Jack Thompson Sues Microsoft 574
An anonymous reader writes to mention that Jack Thompson, in his latest bout of zealotry, has set his sights on Microsoft for their recent release of Halo 3. GameAlmighty has posted the letter to Bill Gates. "Here's the deal, Mr. Gates: Either Microsoft undertakes dramatic, real steps, through its marketing, wholesale, and retail operations to assure that Halo 3 is not sold, via the Internet and in stores, directly to anyone under 17, or I shall proceed to make sure that Microsoft is held to that standard by appropriate legal means. I have done that before successfully as to Best Buy, and I shall do so again as to Microsoft and all retailers of Halo 3."
May fools? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:May fools? (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:May fools? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:May fools? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:May fools? (Score:5, Funny)
Heh
Re:May fools? (Score:4, Funny)
I don't.
And neither do I.
Re:Specific Focus (Score:5, Informative)
I really had to concentrate.
I still have to concentrate. Keeping a journal helps (I use TiddlyWiki). By creating regularly a journal, you can do a summary of what you have accomplished, and you can map out what you want to do.
It comes down to planning. Start with a plan, then concentrate on the separate steps of the plan.
It is a little bit like repeating a mantra. Sometimes working on a project gets boring, or you desperately need to understand something, or design something, repeat to yourself the end goal of your target.
Also, try to stop thinking about the mountain of work that lies ahead of you. If you have a large project, thinking about the amount of work that needs to be done can very easy demotivate you. When that happens, concentrate on the small thing that you need to accomplish NOW.
I started my project in August last year. I started with a kind of plan. I had the following goals :
By creating a plan, and always concentrate on my end goal, I was able to start this project, and write pages of upfront documentation before implementing each part of the digital library.
By the end of November, most of this library was complete, in December I started designing my architecture, and the ISA was ready by Januari.
Do not get distracted by possible optimisations. Once I got together my ISA and implementation architecture, I had to go ahead with building a real system from the libraries I designed, even when there where some small, non-critical errors in it. Keeping a journal can help here, too. Write about your possible changes in it, so that you have a reference, but let them alone until your system works.
One has to keep oneself in line with the desired goal. For some people this comes natural (although I tend to assign to such people a lack of imagination), for others, especially with a vivid imagination, this is not so easy. I presume it comes down to conditioning.
I was also tired of myself, of not being able to do something that I really wanted, or at least start something and really go through with it, until it was finished, and note merely barely working.
Do not forget to take rest, but take a rest which clears your head. For that I have my garden, and I like to read, but not difficult things (this should only be done in the context of your project). It should relax your brain from the concentration that you need to focus on your project.
The above list is just a summary of the things that I have done. I think it comes down to : concentrate on your plans, concentrate on your goals, file away things that are not relevant to what you want to do.
And I think one more important aspect : be prepared from the onset to say to yourself that you will not be sorry dumping all the rest of your ideas, at the advantage of the one thing that you would like to work on.
Re:May fools? (Score:5, Funny)
The Black Knight always triumphs! Have at you!
Re:May fools? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:May fools? (Score:5, Funny)
Jack Thompson picking on Microsoft? A better fight analogy would be a paralyzed Chihuahua versus a steamroller.
Re:May fools? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:May fools? (Score:5, Insightful)
But lets be frank. Hes not trying to stop the sale of Halo 3. Hes generating 'awareness'. Hes not trying to prevent violent games from reaching children. Hes trying to rid the world of violent games. Period. When he suggests that GTA is a 'murder simulator', I dont think hes saying that the ratings system doesn't work, I think hes saying that nobody would suffer from alcohol abuse if the world stopped creating alcohol. Hes a modern day prohibitionist; considering that prohibition really did exist at some point in time, its not all that nuts to suggest that he probably has more than a few financial backers. Hes just pretty shameless with his opportunism. You really ought to give more credance to your enemy; he may be really misguided, but you have to have at least some reluctant admiration for his tenacity.
Re:May fools? (Score:5, Insightful)
The only difference is the fruitcake ramming his head into a brick wall has a slightly higher chance of surviving than the fruitcake trying to sue Microsoft.
Re:May fools? (Score:4, Funny)
First God made idiots. That was for practice. Then He made Jack Thompson.
Re:May fools? (Score:5, Insightful)
He is suing MS for doing something legal. There is no law preventing the sale of violent games to kids. The suit will be thrown out.
Re:May fools? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:May fools? (Score:4, Insightful)
on a side note, I don't think he'd have a chance in hell against Microsoft's lawyers. Halo is the wrong game to attack anyway. Sure it's violent, but it's fantasy violence a la Aliens or Starship Troopers against not to scary monsters. It's not even the horror genre like Doom with people turned to zombies and demonic undertones... it's strictly man versus alien. And occasionally alien versus people. It's not violence depicted against PEOPLE for sport like GTA. otherwise he ought to be out there protesting Forest Gump or Pearl Harbor for depictions of people really getting shot at and loosing limbs. Personally what I've seen of Halo 2 makes it barely PG-13.. mostly for the language and occasional gratituious monster kills or foul language to bump up the ESRP so tweens will want it for being "grown up".
Re:May fools? (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, the fact that he can attempt to wield the power of the courts to enforce his warped perception is not scary in the least. The fact that you feel some people should not have access to the courts as arbiters is very scary, and if you were someone with even a modicum of power over the courts, it would immediately upgrade to scary as hell. The courts are the perfect place for this. Let Jack Thompson sue Microsoft. Microsoft will eat him. I would love to see them just skip to the third 'E' here. He should be able to do everything in his power under the law to force his views on the world at large, because now the world at large gets to apply massive backlash.
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Unless... you are posting in soviet russia?
Re:In other news... (Score:4, Funny)
Can't be. Then the overlords, for one, would be welcoming HIM.
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Sooo...never?
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
An apostrophe is usually a marker of possessiveness. It is NEVER used for plurality.
This is basic English. Please learn it.
Re:May fools? (Score:5, Insightful)
There are fools every month.
Dear Microsoft... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Dear Microsoft... (Score:5, Funny)
If only Jack was a fool for one month (Score:4, Interesting)
Hell just when you think Thompson might give the public a break for a month, he comes out again such as this.
Re:If only Jack was a fool for one month (Score:4, Interesting)
Jack is not too fond of those newfangled "facts" (Score:5, Insightful)
The worst part is that he actually got airtime to say this complete fabricatio`on national television
So sad...
Time to sell your shares in the ISS... (Score:5, Funny)
I mean, they must be, since I'm going to be rooting for Microsoft to win a lawsuit.
Re:Time to sell your shares in the ISS... (Score:5, Insightful)
If only Microsoft, Jack AND the lawyers would just explode, we would all be winners.
Re:Time to sell your shares in the ISS... (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember... Jack IS a lawyer so by your statement, he would win.
Re:Time to sell your shares in the ISS... (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Then I suggest we give them both thermonuclear weapons and egg 'em on. (Want to play a game?) Actually, just this once I'd like to see Microsoft nuke Jack Thompson from orbit. Twice. ITOWTBS.
MS's Games Division (Score:5, Insightful)
I originally wanted the Xbox to fail miserably in the market, lest the beast from redmond do to consoles what they did to operating systems. But, by and large, the games division has been run by a bunch of stand-up guys doing good stuff. And I'm not just saying that because I've met them, but also from what they've done. You have to admit, the Xbox 360 is no MSN.
Re:MS's Games Division (Score:5, Insightful)
At least the advantage of Gaming is that there is no real inertia, everyone starts at the same point every five years. If MS gains a monopoly its usual tactics won't keep it there.
Re:MS's Games Division (Score:5, Insightful)
So yes, people buy a new console every 5 years. But only the Microsoft console will integrate especially well with their Windows machine, both for the end-user and the developer. We may very well see a console monopoly in the next decade. Sadly, Sony and Nintendo seem to have no clue (if they did, we would see them standardizing their development tools, integrating with iPods, etc.).
Re:Time to sell your shares in the ISS... (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft is like the Black Plague: you want to avoid it at all costs, but it's great to see it go to work against your enemies.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It's important to recognise the difference between someone who hold morals with which one disagrees, and someone who has no morals.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Are you saying you'd prefer Mercenaries, as opposed to, say, the Khmer Rouge?
The Khmer Rouge held morals "with which one (I) disagree", while most mercenaries have few, if any, morals.
The traditional spectrum is (Good) ---- (Neutral) ---- (Evil), and as much as that is trite D&D stuff, I find it very difficult to generalize amoral as "worse" than having morals with which I disagree with.
Re:Time to sell your shares in the ISS... (Score:5, Insightful)
An amoral person can do anything, as they look out for themself (also known as psychopathic) - at least a moral person behaves consistently.
I don't really agree with your "traditional spectrum" of good -> evil. Many so-called "good" people have committed terrible (evil?) acts against "evil" people who were really just different. Look at things like the trail of tears...
Destroy Jack (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Destroy Jack (Score:5, Insightful)
After all that, tell him it's not really Microsoft's responsiblity to police the fucking vendors, ridicule him for his lack of jurisprudence, move to have the twat disbarred, and let us be done with it.
Geez, who do you root for? (Score:5, Funny)
Too much self-importance.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Too much self-importance.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Too much self-importance.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually you'll find that "core" Republican voters REALLY REALLY hate trial attorneys.
They'd much rather have some religious figure battle this sort of thing out in the media, not in the courts.
Re:Too much self-importance.. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's the same thing as when dumbass Hatch suggested blowing up people's computers remotely for file sharing. It's simply a lack of understanding and pandering to someone who benefits them. In that case, the RIAA. In this case, the old people vote who think the current culture is just soooo awful.
The problem isn't going to go away because most younger people only vote on American Idol.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But what can they do (Score:5, Interesting)
How is Microsoft supposed to take drastic measures to ensure retailers don't sell its games to people under 17? I wouldn't be upset if Microsoft started a "17 means 17" program, where if they received proof of a retaler selling "M for Mature" games to people under 17, they would cut off that retailer from all shipments of Microsoft products for 6 months. But is it practical?
If it was Wal-mart, would Microsoft cut them off or give them a stern warning? When I was young and working temp gigs at Disney, I spent a few days calling video stores that had broken street date on video releases, getting a store manager on the line, then handing them over to a Disney manager to chew them out and threaten them with not getting future releases.
But one thing that was interesting was one of my co-workers told me how Costco got away with it all the time. They were such a huge retail channel for Disney videos, Disney couldn't afford to threaten Costco, so they just had to take a "grin and bear it" posture in those cases, filing a protest but unable to make threats.
I'm sure Microsoft doesn't want to see young kids getting their hands on violent games and they're not doing tobacco industry style strategy sessions on how to sell "Halo 3" to 10-year-olds. OTOH, how much can they actually do when they're not the ones actually controlling the point of sale?
Re:But what can they do (Score:5, Informative)
PixelScuba replies to post with a great response (Score:4, Funny)
Re:But what can they do (Score:5, Interesting)
However after all the public bs I and considering that gaming and the XBox is going to make them quite a bit of money over the next few years I expect Thompson will find MS much more abrasive and confrontational should he do anything they feel is going to threaten their margins.
God has bad aim (Score:5, Funny)
Re:God has bad aim (Score:5, Informative)
Re:God has bad aim (Score:5, Funny)
(** -- It was the night before the big presentation to the department heads, and it was between fixing that or the 'vaginas-might-grow-fangs' bug...)
I will not be happy (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I will not be happy (Score:5, Informative)
No beer is the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.
Re:I will not be happy (Score:4, Informative)
Go with the older and better quote...
--Ben Franklin
Nephilium
The Media Should Ignore Him (Score:3, Informative)
He's a lunatic that feeds off attention.
Why give him ammunition?
Media should NOT ignore him. (Score:3, Insightful)
Why give him ammunition?
Because the news media is SUPPOSED to EXPOSE such abuses of power - to give us warning. Then we can dodge, and mobilize opposition, etc.
Keeping silent about such abuses perpetuates them. Talking about them gives their opposition more intelligence (in the military sense) for organizing against them, and lets them know that action is needed.
The most powerful propaganda technique is to selectively not report. The media already does this with en
What, what? (Score:5, Informative)
And what's this nonsense?
Yeah... killer training... because pushing buttons on a controller is exactly like firing a rifle.
Seems like more grandstanding. I'd say Thompson is off his meds... but frankly, I'm not sure he was ever on them.
Re:What, what? (Score:4, Funny)
Agreed completely. Jack is off his rocker.
But didn't you hear? Halo taught Malvo how to circle-strafe, camp, AND recharge his shields by not getting hit.
And, if he would have waited and trained on Halo 2, he would have learned how to hold two weapons at the same time!
Question: (Score:3, Funny)
Answer: Humanity.
It'd make a good video game...
I don't seem to recall there being an actual law saying that you couldn't sell AO games to minors. Isn't it just a guideline?
OK, I'm confused (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why doesn't he focus his effort on banning violence from news reports
And if he brings up the recent VT shootings, from what I understand of Cho's background, that he didn't play video games.
Can someone please throw a cream pie at Thompson, like ASAP? Someone already nailed BillyG with a pie, someone needs to get Jack.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Don't believe it... (Score:5, Funny)
Jack Thompson's goal isn't to prevent Halo 3 sales.
It's quite clearly to get himself and Microsoft's lawyers in the same room at the same time. That much concentrated evil will surely create a gateway to hell and let through all the imps, pain elementals, and cyberdemons. Then his purpose for preventing people kids from playing Doom will become clear as his armies rampage unhindered and he begins his thousand year reign over all the nations of the earth!
Re:Don't believe it... (Score:5, Funny)
Know any place they can get one?
This is Slashdot, just pick one at random.
Wait...what? (Score:5, Interesting)
Isn't there a law about threatening a lawsuit? Could this finally be the last straw that causes idiot to be disbarred entirely? Not that he couldn't still hire another idiot to act as his attorney, but I suspect it'll become more expensive for idiot to continue threatening companies in this manner.
Oh my God. (Score:5, Funny)
This is so wonderful. This story just made my day.
It's yet to be seen, though (Score:3, Insightful)
Jack Thompson (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh god, merriment and joy !!! (Score:3, Insightful)
and this is a chance for microsoft to clean up some of the bad karma that they have accrued over the last 25-30 years.
Go for it Jack Thomson... (Score:5, Funny)
I am going to buy Halo 3 for my own enjoyment, and I want Jack Thomson to personally come to my house here in PA and keep them out of the room so they don't see the graphic violence as I take the convenant and flood once more... You go Jack, I assume because your self righteous head is so far up your own self righteous ass, that you won't even need me to pay you...
I love you Jack, you are my hero, I hereby grant you all of my parental responsibility, since you are so much better at it than me. I urge parents on slashdot to do the same.
The man is an idiot, I bet the guy who reads Bill's mail got a good laugh. Jack Thomson should NOT breed.
What are PARENTS for? (Score:5, Insightful)
Fighting the wrong fight. (Score:3, Insightful)
Under 17... of what? (Score:3, Funny)
Just let him do it, and then when he sues, Microsoft can just tell him that they didn't sell to anyone under 17" of height. Or cm, or mm, or lbs, or you get the idea.
Gentlemen, this is a hoax (Score:5, Interesting)
* The writing style is juvenile, and though Thompson may be a fool, he is a lawyer, which means he knows how to write official-looking documents, and that was too casual for even a professional memo.
* Who the hell has ever heard of GameAlmighty? Attention whores like Thompson don't CC legal threats to unheard-of small gaming blogs with about a hundred readers. They CC it to NBC or something.
* Who the hell has ever heard of GameAlmighty? Claiming to have received a letter from Jack Thompson is an extremely effective way to get hits.
* Thompson already sent a letter to Bill Gates, about Counter-Strike. If he was going to send a letter about Halo 3, it would likely go to Steve Jobs.
* Again with the writing style. It just feels very, very wrong. Can we get a literature/psychology professor/professional to analyze these?
I know I'm going to get modded down for this, but I'll be the one laughing. Or maybe you will, and I'll be laughing at myself. I could be wrong.
Re:Gentlemen, this is a hoax (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Gentlemen, this is a hoax (Score:4, Funny)
Seriously, I don't know where he got his degree, but I ahve seen more articulate posts on
A goodly portion of his letters is often defending himself again perceived slights to be.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
it's more then likely.your applying logic to someone who is irrational at the best of times. he likened people sending him flowers to death threats.
Re:Gentlemen, this is a hoax (Score:5, Insightful)
Something I found to be insightful when trying to understand Jack Thompson is the whole situation with Penny Arcade [penny-arcade.com]. Start with the Wed, October 12 2005 - 10:49 AM entry and keep reading. Not only is it amusing, it is very eye opening.
Dear Microsoft, (Score:4, Funny)
For this, I would change my position and buy an XBox.
Thank you.
You know... (Score:5, Funny)
It could look like that Marge Squirrel from that episode of The Simpsons when Marge was all upity against Itch and Scratchy.
Just a thought.
Self-regulation (Score:5, Informative)
Should Jack take Microsoft to court... (Score:5, Interesting)
What really amazes me is the man hasn't gone after the Wii(at least to my knowledge). Come on, a game like Red Steel should be a big fat target for this guy. Not to mention Metroid Prime 3, which is a game that is making some buzz. You would think the controls used in these games would seriously disturb him, those Wiimotes are more like guns than any 360 or PS controller could ever be!
Re:Should Jack take Microsoft to court... (Score:5, Insightful)
The thing that always seems really stupid to me about these claims is that with the exception of joysticks for (combat) flight sims, the controls used in (violent) videogames are nothing at all like the ones used in real life. I'm a half-decent shot with a pistol and much better with a rifle, but I absolutely suck at FPS games... and I bet the reverse is usually true as well. FPSs just don't account for things like the weight or length of the weapon, the affect recoil has on aim (I mean, see above comment on FPS games, but even I know how to tip the sight control stick slightly down in Halo 2 so my SMGs don't climb from recoil... whereas real full automatics are far harder to control and vast amounts of R&D has gone into the invention of 'governers' that limit the number of shot fired in a burst, because otherwise people tend to shoot most of their ammo into the sky. The grips are also different, and even the triggers don't feel the same at all.
The real difference, however, is the aiming. Mouse, keyboard, analog stick, joystick, control pad... it doesn't matter, not a single one is anything like actually trying to hit a target with a real weapon. I don't shoot at people, obviously, and usually not at terribly mobile targets, but even lining up on a stationary target is a major difference. This is especially true if shooting 'from the hip' (which is WAY harder than movies make it look) where you don't have any kind of crosshairs, zoom, or direct LoS along the barrel. Until now, no videogame* I've ever seen has even approached what real-life aiming is like.
Now, along comes the Wii. You aim by... aiming. Your hand is on a object not terribly unlike any firearm without a pistol grip. You are shooting in a way that's pretty much 'from the hip' with perhaps the equivalent of a laser sight added (crosshairs on screen). I haven't played Red Steel or any other Wii game involving shooting with a Wiimote, and I'm sure the best of them still isn't terribly realistic, but it's a hell of a lot closer than any other mainstream control scheme I know of* and if JT actually gives a damn about the supposed reason behind his crusade (keeping people safe) and has an IQ of better than 40 (not sure about this either, but he did supposedly make it through law school) he should be terrified/outraged by this!
*Ok, duckhunt. But seriously, the aim in that game was a joke; it was more about learning how to game the system than about how to target accurately. There may have been others - I wasn't much into console games at all until recently - but by and large what I've said above holds true.
gl (Score:5, Funny)
and by 'good luck' I mean, 'I hope you die in a fire'
Re:Fuck Jack Thompson (Score:5, Funny)
I wouldnt, who knows where that things been.
Re:This is quite a paradox... (Score:5, Funny)