I like how you do a Jack Thompson; your first paragraph is right, and on point, then you go onto something totally different :)

Regarding that first point, we all agree that games have age ratings and that thy should be adhered too. The difference is in the execution of that. JT seems to take a tad more extream view.

My biggest problem with Jack Thompson was that he wasn't willing to accept that the law has a bigger part in regulation than Strauss Zelnick and Rockstar/Take 2. Instead of saying that we need to reform the law or create a system where selling games to underage children would result in a more severe punishment through legal channels he insisted that the law was sound and that the burden to adult titles are sold only to adults falls on the developers and publishers.
The job of the developer and publish is just that, to develop and publish the game for a consumer, at that point the burden falls on the government and the legal system to ensure that product lands in an environment where people are compelled to follow the rules.

I did agree with his point about marketing even though there are exceptions, he mentioned marketing on WWE. I live in England so don't quote me on this but as far as I'm aware Wrestling is popular beyond the teens age range, I've heard that Wrestlemania is one of the biggest sporting events in the US, matched in popularity only by the Superbowl, if that is true then deciding not market through the WWE because a portion of the audience may be underage, from a business point, would be stupid.
Sure, marketing to underage is probably not the smartest thing, but it's a problem easily overcome by having retailers follow the rules and creating a society where the parents and carers are aware of what the content of the game their child is asking for is.

Nice read!

Anti American much?? Being a Prick isn't America centric. They're everywhere. I failed to get your real point of this blog..unless it was to shit on us in America and if that's what it was you were successful in your endeavor.

shouldn't***

You know there [u]are[/u] laws in place for people that sell games to minors, right? The thing is is that the retailers usually don't care, and they'll sell it to the ignorant mother without telling her about how terrible the game is for children. It's the retarded parents that don't know anything and don't take the time to raise their children properly that are the problem, and I can guarentee you that their are some of those in places other than the United States as well (as noted by Athestium, who told us that one anecdote in the beginning of the podcast, before Jack Thompson started to talk). So either A) You just skipped ahead in the podcast to the 'interview' (which was really more like Jack listening to himself talk for ~an hour, or B) You just have some unknown hate for Americans, which... I guess is understandable, but it isn't really. Whatever. There are ignorant people everywhere, as shown by this post.

Alright first off, the US is not full of pricks, or gun wielding maniacs, it is full of people. Just like every other country and every other time, the person is smart, but people are stupid. This goes for every country. The only difference is the stupidity is conveyed in a different way.

@ aborto

Hold your horses, he was spewing stuff more along lines with what the US is doing now, more so then what they do on TV. Also you have to take into account that the way violence is treated in Europe compared to here in North America is very different. We (north America) try to hide sex from kids but we have no issues showing them blow each other up, whereas Europe is (as far as i know) just about the opposite.

@ topic

I firmly believe in the rating system, sometimes they go a bit crazy and rate games to high, but i have never seen them rate a game too low. I work in game myself and I do not let underage kids even look at the back of M rated games. However, as i work at a corporation, if that said child's parent comes and wishes to provide the child with an M-rated game at the age of 8 i cannot say no. So instead of the arguments to push the blame onto the government, or push the blame onto developers, i think it is the sole responsibility of the parent.

Should we create laws that punish parents who break the rating systems for their kids? No, that would be against the charter (in Canada that is). What needs to be done is for the parents to be educated. Not much we can do now, but if every parent knew that the first time they crumble to a child crying and buy them that action figure that they are sealing their fates as eternal bitches. We need parents to care what their child is getting into. Now I'll admit I played M-rated games WAY before i was old enough to buy them, but i had such an upbringing that i realized that it was just a game, no reason to get angry about it, no reason to be harsh when it was time to get off.

The reason why kids are such assholes to their parents (I'm speaking in general terms, i know a lot of great kids) is because they can be. The parents have set themselves up in such a way that the kid can control them, and the kid knows it. This mixed with pop culture television is a recipe for a horrible person. Unlike most of us here who, I'm making assumption (ass out of you and me hahaha), had a decent upbringing where there were times for games and times for family. The children nowadays don't have that family interaction, so instead of learning from their parents they learn from media.

Now now, don't get me wrong I don't strongly believe that games and movies can make a person rotten, but when all a person sees from birth to adulthood is killing, misogynists, and general violence without a strong family connection, they will think that all of that is O.K., why because that is their only reality.

I'm kinda tired of typing now, roll that up and smoke it!

PS: I'm Canadian, I wasn't protecting the US because i particularly like it.

DAMN IT! I just wrote a long comment addressing something and it looks like something happened because it's not showing up. Well anyways....

@Unpro

I was referring to news and current events on TV. I wasn't talking about anything in the difference of programming.

Wong sure is coming across as a prick with a swollen ego for a guy ranting about all us American pricks with swollen egos.

The whole "We beat you and then saved your ass in WW2" thing. I know that pissed Aetheistium off when somebody spouted it when I was playing COD4 with her, and I would imagine it would piss other british people of as well.

can't we all just get along... like a big happy earth :)

:hugs trees: :kisses butterflies:

we're all stupid in god's eyes.

Agreed with Wardox: first paragraph right on.

Rest of it, wtf mate? You're acting like every American just plays Halo and Madden and did mean things to your mother.

Pre-Rev-War Britain = Present Day American. Imperialist/expansionist attitudes FTW, all around!

Generalization doesn't look good on anybody. I can see where you'd get the opinions you do, but come off it. Seriously.

I'm glad that you two were able to resolve your differences without me pulling nasty boob shots to get you to shut up.

Insulting a whole country with 3 paragraphs, now thats something to be proud of.

Oh and you can say whatever you like about the UK because i think that its going the way of the USA. Its run by an equal amount of clowns as your country is so it would be hypocritical of me to lie and say it wasn't.

Despite this i stand by what i said, my opinion of the US is extremely poor and it isn't going to improve anytime soon i can imagine :D