Jack Thompson: Sony committing "Pearl Harbor 2"

Glad you all are interested in the Pearl Harbor content. Now that I have your attention, allow me to educate you about some things you apparently either don't know or don't want to acknowledge:

The GTA games have been developed and marketed jointly by Take2 and Sony. Anyone who doesn't know that is remarkably ignorant. Even the tv ads for the games are a joint venture. Duh.

Secondly, the ethnic/nationalistic xenophobia and racism in Japan toward the United States was there before WWII and exists even now. There is a race-based contempt in Japan for us "Westerners" that translates into certain corporate practices. For example, for those who don't know, for years Sony would not distribute the GTA games in Japan saying "We think these games are no appropriate for Japanese children but they are appropriate for European and American children."

Tell me, children, where does that rationale come from? Respect for our children, respect for OUR culture? Or does it come from the nation that we, at Japanese Sony, can dump our effluent into your society but not into ours?

Now you have certain states within Japan striking back at the dumping of this toxic stew into their children's heads, and some of us have the perspicacity to see the irony and the hypocrisy in that.

Where do you knuckleheads think the notion that Japan should rule the entire Pacific rim came from? From a respect for the rights of all those people who lived there?

Where did Pearl Harbor come from? From a respect by Japan for the lives of our people? The peace treaty with Japan forced upon them by a total disabling of their warmaking power did not eradicate the contempt that that nation has for other nations, including our own.

Those of you who have no grasp of the accuracy of the Pearl Harbor 2 comment are ignorant. I would expect nothing less and nothing more of people who spend their spare time blowing away pixelated figures rather than reading history.

The Japanese, especially Sony, have for years distributed porn to the West. They mentally molest our minors for money. They have little respect for us and our values. Come to think of it, all of you ought to move to Japan. You'll be right at home there.

Jack Thompson, Attorney, Ready to Rumble in Fayette, Alabama

ahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahaaaaaa!

/dies.

Good old Jack. Not one to let the facts get in the way of a bit of publicity. I mean really, he can't even understand the basic relationship between developer, publisher and platform owner. Oh dear oh dear.

Jack does have a point regarding the whole history of Japan hating the West, taking over the Pacific Rim, Pearl Harbor, etc. But I'm not sure that they are actively doing what he is saying regarding giving the worst games to Americans and not to themselves. Have you seen some of the manga/porn/anime that is available in Japan? It is FAR worse than anything we have over here, since this country was formed by Puritans. GTA is tame compared to some of the stuff that is acceptable in Japan.

"The GTA games have been developed and marketed jointly by Take2 and Sony."
You sure? Then why is it also on Xbox (american console) and PC.

"Sony would not distribute the GTA games in Japan saying "We think these games are no appropriate for Japanese children but they are appropriate for European and American children."

GTA:SA is availible in Japan, second of all GTA III wasnt banned but was still distrabuted in Japan but not for minors but was due to govermental powers not corperate. Dont weasel out your problems with lies. If you wanna stop minors getting GTA talk to our politicians but blaming corperations and generalzing sony, goverments and its people as one body is an insult.

"Respect for our children, respect for OUR culture? Or does it come from the nation that we, at Japanese Sony, can dump our effluent into your society but not into ours?"
Our children? Then why are lousey parent buying
kids mature rated games? How self-serving statement get real with facts. Japan sony? It was made by american company, its also availible on american console, does that mean we're dumping it in our own society? How about violent movies from hollywood, bad songs from our music culture, al capone all pawns of Japan.

"I would expect nothing less and nothing more of people who spend their spare time blowing away pixelated figures rather than reading history."
I wouldnt expect less from hypocritcal, self infactuated moron, who love himself more than he speaks the truth.

"The Japanese, especially Sony, have for years distributed porn to the West. They mentally molest our minors for money. They have little respect for us and our values. Come to think of it, all of you ought to move to Japan. You'll be right at home there."
Wow, american movies and TV are made in Japan, american music comes from Japan, Hugh Hefner is Japanese. Yeah we're such good parents, we let our children play with violent games, watch violent movies when we know they arent suppose to. ANd we like to blame someone else about it.

Yes Jack, this is clearly comparable to a surprise attack on US armed forces that killed nearly 3,000 sailors. How many people have this "Pearl Harbor 2" killed so far? By doing such an idiotic comparison, you insult the people who died in it, those who survived it, their relatives, and both the nations of US and Japan. Leave your racist, anti-veteran bullshit in your head, where it belongs.

I don't understand why people think *our* ignoring him will make any difference at all. He's not the boogey man. You cannot pull your blankie over your head, and grip tightly to your teddy bear, expecting him to be gone by sunrise.

He is a man who feeds, primarily, on power, not the ire of gamers. We're his flavor of the week, he'd still exist attacking some form of pop-media with or without our attention.

The only way to get rid of him is to show people in power we are perfectly sane, while he is perfectly not.

I'll give good ole' Jack the history of Japan, not really surprising there. However I must note that he is not attacking parents for buying their children these types of games.

All games are clearly labeled on the front and back with the ESRB rating. If parents ignore these then the companies that make games cannot be held responsible just like you cannot hold a gun maker responsible when someone get's shot. Note: if memory serves me correct a bill stating this was just introduced into congress within the last 2 weeks.

Raising kids isn't something that is easy to do, by any stretch of the imagination. If a parent does not take an active role in their childs life and lets video games and TV raise their child then they have no one to blame but themselves. It is time for parents to take responsiblity for their actions, by blaming outside sources for the results the country as a whole will never improve.

When I do have kids I plan for them to play video games just as much as I did growing up and also like my parents I will moniter the games they play as well as the movies and telivion they watch.

Also making comments such as the "Pearl Harbor 2" thing, may work at first simply for shock value but will not and cannot be fully understood by the general population because even after you have explained it, to me it still seems out right stupid.

Guys, better keep the replies short because y'know I've got this nagging feeling that Jackie-Boy has trouble with his reading.

Whew! For a second, after reading the title and seeing the illustration, I thought they were making a sequel to that POS movie. Thankfully, it was just an article about Jack being a blowhard. You do realize he likely loves the attention even if it is mostly critical?

What an ignorant son of a b*tch. That kind of backward thinking makes me embarassed to be an American, Jack. Do your country a favor and get a real job.

Alright, this is going to be a very long post, based on several key things- Jack Thompson's tactics, ignoring him, and what can be done.

Honestly, this man's tactics... well, there are enough posts here to sound out the fact that this man doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. The man blatantly lies to peoples faces, makes promises he doesn't keep, beats around the bush, dodges the subject he tries to make, insults gamers, slanderizes respectable companies whom wish to cater to the gaming community, demonizes an industry that is well regulated, shifts the blame from the parents to the publishers, tries to rally families by misinforming them, and NOW he's trying to give a piece of Blame Pie to the Japanese Government (whom, as everyone knows, has little control of gamemakers, who houses Sony, which doesn't even make the violent video games.).

And what I've been hearing lately is "Well, we should just ignore him, and he'll go away." I'm sorry, folks, but when that 3rd grade bully saw that you were ignoring him, did he go away? Did ignoring him make the problem go away all of the sudden? Or did that same bully keep hounding you and making your life miserable? Well, folks, we're mature now. And Jack Thompson should be more mature now, too. But he KNOWS what he's doing, and he's GOING to keep doing this. People like him don't want publicity, they want to make people think like he does, and he'll do ANYTHING to make sure that EVERYONE thinks like he does (or at least, the people that matter, like politicians and other lawyers). And he'll do it by making people fear an object, by demonizing and slanderizing people and shifting blame for the problems in this world to them, so that the REAL people responsible can get away with it and thus be allowed to commit MORE problems.

There's a word for that kind of behavior.

Know what it is?

Facism.

That's right. Jack Thompson, the god-loving and praying Christian lawyer who believes he's god's foot-soldier... is Facist.

Take a moment to read my e-mail address, Jacko, I'm still waiting for your e-mail.
Kajex_Firedrake@yahoo.com

So let me continue.

How exactly is ignoring Jack Thompson a viable and believable solution to the problem? I'll tell you one thing, I don't even think video games are the cause of violent behavior, but even if they were, I would not let Jack Thompson use it as a grounds for leniency on the criminals behalf. If that guy killed someone, I say let him be Bubba's bedmate for life, not bring him back to the streets so that he can do the same thing again. LONG before GTA, there were ALREADY drive-by shootings, carjackings, police-evasions and murder. And there probably will ALWAYS be those criminal acts, but at it's 30-year lowest, is it necessary to blame a problem that has diminished over the years?

And now, with his blantant tactics reaching and striking at a Japanese Ambassador, we can at LEAST see what it is he wants- he doesn't want violent games to be banned. No... he wants video games as a WHOLE to be banned. Otherwise, he'd have the sanity and direction to at LEAST put his focus on that. And even if he's not trying to reach that, he's STILL trying to make game companies conform to his ideas, based upon his high-and-mighty, holier-than-thou-art personality.

So how exactly is ignoring this man going to HELP anything? If anything, he's going to see there's nobody blocking his path towards what he wants, and then he'll put everything he has into it and succeed. And THEN he'll have what he wants. He'll have control over something he doesn't like, control enough so that he can shape it into something that HE wants it to be, based on HIS Freedom of Speech, because as far as he's concerned, nobody else does.

...

So instead of sitting back and saying "Hell, let's just ignore this guy," I'm going to say this- Joystiq.com, keep reporting on Jack Thompson. Thus far, you're about the only ones whom have kept in touch with what he's been doing, informing the community as to what he's doing, and if you stop, then nobody will have any words to go by, save for the ones of a Facist lawyer. And I would suggest to everyone keen enough to listen to try to make others listen, to try to inform people so that they know. And to those who are turning the other way... thanks for nothing- if it comes to the point where Jack gets what he wants, we'll have you to thank, because you didn't help us stand together.

Don't ignore him.

I shouldn't even ask, but... the Jack Thompson who posts in these threads is satirical, right? I mean, JT wouldn't even know to look here, but... the messed up diatribes are so realistic... I don't know what to believe!

And Weapon X, you bring up a good point. Some of the stuff they come up with is so disturbing, that describing here would be grounds for an automatic ban.
...
They also come out with some of the most artistically creative stories and artwork available, and are a continuous fountain of comedy, satire (something Jack wouldn't know about), drama, and fun. Some of the stuff they come up with could benefit children.
And even the stuff they have available there? The only reason they can make that stuff is because the people there are open-minded enough that they don't give a damn if a guy draws stuff that's sick, but it's not hurting anyone.

Seriously, Friday, I'm calling him up and doing an interview with him. I predict one of three things:
1. He'll be civil, and sound, and what he "says" might be a retarded poster and/or media misinterpretation.
2. He'll be civil, but make several problems in his arguement, like ignoring and dodging questions.
3. He'll be bat---- insane, and any webcomic I send it to will have a field day.

"JT wouldn't even know to look here,"

I dont know he is some ego-testical nut, so he might do. Could be some nut job like him, one of many biblical whores.

"That's right. Jack Thompson, the god-loving and praying Christian lawyer who believes he's god's foot-soldier... is Facist."

I think he's more crying, after he lost against ESRB and american game developers and publishers. Strange how his mouth went from america to Japan. Now he's using illogical, racist and pointless excuses to justify the ban on video games. He's too busy supporting murders and making lies for them, doesnt he know lies makes baby jesus cry!

So a game made in Scotland and distributed by an American Company is Japan's fault.

Totally logical.

Oh and that most violent of genres, the FPS, is liked as much as old JT in Japan.

It's not like they force children to see this stuff.
I remember hearing a whole furor over Neon Genesis Evangelion, for violence issues(Giant robot eating giant alien alive,with bloody gore, springs to mind). The concern was its scheduling at about 6:00pm

Jack --

I'm sorry, but you really aren't that clever. You're not Swift, and like I said in an earlier comment: you're pretty much the Joseph McCarthy of the 21st century.

The only people that buy into your song and dance are parents who weren't involved in their children's lives and attempted to sate their child's want for parental nurishment with video games; these same parents that are shocked and appalled that their "darling child" was so alienated that he or she believed the only way for the world to see them was to by doing something terrible.

The only people that buy into your song and dance are politicians that are seeking votes, and more oft than not, the range of their support for you is completely exaggerated BY you. I find it hilarious that you've insinuated that Jeb Bush is a liar when the news comes out that he didn't actually say he would sign any old bill you put infront of him. You've become confrontational (surprise, surprise) with the Florida Bar Association when the threat of investigation arose, which brings me to my next point.

I think it's worth noting that the requirements to become a lawyer in Florida are the lowest IN THE COUNTRY. I suppose that's not all that surprising since you've completely bypassed the investigation process by verbally ejaculating baseless facts and then trying to strong arm or tarnish the image or opinions of those that don't agree with you.

The only thing you have over gamers is the fact that you are a sensationalist, so naturally America's overactive media is going to beg you to be on CNN. It's not because you know what you're talking about, because you don't. It's not because you're a good lawyer, because you're not. It's not even because they agree with what you're saying. It's because you're a fad - you're a tool in all senses of the word. I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of the people who watch you on CNN are gamers who are curious to see how you're twisting the truth this week. I wouldn't be surprised if the parents that happen to flip onto CNN while you're lying have children that play video games and KNOW you're lying. Grand parents may not play video games, but chances are they buy their grand children games for Christmas and birthdays. They're not gamers, but they know that little Timmy isn't going to stab one of his classmates because he believes coins are going to pop out.

To me, hyperbolizing to the extent shown in this article only further proves you're a sensationalist and attention-deprived. You drop off radar for awhile and then make some ludicrous statement just to get back into the lime light. You're a despicable person, Mr. Thompson, and I sincerely pity you.

I'm not entirely surprised that there is a bit of race-based contempt for westerners -- two atomic bombs and a very high death toll may have that effect on a country, and it's not surprising that an isolated island is a bit xenophobic. The comment about not distributing Grand Theft Auto in Japan is completely and utterly false, and goes to further enforce points I stated in paragraph five.

Little respect for "us" and "our" values? That's ridiculous. Once again you eluded the point you've been missing. You're trying to blame Japan because they distribute video games. That's like trying to blame Ford because somebody else's crappy driving just like you've been trying to blame the gaming industry for parents that LET their children play violent games.

Part of me is upset that I live in Australia and won't be able to witness it when the remaining minority that actually believes you finally sees you for the cretinous leech you really are.

Somehow, I don't think that time is too far off because this isn't the first time campaigns like this have been launched -- rock n' roll music, Elvis, etc. After the fires died down, rock n' roll was more popular than ever, and now it's mainstream. Who knows, you may have covertly contributed to the continued success of the video game industry.

Wouldn't that be scary...

Sincerely,

A man who is resistant to a sycophantic, cretinous adulating leech

...
Can I be your friend, Rob?

I find the comparisons of Jack Thompson to Joseph McCarthy to be startlingly accurate, if not a bit overstated since Jack Thompson hasn’t actually accomplished anything as notable as obtaining a public office. Not to mention the fact that McCarthy’s early life was actually quite admirable, including time as a judge and voluntary military service. Let’s just do a quick and dirty rundown of McCarthy’s rise and fall and see how closely Jack can follow along:

1946 – Elected to the Senate, largely ignore for 3 years

Feb. 1950 – McCarthy makes a rambling and passionate speech to a conservative women’s group while waving a sheet of paper claiming to name 205 mid and high ranking State Department officials that were in fact Communist agents. When the speech draws massive attention in later days, McCarthy is unable to reproduce the list and later revises number to 57, then 81.

Report is found to be completely false by a Senate committee but anti-communist sentiment still rampant as America looks for a universal scapegoat

After failures in finding government conspiracy McCarthy maintains media exposure and prominence by attacking entertainment industry, eventually eroding his support base due to his abrasive personality, underhanded tactics and continued use of unverified and outright false claims.

1954 - After making numerous enemies in government, is censured by Senate and loses all credibility. Attempts to salvage reputation with TV appearances in which he attacks his foes as being enemy agents attempting to silence the voice of truth and decency, but only succeeds in alienating himself further. Continues to make claims and accusations whenever possible, America yawns.

Becomes full blown alcoholic and possible morphine addict

1957 – Dead at 48

So, hopefully the theme of history will repeat itself (that’s not a death threat, Jack). A small man searching for a cause finds some resonance in the public forum attacking what is seen to be a threat to the American way of life. Small man gets in the spotlight and refuses to get out, making larger and more bizarre claims in order to stay ostensibly relevant. Claims are found to be consistently baseless and false in public courts and forums. America dismisses small man as irrelevant and possibly dangerous. Small man implodes. I, for one, am really looking forward to seeing the process unfold. Here’s to you, Jack. A new spin on the classic American blow hard.

"Those who do not learn from History are bound to repeat it."

I just wonder if he knows about all of the real porographic games in japan, you know, with the sex and stuff. we dont get that over here.

Actually we do. It's called "The Internet." =3 But don't tell that to Jack, he might try to sue the internet, too!

"From Jack: There is a race-based contempt in Japan for us "Westerners" that translates into certain corporate practices."

A race based contempt, you say? Thank goodness that "westerners" are above such contempt for other races.

Whoops. I think I was ironic without realising it. Of course, being a gamer, I wouldn't get the concept of irony at all...

Oh my....commenting that this whole thing is like Pearl Harbor 2 is such a disgrace. Many died during Pearl Harbor, and we were drawn into war, and thousands more died. How many have died with the whole reason being that of video games? I'll tell you: none. Mr. Thompson....scratch that, the ol' jackass there has just dishonored thousands of deaths. He should be publicy shot for such a disgrace. If not that, he should be stripped of everything and made the laughing stock of america... oh wait, he already is. ^_^

Sounds like Thompson just pulled a Hiroshima.

did Jack Thompson just say "Duh" in a arguement???

I wouldnt be surprised if JT parades around in KKK robes on weekends... he is a racist/unprofessional so called citizen. Who exactly are you trying to help here Jack Thompson? people who provide you with financial backing or your own wallet? either or... it's not looking too bright for you, stop while you still have your job...

Saying that video games cause violence is the same as saying snow causes car crashes. Really, I'm quite sure the snow doesn't push my car off the road.