Read the Interview at www.netjak.com
Today I had the displeasure of reading another damning interview of Jack Thompson. King of doublespeak and master reality contortionist. Jack ends this interview with this incredibly insightful and ignorant quote.
” put down the controller and get a life. Video gaming is an escapist activity and you’re being exploited by these companies. It’s not healthy; I worry about someone who would play Grand Theft Auto for ten hours a day. It’s a masturbatory activity, and it would be better if people put down the controller and went outside.”
Listen to yourself Jack I completely agree with one point, that is that video games are an escapist activity. But on the same side of the coin, so are movies, plays, operas, ballets, music, fictional literature and magicians. And I’m sure Jack himself partakes in at least a couple of those. There is nothing wrong with escapist activities that’s the whole point of entertainment. To allow us to experience things that we normally wouldn’t in our everyday lives. Can Jack simply write off Macbeth or Hamlet as escapist?
This brings me to point two, (which incidentally has been ignored be anti new media zealots like Jack) violence in media has been around since the beginning of time. We start with the Bible and brutal tales of parents killing their children, people being literally crucified and inciting violence against an ethnic group (the Jewish people). Then we move on to more modern works like the works of Shakespeare as I mentioned before with young lovers committing suicide{Romeo and Juliet}, a son killing his mother and uncle {Hamlet}, the list goes on. We don’t restrict these works from children, in fact we encourage it!
Jacks rants, lack of insight and general idiocy towards the subject only serve to confuse the masses to further his own political ends and desire to be in the public eye.
The ignorance of this Q and A is what really irks me.
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32_Footsteps: So you mean to say, if Take Two specifically refused to market towards kids, and instructed retailers to not sell games like Grand Theft Auto to minors, you would not object to the game?
Jack Thompson: Well, I’d still have issues with the game on moral grounds, of course. However, if they stopped their marketing towards kids and instructed retailers like that, I wouldn’t take any action against the company.”
That’s what the game companies are already doing you raving jackass! Software companies tag their products by choice with ESRB ratings to give buyers and retailers an indication on what age group this game is appropriate for. Just like the MPAA ratings it’s voluntary ! Go after the retailers who don’t enforce those rating as effectively as the movie theaters do instead of the game makers who’s job it is to make product that will sell.
And lastly my trademark rant that this is ultimately the parents responsibility. My parents did it their parents did it before them and so on. It’s a parents responsibility to know what their child is doing and who they’re doing it with. My parents had no trouble keeping track of me. It’s idiocy to say the parent is not responsible, 13 year old Jimmy can’t work he’s too young to legally so where’s he getting that $60 to buy GTA? How’s he getting to the Mall to buy it? The answer to these questions and more is Mom and/or Dad. Where’s the fight against negligent and neglectful parents? That would solve a multitude of problems instead of just one. But that wouldn’t curry public favour as much as targeting an “”Evil”" corporation.
In closing I want to say trying to ban video games is no different than burning books. Think back throughout history to look at the civilizations (if you can call them that) that partook in that kind of activity. Jack Thompson is a book burner in my opinion and I hope to see more people realize that.
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