Wow, this is going to be epic fail.  What are they going to do, argue with each other and get angry for an hour?

I think this time Jack is gonna be really desperated to try to prove all his ridiculous points against games. I really hope he screw it hard this time.

This is in spanish :lol http://thelostlevel.blogspot.com/

Yeah, I do hope Ledonne wins the argument. JT is a dick. But that's mostly because I'd hate to see JT win anything. It doesn't sit well with me that he re-created a school shooting.

I would have thought that just having been publicly branded a liar and a cheat would have dampened Jack's appetite for media attention. I guess that's what I get for thinking. 

I can imagine Jack getting all Bill O'Reilly/Limbaugh. I hope my prediction is accurate...

Why does anyone care what Jack has to say? He's a dead man walking.

I'm listening to the live show right now, I hope this goes well. By that I mean I hope Thompson doesn't make a fool of himself trying to prove himself right.

- The most frightening thing a person can ever hear: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help"

Heheh, so far Thompson hasn't shown yet. He might have chickened out after realizing going on would be certain doom.

- The most frightening thing a person can ever hear: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help"

Here it is! Hah they're already bringing up his Florida bar troubles.

Live now. Nothing interesting yet.

Listening now... this should get interesting when some calls come in....

"the midbrain is where copycat behavior is found"...Why does he never actually cite these studies by the professionals doing it?  A Freeman study or something similar.

I am so sick of the "Cho Seung Hui played Counter-Strike thing". When will someone talking to him just go outright and say it that he made this entire thing up based on a redacted Washington Post article that proved false. He spouts this as huge cred for his argument, when it is COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY FALSE. AHHHHH!

The Post redacted because they were pressured. Pressured by who? Idiot. They redacted because they were wrong. Which credible newspapers do when they get their facts wrong.

Well lookee there, oral and anal sex in GTA4.  Jesus Christ, why do people let this man speak?

I feel like I'm hogging the comment section, but sweet Christ, Jack is an asshole.  Let the poor man make his comment without douchebagging everything up.

Jack can't do that, if he allowed people to finish their statements, he'd have nothing to say.

- The most frightening thing a person can ever hear: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help"

@Tetsuna

Right there with you listening to the show.  I wish someone could get through and simply point out that the actions Jack keeps pointing to are detrimental to the progress in the game.  The whole point of a game or any entertainment is to accomplish something.  Running someone over, etc. is counterproductive.  I am glad that the young man came on, but the "it's just a videogame" defense does not cut it.  Points for bringing up other media, but he could have hit deeper by pointing out the objectifying of women in religious texts, or the greatest literary works of the last 400-500 years.  Btw, Jack said his 15 year old son went in and bought the game.  I thought his son was 15 when San Andreas came out...does the kid not age, or has Jack forgotten a few birthdays?

If I was the only one in my house that was bringing home the bacon, damn skippy someone else would have to cook it. Jack wears an apron, not the pants, in his house.

The attorney general's report he cites is over 20 years old.  And no, it is still open to debate.  Jack needs to update his info.

Now he's talking about the rape of nan King.  What does that have to do with anything?!

And when did he ever represent women who had been raped or sexually asaulted?  He's pulling stuff put of his ass.

Sorry Jack.  I like my violent games, I like my porn and hell...I even like hentai.  I am a well-adjusted individual and I respect women.  Like you once said, "Go to hell a little more quietly."

Question, why are alll of the game-playing persons out there that DON'T go out of their way to kill people are considered an insignifigant statistical value?  Furthermore, and this might be a personal issue, why on bloody earth are callers listing off their game-playing experiences?  I've played blah, blah, blah, and it has done nothing to me.  It is a safe assumption that if one is calling this to talk to Mr. Thompson that you have an intellectual interest (sometimes not completely well informed, but kudos for effort), vice a bloodthirsty need to gnash their teeth and snarl at said lawyer.

"The babes are over here already, I'm not alone. I'm objectifying them as we speak" Nice to know he can joke about something the he takes so seriously when others try to talk about it.

- The most frightening thing a person can ever hear: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help"

NO...the last guy was pretty incoherent, and the guy from the UK was just a little quiet.

Jack's getting owned by Mr. San Diego.  Hey, a GP reference!  Dennis is famous now!

Really...well damn, it just clicked.  Andrew Eisen?

Here's the bottom-line: Jack's mental illness doesn't allow him to let go of a "fact" once he determines that it is a fact. Whether it's a fact or not. Trying to convince him that his fact is not a fact is  a big waste of time. He'll never let go.

It's amazing at how much better the conversation is flowing now that Thompson's not there to try talking over everyone.

You could hear Jack rolling his eyes when the book Grand Theft Childhood was mentioned... Literaly hear them as they slammed backwards so violently he was force to exclaim "Oh Geeze" in suprize and pain.

Also what is with the "You are not a statistically significant sample." Are only the kids who actualy go out and shoot someone part of the statistics? and not the millions and millions of well adjusted kids who also play videogames?

*laugh* I love JT's comment about kids brains being programmed to copy these things from a young age. I've been playing games since I was 3 years old (I'm 28 now) and I havent killed anyone, nor do I expect I ever will (Unless I go insane and join the military or something) I guess I'm just another one of those insignifigant numbers, ya think? I expect quite a few "gamers" are like me though, which likely makes us the majority, wonder if our friendly neighborhood nemesis realizes this.

This was pretty enlightening, and I'm looking forward to the movie coming out.

Also, how hillarious was that last caller, 'you should be hanging from a tree'

The dumb callers are annoying me.... always the same comment "I've played these games and I'm not violent so fuck you JT".... Jesus Christ, come up with something more significant.

Like maybe the fact that there are double standard between movies and games. That pornographic movies are NOT the same category as M rated games. Thats why we have AO rating. We can use that rating when we start importing Japanese Hentai games. What about the fact that the more important factors about these violent people like being abused as a child and mental problems. And that the common denomonator is NOT violent videogames. These games are so wide spread that you would have a better time argueing that eating dinner regularly makes you kill people. How about the fact that he only seems to think that opinions of these people on the margin are the only things that matter? Hey, lets go ask this rape victim if objectifying women in video games should be banned under penalty of death. And lets believe when someone facing 25 to life uses GTA as an excuse. How about the fact that women have been, and will be, objectified as long as testoserone flows through male veins? Did you know that women couldn't vote in early 20th century? Did they loose voting rights when GTA came out?  Should we ban high schools from teaching the Scarlet Letter, Things Fall Apart, and all things Shakespeare? How about the fact that he constantly says "counterstrike halflife" when its just "counterstrike"? Maybe he hasn't done a very good research.

HOW ABOUT THE FACT THAT HE STARTED OUT TRYING TO BAN THINGS THEN CHANGED HIS POSITION IN ORDER TO GAIN MORE POPULAR SUPPORT?

What can publishers possibly do to stop the selling of violent videogames? What exactly happens when a movie theatre lets in a 12 yearold to a R rated movie? As far as I know no studio has ever threatened to withhold films if the theatre lets in underage people to see these movies. So why should video game companies?

The usual, and the only one I like, arguement against movie-game parellel is the interactiviy of games. Well guess what? If theres a sex scene in a movie, you have to watch it. In the games that are being attacked, its OPTIONAL. Violence? OPTIONAL. Seriously, when I get runover in GTA I just walk away cause of the cops. Now, I realize that lots of these stuff are actually not optional. You do have to kill a shitload of people and deliver drugs and whatnot. But it at least gives the option to skip some of it.

What about artistic merit of the games? No one talks about that either. No one killed anyone after seeing Braveheart or Saving Private Ryan. They got the fucking Oscars instead.

Oh and one last thing: he just never lets anyone else talk. Stupid callers+JT's unwillingness to give up airtime= horrible times.

Not to be a pain, but does anyone have transcripts of the show? That would be pure win.

Logic: 2-8% of a group do something, not significant to the overall group.

JT Logic: 100% of murderers murdered someone, anything else doesn't matter.

Logic 2: 100 people, 2 do something, 100-2=98. 98 people haven't done the specific act.

JT Logic 2: 100 gamers, 2 murder someone, 100-2=98. 98 gamers are going to kill someone.

Logic 3: The gaming industry continues to progress in its self regulation of the media it distributes, surpassing all other voluntary regulations in physical media.

JT Logic 3: Because of ME! Now, we still need to put legal requirements on it!

See where I'm going with this? Good, I don't feel like typing out 50 more examples.

If you haven't heard, here's our first interview with Jack where he hangs up on us:

http://freetalklive.com/files/thompson.mp3

Thanks for listening!  (Oh, and we're on more than just the web: http://affiliates.freetalklive.com )

Well after listening through nearly 2/3 of this debate between these four people I must say this. I have a new view of the designer of Columbine Massacre. After listening to this guy, he is very well educated and is not portrayed as some sickophantic psycho as some people portrayed him as. His name is escaping my mind but what I must say is when he created Super COlumbine Massacre RPG he did his research. Moving on though, what I was most interested in was the debate on Jack Thompson and how his logical mindset it. Granted this man is a lawyer and has done some things that could be considered corrupt in some circles, I will not delve into that, that is up to the reader to decide. But based upon my views and how I have seen him interview on various news stations, he is very skilled in dodging direct questions that would otherwise cut down his statements based upon video game violence. His statements are on shaky ground at best. When he feels that his agenda or opinion is threatened, he tries to focus the conversation to his clients and victims of various traumatic events.

Secondly Thompson is very good at distorting the truth, more or less he flirts with the line of blatant lying.  Thirdly he has a selective opinion, when he uses the quote "Statistically Significant Sample," he is trying to distort the pereception that the average person who is able to discern reality from fantasty is not "significant" in his views. Granted though, in Lamen's terms he is merely saying this, "Your not important in my views, you have no value to me, please get out." This outright is very petty at best. If a person is statistic, you need to run across the whole board, not merely cherry picking what cases you want to use as ammunition for your personal agenda. All in all though, Jack Thompson is facing disbarrment will still be a die hard through and through.

In short, Jack Thompson carries a selective personality, distorts the truth to his way, does not see fit to accept the wider spectrum of truth, views the world is out to get him and sadly will not last as a lawyer for much longer.  Granted he seems to be a decent human being in his talking on the phone inviting the hosts to his house.  The man needs to look at himself in the mirror and ask himself, "Am I really telling the truth rather than my truth?"

HOLY FUGGIN' SHIT!!!

JT finally talks sense in an interview! SWEET!!

I AM A LOST SOUL, CONDEMNED TO HAUNT THE DREAMS OF JOHN BRUCE "JACK" THOMPSON UNTIL HIS CRUSADE AGAINST VIDEO GAMES ENDS. SOMEONE, PLEASE! END MY SUFFERING!

I have not personally experienced the scourge that is the online Jack. I must say though, his composure is a possible ploy to say the least, but in essence though some gamers as myself have viewed nothing Jack as a free ranging, take no prisoners, break all the rules whackjob. But in essence though, he is trying to play by the rules until his disbarrment hearing. He knows that he is facing down the barrel of some serious charges, unless he wants to mess himself over right now I must say he will keep his composure. All in all though, the three jack thompsons are one in the same, believe it or not though I think even though he is a christian, he actually viewed the whole debate idea with Penny Arcade or whoever it was a long time ago as a get rich quick scheme. The man is very voracious and volatile if his views or opinion are threatened. The number one thing he will do when faced with a direct question is to possibly avoid it or avert attention away since he knows he is caught with bs. There is an old saying here in Sandi, I dont buy bullcrap, I sell it. That is what Jack tries to do and does it very poorly.

Also in regards Danny, I am pleased that you responded and would like to take the time to say your not a sickophantic psycho. I admit I was first disgusted by the game of Super Columbine Massacre but after hearing your perception and side of the story, I have nothing but the utmost respect for what you did. Even though your game is controversial, it does offer insight into questions like Why, how, and what was the purpose of these kids' actions. You also broke that stereotype about various other people. On your interview I must say I was very impressed when you broke apart the Cho angle about VA tech. It is true that a panel including the FBI found that the only video game cho played if violent that he was particular to was Sonic the Hedgehog. When Thompson refuted that and basically said, "His room mates didnt know what he was doing, he was like a ghost." Basically saying if they didnt see cho with these guns, why didnt they see this coming? Well truth be told, he went on the assumption that because the FBI and the police didnt find his hard drive, he is relying on the remote possiblity there were some dangerous and incriminating evidence on the hard drive, and possibly including violent video games such as Counter Strike. I have followed that story to the very last dot and page and believe me, if something I have learned, no one can ever assume anything. Well all in all though, I am particular to the VA tech shooting because using Counter Strike as a basis that it is a murder simulator is just coincdental at best, since it is regarded as one of the greatest mulitplayer games of all time. The ability to control your heart rate and whatnot is null and void, I seriously doubt anyone could train on something like that. If anything the police in some countries use Counter Strike as a training simulator but as a murder simulator, doubt it.

That are some very interesting points you represent. I remember hearing about that Washington Post Article that was retracted. Granted I have to say that your point about marksmanship training in regards to the sniper massacre back in the late 60s or 70s at the Texas school would require something of marksmanship training. I honestly have to say in regards to Cho's mental state, the NRA, Fox News (Granted they are probably the scourge of the Earth when it comes to reporting news.) and various other people were playing the blame game. Some cried, "We need more gun control," "Blame Video Games," rather than focusing on the truth of what happened. This kid was mentally disturbed and in essence the slightest thing could have possibly made him snap. I have seen some of his memoir videos about how these kids are paid to go to school by parents. I drew a parallel that he seems to be a kid that came from nothing and is becoming something while the kids in the surround region, possibly a majority of the kids at VA-Tech are of the upper class, more wealthy families, I do not mean the prestigious wealth of schools like Stanford or Harvard. He sounded as though he was possibly jealous and angry because of his upbringing. I can't prove or disprove it, just a minor observation.

Moving on though, you present some very well obvious points. My general rule of thumb when studying something is try to use the great tool we call context. If a video, article, or some piece of information is taken out of that context and not viewed from every angle, the actual truth behind it could be distorted and possibly manipulated. I am not exactly sure what movie you produced, but if it is the one known as Moral Kombat, then I would definitely be interested, if not please correct me and point me in the right direction.

Something you are correct about is Thompson's real name is John Bruce Thompson, not Jack Thompson. Wondering exactly where that name came from anyway. Well, JOHN Thompson is a very paranoid individual to say the least. He could be considered by many media pundits could consider him prime bait for many people to come out and grill. Many of his studies including one study he cited back in 2005 of the American Psychological Assocation about the effects of media violence on people was very interesting but a prime example of how he was using misinformation. I did some digging and believe it or not the study was retracted and revised to say something completely different. Hence, the man's evidence is shaky at best. Ever since the controversy surrounding hot coffee, I have been following people Thompson, Clinton, the New York Governor, etc. Amazingly though Thompson is one anomaly that I have kept a large focus on. I actually would like to speak with him myself and see how his points represent. Granted though, I digress and have to go to the point you represent about the idea about a certain someone being born again and walking on water, I will not argue the validity of religion, but being a christian myself I have to say that many things he says and does are well how you say, asinine to say the least. Saying your something and being good at it are two different things. In other words, some things he does are very disrespectful, pity, insulting and otherwise very disgusting even for someone of my caliber. Correct me if I'm wrong but calling someone a closet, drinking lesbian because of a possible disagreement is something that would be considered unchristian so to speak. The point being, it's not becoming of a decent human being. Drawing later on in Thompson's career, he used another well strung deragotory remark for someone, that person "supposedly" placed their hand on Thompson's shoulder discussing with Thompson about the remark and then Thompson decided to file assault charges. This is what I would call is not just being the opposite of a christian but also an act of being an indecent human being. Please not I am using a wide statement about two past events in Thompson's career because I dont want to be considered liable to be sued for defamation of character by someone who might be perusing this post as we speak.

Point blank, Thompson claims to be a crusader of morals and fighting for our generation of children. The way he is doing and opting the government to do things is very inept and ineffective at best. Interesting that you continue this discussion.

Bravo, Danny!  Like others, I was intially put-pff by SCRMPG.  However the trailer for your documentary, and your radio interview, changed my mind.  Once I fully understood the intention of what you were doing; that this was a meditation on the true causes of Columbine and not some crass attempt at sensationalism as others were trying to paint it, and how you came across on radio, my respect for you shot up 100%!  Who says video games can't be art? :)

And you're right on the money about non-violent gamers being "statistically insignificant."  I've said pretty much the same thing to my friends and family on this aspect.

As for the whole thing on religion, your views are your own.  I'm an agnostic myself, mostly due to my own personal experiences with organized religion, but I digress.  I understood the point you were trying to relate Thompson's faith vis a vis his views on video games.  Thompson is what is called a "True Believer" (and not the Marvel kind), as he is one of those Christians that view every single thing that Jesus did as a matter of undisputed historical fact, never allowing himself to entertain the possibility that some of those stories could have been embellished at the very least.  And if one allows onself to ascribe to that sort of blind faith, it also allows for one to blindly accept the most outlandish of other concepts (i.e. "Video games teach kids to kill").  That being the case, I'd wager Thompson also believes in Santa Claus, too.

This is probably also why Thompson stubbornly clings to his belief that if the video game companies tell the retailers not to sell M-rated games to children, we'll be better off.  This runs counter to everything I've come to understand about how businesses operate in a capitalist-based economy.  The publisher makes an agreement with the retailer to sell the product.  From that point their involvement ends there as it is now totally up to the retailer how to sell that product.  If Take 2 told a retailer like Wal-Mart, Target or Best Buy how to sell their games or to sell them to only a certain type of customer, they'd go out of business (which I think is what Thompson actually wants; having video game companies put themselves out of business by way of economic suicide). 

It's also ludicrous because if that were the case, other companies would be doing it already.   But you don't hear about Playboy or Hustler telling Borders or Barnes & Noble they'll withdraw their business if they're caught selling one of their magazines to a minor.  None of the major movie studios have threatened to do that with their R-rated movies either.

Anyway, thanks for posting here, Danny, and welcome to the group! :)

After listening to Thompson's side of the story, I have to admit that I don't think he's a complete waste of air. He's a little ecentric, certainly offensive to the gaming community, but from what he said and what he wants, I think is fair enough.

A game that is rated for "Mature" audiences shouldn't be sold to minors. (Read: Sold, not played by). Parents will still retain the rights to decide what material their child may partake in, and I really don't think that is or ever was a problem. That said, Thompson just comes off as a complete jerk, especially when taking shots at me for playing games. (Anyone remember his comments about reading the bible without regards to the fact that not everyone is christian?)

---- There is a limit for both politicians against video games, and video games against politicians. http://www.goteamretard.com

I'm all for freedom of ttnet vitamin speech and allowing rent a car game makers to put whatever they want in games, but there's one thing about this app that has me scratching my head.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but from araç kiralama the previous article araba kiralama on this I gathered that players can use Google maps in-game to find the other (real-life?) dealers in their area.  If this is the case, has travesti anyone considered what's stopping someone from using this app to actually move drugs between hands for reals?

But majority araba kiralama of their outrage araç kiralama stems from what it could DO TO children, not the content itself.  Talk to one of these people and you'll find they don't think any books kiralık araba should be banned from children.  Mention American Psycho and they talk about kiralık araç the redeeming value of using imagination to construct a story.  Reading, no matter what the content, is largely viewed as a consequenceless activity for people of any age.  The reason why I mention American Psycho is because of the content itself.  Gaming never has and likely never will have any scenes where someone has sex with a severed head.  Not gonna happen.  Yet despite this, they'll fight tooth and nail to protect their children from two boys kissing in Bully but whatever they read is harmless... yeah.

The entire arguement is kiralık oto based upon a social normality inflicted by luddites who can't figure out the controls for Halo so it's frightening and terrifying and obviously the cause of youth violence on the rise even though, in reality, it's in decline (which is actually a HUGE suprise given minibüs kiralama the economies status).  In  a perfect world, we would have parents that actually parent.  The idea of sales restrictions on media on oto kiralama any form to accomidate parental unwillingness to get involved with their child's life is the real problem to me.  Here I am, 32 years old, and being held up at a self-scan rent a car needing to show ID before I can buy a $10 M rated game all because Soccer Momthra can't be bothered to look at the crap Billy Genericallystupidson does in his free time.  It's too hard for her, so I have to suffer?