Jack Thompson is back, criticizes ESRB over Fallout 3 trailer pullout |
If you missed the hullabaloo over Fallout 3 (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3), Bethesda ordered all of its gameplay footage taken down with respect to ESRB's advertising guidelines. It's suspected that the cause was over this piece of footage, which shows a rather graphic clip of a guy getting his head shot off his shoulders:
And what's got old Jack's feathers ruffled? Here's a letter from him addressed to the Federal Trade Commission, targetting the ESRB. No, he didn't target Bethesda. And since Jack has such a great relationship with Take-Two over Grand Theft Auto 4, he didn't forget to mention them as well:
The ESRBÂ’s [advertising] Principles and Guidelines are not intended to protect the public. They are obviously intended to protect the video game industry from the public backlash prior to a hyperviolent gameÂ’s commercial release. The ESRB, by allowing such violence in games but not in the advertising is institutionally mandating the cloaking of a gameÂ’s real content from the public in advertising.
Thus, the ESRB is actively using its “watchdog” muscle to intimidate game developers into participating in the ESRB’s long-standing shell game by which it has tried to hoodwink Congress and the American people into thinking that the video game rating system is working, that the ratings are reliable, and that minors are being protected from the sale of “Mature” games...
Take-Two, for example, knows that if it adhered to “truth in advertising,” most of its Grand Theft Auto games never would have made it out of the warehouse. Take-Two has figured out how to collaborate with the ESRB in this shell game by which false advertising cloaks the real nature of their games until the games are released, and then it is too late...
BethesdaÂ’s only sin was that it advertised truthfully what its game Fallout 3 is all about. The ESRBÂ’s idiotic but telling response has fashioned a noose that I expect either the FTC or Congress to slip around the ESRBÂ’s neck...
Via GamePolitics
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Comments [refresh]
..he is complaining about a trailer pulled out?! This guy is seriously messed up. I begin to think that this guy is more dangerous than high school shootings.
aw...man. someone has to take him down for good who's with me.
Go away!!!!!!!!
Well said! :)
next he'll say "Showgirls" should have shown all the nudity in the commercial so people can tell actors would be naked...
who is so stupid that they don't imagine GTA is about violent crime?
the reason the ratings don't work is the same reason movie ratings don't work, the majority of the public could really care less what some industry says is ok. they will make their own decisions and blame someone else later...
until the law prosecutes adults for buying adult games for kids, it will stay the way it is.
You complain that the ESRB isn't doing it's job, then when it DOES its job, you complain?!
Get a real job, you chickensh*t bastard.
The guy is just an old f**ck bag
im ashamed to say, the guy has a valid argument
how ever because he is such a *****ing whiny child he cant see the other side, while is point is valid i think is total argument is incorrect
In America isnt 1 person murdered every second? Why is this guy still breathing???
There are so many wack jobs in America that get guns and kill a bunch of innocent people so why cant one of them go and take him out?
Come on you outcasts, get your guns and shut up this moron once and for all. I bet there are a lot of people out there that will pay you for it. Go and ask Rockstar. I bet they will pay.
He wants advertising to show violence and gore so that unsuspecting parents don't mistakenly buy a violent game and are then exposed to it? Umm aren't the advertisements exposing it to EVERYONE? lol.
Bethesda did the right thing by pulling the adds, any moron can read the age rating and the description on the back of the case when purchasing and see right away what it has.
Somebody needs a reality check.
I mean put out their *****ing misery.
I wouldn't consider Jack Thompson to be "back" as such. All he can do now is write obnoxious letters to people who don't give a damn. What the hell is the FTC going to do about this supposed issue? Nothing! The corrective action has supposedly been made. Over. End of story.
What the hell does Jack want the FTC to do? I'm not sure he even knows. The only thing this "letter" appears to do is make yet another pointless jab at Take-Two. Besides which, he's dead wrong. It isn't like people don't already know GTA is about crime and violence, it's in the freaking name. "Grand Theft Auto," DUH! It's plastered in great big letters on the front of the box!
What can you seriously expect from a game titled as such, a Sunday drive through beautiful scenic roads in Mane? Perhaps little fluffy bunnies hop into the back seat and chant "Lets go to candy mountain!"? Of course not, you expect that people are going to get pulled bodily from vehicles, possibly beaten mercilessly or shot, and then said vehicles are going to be used to commit additional crimes.
Fallout 3 isn't any different, though the title isn't as direct. Still, "Fallout" = nuclear war = post apocalyptic wasteland = survival of the fittest. No surprises here, there's very likely to be violence and gore.
Honestly, we should really be done with Jack Thompson and his nonsense until if or when he finds a like minded individual who still caries some form of legal or legislative ability. Until then he's just another jabbering ultra-conservative nutcase and should receive as little attention as possible.
Until then, lets hope the government moves in the right direction and listens to our calm and sane voices. Join the Video Game Voters network at http://www.videogamevoters.org/ and make your voice heard.