Thompson Goes After Sims 2 Nudity 243
magicbond_007 writes "Miami lawyer Jack Thompson is at it again, this time with something above and beyond absurd. Gamestop is reporting that Thompson has accused The Sims 2 of contain obscene material. From the article: 'In the statement, Thompson says, "Sims 2, the latest version of the Sims video game franchise ... contains, according to video game news sites, full frontal nudity, including nipples, penises, labia, and pubic hair."' At this rate kids won't be able to play Mario because Princess Peach is dressed too slutty."
Why attack? (Score:3, Interesting)
Once again, guess whose job it really is to keep some of my favorite games away from the kids? It's the job of the parents.
Before I had my driver's license (4 years ago), I was limited in what games I could buy because my parents would always be nearby and strictly limited what I was allowed to get. I didn't like it, but I'd never fault them for it. As soon as I got my driver's license, I could get whatever I wanted.
The idea I'd really like to put across here is that no matter what you do to a game, if you have a car and can go places on your own, you can buy almost whatever you want.
No store policies or lawsuits or censorship will ever (and should never) prevent the market from bringing customers what they want; it's always gonna be up to parents to have an effective hand in what their kids are exposed to.
Re:In the wake of Hot Coffee (Score:3, Interesting)
There's been patches for some time that get rid of the dithering. This really isn't much different than Hot Coffee -- the content is there, just someone going out of their way to get rid of the dithering. Or in the event that certain parts of the anatomy aren't that detailed, who's to say there aren't patches which change the character models, or apply different textures?
Whether or not this gets covered by the media at all will be interesting to see -- the Sims is much, much more tame in nature than GTA. The Sims is akin to "playing house" more than anything.
Another reason....... (Score:2, Interesting)
In Japan, violence is shunned and sexuality is popuarlized.
Some may see the men of Japan as perverted, but at least the sexual rape percentage in tokyo is lower than the death rate by guns in Washington D.C
make love, not war.
I would not be surprised if Thopmson goes after WOW next, because of the Female Night Elf dance.
Re:This just in (Score:3, Interesting)
Let's be honest here. Rockstar embedded Hot Coffee in three versions of the game and then lied about it. The company was perfectly willing to sell out the modding community to save its own skin. It isn't sex that brought Rockstar down, it was a pattern of behavior that mimics that of the gameplay in GTA.
What's in a rating? (Score:3, Interesting)
"Miami lawyer Jack Thompson is at it again, this time with something above and beyond absurd. Gamestop is reporting that Thompson has accused The Sims 2 of contain obscene material."
I suddenly asked myself this morning: what's in a rating?
The MPAA [mpaa.org] says theirs is a "Voluntary Movie Rating System", and they are assigned solely at the MPAA's discretion. G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17 ... it's all a voluntary ratings system. AFAIK, it's not really enforced by law. That is, I don't know that federal law has anything that prohibits a 16-year-old from seeing an R-rated movie. Certainly, if the theater chooses not to let you to see it, you can pick it up 6 months later as a rental.
The TV ratings [tvguidelines.org] are TV-Y, TV-Y7, TV-Y7-FV ("fantasy violence"), TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, TV-MA. These are all assigned by the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board, and the ratings were (originally?) intended to be used together with the V-Chip to keep children from seeing inappropriate content.
The ESRB [esrb.org] (as we are all aware by now) assigns game ratings based on responses to questionaires by those evaluating the games (usually, adults in & around New York.) Games can be rated EC, E, E10+, T, M, AO.
Why am I listing all this? Because I started to ask myself when the madness will stop about game ratings, and how it's all about protecting the children and making it easier for parents to pick content appropriate for their kids.
Why has no one argued to apply the same standard of ratings to books? Some argue that video games should be treated differently than, say, books because video games are more interactive while books are passive entertainment. But television and movies are passive entertainment.
If the argument is that game ratings help make sure kids "aren't exposed to indecent depictions" then why not use book ratings to ensure the same thing? Just like games, books can be rated EC (Little Golden Books), E ('Peter Rabbit'), E10+ ('Harry Potter' 1-4), T ('Harry Potter' 5-6), M (Stephenson, Gibson), AO (pr0n). Why wouldn't a book ratings system like this work?
Because it feels too much like censorship, that's why. It's not censorship, but too many people would think it crosses the line.
Just a thought..