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Lets say you make a kid feel angry; he is going to act out what he has spent hundreds of hours doing. He has spent hundreds of hours hurting people in virtual reality. And the thing that is doubly troubling now is the graphics are so crisp and so virtually real that the brain can literally not differentiate between real violence and virtual violence, I'm a lawyer who for 20 years did medically related work. As a citizen, I entered the violent video game arena with the Paducah, Ky., shootings,
I had represented abused women and children, and that album ("As Nasty as They Wanna Be") was totally inappropriate for minors,
Killing is such an incredibly dramatic thing to do. But I quickly became disabused of that skepticism. Now it's a whole body of thought that is very, very troubling. And we are seeing these instances with incredible frequency. Here we had one in Kansas and a day later in Alaska, Playing the games desensitizes the person to the act of killing, because there is no guilt. It's a game. You are winning the game, and it's a pleasurable thing. You can get a gamer's high killing people. And there's no need to feel guilty about it -- that's how you win the game. In the Civil War, for example, soldiers were found dead on the battle field with loaded muskets. It wasn't because the guns were malfunctioning. The soldiers were young men who had been trained by their parents to go hunting with guns -- not use them to kill others. And they couldn't do it, even in the face of hostile fire. So time and again these men would load their guns, raise them and pretend to fire. Those soldiers had not been trained to overcome their inhibition to kill, If somebody else's kid plays a video game and puts my kid in harm's way in school or someplace else, I have a legitimate interest in that, The Grand Theft Auto games immerse you in a lonely world of violence, cheap sex, and pixelated nihilism, Most experts say it takes more than 100 hours to complete all of GTA: San Andreas just once.
It shows you how to -- by bullying -- take over your school. You punch people; you hit them with sling shots; you dunk their heads in dirty toilets. There's white-on-black crime in the game. You bludgeon teachers and classmates with bats. It's absolutely nuts. This is the most knuckle-headed thing I think any entertainment entity in the history of American entertainment has ever done. The word 'Columbine' means something. Everybody viscerally understands that you don't want to teach kids to bully one another. Suspects in the Kansas and Alaska incidents have bullying components just as Columbine's Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris did. Then you give them a simulator on how to exact their revenge and settle scores? It's crazy.
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Jack Thompson

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Jack Thompson on Kansas Television This Evening
Pixelantes and Hal Halpin, Who Is Just a Highly Paid Pixelante Lobbyist:
I am on Kansas television tonight and your're not. I'll be explaining to folks in Senator Brownback's homestate that some of the perps involved in the "Kansas Columbine" incited were found to be gamers by virtue of my close work with the law enforcement community there.
On the other side of the ledger, you have Hal Halpin, who spends days and nights doing whatever he can to make sure other parents' kids have access to violent video games that are mature-rated. If Hal Halpin really wanted to stop the sale of mature-rated games to kids he would stop agitating against legislation that requires a parent to make the purchasing choice.
See, Hal Halpin can't have it both ways, and maintain to the public that he is an honest individual. If the industry acknowledges that the mature-rated games are inappropriate for minors, then you can't also be for a scheme, as is Hal Halpin, that allows the sale of a mature-rated game to a kid with no parent in sight.
Either prohibit the sale of these games to kids, or stop pretending to want to stop the sales. The Federal Trade Commission repeatedly states that 35% or more of the kids who got to major retailers are able to buy these mature games. A kid who goes to two retailers has a better than 50% chance of getting the game. Hal opposes doing anything to stop the totally unregulated sale of mature games to kids of any age via the Internet.
Hal Halpin assists, daily, the video game industry's mental molestation of minors for money. Hal, get an honest job, please. Jack Thompson

 

Jack Thompson

 

"It's a murder simulator, it's not a game." "The U.S. military literally uses modified versions of these games, as well as their own video games, to do one thing: to break down the inhibition to kill among new recruits,

 

Jack Thompson

 

Weaver Is Woefully Behind the Virtual Reality Curve "Virtual Columbine" is already here. It's called BULLY, Mr. Weaver, and you've obviously missed the school boards (Miami-Dade and two others), the county commissions (Lincoln, New Mexico), and others who actually have degrees in useful disciplines (psychiatry, psychology, education) who understand that Bully is in fact a Columbine simulator. Maybe Mr. Weaver needs to read the newspapers more rather than pro-game trade journals. Maybe he needs to ponder where the Duke sex scandal came from--from a pop culture dumbed down to the video gamers' scum level. Jack Thompson

 

Jack Thompson

 

Hey, how about a video game depicting the killing of the people who run Joystiq? Bet they'd be real interested in doing something about a certain game then. Maybe then they'd feel how cops and women feel about GTA. Oh, but that would require some actual thought, and I forgot: You're all gamers!

 

Jack Thompson

 

that's why the ESRB exists. so the PARENTS can DO THEIR JOB
NO, THE ESRB EXISTS IN ORDER TO FRAUDULENTLY MAKE PARENTS THINK THAT MATURE-RATED GAMES ARE NOT BEING SOLD TO KIDS IN STORES WITH NO PARENTS IN SIGHT.
Tell the self-regulation spiel to the MPAA. you're getting a bit pompous to assume that you are going to be elected as governor. Children never have been, are not, and most likely never will be "mere prey in a race to the lowest common denominator" as they are the future people. I know that sounded corny and such, but it's true.
SORRY, BUT THE AMERICAN ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY HAS A DOCUMENTED HISTORY OF MARKETING ADULT, HARMFUL PRODUCTS TO KIDS. CHECK THE FTC.GOV SITE, AND PUT "MARKETING VIOLENT ENTERTAINMENT" IN THE SEARCH ENGINE.
it's already being done, oh wait, I forgot how censored an environment the USA is! seriously. there is no big conspiracy. perhaps i parents did their jobs then the kids wouldn't be playing so many videogames!
NO THE FTC STUDY RECENTLY FOUND THAT 42% OF THE TIME MATURE-RATED VIDEO GAMES ARE SOLD TO KIDS UNDER 17. CAN YOU READ?
and for good reason. because at the same time, the world is getting more graphic too. if you want your children to grow up all protected and their naivety remaining untouched, fine. but when they get screwed over, I'm blaming you.
RIGHT, WHICH IS WHY THERE ARE MORE COPYCAT ACTS OF VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS. RECENT STUDIES SHOW TEEN VIOLENCE IS UP, NOT DOWN, AND THE CULTURAL CESSPOOL IN WHICH YOU ARE SWIMMING IS A BIG REASON WHY.
guess what? the enforcement of those laws? not happened. if it's IGNORED, that's the PARENT'S FAULT! and there is currently something that prevents a 14-year-old from getting an AO game, that being that most places don't carry AO games. show me a place that sells AO games and I'll show you a porn shop.
BY "ADULT GAMES" HE MEANS M-RATED GAMES. HE DIDN'T SAY "AO" GAMES. THAT IS YOUR TERM. YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT.
'Safe Games' legislation should also require retailers to post signs explaining the video game rating system to customers. Democrats and Republicans both have bills that would address these problems, but they have gone nowhere. It is time to make this a priority.
okay, the entire thing requiring signs? that's just stupid. the ESRB DOES have a website. if parents want ot see the ratings, they can spend 5 minutes to see them at www.esrb.com
OH, SIGNS ARE STUPID? WHAT DO YOU THINK SIGNS ARE FOR? SO PEOPLE READ THEM AND ACT ON THE INFORMATION ON THEM. I THOUGHT YOU ALL WERE FOR PARENTS GETTING MORE, NOT LESS, INFORMATION, HMMMM?
it's obvious that if spitzer has to say all that vile spew, then I'm glad to not live there, and parents DO have a job to do. it's called PARENTING>
RIGHT, AND PARENTS VOTE, UNLIKE MOST VIDEO GAMERS, ESPECIALLY THE ONES UNDER 18 WHO CAN'T VOTE. WE'RE IN CONTROL HERE, NOT YOU. GET USED TO IT, KIDS.
JACK THOMPSON

 

Jack Thompson