Jack Thompson losing on TV

[Meotwister]

Watch as he debates with Adam Sessler and . . . some other dude.

http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/blo ... _Loop.html

I think he says he predicted Colombine. . . or some shit.

[Furyo]

Insane. I'll go on record and say that I'll happily buy the first game that comes out where I can kill Jack Thompson

[Bic-B@ll]

nothing like a 4 minute tv segment with 3 people arguing with each other incomprehensibly to sway someone's opinion

[Meotwister]

lol yes exactly my opinion on these talk show things, but I think also that they are trying to sway the viewers opinions moreso than the other person's opinion.

[Squirrelly]

I never knew Adam Sessler was actually so intelligent... D:

[Erratic]

I never knew Adam Sessler was actually so intelligent... D:

Yeah, it's hard to tell since X-Play but he does know his stuff.

[user]

Jacko mentions that the person being dunked in the toilet is black. Way to put racism into it, Jack...ass. Not related to Jacko at all, if you take blacks out of the picture completely, someone calls the race card. if you put a black person in it, it's racist.

[mikezilla]

Jack Thompson did not lose this argument.

Adam Sessler came off a raving loony who had absolutely ZERO prepared information to combat JT. He just yelled the entire time even though everyone else was as cool as a cucumber, this is detrimental to whatever cause Adam was trying to fight for. Games are not 100% innocent of putting ideas in people's heads (notice I said people, not children.) We would do better to admit games affect people as much as any other form of media does.

So next time it comes up, just tell the person arguing with you that they mimic'd all those wars and stuff that happened in the bible.

[Squirrelly]

That's just the way Adam talks mike. But personally, I think music affects people a LOT more than video games. Just look at the way rap/hip-hop has affected most of our youth, and that's enough said.

[Patrick_H]

Early on, Thompson mentions one of the killers "training" playing Doom.

Under the current ESRB ratings system, Doom would obviously be off limits for children their age to be playing.

I don't agree at all with Thompson, but I don't think Sessler's debating strategy was helpful at all. In the end, there is a ratings system, and if everyone follows it, and parents do their job, its the best thing to do.

[sensee]

that sessler guy was too loud, annoying and stupid. (there's no freedom of speech in the UK? right...)

i would really like to see a more professional (and longer) debate with jack thompson.

[teeluu]

I think music affects people a LOT more than video games.

You said it there. I believe that sad music makes people to kill themselves, really, depressed people are good example. Cutting their hands and such, come on. Rap is another good example. I see these goddamn idiots walking in gangs preteding to be some real gangsters, they causes violence with their arrogant threats and so, they causes most of the fights here. They get the image from movies and music(videos), not from videogames. In my opinion, game like GTA can even prevent these things happening for real.

If i see a real kid getting shot in the head on internet, shooting someone in video game really doesn't affect me at all. Music might.

[Squirrelly]

Precisely. There is a fine line between virtual and real. Music videos and movies are (usually) real people, unlike video games.

[Meotwister]

that sessler guy was too loud, annoying and stupid. (there's no freedom of speech in the UK? right...)

i would really like to see a more professional (and longer) debate with jack thompson.

I'll admit Sessler was a bit overzealous in the way he put his points but I wouldnt say Jack Thompson won at all (mike) and as for the no free speech thing. He didnt say that he said that in the UK there wasn't an exact equivalent to the 1st Amendment of the Constitution over in the UK.

Sessler I guess just wanted to say all he wanted in the little amount of time. Always the problem with these short little debates.

Jack came off as even more of an idiot by saying the Colombine kids trained on DOOM and not even considering the solution that parents should be aware of what their kids consume.

And yes, music is definately more influential, and yes mike games have an effect but that of any other entertainment medium.

[Fletch]

That was painful to watch. Sessler came off looking like an idiot, and JT came off looking like the sane one.

People like Thompson exist for media attention. Giving it to him just keeps him going. He's had zero success in the legal arena as far as game legislation goes. Every state bill he's helped write has beens truck down by the courts. He burns bridges left and right with politicians. He's been barred from giving testimony or filing amicus briefs in numerous video game related lawsuits. The only thing he has success with is getting on TV every few months. Take that away from him and he'll move on to another target.

And if you are going to take him on, do your freaking research. He cites the same 3 or 4 reports every single time and he always distorts or lies about what the finding are because he knows the other person in the debate doesn't know any better. You can hate everything he stands for, but the man has smarts when it comes to these things. Sessler should have known better. And if you are going to play the "preaching to the choir" card like he did, try to do it without reinforcing every negative stereotype about gamers.

The industry is going to be a lot better off when it ditches the ESRB in favor of a new system. Regardless of whether or not the ESRB has a good system in place now, it has too much baggage around it. If EA and one other large publisher signed on for a new ratings standard it would give everybody the cover to come on board (much like the comic book industry did to ditch the well meaning but stupidly written Comic Code). Model it after Hollywood or the European rating system, and make it retardedly clear what audiences games are designed for. It allows the industry to start over with a more relevant system, but more importantly it allows them to say "Yeah, the old system kinda sucked. We admit that, and we're being proactive towards a new solution." It takes away one of the chief arguments of people like JT, and allows for a massive educational rollout.

Of course, this is like step one out of ten on how to cure the ills of the game industry. You still got all that shitty "EXTREME!!!!" advertising, shitty games getting green-lit, celebrities being tied to games for no reason, exploitational views towards females, hyper-violence and hyper-sexualization, and a littany of other problems that make our industry still appear juvenile. We might just have to live with the graves we've dug ourselves.