Thompson sends own son on personal sting operation against Best Buy

*GASP!* You learned that from a video game!

anyone know the status of his psychological report? this guy needs fucking help.

weirdly, the guy he paid to test him cleared him. sigh.

He's just another parent who wants someone else to parent his kid instead of doing it himself. I mean, come on. Parenting is too hard. Why should HE have to do it?

I don't get it, he gets all worked up when his son goes and buys a M rated game but he's perfectly okay with him tapping his foot under another mans bathroom stall. I think he needs to readjust his priorities.

That was Larry Craig...

"Why the hell does he care so goddamn much?"

Because Joystiq will give him free publicity, and even print letters that he sends them.

Never mind that he is thoroughly discredited in the mainstream when he subpoenas George Bush to appear at his little videogame trial.

After a few months of covering his every move and giving him a status he doesn't deserve, Joystiq will reinvent him as an expert that gets to sit in on crafting anti-videogame legislation again.

Seriously, Joystiq, ignore this man. No one here can stomach reading about him for too long, so please don't waste your time publishing stories about him.

He doesn't understand it's parents' jobs to police their children, and won't stop until he gets everyone he can to do his job for him.

Video games don't make people violent. It's just that simple. I grew up playing my fair share of first person shooters and other violent media. I played Goldeneye and Perfect Dark with my friends, DOOM, Rainbow Six, and literally thousands of hours of Halo 2 online. I did well enough in high school to get into college. I've never so much as tasted alcohol and have never used drugs. I never got into a fight or even so much as a serious confrontation with anyone and I've never been in trouble with the law. I don't even cuss.

Yet I played all those "terrible video games" and watched violent movies and television shows as a child. According to Mr. Thompson here, I should be a psychopathic killer by now. Surely the amount of time I've spent playing Halo 2 online shooting my opponents or all the cars I've stolen in Grand Theft Auto should have me out and committing horrific crimes as I type this. But I'm not. Violent video games are not the cause of youth violence and need to stop being blamed for it.

I'm not saying it's necessarily a good for children to be exposed to large amounts of violent media. There are those that are easily impressionable and have a hard time separating fantasy from reality. It is the responsibility of their parents to properly regulate what they feel is appropriate for their child. My parents waited until either late elementary school or early middle school until they felt that it was okay for me to be laying violent video games. They waited until they felt that I was emotionally capable of handling the subject matter and were comfortable with me being exposed to it. While I didn't agree with or understand them at the time and still did occasionally get the chance to play violent games at friends' houses, I completely respect their decision now.

Oh you haven't heard? Best Buy and Take Two are trying to turn kids evil so they can make hordes of blood zombies to help them overthrow the government and society.

You don't need to be bloodthirsty or a zombie to want to overthrow the government.

What's worse is he makes you buy it, then tells you it's evil. Someone's going to need therapy when he grows up.

I'd hate to hate to be you- too fat to get girls, booze, or even reach your wiener to make use of that pr0n.

Yeah, I doubt that this kid is popular in school...

Honestly man, Thompson wants police guarding every electronics store in the nation. He's a sham and a glory hound, who would freak if his anti first amendment rhetoric were turned and used against him. How would you do Jack if you couldn’t express yourself? There you are, like a crazed animal attacking Take 2 every chance you get, and but for the fact you contracted your speech rights away regarding them, you could have continued to talk all the smack you wanted. The constitution protected you and you won’t allow it to protect others.

Jack is an embarrassment to lawyers who fight for people’s rights. Keep using your son as a puppet Jack, because God knows we want him to grow up feeling just as negative about you as we do.

On a final thought, how the hell does Take 2 or any other developer police stores for who comes in and buys? Seems to me you have the wrong target in mind.

made me laugh

Best comment of the day.

I can't even think of anything Bioshock related to add on, well done.

A man chooses, a slave obeys. OBEY!

Son if you kindly go buy Bioshock if you kindly. What's that you don't want to obey is said go buy Bioshock if you kindly! OK then code yellow

wow, you made me laugh for like 10 minutes

Look Mr. B! It's the Devil!

according to the law a store can be fined alot of money if they sell something to a underage kid...
hence the retailers are responsible for ensuring underage kids cant get the game at least now without the ok from the parent

WHAT?!? Dude, ryan, show all of us the "law" that states stores can be fined for not carding a game sale. Oh, right...You can't! 'Cause you're full of shit!!!

Uh yeah, there is no law outside of New York currently by my memory. Only games with an AO rating I believe, in a lot of states, but not ALL. It's just company policies most of the time, a policy that Best Buy supposedly upholds.

Lol exactly what I was thinking. His son is probably playing Bioshock right now with the door shut and the volume turned down lol!

Dad, you're embarrassing me!

And that goth with the piercing is my prom date!

Signed,
JT's kid.

Seriously,
i was just about to chime in that i got ID'd to buy bioshock, and am also 21.
I can go to bars and not get IDed half the time to buy a drink, but BB managed to deem that i might not be over 17 to buy this game.

Not so sure about that -- so if I determine that I don't want my e.g. 15-year-old kid playing M-rated games, I have to follow him around everywhere he goes to make sure he doesn't buy one when I'm not looking? I mean, I'm right at the front of the line as far as hating people who refuse to parent, but I think retailers have a place in the equation as well. I don't want Wal-Mart selling R-rated movies to 12-year-olds, and I don't want EB/BB/CC/whoever selling M-rated games to them either.

JT is a giant douche-bag, but that's because a) he earnestly believes that playing video games will make you kill people, and as a result b) he thinks there shouldn't be any violent video games. Parents have a right to decide what their kids do or do not see or play, but in today's world it's pretty hard to enforce that sort of thing 100% on your own.

Yup, me too. I got carded when buying RE4 Wii and again when picking up Bioshock for PC. Ironically, I bought both games at Best Buy. I’m also 28, and games are pretty much the only thing I get carded for. It’s been at least a year since I got carded for beer.

Maybe they ID the people that they know are fine and able to buy the games to show that they are 'doing their job'.