Jack Thompson Shocked by Bioshock TV Ads, files complaint

[Zeus]

Possibly the most hated attorney in the world of video games Jack Thompson has filed a complaint to the Federal Trade commision due to Bioshock advertisements airing during Friday's WWE Smackdown event. Thompson is claiming that Take Two is advertising its new game to children under 17 years of age with consistently violent adverts for the 'incredibly violent' game that is known as Bioshock.


Take-Two… is aggressively marketing its newest Mature-rated video game to kids under 17 years of age… On this Friday’s night’s 8 pm Eastern time airing of WWE’s wrestling program “Smackdown,” there were repeated ads for Take-Two/Rockstar Game’s Mature-rated, incredibly violent BioShock…

A check of the demographics of the audience of that program reveals that teens under 17 years of age watch that program in huge numbers…

Remarkably, the video game industry is running ads for games like BioShock on teen-intensive television programs while at the same time its industry-captured “watchdog,” the ESRB, is running a self-congratulatory ad campaign to assure parents that the video game ratings system is working and that the industry can be trusted not to target their kids with these Mature-rated games. It is all a lie, as the BioShock ads prove.

This rampant fraudulent trade practice is precisely what “Big Tobacco” did with its “Joe Camel” and other teen-targeting ads, while at the same time lying to Congress that it was not marketing its adult product to kids.


News Source: <A href="http://gamepolitics.com/2007/08/19/jack-thompson-shocked-by-bioshock/" target="_blank">Gamepolitics.com</a>

[Evolution]

Yep I cant wait to pummel a little sister to death with one of those wrenches!!

It makes me wanna go out and do it for real :rolleyes:

[XxBigP123xX]

im like 3 hours into the game. it's not too bad. but what pisses me off is that they used the unreal engine and were too lazy to make their own

[Evolution]

im like 3 hours into the game. it's not too bad. but what pisses me off is that they used the unreal engine and were too lazy to make their own

I tried the demo on the 360 but I want it for the PC. I much prefer the keyboard mouse combo but to be fair its very pretty looking on the 360 and its got monster hit (as predicted by anyone who had played the System Shock games of yesteryear) written all over it.

I just want to see how Rapture looks on my X2900! :D

[CZroe]

The real news here is that Jack Thompson did not realize that the game was developed by 2K Boston and 2K Australia and distributed by 2K Games. He mistakenly pointed the finger at Take-Two and Rockstar both in his early warning comment and now in the actual letter. There is no way his antics will ever affect Take-Two or Rockstar because stuff like this makes it way too obvious that he has a vendetta and is maliciously targetting them.

[willizm]

I'm getting the 360 version as I don't think my 7800gt can handle it on my pc(maxed out anyway;). I like keyboard/mouse to, but this will be awsome laid back on the ol' easy boy and playin on the big screen.

[Y2G]

WWE may have a large audience of under 17s but the content of their programming is not suitable for younger children with storylines of necrophila and death amongst others!
WWE is marketed towards young males and rightly so the producers of Bioshock aim their advertising at them.
If parents let their kids watch WWE then they should know what they are in for and same with Bioshock!

[pezjono]

He must not be getting any lovin at the home.
His husband needs to get off his ass and assist Jack with his.
...
In all seriousness though, they rate games for a reason. You are under parental guidance until the age of 18 and if you are too stupid to watch what your kids are doing (not even just video games, there's plenty of temptations in the world i.e. drugs, porn, stealing), then it is the parents fault for not doing their job.

I know some people say they don't have time to watch their kids 24/7, well, you don't. You just have to watch their activities. If little Jimmy comes home with a $300 game console on a allowance of $10 a month, then you wouldn't just shrug and let little Jimmy play his games. You would ask him where the hell he got the money.

Just as you should with video games. If you walk in Jimmy's room and see him blow the head off a splicer (BioShock reference) when you thought you were buying him Barney's Great Adventure, then you do something about it.

\end rant

[Kenban]

The real news here is that Jack Thompson did not realize that the game was developed by 2K Boston and 2K Australia and distributed by 2K Games. He mistakenly pointed the finger at Take-Two and Rockstar both in his early warning comment and now in the actual letter. There is no way his antics will ever affect Take-Two or Rockstar because stuff like this makes it way too obvious that he has a vendetta and is maliciously targetting them.

2k is owned by Take-Two. Although I have no idea why he would bring up Rockstar because they are different divisions.

[CZroe]

I'm getting the 360 version as I don't think my 7800gt can handle it on my pc(maxed out anyway;). I like keyboard/mouse to, but this will be awsome laid back on the ol' easy boy and playin on the big screen.

I sure hope my 7800GT SLI will handle it! Considering taht these were top-of-the-line when the 360 launched, I sorta assumed that they would.

[CZroe]

2k is owned by Take-Two. Although I have no idea why he would bring up Rockstar because they are different divisions.

OH! That explains it then. Thanks.

[Daggerer]

What was he doing watching wrestling anyway.

[Xenogears V]

According to me he finds violent also Shrek 3.:rolleyes:

[rbranma]

Thompson you are my hero!

[DaFireStarter]

Hey Zeus where can I get one of those shirts?

[binxamon]

According to me he finds violent also Shrek 3.:rolleyes:

Haha....LMAO......

People have nothing better to do in life but talk f*ckry..what about them shampoo adverts which have fully naked women rubbing oil or some $h*t on her ass while covering there tits with there arm, what would be going through a 13 year old mind Hmmmm??? We see real life violence every day on any TV channel or out on the road, one game advert ain't gonna make a kid go nuts....Thats just lame as f*ck

[xcxv2]

what's this crap about 7800gt not being good enough ? ? ? Are you smoking paintchips ?

[lokii]

lets not give the fool any publicity by acknowledging his mind boggling idiotic views.
Lets hope the men in white coats take this fool away.

Medication time MR Thompson.

[Mikeyy]

I sure hope my 7800GT SLI will handle it! Considering taht these were top-of-the-line when the 360 launched, I sorta assumed that they would.

You all need to learn to maximize the use of your video cards. You don't need to play in 1900* resolution with your 2 year old card. go for 1280*1024 or 1024*768 (FPS games dont suffer visuals that much in this resolution)

As long as you got a kick ass CPU you don't need the newest $500 GPU every year.

[beastt]

You all need to learn to maximize the use of your video cards. You don't need to play in 1900* resolution with your 2 year old card. go for 1280*1024 or 1024*768 (FPS games dont suffer visuals that much in this resolution)

As long as you got a kick ass CPU you don't need the newest $500 GPU every year.

Not true it depends on the game engine. But anyway can't wait to play it on my pc. Ohh and btw guy cc is selling the pc ver. for 39.99 and the 360 vers. for 49.99

[Ichinisan]

You all need to learn to maximize the use of your video cards. You don't need to play in 1900* resolution with your 2 year old card. go for 1280*1024 or 1024*768 (FPS games dont suffer visuals that much in this resolution)

As long as you got a kick ass CPU you don't need the newest $500 GPU every year.

Well, I took them out of my A64 X2 3800+ 2GB DDR400 system and now they are kinda mis-matched in my Vista Ultimate x64 Core 2 Quad Q6600 4GB DDR2-800 system. I need a DX10 card with HDCP to get the most out of Vista gaming, and I kinda assumed that BioShock will have some DX10 stuff.

Edit: Oops. This is CZroe.

[crypysmoker]

ouu ouuu, First thing Im gonna do because this game "told" me too is get a big huge oversized Diving suit from the 40's, inject myself with several different nonbots in order to get super powers and throw wrenches at people.

Can we please have a law in america that we can just walk up and legaly beat some god damn sense into people like Jack thompson?

I mean the guy obviously has nothing better to do then ***** about games that he will neve rplay in his life.

I think he didnt get to play with the other kids when he was growing up. MOmmy and daddy wouldnt buy him that colecovision he wanted so now hes taking it out on the world.

If you ask me, hes thinking that games like this will make children do exactly what they do in the game..... And I dont know about most of you, but I would have to be on some pretty damn hardcore drugs to think I can fly, steal cars, shoot people and use super powers like you do in games.
I think we should all be asking ourselves... What kind of drugs is kack thompson on to think things like this can happen in the real world.... And can I please have some


Next thing you know, he'll pull The sims because he thinks its to real when you magicly have a baby and the HRS comes and takes it away......

Or even old ass sim city because you can cause storms and basicly be god to a world of your own...

Ouu, Pokemon, you trap imaginary animals in balls and force them to fight each other........

PAC MAN.. OMG, hes eating all those little white balls and chasing ghosts... mIght promote drug abuse and paranormal investigation.

JACK THOMPSON< YOU ARE A FUCKING JOKE TO PEOPLE WHO ACTUALY WANT TO HELP THE WORLD.
All you are is a grown up, brat who didnt get things he wanted growing up so you want to take it out on the rest of the world... and all you come off as is the biggest joke in politics since ..... well, george bush Jr

[CZroe]

Oh, and I'm not worried about whether or not I can play the PC version on my 7800GT SLI setup (I know I can). I just want to be able to output it to my 1080p TV and know that it is not inferior to the XBOX 360 version in any way. Heck, I *could* even play it with a 360 controller, but an FPS like this deserves KBM controls.

[busboy33]

So . . .2K is trying to promote violence to the audience for World Wrestling Entertainment? The same people who scream like little girls when The Undertaker comes out and stuffs somebody into a coffin? Or Triple H cracks a real chair over somebody's head, causing real blood to flow? 2K is advertising pretend violence to people watching real violence, and the problem is the pretend violence?

My god, it'll warp their fragile little minds!