Look, I’ve got a rather long rant below about this Jack Thompson vs. Adam Sessler video, but for the sake of brevity I’m going to break it down into simple terms for you: as “common sense” as it may seem, you can’t fight this jackass with opinions. If he were arguing that the moon were made of cheese, you would need hard fucking evidence to the contrary, because he’s a lawyer. He’s going to have a research study proving that there is in fact a high concentration of lactose in the goddamned moon rocks. As asinine as it all sounds, he’d have you over a barrel.
OK, now onto my thoughts, which I’ve transcribed from the forum for you.
A lot of people are cheering on Sessler in this little debate. To those folks I pose this question: What interview were you watching? Sessler stated opinions rather than fact. Thompson is a lawyer, and used real facts and figures in order to deliver his rather retarded message to the masses. If this were a court of law, Sessler would have been spanked and Thompson would have walked out with the win in under a few minutes. While we all sit around and argue about the ridiculousness of his statements, Thompson is going around gladhanding politicians, digging up research, and getting funding for research studies that prove his point. You can’t come at a lawyer with opinions and “common sense” statements, no matter how right they may seem. He’ll always have some fact or figure to throw out in response.
I feel bad that this is the best representation that the gaming community can muster against this guy.
Gaming companies recently got their shit together and, much to our chagrin, canned the overindulgent spectacle that was E3. They also got their shit together in the past and attempted to put a self-regulating board in place to rate and monitor game content. This prick, who should be powerless other than the fact that we give him a voice by acknowledging him and making him more famous, is threatening that ability to self regulate.
If the industry has any brains, or balls, or both, it will come together in recognition of the problem that they have allowed to come to fruition and do something about it. Get a goddamned lawyer poster boy to fight for the industry. Get the ESRB back into the limelight and discussing the topics. Acknowledge that while violent games do cause an increase in agression they don’t necessarily lead to an increase in violence or violent behavior. Get some studies done, get some facts on paper. Get moving.
But then again, just knowing a few dozen people from as many game companies and publishers over the years, it’ll take massive destruction before anyone mobilizes and gets into gear. So we’ll keep debating Thompson on his turf in his arena and losing ground, while he continues to build evidence that leads us to 1984-like control over our content. So really, it’s the industry’s choice. Continue languishing in apathy all the while giving this jagoff more power by fighting him in a battle that he will consistently win, or take his voice away by doing something positive for itself.
Cut shortI personally like when the other guy (Tom?) throws out the \”it’s ultimately the parents responsiblity to filter and control what their children consume\”, the standard battle cry for any of these arguements. Jack actually responds that he’s wrong and it’s not and I really wanted to see where he was going with it but they cut him off. Oh well.
GoddammitSeriously, you yanks are fuckin it up for the rest of us (Cept you Sharkey). Honestly who is listening to Sessler, it’s simple guys… FACT OVER FICTION!!! Opinions don’t mean shit in the real word, talking over someone who is making a valid point does not mean your winning. It pains me to watch this video and see intellect being assulted by arrogance and opinion. I’m still drunk from last night but god dammit sharkey thankyou for putting it so succinctly. Sessler, one word. CLOWN. Get real.
I agree, but only sort of.I think Sessler’s just bad at this, but \”coming at a lawyer\” with \”common sense statements\” is exactly -how- you beat them. At least, when a Jury’s involved. Rhetoric is largely Logos (logic) in our society, but Pathos and Ethos are still viable: Pathos is an appeal to emotions, where completely nonsensical drivel can fire people up to be on your side. Ethos is, basically, reputation and the trust an audience has in a person.Thompson loses in our community on lack of Ethos alone. Game over for him. Sessler fucks up, but beating Thompson’s string of facts wouldn’t be difficult, even if he were 100% factually correct– destroying his reliability or appealing to people’s feelings can win the day as quickly as logical argument.
…ugh…wut?
wtf…How did this shitty little piece from G4 become post worthy…let alone get on TV. You had 4 idiots bitching at eachother. Anyone who has a TV knows that studies aren’t worth a damn 90% of the time. If you don’t have at least a dozen studies all proving the EXACT same thing, you’ve got nothing. So you can throw away the freaking study he kept citing. Also parents can’t control their kids…wtf is a parent going to actually do if their kid refuses to obey them? You can’t ground a kid…they can just leave. You can’t spank a kid anymore. Parents are completely powerless in this stuff. Now I’m still confused why video games are getting all this crap when R rated movies are just as easy to see when you’re younge and just as likely to make someone more agressive. Hell, a good Arnold movie and who doesn’t want to run around blowing people up? Just you know 99.9999999% of us never would act on those thoughts.
re: difference between games and moviesI think his argument was that games are interactive and it’s the person playing the game doing the actions rather than watching someone else doing the actions in a movie. I find that sorta true, you can’t ride a bike after watching someone else ride one, you have to go do it yourself.Still, stupid parents are the reason for kids having violent video games. If you don’t want them to play it, dont buy it for them.It’s called parenting.