The judge ruled in favor of the game, leaving a steaming pile of thompson behind

This is about the trial

This is the angry reply

What do you all think about this guy?

You all know how I feel about him.

Seriously. I'd make a comment involving him, cod liver oil, and a very depraved walrus, but he might sue my ass.

I sent him an e-mail along those lines. He never replied. Shame.

That's because he's amassing his army of lawyers to prepare a lawsuit.

I have an army of samurai and ninjas protecting this board...he can't touch us here!

Well now I just have to live in my computer chair, and that won't be much fun. I can't buy Bully that way.

Never really heard of Jack Tompson until today, I took a look on Wikipedia and a lot of people have had a go at him when he seems to have a legitimate against these companies.

Whether I argee that videogames are linked to violence or not is another thing. I don't totally argee with him but I'm not going to slag someone's opinion when it has some evidence backing it up and has examples of such cases.

I think though he puts too much exaggeration into such cases, he seems to be more the lawyer that's fighting for a noble cause (yet again that's another matter) but trys to manipulate people into supporting it.

If you read the wikipedia entry than surely you could see that in fact his claims had no legitimacy at all - all the legal claims he has made have been dismissed by the judge without ever going to trial. There could be two reasons for this. Either Jack Tompson and all his lawyers are completely incompetent or he has no legitimacy at all. I guess a third option would be that the US legal system is significantly flawed however it would be pretty hard to make that assumption based just on this evidence and there are not many times when cases spring to mind that involve judges throwing out legal documents saying they are badly written when they're actually well written.

Actually, just for clarification, no violent crime has ever been linked to a video-game. Sure, they've been accused as being a catalyst but nothing's ever happened, and for the moment it doesn't look like anything will.

Objection!

That's the only case I know of. But the kid was clearly messed up - he had a terrible life.

...call me a bad person but that level was fun.

Yeah I think what Decman means is that it's impossible to attribute violent culture to violent acts. Yes that guy committed a violent act inspired by a video game, but that's because he was crazy. There's no reason to think he wouldn't have committed violent murders if he hadn't played the games already. He just would have found another outlet. I think the evidence shows that people choose the culture that reflects how they feel rather than the culture controling how they feel.

The blame should lie with the parents whom read the ESRB, know that a game isn't suitable, yet still buy it.

Bully could feature the kid decapitating the teachers, and it would still be unconstitutional to pull it from shelves.

Maybe Cain killed Abel cos he played too much Manhunt? Violence has always been around, vg shouldn't be blamed for any violence today, what about movies and music? And influential ppl like Russel Crowe?

Yeah this is the key argument really, perhaps a violent act may be copied from a videogame, but that doesn't mean the videogame itself is the single reason for said act to be comitted, there are many contributing factors, in that particular case the guy could have got his 'inspiration' from many other sources, it means he's crazy.

And as Mach said, parents need to take responsibility, they need to realise that there are games with content that is only for adults.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not taking Thompson's side. I actually wrote a paper about the effect of violent games on children for my Essay Writing class. That kid played GTA for months with minimal sleeping or breaks, and he was messed up anyway. I play violent games every day and I have for most of my life, but I haven't seriously injured anyone ((okay I punched a kid in 7th grade because he made fun of me BUT THAT WAS IT)). To do something like this, a screw ((or three)) have to be loose in your head.

Ah yes, of course linked in the sense that the perp could've been influenced by the game...most certainly. Look at the Columbine Massacre and Doom...But linked in the sense that a game has actually been proven in court to be responsible for a violent crime? No. Hasn't happened, and probably never will.

Games have a rating system for a reason too. Stupid parents can't blame games if they are the one's who bought an R18 game for their 12 yo kid.

Yeah no shit. My mom bought me Vice City when I was 12 because she had no fucking clue what was in it. Even when she found out, she laughed when I killed hookers.

Reminds me of this guy at the medieval fair thingie, he said to the crowd, "If your children understand our jokes, it's YOUR fault!".

You had it alot easier than me, my parents wouldnt let me get Perfect Dark until i was 14-15 and i had to turn on Paintball blood (but the paint blood streaks after being shot with the magnum were funny) but i actually thank my parents now, because they were concerned with what i was doing enough to want to look exactly why the games were rated what they were.

I remember they would be pissed if they walked in and the blood was turned on.

Those days let me get more in touch with my Mario anyway, i respect my parents greatly for doing what they did, even though kids at that age brag about how "cool" there parents are for letting them see things they shouldnt be seeing. Apparently cool translates into bad parenting

I think it depends my parents let me play games and watch movies a little before the recommedend age (13 for MA stuff 16 for R stuff) and I think thats fine for me, I was far too lazy to go copying these things, and the stuff I read in books were far worse anyway.

That said if your child is violent giving allowing them to play or watch violent media is probally a bad idea at any age.

My parents have pretty much said nothing to me about videogames. Thought I'm assuming that this would probabaly be the consenus of parents who's sons are addicted to videogames.
Though the only real comment that was ever bought up about videogames was "I'm reading about this World of Warcraft game, do you have it?", I said No and I didn't have a clue what it was. She kept reading and said "yeah apparently it breaks down families and causes couples to divorce, It sounds pretty violent."

Then she talked about Youtube when A Current Affair was talking about Youtube and grafitti. "Don't you have a video camera?" I told her that I had a normal digital still camera. Then she watched some more and said "Have you put any photos on Youtube?"

I picked up a prostitute and chainsawed her to death in Vice City. My mum just tutted. But I think it is the responsibility of the gamer as well and not just the parent who buys their kid an over-age game. An 11 year old child knows they're doing something illegal if they're playing an 18+ game. A person knows whether or not they are going to be influenced by a game too. I've done it myself. I've chattered on about bushido and war strategies to people who don't care after having played Shogun: Total War for weeks on end. The same goes for other games.

11 year olds cant always be accountable for there actions though, there extremley young and stupid

Latest Jack Thompson bait? "Bully" features boy-on-boy kissing. Anyone else think Rockstar did it purely for the controversy?

Source

If Thompson went after Bully because of this, even though "sexual referneces" are mentioned in the rating, then he might as well go after The Sims 2, since it features the same thing ... oh wait :P

Recently Rolling Stone did a story on jack thompson, portraying jack the father, not the jack we all know. Now they represented his personal side but they clearly did not touch on his political side, they did not even mention how he was held in contempt of court for his letter to the judge of the bully trial. They painted him a martyr for standing up against gamers who wear "I hate Thompson" shirts and Jack Thompson toilet paper, also sending him death threats daily. they failed to recognize that this is not the majority of the gaming community, and that he says truly outragous things, like equating bully to homosexual porn.

I personally have lost some respect for the magazine, how do you all feel?