25 to Life

I though everyone might find it funny....

GP wrote:

Taking time off from his battles with the Florida Bar Association, Philadelphia law firm Blank-Rome, and, of course, satellite shock jock Howard Stern, Miami activist attorney Jack Thompson has returned to an old, familiar target, 25 to Life.

Eidos' cops-and-robbers shooter is due for release soon, with numerous sources reporting that 25 to Life has gone gold. Thompson's assault on the game comes in the form of a letter to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer in which he urges Lockyer to block the release of the game under the state's public nuisance law. Of perhaps more concern to civil libertarians, Thompson also offers an opinion that police officers can seize copies of the game without a warrant. The following passages are included in his message to A.G. Lockyer:

"Additionally, please know that California Civil Code Section 3495 enables and authorizes each and every law enforcement officer to walk into any video game store, without a court order, to seize and destroy each and every copy of 25 to Life. California law treats this as acceptable 'abatement' of a public nuisance by parties particularly endangered by such a nuisance."

"In the next six days I intend to take to the public airwaves in California, and to use other means, to encourage all law enforcement officers in California to in fact go into video game stores and seize all copies of 25 to Life."

Link

I smell a strong hint of collusion here...

Been wondering when he was going to pop back into the news. Is he forgetting the game is going to be released in 49 other states as well?

Here's the full text:

Jack Thompson wrote:

Dear Attorney General Lockyer:

Last year United States Senator Charles Schumer sounded the alarm that Eidos, Inc., located in San Francisco County, was set to release a violent "cop-killing" video game entitled 25 to Life. Senator Schumer called for the game not to be released.

Last year I appeared on CBS' 60 Minutes regarding the murder in Alabama of two policemen and a dispatcher by a teen who trained on the cop-killing simulator Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It appears that 25 to Life may be even worse in a number of regards than that Rockstar murder simulator linked to numerous murders. It is clear that this cop-killing simulator, 25 to Life, paints a bulls eye on the back of every law enforcement officer in California and across the country.

In the game, you can take the role of a gang member and rehearse, interactively, various methods of exterminating police officers for hours. The American Psychological Association in August of 2005 found that such "games" actually lead to increased aggression and violence.

It is just as obvious that this Mature-rated game will be widely sold to minors, who are particularly vulnerable, brain scans and other scientific/medical findings show, to copycatting the interactive violence contained therein. This is precisely why the Department of Defense uses these games to break down the inhibition to kill of new recruits.

US Senator Joseph Lieberman, with whose staff I have worked for years on this issue, proved this past December that these violent, Mature-rated games are sold to kids as young as nine years of age. This poses a particularly pernicious public safety hazard, as teenaged brains process this interactive violence in the sectors of the brain that lead to copycatting. Brain scan studies at Harvard prove this. They prove the danger.

As you know, this past year, you and a number of California District Attorneys used the public nuisance statutes in California to enjoin the hazardous practices of AutoZone. Eidos, Inc., poses just as great a public nuisance if it releases 25 to Life. California Civil Code Section 3479, et sequitur, gives you, as Attorney General of the State of California, all the authority you need to go into court on an emergency basis and enjoin the imminent release of 25 to Life. In my opinion, you must do just that.

I have available to you renowned experts, many of whom have testified before the United States Congress on the video game copycatting phenomenon, who can prove to a California court that this cop-killing simulator does in fact pose a demonstrable threat to the state's law enforcement officers and is thus, by any definition, a "public nuisance."

The video game industry's hired guns have enjoined the enforcement of the video game law authored by Assemblyman Yee and signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger. If your nuisance suit is successful, they will wish they had not done that, as then the entire nation will see that nuisance laws already on the books and held constitutional are more than adequate to stop the sale of violent, mature-rated video games to minors.

Your lawsuit to enjoin this nuisance could state as follows: The game, 25 to Life, is rated "M" (for mature) because it contains, as indicated by the label on the game itself "intense violence." The industry, including Eidos, Inc., will not effectively restrict, however, the sale of this Mature-rated game only to adults. Indeed, Eidos, through the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) of which it is a member, has authorized ESA to assert in its court challenge to California's video game law, that children have a constitutional "right" to buy mature-rated video games. In fact, such games are being marketed and sold to children through California. 25 to Life, a cop-killing simulator, will be no exception"”by design. A company that will not restrict the sales of a Mature-rated game to adults only is engaged in, by definition, a public nuisance that constitutes a public safety hazard.

The foregoing is the reasoning behind a suit you could file. It is irrefutable. The need for it is inescapable.

Additionally, please know that California Civil Code Section 3495 enables and authorizes each and every law enforcement officer to walk into any video game store, without a court order, to seize and destroy each and every copy of 25 to Life. California law treats this as acceptable "abatement" of a public nuisance by parties particularly endangered by such a nuisance.

In the next six days I intend to take to the public airwaves in California, and to use other means, to encourage all law enforcement officers in California to in fact go into video game stores and seize all copies of 25 to Life.

Please contact me immediately in order that 25 to Life will never see the light of day. Lives will be saved if you act. Lives will be lost if you do not.

Regards, Jack Thompson

Copies: US Senators Lieberman, Clinton, Santorum, Schumer
Various Law Enforcement Organizations
Media
Others

Lives will be saved if you act. Lives will be lost if you do not.

Haha.. that part actually made me laugh out loud.

I dream of a world where freaks like this are simply ignored.

So, uh... This game even any good? It looks pretty mediocre.

Vega wrote:

Been wondering when he was going to pop back into the news. Is he forgetting the game is going to be released in 49 other states as well?

He's arguing for preemptive action to be taken under a particular section of California law. Probably still looking for similar statutes in other states.

Jack Thompson: "There's a reason gamers are fat, ugly, smelly, and die young! Because GOD HATES THEM. Also, they're fags. God hates fags."

LobsterMobster wrote:

Jack Thompson: "There's a reason gamers are fat, ugly, smelly, and die young! Because GOD HATES THEM. Also, they're fags. God hates fags."

That is the most succinct definition of Jack's gripes i've ever seen.

LobsterMobster wrote:

Jack Thompson: "There's a reason gamers are fat, ugly, smelly, and die young! Because GOD HATES THEM. Also, they're fags. God hates fags."

IMAGE(http://img116.exs.cx/img116/1231/z7shysterical.gif)
That's classic.

So... under whatever staute he quoted, if he ever visits California the cops can show up and take all his computers/pens/paper/typewriters etc? He is a nusiance after all.

California Statute 3495 allows any person to "abate a public nuisance which is specially injurious to him by removing, or, if necessary, destroying the thing which constitutes the same, without committing a breach of the peace, or doing unnecessary injury."

California Statute defines a nuisance as, "Anything which is injurious to health, including, but not limited to, the illegal sale of controlled substances, or is indecent or offensive to the senses, or an obstruction to the free use of property, so as to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property, or unlawfully obstructs the free passage or use, in the customary manner, of any navigable lake, or river, bay, stream, canal, or basin, or any public park, square, street, or highway, is a nuisance."

A public nuisance is one which simultaneously affects a large number of people.

I have done very little research into this subject and have not looked at any cases, but in my opinion Jack Thompson is wrong about legally being able to remove copies of 25 to Life. In order for cops to be able to remove 25 to Life it would have to be construed as indecent or offensive to the sense. Essentially this seems as though it would require for the game to be unprotected by the 1st amendment shocks the conscience test which would never happen as the shocks the concscience test is a very high standard. Further, if a game like 25 to Life satisfied that test, it is likely that movies like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon would too.

Once again, this is a hastily researched analysis.

Wouldn't he really be doing everyone a favor by geting rid of 25 to Life? Sure hes a crack pot, but cmon the game is a tired GTA clone.

I don't like games that glorify violence against people with no particular reason or story behind it. One thing I would understand if a cop killed your family and now you're out to get him, you know, a STORYLINE, a REASON, with emotion, anger, motivation.
However, a game where you kill cops "just because"... you know what... f*ck that.

What kind of a difference really does it make to make the cops into mutated Pig Cops ? Will they blow up in a less gory, satisfying fashion ? No, not really. Why does the game have to glorify crime to the point where the sentence is actually the game's title ? Is that a key gameplay element ? Not at all.
But hey, then the game wouldn't sell to the large demographic of wannabe hardk0r3 gangsta 13 year olds who scream at their mom to bring them chocolate f*ckING MILK NOW.

Jack Thompson is not the only dumbass, he's merely the OTHER dumbass. He is the mirror on the opposite end. He was summoned into existence out of necessity, because of a rift of extreme, lowest-common-denominator scandalous products in the gaming universe, and whatever kneejerk measures he manages to impose on the likes of people who made games like 25 to Life, they had it coming, and I don't weep for them one bit.

He's only publicizing the game. I'd never heard of it until this story started popping up today.

Jacky boy is mentally unbalanced. He shut up for a few months after the Penny Arcade guys showed him up (which was cool and classy) Guess he figures that blew over and it was time to poke his gopher head where it doesnt belong again.

shihonage wrote:

I don't like games that glorify violence against people with no particular reason or story behind it. One thing I would understand if a cop killed your family and now you're out to get him, you know, a STORYLINE, a REASON, with emotion, anger, motivation.
However, a game where you kill cops "just because"... you know what... f*ck that.

What kind of a difference really does it make to make the cops into mutated Pig Cops ? Will they blow up in a less gory, satisfying fashion ? No, not really. Why does the game have to glorify crime to the point where the sentence is actually the game's title ? Is that a key gameplay element ? Not at all.
But hey, then the game wouldn't sell to the large demographic of wannabe hardk0r3 gangsta 13 year olds who scream at their mom to bring them chocolate f*ckING MILK NOW.

Jack Thompson is not the only dumbass, he's merely the OTHER dumbass. He is the mirror on the opposite end. He was summoned into existence out of necessity, because of a rift of extreme, lowest-common-denominator scandalous products in the gaming universe, and whatever kneejerk measures he manages to impose on the likes of people who made games like 25 to Life, they had it coming, and I don't weep for them one bit.

Thank you.

I want chocolate milk...

My whole gripe with it is this... why is it Jack assumes that the video game production companies are in some way responsible for keeping the products THEY SAY are mature out of the hands of minors? We don't expect the movie production industry to do the same. They make movies, movie THEATERS and movie RETAILERS have to keep the games out of kids hands. THEY are the ones who get fined or sued if they slip... and yet, for some reason, Jack always goes after the game producers. Helloooooo, if you wanna Female Doggo about how a cracked out clerk at EB or Gamestop or Wal-mart lets a 9-year-old buy Grand Theft Auto, or how a parent buys it for them, in spite of the warning label that says M - Mature - Intense Violence, then SUE THEM! Freedom of speech says you can't censor expression, get used to it ya stupid old windbag.

I swear, the man has a head that only lets in keywords... violence, games, sex, etc... the moment any of those words pops in, he goes on another stupid rant without really thinking about anything.

As long as you guys are working to make some video games illegal, can you add in buddy cop movies and touching romantic comedies?

DrunkenSleipnir wrote:

As long as you guys are working to make some video games illegal, can you add in buddy cop movies and touching romantic comedies?

Don't you dare touch my Bridget Jones Diary, or you will start a holy crusade. I guarantee it.

KaterinLHC wrote:
DrunkenSleipnir wrote:

As long as you guys are working to make some video games illegal, can you add in buddy cop movies and touching romantic comedies?

Don't you dare touch my Bridget Jones Diary, or you will start a holy crusade. I guarantee it.

Do you have any idea how many slightly overweight women those movies convince not to go to the gym? Heresy, I say! Burn every copy you can get your hands on!

polypusher wrote:

He's only publicizing the game. I'd never heard of it until this story started popping up today.

Jacky boy is mentally unbalanced. He shut up for a few months after the Penny Arcade guys showed him up (which was cool and classy) Guess he figures that blew over and it was time to poke his gopher head where it doesnt belong again.

It was genius and generous all at once.

Honestly, I have not read or seen anything from or about Jack Thompson that was not shown to me in parody. And I don't plan to go out of my way, even for that. Here's hoping he fades away for a few more months after this again.

Fletcher wrote:
KaterinLHC wrote:
DrunkenSleipnir wrote:

As long as you guys are working to make some video games illegal, can you add in buddy cop movies and touching romantic comedies?

Don't you dare touch my Bridget Jones Diary, or you will start a holy crusade. I guarantee it.

Do you have any idea how many slightly overweight women those movies convince not to go to the gym? Heresy, I say! Burn every copy you can get your hands on!

You're just jealous because there are no such equivalent movies for men.

Jack Thompson is not the only dumbass, he's merely the OTHER dumbass. He is the mirror on the opposite end. He was summoned into existence out of necessity, because of a rift of extreme, lowest-common-denominator scandalous products in the gaming universe, and whatever kneejerk measures he manages to impose on the likes of people who made games like 25 to Life, they had it coming, and I don't weep for them one bit.

Right on point.

KaterinLHC wrote:
Fletcher wrote:
KaterinLHC wrote:
DrunkenSleipnir wrote:

As long as you guys are working to make some video games illegal, can you add in buddy cop movies and touching romantic comedies?

Don't you dare touch my Bridget Jones Diary, or you will start a holy crusade. I guarantee it.

Do you have any idea how many slightly overweight women those movies convince not to go to the gym? Heresy, I say! Burn every copy you can get your hands on!

You're just jealous because there are no such equivalent movies for men.

Swingers?

Jack Thompson is like the proverbial #%$hole dean to the gamers of America. Putting games on double secret probation and trying to revoke our charter to entertainment. We should form a Gamer House and ruin his annual parade. It would be awesome!

Jolly Bill wrote:
KaterinLHC wrote:
Fletcher wrote:
KaterinLHC wrote:
DrunkenSleipnir wrote:

As long as you guys are working to make some video games illegal, can you add in buddy cop movies and touching romantic comedies?

Don't you dare touch my Bridget Jones Diary, or you will start a holy crusade. I guarantee it.

Do you have any idea how many slightly overweight women those movies convince not to go to the gym? Heresy, I say! Burn every copy you can get your hands on!

You're just jealous because there are no such equivalent movies for men.

Swingers?

No, because he actually gets off his ass and gets a backbone/some gumption. BJD is the perfect accompanyment to a few pints of Ben and Jerry's.

If we can get a law passed that will prevent a "Hope Floats", "Monster In Law", or "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" from ever being made again, we must march on Washington now.

I don't think this game is quite urban enough for me. Maybe it'll be better with 27% more hos and 39% baggier/lower pants.

Chiggie Von Richthofen wrote:

Jack Thompson is like the proverbial #%$hole dean to the gamers of America. Putting games on double secret probation and trying to revoke our charter to entertainment. We should form a Gamer House and ruin his annual parade. It would be awesome!

ROBOT HOOOOOOUUUUUUSE!

This is hiphop SOCOM clone right? From what I hear, its actually plays alright if you're into SOCOM.

Oh and I have to mention it, though thankfully I can't be credited for this, people refer to this as... BROCOM.

The game s*cks... it got ultra-low score from IGN!

shihonage wrote:

I don't like games that glorify violence against people with no particular reason or story behind it. One thing I would understand if a cop killed your family and now you're out to get him, you know, a STORYLINE, a REASON, with emotion, anger, motivation.
However, a game where you kill cops "just because"... you know what... f*ck that.

What kind of a difference really does it make to make the cops into mutated Pig Cops ? Will they blow up in a less gory, satisfying fashion ? No, not really. Why does the game have to glorify crime to the point where the sentence is actually the game's title ? Is that a key gameplay element ? Not at all.
But hey, then the game wouldn't sell to the large demographic of wannabe hardk0r3 gangsta 13 year olds who scream at their mom to bring them chocolate f*ckING MILK NOW.

Jack Thompson is not the only dumbass, he's merely the OTHER dumbass. He is the mirror on the opposite end. He was summoned into existence out of necessity, because of a rift of extreme, lowest-common-denominator scandalous products in the gaming universe, and whatever kneejerk measures he manages to impose on the likes of people who made games like 25 to Life, they had it coming, and I don't weep for them one bit.

*ColdForged kneels reverently*

Teach me, master!