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The Jack Thompson debacle continues it appears. Awesome. Jack's latests gripe is that ESRB darling Rockstar Games has placed an easter egg into upcoming products depicting Jack as a sexual deviant (apparently they are not the first to make the claim). To make matters worse they've launched a very funny web page that seems to hit poor Jack a little close to the baby maker.
Ok, in the grand scheme, pissing people off to sell your product is just wrong. The movers and shakers in this industry owe it to the rest of us to hold to a higher standard, to keep the industry free of condemnation and undue scandal. Yeah, right. Creativity is often about expanding the bounds of what some people think in order to make some people think twice. Seriously, if they wouldn't show Elvis on TV because he was too radical and they nailed that man to a cross because he was so unpolitically correct, what exactly is all this about? It's about creative game companies not giving a flying fig about wether some bent lawyer believes they are morally bankrupt. Its about sticking to your creative ideals and believing in your vision. It's about poking a little fun at people. God Bless America (and Scotland et al...).
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Update:
Apparently Jack's been busy. Here he decides to lambast the president of the ESRB. This is the best thing I've read all week.
The website for the game Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories (PSP) has the goods that Jack is hot after. Besides the great parody on Jack there are a ton of other good laughs to be had.
Link.
Ok, in the grand scheme, pissing people off to sell your product is just wrong. The movers and shakers in this industry owe it to the rest of us to hold to a higher standard, to keep the industry free of condemnation and undue scandal. Yeah, right. Creativity is often about expanding the bounds of what some people think in order to make some people think twice. Seriously, if they wouldn't show Elvis on TV because he was too radical and they nailed that man to a cross because he was so unpolitically correct, what exactly is all this about? It's about creative game companies not giving a flying fig about wether some bent lawyer believes they are morally bankrupt. Its about sticking to your creative ideals and believing in your vision. It's about poking a little fun at people. God Bless America (and Scotland et al...).
CLOSE THIS WINDOW AND LOG OFF NOW
Update:
Apparently Jack's been busy. Here he decides to lambast the president of the ESRB. This is the best thing I've read all week.
"His extremism has painted a bullseye on your industry," Thompson writes, somewhat extremely. "Doug Lowenstein has the brush and Take-Two has provided the blood red paint."Read On...
The website for the game Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories (PSP) has the goods that Jack is hot after. Besides the great parody on Jack there are a ton of other good laughs to be had.
Link.
4 Comments:
Rockstar's always been great for making websites around their games. I remember looking them up when the GTA3 came out and laughing my ass off.
Yeah that is one together outfit. I really like all the free publicity they are generatin. As if the M rating is somehow going to affect anything they do. Laughable.
Funny thing - a highschool/early-twenties best friend of my wife turned out to be the lead animator for GTA3:SA.
We all wondered why he moved to Scotland, since he wouldn't tell anyone what he was working on.
Now he's a very rich guy, and I have a signed copy. ;)
It's dumb to ask for trouble, if you're not already rich.
Michigan's Violent and Sexually Explicit Games Act and Illinois' Safe Games Act are just the leading edge of what could come if the games industry doesn't figure out how to disassociate itself from Rockstar and get some politically effective PR going.
How much more negative motivation should the governmental folks, who respond to public pressure, be given? Do we all want M games to have a big honking tax put on them? Or, do we want the display of M games to be legally prohibited in establishments that permit the entrance of minors? Either could happen...certainly in Michigan.
I have political friends in Michigan, and both ideas are being talked about. The lawyers say the former, at least, would be legal and would withstand a constitutional challenge. The big retailers, who have significant political power, would like it since they don't sell M games anymore and they'd like to damage the game stores and little guys that compete with them. There's no politically effect force against such moves.
It's business-stupid to anger folks with real-world power, irrespective of what you personally think of them and their worldview.
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