Jack Thompson Settles With Take-Two, Hopefully Becomes Slightly Less Annoying

from the you-give-me-a-headache dept

Thu, Apr 19th 2007 4:31pm — Carlo Longino

Fresh off of getting a beating from a TV talk show host, Jack Thompson has reached a settlement with his favorite target, Take-Two Interactive, publishers of the Grand Theft Auto games. You might remember Thompson's suit in question here, which was pretty ridiculous, even for him. In response to a Take-Two suit trying to stop Thompson's repeated (and repeatedly unsuccessful) attempts to block the release of their new games, Thompson alleged the company was at the head of a vast conspiracy to somehow deprive him of his civil rights. For added amusement, he alleged that a number of video-game news sites were in on things, and alleged some racketeering violations, though he soon quietly dropped them. Thompson and Take-Two were due in court Thursday morning, where Thompson could have been tossed in jail for contempt of court, but the settlement precluded that. It's hard to see this as anything other than a win for Take-Two: Thompson has agreed to stop trying to block the sale of Take-Two's games, and will stop telling people that the company is breaking the law by selling games. However, he won't be prevented from representing third parties in their suits against the company, nor will he stop criticizing them and their games. But between this case and his potential disbarment, Thompson's doing a pretty good job of marginalizing himself.

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Charles Griswold, 19 Apr 2007 @ 4:59pm

Counterstrike as Training
One of Thompson's points is that playing Counterstrike (or other similar games) can prepare you to deal with similar situations in Real Life (tm). OK, I can see his point. He then tried to imply that playing Counterstrike can turn you into a cold-blooded killer. Nope, sorry. He was way off base on that one. The only way that Counterstrike could do that to someone is if he was bat-guano crazy to begin with.
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Stute, 19 Apr 2007 @ 5:15pm

Question to Thompson...
Ummm... How do you train for using real guns by using a mouse? He points out that the military uses video games to train, but he doesn't mention the fact that they use mock rifles as input devices, as opposed to a mouse...

So, when guns are aimed via mouse, his argument is kinda... Well... Dumb.

On another note, "Heart rate lowered"? Ummm... WTF? My heart rate doesn't change when playing video games, doesn't matter what it is... It's the same as if I was watching TV...

And BTW, OH TEH NOES! I R PLAYIN COUNTER-STRIKE HALF LIFE

Right.
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Anonymous Poster (profile), 19 Apr 2007 @ 5:22pm

Yay, JT loses some of his sting! Now let's see if both the dirt he's kicking up over the VTech shootings and his potential disbarment take him out of the limelight for good. I mean, seriously, the only reason people put JT on the news is because he's a lawyer -- who's going to put "disbarred and disgraced former lawyer Jack Thompson" on the air as an expert on anything?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2007 @ 5:35pm

The cynical part of me can't help but wonder if Jack Thompson is being paid by the video game industry for his antics. He's certainly brought oodles of free advertising and publicity to them.
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DCX2, 19 Apr 2007 @ 7:56pm

Meh
I hate to admit it, but he does have a point with the heart rate thing. It doesn't make sense for someone to go on a killing spree and be calm.

Though, I wonder if he couldn't have played it out in his mind, or written stories about it on his computer...and perhaps totally unrelated to video games. His stories could have been "murder simulators".

And, then...Super Columbine Massacre RPG, used to train people? Disgusting...SCMRPG had the graphical prowess of circa 8-bit Nintendo.
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YouKnowNothing, 20 Apr 2007 @ 6:02am

Re: Counterstrike as Training
"Counterstrike (or other similar games) can prepare you to deal with similar situations in Real Life (tm)"

Call me crazy, but I don't think we've ever seen a bunny-hopping, wallhacking, aim-botting, AWP wielding psycho killer in Real Life(tm). Nor, I'm guessing, will we ever see on in the future.

I don't believe CounterStrike, DOOM, et. al. can prepare anyone for anything in Real Life(tm) any more than I believe Gran Turismo will prepare anyone to be a better driver, or Madden Football will prepare anyone to be a quarterback or head coach, or Tiger Woods Golf will prepare anyone to win the Masters in Real Life(tm).
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Matt Bennett, 20 Apr 2007 @ 3:02pm

Jack Thompson was on Fox News, I was sad. The hosts were incredulous, but still let him say his peace.
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Matt Bennett, 20 Apr 2007 @ 3:05pm

Also, look I play a lot of games. I also was in the army, shooting various weapons. Emotionally, it doesn't feel like the same thing, at all. So, I don't think a game really prepares you for that sort of thing. But tactically, some of the tactics are applicable. I remember my squad mates playing co-op Halo when it first came out. We were yelling "cover me when I move" and all that jazz, like we'd been tought in basic. It was useful.

But the real question is, if you take these games away, would there be less violence? I suspect not. violence is hardwired into us pretty well. You don't need a game to teach you that.
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