Part 3: Wacko Jacko
Act One: Electronic Software Ratings Board
Heard of the ESRB? Anyone who has purchased a video game has seen their ratings, glaring at you from the corners of the boxes and cases. The basic ratings consist of Early Childhood, Everyone, Everyone (10+), Teen, Mature, and Adults Only.
These ratings are pretty easy to spot, consisting of a monochrome square with a single letter emblazened in the center.
The ESRB is a simplistic organization, meant to regulate and enforce gaming ratings. The process in rating a game is fairly simple. A gaming company takes video footage from their most violent/controversial parts in the game, and send it to the ESRB for review. Three reviewers, working independant of the eachother and the gaming community, analyse the entirety of the video and give it a rating. This decides the end rating.
Shortly before release, the company submits the finished product to the ESRB for a complete playthrough, just to be safe. If the ESRB finds something MORE VIOLENT that wasn’t disclosed in the review footage, the gaming company will be fined. Otherwise, the game packaging is submitted for review, the rating is given, and the games roll into stores.
Currently, Jack Thompson is making the arguement that Rockstar defrauded the ESRB by squeezing through that “adult content”. He goes further to condemn the ESRB for not catching it, and questions if they are doing their jobs.
First of all, Rockstar defrauded no one. Second of all, the ESRB are doing a damn good job. Here is the problem with Thompson’s arguement: Based on Rockstar’s duties as a company and ESRB’s obligations as a company, neither did anything wrong. Rockstar gave ESRB footage from the most violent in-game sequences. ESRB reviewed the in-game sequences and gave it a rating.
Here is the thing, the “Hot Coffee” mod was NOT IN-GAME. There is no way to access this mini-game without using: a) an Action Replay device on your PS2 OR b) a downloaded mod on your computer.
From this, it is clear that both companies fulfilled their duties. It is not the fault of the publisher/developer that this content was uncovered. Hell, many of other games have some sort of “added on” adult version. Max Payne 2 has a Mona Sax mod where you play as a nude heroine gunning down mobsters and whatnot. The Sims has a mod that, apparently, adds genitalia. I’m sure, somewhere down the line, Mario will have a mod that shows him in a thong with his hairy chest…
Gross…
But the point is, these mods are not - in any way, shape or form - a product of the developers. Why should they be punished? Granted, I don’t think any of this nudity is much of an issue, unless you are a 10 year olds playing Mature rated games, in which case, your parents are dumb for buying the game.
In addition to the “Hot Coffee” scandal, Jack Thompson has spoken out against the inappropriateness of Killer 7 and The Sims 2. In Killer 7, there is a fully-clothed sex scene that he feels is inappropriate. The Sims has a patch that will remove the blur over the nudity of your Sims.
A character from the cel shaded video game, Killer 7.
Big deal. The Sims 2 are as anatomically correct as Barbie and Ken. Instead of genitals, they have smoothed over body parts. That’s it. Few people care to remove the blur. Jack Thompson overexagerates the situation, and claims The Sims 2 is a breeding ground for pedophiles.
A pizza party turned pillow fight in the EA game, Sims 2.
The entire arguement against video gaming is absolutely bogus. If I were to witness an upstanding young man, with a perfect family, with a perfect life, with no issues whatsoever, who played GTA and shot someone in real life, I’d be inclined to believe. Not wholeheartedly, but I’d wonder what made him snap.
The Washington sniper shootings was - according to Jack Thompson - an act influenced by video games. Apparently, the snipers “trained” using Halo’s God-Mode and Sniper Mode. How anyone can believe this is beyond me…
First of all, in video games, you don’t learn shooting. You push buttons. Moving a joystick and pressing a few buttons is not the same as assembling and using a fully functioning sniper rifle. There is no way that someone can upgrade from a Gamecube controller to a firearm and have no trouble. It’s moronic to assume otherwise.
It is also said that games desensitize people to violence. In GTA, I’ll gladly run over people in a car. In real life, I’m a nervous driver. I always worry about changing lanes, passing, and I’m constantly on the look out to AVOID pedestrians.
Why am I so “violent” in GTA? Because it is fictional! It’s a game! I don’t feel remorse when I kill the pedestrians in GTA for the same reason I don’t feel remorse when I wipe out my friend’s armies in Risk. Not a single shred of the situation is real.
Jack Thompson’s persistance as he tries to undo videogames is frustrating. The select few who can put up with his idiocy and immaturity must truly be men and women of great virtue and patience. Frankly, I’m irritated by it. I might write him an e-mail when I have more time, and can afford to be as verbose as I want (I’m on break).
Act Two: stopkill.com
I don’t really have much to say about this site.
Frankly, I think it is a tad insulting that he piggybacks on everyone’s grief, points the finger at videogames and tries to move up in the world through it. It’s disgusting.
Check it out. E-mail him something tasteful and intelligent if you wish.