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Jack Thompson Weighs in on Oblivion 505

Posted by Zonk from the zonk-smash dept.
Robotron23 writes "Jack Thompson has commenced his attack on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion by seeking appearances on several talk shows. A press release announcing his availability speaks of Take Two not having 'learned its lesson' over the Hot Coffee scandal, before continuing to detail the issues surrounding Oblivion's re-rating, in particular regarding nudity - concluding that the game content will spawn 'an even worse disaster' than occurred during Hot Coffee."
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Jack Thompson Weighs in on Oblivion More

Jack Thompson Weighs in on Oblivion

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  • Somone poke Jack in the eye for me if you see him. (Score:5, Funny)

    by GundamFan ( 848341 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:05PM (#15285756)
    Subject line says it all.

    Video games don't make me fell violent, morons do.

    • Re:Somone poke Jack in the eye for me if you see h (Score:5, Insightful)

      by pete6677 ( 681676 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @01:39PM (#15286628)
      The best thing to do is just let him keep on ranting publicly, in the press and in court rooms. He does a great enough job making an ass out of himself, much better than anyone else could do to him. For added effect, maybe he can piss off another judge and get a contempt charge.

      • Re:Somone poke Jack in the eye for me if you see h (Score:4, Insightful)

        by tbannist ( 230135 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @04:42PM (#15288149)
        No, he need to be confronted and exposed publically, otherwise people will continue to believe him. He's a self-agrandizing moron, but people think because he's a lawyer he knows what he's talking about. More people need to show up and confront him with the fact that he's been disbarred in two states and is for lack of a better words, a nutcase and a leech on society.
    • I can say this with all honesty:

      Looking at a breast has never, EVER made me want to shoot someone, slash someone, burn someone, etc.

      Listening to Jack Thompson talk and knowing he's allowed to breath the same air as actual human beings, however, has. Well, only him, really, but...

      So I say we ban Jack Thompson from this plane of reality. Won't somebody think of the children?!

  • What does Take 2 have to do with that? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by KDR_11k ( 778916 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:05PM (#15285757)
    That's the responsibility of the developer, not the publisher. But then again it's Jackass Thompson, of course he's only talking out of his rear end without bothering to do any research. How did that man manage to become a lawyer?
    • How did that man manage to become a lawyer?

      of course he's only talking out of his rear end without bothering to do any research

      Um, dude, I think you answered your own question without realizing it.

    • And what lesson should they learn for Hot Coffee? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by GundamFan ( 848341 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:16PM (#15285861)
      How can user mods be prevented, also how can a developer be held resposable for a non-sanctioned mod (something that would void any warenty on the product)? That is the real question.

      The "Lesson" is that Hillary Clinton is a stooge or at least bottom feeding to get conservative votes and people like Jack Thompson have declared war on an entertanment industy accusing it of erodeing our morals. Media reflects our culture not the other way around, "fix" our culture and the desire for simulated violence will go away on it's own.

      Just my 2 cents...

      • To be fair, the nude skin is included in the product they sell you. On the other hand, nobody's going to go postal just from seeing some pixelated boobies.

      • Re:And what lesson should they learn for Hot Coffe (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ADRA ( 37398 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @01:16PM (#15286397)
        Lets face it. One part of most boys development is to make liberal use of our adrenaline & testosterone. Some people play sports, some play video games, some get in fights, some go on murderous rampages, some break things, some hike, et al. The point is that it happens. Now, if there's a better outlet to fast-paced violent video games, then lets find it. IMHO if it means that some bored teenager wants to do -something- I'd rather it be beating the crap out of some virtual enemy than against a real person.

        I think the real issue with the 'older' audience is that they've forgotten these key periods in a young boy's life. I say boys because in general people aren't afraid about girls morals being eroded. Its like there's a magical shield around girls that say they can't be violent offenders or mass murderers. Thats another flaw in their logic.

        Not only that, they've mistakenly attributed the realism in video games as an increased threat to our childrens morals than the 'harmless' nature of games in the old days, like double dragon (The sole activity of the game is killing people).

        If Jack really wanted to solve the problem, he'd come up with a new teenage pass-time that they actually want to do more than games.

        Just to end this thought:
        "Part of the research challenge is to try to learn what positive changes affecting children born most recently are associated with the reductions in both victimization and offending"
        Quote relates to the severe decrease in crime from teenagers recently.
        http://www.nichd.nih.gov/new/releases/americas_chi ldren.cfm?from=sids [nih.gov]

        • Re:And what lesson should they learn for Hot Coffe (Score:5, Insightful)

          by smellsofbikes ( 890263 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @02:31PM (#15287125) Journal
          >I think the real issue with the 'older' audience is that they've forgotten these key periods in a young boy's life.

          I disagree: I think most people remember *exactly* how they were when they were younger and, now that they're older and more mature, are appalled by their own behavior and want to prevent other people from making the mistakes they made. It's just like stage mothers. One of my best friends is a hardcore Christian who is against drugs, homosexuality, and sex before marriage. Know why? Because when we were in college together she was spending every weekend drunk and coked out of her skull, screwing other girls. I keep pointing out to her that she wouldn't be where she is now if she hadn't done those things -- in fact, if she hadn't she'd probably be more like me, raised low-key liberal Christian with no particular urge to bust loose during college, and now as an adult completely permissive towards other people's rights to do whatever they want and vaguely agnostic, rather than who she became: right-wing Christian woman. Needless to say, she does not agree with me at all, because she, like Jack Thompson, thinks she has the right to tell other people how to live their lives. Which is, fundamentally, what this is all about: people who don't think you should know or live what they know or have lived. Santimonious bastards.

          • Re:And what lesson should they learn for Hot Coffe (Score:4, Insightful)

            by Fulcrum of Evil ( 560260 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @05:36PM (#15288573)

            disagree: I think most people remember *exactly* how they were when they were younger and, now that they're older and more mature, are appalled by their own behavior and want to prevent other people from making the mistakes they made.

            So now looking for boobies is a mistake? I think they're still in denial about how teenage boys are.

            • I couldn't agree more. I'm the rare exception to the rule. I never really looked for boobs as a teen (correction: Real boobs. As in, in person. Pr0n is unrelated, and I never really looked for much of that, either).

              In general, as a teen, I was rather disgusted by/afraid of/confused by/etc. my peers at school. Thus, I avoided social scenes as much as possible. (A /.er avoids social situations? Alert the authorities!) Sure, I WANTED some female companionship, but I found the girls near me to have little to no

        • Re:And what lesson should they learn for Hot Coffe (Score:5, Funny)

          by stummies ( 868371 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @02:43PM (#15287229)
          Tonight, on "Eye on Springfield": just miles from your doorstep, hundreds of teenage boys are playing videogames where they are given weapons and trained to kill. The town calls it an "arcade", but a more alarmist name would be "The Killbot Factory."

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Bethesda's views on user mods are just the opposite...They want an active mod community, and they opened up the API hooks to help the mod community make better mods.

        Almost all good RPGs are doing this these days, because it drives interest and gets new content for free. Look at Neverwinter Nights...The mod community there is huge, and that game is still popular well past the point where a lot of similar games stalled.

        Sure, every now and then you're going to get boobies. It's a hard life. It should be common

    • Re:What does Take 2 have to do with that? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by stlhawkeye ( 868951 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:23PM (#15285925) Homepage Journal
      He graduated from an accredited legal program and passed the bar, all of which can be accomplished without demonstrating that one has any ability to think critically and run an ethical lawyering practice.

      • Re:What does Take 2 have to do with that? (Score:5, Funny)

        by TheBogie ( 941620 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:58PM (#15286227) Journal
        Actually all lawyers are required to sign up for Ethics 101 class in their first semester. Anyone who shows up is immediately expelled from law school.

      • Re:What does Take 2 have to do with that? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ultranova ( 717540 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @01:46PM (#15286706)

        He graduated from an accredited legal program and passed the bar, all of which can be accomplished without demonstrating that one has any ability to think critically and run an ethical lawyering practice.

        Jack is a troll trying to get publicity and popularity by attacking a scapegoat. It's an old trick, with Adolf Hitler being propably the most famous real example and Emperor Palpatine the most famous fictitive example. That's the peer group Jack belongs to. Joseph McCarthy and Fredric Wertham are other good examples of this morally banckrupt tactic of sacrificing innocents for profit.

        For the benefit of Google Spider, let's put it all into a single sentence: Jack Thompson is using the same tactic as Adolf Hitler, Joseph McCarthy, Fredric Wertham and Emperor Palpatine used: victimizing innocents for his own profit.

        Jack Thompson, Adolf Hitler. Jack Thompson, Senator McCarthy. Jack Thompson, Fredric Wertham. Jack Thompson, Emperor Palpatine.

        Any other way we can make the poor spider link the man to his proper context and peer group ?

  • Overrated (Score:3, Interesting)

    by HugePedlar ( 900427 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:05PM (#15285760) Homepage
    If I understand correctly, it was a 3rd party mod applied to Oblivion that caused the nudity fuss, not a 3rd party unlocking of existing content a la Hot Coffee.

    As people have said already, you might as well rate every single game ever made as Mature, since any game can be hacked independently to show nudity or sex or clones of Jack Thompson for that matter.

    • Re:Overrated (Score:4, Informative)

      by Enderandrew ( 866215 ) <enderandrew@NOsPAM.gmail.com> on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:14PM (#15285835) Homepage Journal
      Actually it is a fair parallel to Hot Coffee. The content shipped on the disc, but the content isn't a sex scene. The content is a nude-colored texture for female characters. However, this horribly offensive nude "patch" doesn't even have nipples. The odd thing is that you can't access it on the 360, but the 360 version is being rerated and ripped off the shelves. So no nipple, and not even in the 360, but the 360 is being rated for having nudity. Thank God for the ESRB to protect me!

      • Re:Overrated (Score:2, Insightful)

        by R2P2 ( 193577 )
        Actually, the rerating was also because they underestimated the violence level in the game. I'm pretty sure that's the same in both versions.
      • Actually it is a fair parallel to Hot Coffee. The content shipped on the disc, but the content isn't a sex scene. The content is a nude-colored texture for female characters. However, this horribly offensive nude "patch" doesn't even have nipples. The odd thing is that you can't access it on the 360, but the 360 version is being rerated and ripped off the shelves. So no nipple, and not even in the 360, but the 360 is being rated for having nudity. Thank God for the ESRB to protect me!

        I've heard conflictin

    • You understand wrong.

      It's unlocking just like hot coffee.

      Bethesda claimed otherwise though so your confusion is understandable. Note though that take 2 claimed hot coffee wasn't on the PC disk... until it was found in the PS2 version.

      • Re:Overrated (Score:3, Insightful)

        by gorbachev ( 512743 )
        "It's unlocking just like hot coffee."

        Well, not quite.

        What really happened is that Bethesda modeled the character models as naked 3D human models, then superimposed clothes in them when displaying the characters in the game. The modder then found the "naked" 3D models and "removed" the clothing.

        This is not an unreasonable way to implement 3D modeling especially if you're about to do some advanced clothing physics type of stuff which would require the clothes to be modeled separately. I would suspect every m
        • He should see what kids do with GI Joe and Barbie.
          Nasty, dirty, horrible things. And that ho Barbie likes it. Poor Ken.
          • "Nasty, dirty, horrible things. And that ho Barbie likes it. Poor Ken."

            Poor Ken? Barbie's just his beard, he's probably more upset that he doesn't get more action from the GI Joes.
    • There are topless males in the game. By applying the MALE texture to the FEMALE model, you get boobies. Sort of.

    • Re:Overrated (Score:5, Informative)

      by Surt ( 22457 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:57PM (#15286220) Homepage Journal
      Actually, most of the sources I've read agree that the nude content was shipped with the game, and unlocked pretty much the same as hot coffee. Here's a couple:

      http://www.igniq.com/2006/04/oblivion-nude-mod-alr eady-available.html [igniq.com]
      http://www.oblivionsource.com/?page=modforge&op=vi ewproject&project_id=191 [oblivionsource.com]
      http://grbeta.bolt.com/download/pc/the_elder_scrol ls_oblivion_4_nude_patch [bolt.com]

      Do you have a source that says it did not ship with the game?

  • I think... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cheapy ( 809643 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:05PM (#15285763)
    I think that there should be a new rating introduced. How about "TM", or maybe "T-M". It would stand for "Teen-Moddable", and underneath it it would say: "This game can be modified by the players. This means that there can be boobies and heavy sexual innuendo."
    • *can* be?

    • Re:I think... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Caste11an ( 898046 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:43PM (#15286120)
      Congratulations on buying the executive version of Oblivion. You have chosen wisely and we value your discerning taste in deciding to pay the few extra pence for a product of real quality. Everything on this record has been designed to meet the exacting standards which you have naturally come to expect. The game disc itself is made from the very finest Colombian extruded polyvinyl. The centerhole has been created to fit exactly into your drive with all the precision of finest Swiss craftmanship. The audio content has been quality graded to give you the finest in listening pleasure. There is little or no offending material apart from four cunts, one clitoris, and a foreskin. And as they only occur in this End User License Agreement, you're past them now. You can relax and enjoy this quality product, secure in the knowledge that it has been specially created for the lover of fine things and man of good taste.

    • Re:I think... (Score:4, Funny)

      by Rakshasa Taisab ( 244699 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @01:29PM (#15286522) Homepage
      "This game contains Sexually Explicit Teens."

      PS. Don't get your hopes up; they are all fat, pimply boys sitting in their mother's basement.

      PPS. That includes the hot druid you were cybering with last night.

    • Re:I think... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Ian_Bailey ( 469273 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @01:32PM (#15286569) Homepage Journal
      They actually have a disclaimer designed for this:

      Online games that include user-generated content (e.g., chat, maps, skins) carry the notice "Game Experience May Change During Online Play" to warn consumers that content created by players of the game has not been rated by the ESRB.

      http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp [esrb.org]

  • Best Course of Action (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Enderandrew ( 866215 ) <enderandrew@NOsPAM.gmail.com> on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:06PM (#15285770) Homepage Journal
    He likes to instigate things. He likes attention. Everyone knows his stance, which you either agree with or don't (hopefully it is the latter). Can we just be done with him now? Honestly, the best course of action is to ignore him.
    • Agreed! I had the same thought when I saw this article -- "Can we please just ignore him?" The guy just wants us to pay attention to him. Unless you're Penny Arcade. Then he gets pissed if you pay attention to him.
    • "Honestly, the best course of action is to ignore him."

      While that may work in the play ground, ignoring people who have access to mass publication and political lobiests is all round a bad idea. The American people will beleive what ever lie is said the most. The best way to beat him is to get him involved in a scandle, even a wide spread rumor of sexual deviance would be enough to close a lot of the right wing doors in his face.

      -Rick
    • The ignorant masses do not ignore nutjobs like him. Ignoring him will do nothing to ease the minds of those who would listen to him. Thus, they must be informed of his lunacy.
      • The ignorant masses do not ignore nutjobs like him. Ignoring him will do nothing to ease the minds of those who would listen to him. Thus, they must be informed of his lunacy.

        But... but... they're ignorant masses! That's what they do!

    • Thompson is a blowhard, if I remember correctly he was disbarred or at least investigated, I don't think he's actually made any inroads on this front recently. We don't need yet another story to tell us what Thompson's stance is, we know what it is already, he's 100% down the line pro-censorship in games.

      Seriously, stop publicizing Jack Thompson and he'll go away. He feeds off your hate mail and your stories and your negative comments.

  • Well there's a surprise. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SatanicPuppy ( 611928 ) <Satanicpuppy.gmail@com> on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:07PM (#15285777) Journal
    Can't be pissed off at Thompson for being a wanker...He was born that way, I doubt he could help it. I guess you could blame his parents for not slapping the stupid out of him...

    All that being said, W. T. F. was the ESRB thinking giving that game a goddamn Teen rating? DIABLO II got a goddamn M rating. Any moron would know that a first person game with fricking SWORDS is going to rate an M. Didn't Morrowind rate an M?

    Really, does it weight that heavily on the sales if it ends up rated M?
    • Really, does it weight that heavily on the sales if it ends up rated M?

      Yes. Apparently many large game retailers (e.g. Wal-Mart, whose influence is evidenced in the standardized, small game box size that is now omnipresent) don't stock rated-M games in efforts to maintain a family-friendly image or somesuch.
      • Yes. Apparently many large game retailers (e.g. Wal-Mart, whose influence is evidenced in the standardized, small game box size that is now omnipresent) don't stock rated-M games in efforts to maintain a family-friendly image or somesuch.

        hmm. maybe its differant down there (i'm in canada), but i see M-rated games stocked in walmart. doom III, quake 4, GTA series, et all.

  • Why do we bother? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Gorkamecha ( 948294 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:07PM (#15285783)
    Gah, this is nothing but Troll bait.....We can't stop Jack Thompson from talking to the press. We can't stop the press from listening to him...so why do we even bother to post these. All we get are comments ranging from the useless to the insane (yes threating JAck with violence is an excellent way of proving he's wrong *sigh*). This post included ;)
  • Lets me tag stores like this with "asshole attentionwhore bullshit esrb fud"

    Even if it doesn't accomplish anything it makes me feel better /offtopic

  • What? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:08PM (#15285791)
    Its popular and newly released Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has now been re-rated "Mature" and recalled by the ESRB because Take-Two and its co-publisher have been caught embedding nude figures and scenes in the game which can be unlocked with a code provided by the developer. This is not a modification or "mod" of the game by gamers. It is an unlocking of content that was put there by Take-Two with the unlocking code provided by the developer!


    You have to be kidding me. I hope this guy appears on a few call-in shows. I'd love to ask him some questions.

    • Re:What? (Score:2)

      by spun ( 1352 )
      Unfortunately, he's technically almost correct here. Characters are modelled nude, and seperate clothing is added over the nude models. The developers included some "code," a program used to make mods. Players can use this "code" to "unlock" the naked character models. It's a mod, but it's not a mod that adds content, which is what he's trying to say.

  • Oh god, not another one... (Score:3, Funny)

    by filterchild ( 834960 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:09PM (#15285793)
    Jack Thompson: the Dvorak of the gaming world.

  • Clarification: (Score:2, Informative)

    by Avillia ( 871800 )
    The skin was a nude skin used to render clothing. It was technical nudity. It was unlocked via a third party modification. There was no intended nudity or a fellatio minigame, just a skinning component detached and refactored. Not nearly as severe, but still hot-coffee-esque.

    • Re:Clarification: (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Red Flayer ( 890720 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:20PM (#15285892) Journal
      It doesn't even look like a real nude woman[1], it's not even close to anatomically correct. It's less realistic than a Barbie doll with the clothes stripped off. Last time I checked, Barbie dolls didn't have an 'M' rating -- they didn't have a rating at all!

      [1] Or like the pictures and videos we've all seen, for those of us who lack a basis for comparison :)

  • Sorry (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Rinisari ( 521266 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:10PM (#15285811) Homepage Journal

    Clearly, Mr. Thompson does not understand the technical nature of the problems he addresses with his hellfire and brimstone approach. In both the Hot Coffee and this new Oblivion case, the consumer must have the desire to modify the game in order to access content which the developers did not intend for the consumer to see. Sure, in the Hot Coffee case, the "questionable" content was there but inaccessable in any way through normal operation of them game. In the Oblivion case, the "questionable" content isn't even in the data of the game!

    Mr. Thompson should turn his efforts elsewhere. My suggestion would be the consumer instead of the manufacturers, because they are far more likely to listen.

  • SHOCKING: People are nude under their clothes (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Chris Pimlott ( 16212 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:11PM (#15285815)
    This is just ridiculous. If you're going to make an accurate model of a human character, of course you're going to have to start with a naked form and build up from there.

    I can understand people getting offended at "Hot Coffee", which was explicitly sexual, but this is just silly. People are naked beneath their clothing. It's true! Take-Two showed more no skin than you'd see in the world normally, but they made the horrible sin of starting from anatomically correct base. You might as well ban mannequins.
    • Oops, that should be Bethesda, not Take-Two. I made the mistake of assuming Thompson at least knew which company he was railing against.
    • You might as well ban mannequins.

      Don't give him ideas...

    • Re:SHOCKING: People are nude under their clothes (Score:5, Funny)

      by Vengeance ( 46019 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:21PM (#15285899)
      This reminds me of "The Muppet Show". Sam the Eagle was all in a huff, and gave a speech about the evils of nudity. A reasonable paraphrase goes like this:

      People, under their clothes? Nudity!

      Birds, under their feathers? Nudity! *looks down, slinks off*
    • I don't think you can really claim that your base model of a human couldn't have non removable underwear built into the model. Not that you should need to do this, but you could. And given how innaccurate their models are to begin with, I'm not sure the need for accuracy argument holds much water.

      And a parallel might not require banning mannequins wholesale. What about banning mannequins with unnecessarily graphic details. For example, do mannequins require coloration of the nipple?
    • This is just ridiculous. If you're going to make an accurate model of a human character, of course you're going to have to start with a naked form and build up from there.

      Just to get away from lame things like this, I would probably demand that the base skin had a "duck tape" bikini over the nipples/crotch. Something like the center girl here [sxxxy.org] (probably not safe for work, but no nipples/crotch visible). Then again, from what I've understood it's the male texture wrapped over the female model. The males would

  • Antidotes? (Score:4, Funny)

    by thesaint05 ( 850634 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:11PM (#15285816)
    FTA:

    During your interview, Thompson also gives antidotes from his new book, "Out of Harm's Way" (Tyndale House Publishers).

    I wish someone would give me an antidote [reference.com] to Jack Thompson...

  • Sure... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:16PM (#15285852) Homepage
    "During your interview, jack explains that this game is an even worse disaster than last year's' "Hot Coffee" scandal in that it has resulted in the re-rating of a "Teen" rated game that kids of all ages have already bought and secondly because it shows that the Take-Two and the ESRB and the industry as a whole learned absolutely nothing from last year's scandal."

    OK, as nuts as this guy is, are you kidding me?

    A little bit of topless-ness in a game rated T which was sold to kids of all ages is worse that a full sex mini-game, complete with sounds and visuals which was in a game rated MA which was sold to kids of all ages?

    Remember kids: Jack Thompson says sex mini-games are better than topless-ness. Just make sure the female isn't topless.

  • Hey, Slashdot! Are you suffering from the heartbreak of...Thompson-itis? Then take a tip from Mr. Paul Anka!

    To stop Jack Thomspon, one-two-three,
    Here's a fresh new way that's trouble-free.
    It's got Paul Anka's guarantee...
    (Guarantee void in Tennessee.)
    Just don't look. Just don't look.

    Only when we all stop paying attention will he go away.

  • I propose an experiment... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TooMuchEspressoGuy ( 763203 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:18PM (#15285875)
    ...on Mr. Thompson's behalf.

    First, get a bunch of gamers together. Give half of them the most violent video game you can think of, and give the other half a bunch of articles/rants by Jack Thompson, and tell each group to play/read for an hour. At the end of that hour, administer a few tests to see how violent each group is.

    I guarantee you that the Thompson group will be much more prone to start bashing in heads, particularly Mr. Thompson's.

  • Just makes you realize... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ZombieRoboNinja ( 905329 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:24PM (#15285932)
    How much Rockstar screwed us over.

    I WANT to call this guy an idiot (which he is) and say that there's NO WAY that the publisher should be held responsible for a user-made mod. But last time I did that, it turned out Rockstar actual HAD included the "offending" content, and HAD lied about it. All us gamer types were calling Jack a moron for confusing "official" content with user mods, but he turned out to be right.

    So thanks, Rockstar, for being idiots and forgetting to delete the mini-game you had to disable at the last minute to keep your "M" rating. And thanks even MORE for lying about it, making US look like jerks for defending you.
    • It is worse than that.
      The simple fact is the rating system is voluntary and it doesn't have the force of law.
      People complain that "parents" should know what games there kids are playing but at the same time don't like the voluntary rating system.
      Yea Jack is a moron and Oblivion may not deserve the M rating for the nudity.
      Yep Rockstar has done every pro-censor anti video game zealot a great service.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Illegal?! Ourageous (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DreadPiratePizz ( 803402 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:28PM (#15285968)
    "Last summer the video game industry was rocked by revelations that Take-Two Interactive, the makers of the hyper-violent Grand Theft Auto games, had illegally embedded in GTA: San Andreas graphic interactive adult sexual material."

    Illegally imbedded? Since when is depicting nuidity in a work of art/literature/film/video game illegal? Pretty sure we can do that given the first amendment. The rating system is not law either, so not showing the ESRB all content is no more illegal. Seems his attitude is a bit skewed.

    "It is also clear that Take-Two corporately and its senior officers, including CEO Paul Eibeler, individually, must now be prosecuted criminally for the knowing distribution of "sexual material harmful to minors" which is a felony in most states and nationally. The undersigned intends to work toward that end immediately"

    Again, the ratings system is not law. Because a game is rated teen does not mean it is intended to be marketed towards kids. If anything, get on the ESRB for misrepresenting the game. Why not sue every publisher who puts out sexually explicit books. It's not the publisher's responsibility to dictate who should buy their material. His statements are outrageous.
    • Um, GTA:San Andreas was already rated M wasn't it?? My thinking was that they pulled it off the shelves to remove the content so they could retain the M. GTA was never MEANT for teens.

  • Those games should get a new rating of BT, for boner time! ha ha. Seriously, though, how is this different than kids who watch the scrambled Playboy channel, etc.? If you're going through that trouble to hack the game, you know what you're going to get. The fact that the content doesn't show up during regular game play means that you have to look for it to get it. Any kid with access to the internet can likewise type one word into a search engine and produce dirty pictures. So what's the point? You ca
  • I notice in the article it says, "In Thompson's engrossing memoir...Thompson explains the moral, legal, ethical, and racial implications of this battle" (i.e. the battle against Satan's own game industry) - but Racial implications? Don't suppose anyone's actually read the memoir and can explain what on earth he claims the racial implications might be?

  • Could we send this to ALL talk shows (Score:5, Informative)

    by AzraelKans ( 697974 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:44PM (#15286124) Homepage
    For those who dont know, all the Mod did is:

    It changes the male bare chest texture for the female bare chest (which has a bra)

    Theres no "hot coffee" no hidden sex scenes, games, or anything, just some kid who realized in our culture is ok to show male breasts not female breasts you can do this "MOD" in ANY game.

    Case closed.

    Is there a way to send this info to ALL the talk shows this moron is presenting hilself on? (seriously)

    p.s. IMO Oblivion does desserve an M rating theres quite a bit of blood, realistic violence, you can create an "evil" character, and theres some innuendo here and there, worst of all Oblivion (the land) does look a lot like hell. I have no idea why the ESRB didnt rated it "M" in the first place. My guess is they didnt played it at all. ( in which case is the ESRB the one who should be sued)

  • Big difference....in one game you get oral sex, in the other, you see plain breasts. Oblivion's problem should not be compared to Hot Coffee

  • boobies in Oblivion? (Score:3, Funny)

    by matt328 ( 916281 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @12:56PM (#15286216)
    Woot. I'm buying it. Thanks for the tip, Jackie boy.
  • Let's get serious here. In the same (or less) time, couldn't the kid just Google for and download actual porn instead of getting a mod to let your character run around topless?

    Also, there isn't much exactly that's 'erotic' or 'pornographic' about your character running around topless anymore than them seeing a statue in a muesum.

    Any has anyone considered that to be able to view ANYTHING at a decent quality in this game, you need a really expensive computer and videocard, or really expensive Xbox360 wh
  • It is also clear that Take-Two corporately and its senior officers, including CEO Paul Eibeler, individually, must now be prosecuted criminally for the knowing distribution of "sexual material harmful to minors" which is a felony in most states and nationally. The undersigned intends to work toward that end immediately.

    I was only a teenager when I played Daggerfall and you couldn't turn a corner without running smack into a square pixel nipple in that game. Didn't have the slightest effMURDERMYPARENTSect

  • And ignore him. He's just out for attention, and when lawmakers start to listen to him, I tell them the same thing: ignore him, or you lose my vote (yes, I actually write/email to congresscritters, and participate in drives to do it in masses).

    Just leave the troll be - after all, if a troll shouts in a vacuum, can anyone hear him?

  • Oh no! (Score:2)

    by xtal ( 49134 )
    Cartoon boobies!

  • Speaking of Nudity (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @01:23PM (#15286465)
    And nudity is bad because...?

  • On one show someone called him to the carpet... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by trimsyndicate ( 863819 ) on Monday May 08, 2006 @02:21PM (#15287030) Homepage
    There's a religious talk show called steve brown etc., and Jack was on there last week. A caller called in though and challenged him on whether video games cause violence when statistically violence is going down (at least in the us). Thompson said something about how the caller was wrong about violence going down and talked about some news study that showed it was going up. The caller then said something like "I can't believe you'd be calling a news story more accurate than crime statistics from the US govt." It was pretty funny...thompson basically conceded and then made some lame statement that violence would be down even more if there weren't violent video games, which is obviously bs. So anyway, why don't all of us arm ourselves with statistics like that guy and call into every show he's on?

    Oh and that show has an mp3, here's the link for it: http://media.gospelcom.net/kln/sbetc/050606sbe.mp3 [gospelcom.net]

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