua Robida, got into bar fight with homosexual man, kidnapped woman he may have had relationship with, ended up in police chase, killed the woman, committed suicide.
John Bruce says: Had contact with investigators and DA and games were involved. Committed suicide by cop.
I say: Look up the information. Robida's room was splattered with Nazi materials including books. Robida, according to old MySpace page, may have had a relationship with a woman he stayed with and still had feelings for. DA says John Bruce could not have had contact with investigators because it would have been illegal and did not have contact with DA. DA says there were far more important issues in the case to deal with. Medical examiner says Robida killed himself. Look up other information to get as much of the whole picture as possible.
V-Tech and Cho: Largest massacre to date.
John Bruce: Counter Strike made him do it.
I say: Look up as much information as you can. Cho had difficulty with speaking very early in life. Apparently some sort of social disorder that made things difficult for him to associate with others. Cho's life was filled with difficulties socially and even some family difficulties. Cho attempted to fit in for a short time at V-Tech, but may have faced additional difficulties in overcoming prior social problems. Cho had other mental issues that were supposed to have been taken care off by the order of a court order, but never was. There are a great deal of other details which one can find if one does proper research.
Steven at NIU, killed 5 students and self.
John Bruce: Counter Strike made him do it.
I say: There are plenty of decent sources to look information on Steven. In short, one might say two sides. The side many saw as a high intelligent and respectful individual. The other suffered mental illness for which he was taking medication for. Off his medication, he became erratic. He is even reportedly to have a relationship with a girl, who is missing, that was abusive. There is a great deal of information about Steven on and off his meds that people should do very thorough research on. A lot has come out in the past few days, and it shouldn't be ignored.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Unfortunate that the nail in this case is an extremist Christian wackjob with a 'Save the Children' agenda and plenty of airtime.
@brian crawford: The thought had occurred to me as well - it's theoretically possible that, if games have a desensitizing effect on minors, he could have been desensitized more than a decade before the shooting occurred, at a time when he was a minor. But science has yet to prove that games even can have such an effect. Forget about proving the possibility that someone can be so affected as a minor, live nine years as an apparently normal and functional adult, and then go on a shooting rampage solely because of the influence video games had on him as a kid.
We can't rule out the possibility that this is in fact what happens. But I think Occam's Razor says that "Corrupted by games as a child, homicidal tendencies laid dormant for nine years" is less likely than "Off his meds."
People in their 20's and 30's right now will surely do the same when they reach old age & increasing irrelevance. It comes with getting old.
At this point, I am not even bothered by Jack Thompson's massacare chasing- its par for the course and just demonstrates what a vile, evil person he is.
I'd like to hope we learn something from this, so that when the time comes that Barack Obama High School is shot up by some bullied kid in 2050 we remember our own experiences in our 20s and 30s and don't blame Holo-simulators for all society's ills.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Considering Jack Thompson's from the generation that had comic book and rock n roll witch hunts, you shouldn't get your hopes up.
One could say if he was protect from violent media as a child he would not have grown up like that, but thats more fallacy than fact, fiction is the same as free will if you blame fiction for the woes of society then you might as well go to the core of the issue free will or "the indavendaul" is the cause of why some people hurt others, remove these and you will have a a "pleasant" bland society.
ESRB already does it, heavily, and employees typically get terminated for it.
@GP
As other's said, JT will either make an overly abusive self reighteous response or none at all.
If he were sheltered form violence all that time he wouldn't have been able to deal with the real world and likely would have snapped sooner.
Apparently Thompson wants a world like that.
It seems like he enjoys doing this crap.
Rubbish. Simply ageist rubbish.
February 17th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
$20 says jack wont respond "
Your on!
extra $5 says he acts like an ass and calls us all crack addicts
Because it's new, and people who aren't fans of the new thing don't really get it.
"@Zerodash. “Old people like to believe they are “better”....Rubbish. Simply ageist rubbish."
[/i]
Whilst I agree that his tone may have been a little less than perfect I find it difficult to dismiss it so out of hand. People fear what they don't uderstand, technology, religion, people. If you have a large group of people that don't understand the technology behind electronic entertainment, and consequently fearing it, then is it really that much of a stretch to see it blamed for the ills of society?
He doesn't hold any ground on that Counterstrike theory since Kazmierczak was an adult when the game (or mod) came out.
Either way, I wonder what if he'll say something consistent to prove his theory so I'll just wait and observe.
That has nothing to do with peoples age. It is to do with their willingness to get involved in emerging technologies. It has to do with conservativeness of the community in general. It has to do with the power of various lobby groups, and the fact that gaming is STILL seen as a fringe hobby. And it has to do with the fact that it's easier to vilify a fringe hobby than it is to vilify something that's mainstream. It has to do the agitator's desire to be placed in the spotlight and bee seen as the savior of society.
Lobbyists need to vilify someone so they can make the community FEAR something. They will ALWAYS go for the less powerful community. They're an easy target. If the roles were reversed between the games industry and the movie industry, who do you think they would be going for. Or if the power of the games industry and the gun industry was reversed, do you honestly think that morons like the Illinois Registrar (Robert Pritchard) saying games are the issue and not guns?
And come on folks! It's an election year over there in the US. Lobbyist NEED the community to be fearful so they will vote for someone to save them. You can't possibly be that naive as to think otherwise?
New medium. Fringe community. Easy target for lobbyists to make an enemy of. And by inspiring fear in the community, they stay/get in power.
The key is not to rally against them. They will NEVER stop while the games industry is relatively weak. They key is to wait out the storm and keep publicising the TRUTH! The games industry already brings in more money that Hollywood. And in time, it will take it's rightful place.
Viva La Revolution!
Jack Thompson really solidified himself as the biggest threat to this industry.
Everytime there's a school shooting, we always get the blame.
What the hell, people!? What the hell!?
What did we do to you, Jack? WHAT!?
Enjoy that airtime money while you can, you goddamn hypocrite.
And you tout yourselves for being Christians.
Trust me, Jack, THERE IS NOTHING CHRISTIAN ABOUT WHAT YOU DID.
BLAMING THE SHOOTINGS ON VIDEO GAMES WITHOUT ANY BASIS IS EXACTLY LIKE THE TIME NERO BLAMED THE FIRE IN ROME ON THE EARLY CHRISTIANS.