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Yes, I'll make that blanket statment.

I had posted about the the "Hot Coffee" mode in GTA: San Andreas and the reaction the industry had to it. My friend Matt posted about this. Colin also shared his thoughts too...along with many other people.

I wrote Jack Thompson an e-mail, since a lot of his stances really don't make sense to me.

Hello Mr. Thompson,

I'm writing you to see if I can further understand your stance on
video games and their appropriateness in our nation, as from what I
have read on your stances I'm not sure I understand how you've come to
your conclusions.

First, perhaps, I should tell a little summary of video games in my
life. I'm a 24-year who started playing video games around the age of
seven with the Nintendo Entertainment System. Since then, a good
amount of my life has revolved around video games, and to this day I
even work in the video game industry.

Through my teens and early adult life, I have played a massive amount
of video games. The titles contain a pretty wide variety: Super Mario
Bros., Harvest Moon (a farming simulator game), Resident Evil (a
zombie-horror game), Tetris...well, it's a pretty big list.

I can tell you, from personal experience at least, that video games
have not had a harmful effect on me. Being the child of a single
mother (my father died when I was 11), video games were my main source
of entertainment. Today I'm a productive citizen, and though I sit
down to play games (violent or otherwise), I've never gone on any
"rampages" that you so often cite in your messages.

I'll get to the point and ask the questions that have me confused on
your issues.

What makes video games different from the "rock 'n' roll" era where
many people claimed that rock music destroyed minds and sent children
into Satan's clutches?

Why are you singling out video games and not other sources of media
(movies, music, etc.)?

Quoted from your website: "Jack Thompson has appeared recently on a
number of national television program with victims of two teenage
Tennessee snipers whom police concluded trained obsessively on Grand
Theft Auto to prepare for their sniping spree. Numerous others have
been murdered by teens trained on this one game." What are your
references to this? Can you honestly believe that a video game, which
has little physical interaction, can translate to handling a real
firearm? If so, what are your sources for this reasoning?

We are a society that is very fast paced. Parents are more and more
relying on media to raise our children. Why hasn't any politician
come out to tell parents that they need to be there more for their
children? I realize it might be a bit suicidal in the political
career sense, but the blame is being passed on. I realize that being
a parent today is tough (I have a nine-year old sister, so I only have
an inkling of that feeling), but parents need to start raising their
kids...and not letting their TV do it for them.

In closing, I agree with your statement that games such as Grand Theft
Auto should not be sold to children. It's up to the parents to gauge
when their child reaches the age that they can discern fantasy from
reality and can play a game such as that. I would never give my
little sister such a game until I know that she can tell the
difference.

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,
Stephen King III

Matt was saying many people have just been getting single-line responses. I got a fucking press release.

John B. Thompson, Attorney at Law

1172 South Dixie Hwy., Suite 111

Coral Gables, Florida 33146

305-666-4366

jackpeace@comcast.net

July 24, 2005

The Honorable Leland Y. Yee

Speaker Pro Tempore

California State Assembly

State Capitol

Sacramento, California Fax: (916) 319-2112

Re: Distribution of Sexual Material Harmful to Minors by the Video Game
Industry

Dear Speaker Yee:

I was privileged to be involved in the successful effort, as were you, to
compel the ESRB to finally do its job regarding Grand Theft Auto: San
Andreas. I have information for you, however, about a matter that may be an
even worse abuse by the video game industry.

The Sims video game franchise is the most popular in history. These games
are rated "T" for teen, which means they are supposedly appropriate for kids
13 and over. However, this game is a prime example of the "ratings creep"
about which Dr. Kimberly Thompson of Harvard University has written. There
is some rather remarkable sexual content in the Sims games which I and
others believe would warrant an "M" rating as to the content that is
patently in them.

Proof that parents should be concerned as to what is the sexual content in
this supposedly "T" game is that one site on the Internet is offering
parents a means to shield their kids from the known sexual content of the
Sims games. But this gets worse.

It turns out that Electronic Arts, the publisher of all the Sims games, has
allowed the player, with a simple cheat code that even the New York Times is
distributing, to remove a "censor flag" in the game in order to make the
players nude, including the Sims children. A similar cheat code allowed
players to access the "Hot Coffee" content of GTA: SA. The nudity is not
put into the game. It is already there, put there by EA to be accessed by
all. But this gets worse.

Electronic Arts has encouraged the "mod community," by comments of the game'
s creator and by a failure to protect its copyrighted code in the game, to
create "skins" for the nude figures that are explicit in nature as they
depict genitalia, with some specific mods appealing to "fetishists" as well.
The unlocked nudity dovetails nicely into this modding.

These mods are offered at all sorts of "porn" sites on the Internet, and
they use the Sims name. EA is fully aware of this and is doing nothing
about it. If Electronic Arts wanted this activity stopped, it believe they
could shut it down in a New York minute. However, as you and I both know,
this industry, including EA, has benefited financially from such
collaborations with the "mod" industry. That is what is occurring here, and
the damning admissions of the game's creator, Will Wright, and his
enthusiasms for "mods" prove it.

I should like to encourage you to conduct hearings on the full breadth of
the scandal within the video game industry, which now includes collaborating
with those who are putting sexually explicit material into the hands of
children by making an "M" game that is labeled a "T," then facilitating the
unlocking of nudes in the game, and then looking the other way when others
are apparently using their copyrighted code to modify the nudes into images
that appeal to the prurient interest.

This is not artistic license, in my opinion. It is conspiracy to violate
the law at the expense of vulnerable children, behind their parents' backs.

The ESRB has always been a joke. Now ESRB is a cruel joke.

Regards, Jack Thompson

No, you're a joke, Jack.

Now, I'm sure he's getting a lot of e-mails, but I asked things that I'm sure he gets asked a lot. You'd think he'd at least of read my e-mail and came up with something the was in line to what I was writing him about. No. Really, all this e-mail says to me is "I'm dodging the issue".

Oh, and I love this quote from his website: I am trying to protect our freedoms. How so? When the next Columbine happens and the perpetrators are proven to be copycatters of adult-rated violent entertainment, then the government, driven by parental concern, really will contract freedom for all Americans. Safety will trump freedom.

Wow. He's trying to protect freedom by getting rid of it? Sounds like some good ol' doublethink to me.

If I ever catch wind of him coming to town, I'll be sure to show him a piece of my mind. I realize my postings on LJ won't see too many eyes, but it feels better to get it out...maybe I'll go post this on my 1Up blog. I never post there anyway. `^_^

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