Last night I mentioned in my LNC news roundup that Rockstar Games is looking to get the $246 million lawsuit that’s being brought against them dropped by a federal judge. If you’re not familiar with the case, let me fill you in on the horrible details.
On June 25, one man was killed, and one woman seriously injured by two teenage boys who fired loaded rifles at a car driving through the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. It’s a horrible story. The man who was slain was 45, the injured girl just 19. The lawsuit seeks to hold Rockstar Games, Take Two Interactive and Wal-Mart responsible for a sum of $246 million, as the kids supposedly got the idea for this by playing Grand Theft Auto III. I don’t blame the families of the victims for bringing this suit. How could I? This was a nightmare of the worst kind, made even more so by the randomness by which the victims were chosen. No, the person to blame for this is Jack Thimpson, the attorney behind the suit, and a despicable excuse for a human being.
The fact is, that the families of the victims are in serious pain, and they’re reaching out for some kind of explanation for what happened. And sadly, there is no easy explanation. Except professional sleezebag Jack Thompson swooped down and told them that there is a simple explanation, and that it’s the video games these kids were playing. Now, for a moment, just think about what he’s doing here. He’s preying on the suffering of these people. And I have a real problem with that. Can you imagine the kind of disgusting morals a person has to have to call up victims of a horrible crime like this and tell them that there are big corporations that are to blame?
As for his claims, they are of course, completely groundless. Even if you believe that playing games is enough to give children this sort of murderous impulse, the fact remains that you can’t hurt anyone with a video game. Just to prove my point, let’s think about the facts again. Here we have two teenagers, who got their hands on loaded rifles. And you want to blame the video game?
Believing that the game is responsible is one thing. Pushing for legislation is extreme and groundless, but what Thompson is doing is far worse. What he’s doing here is dragging these poor families through a process that will prevent them from moving on with their lives. He’s done it before (like the case against id Software and others which was dropped) and he’ll do it again. He even tried to pin the Washington sniper murders on Halo.
I can’t say I believe in any kind of hell, but if there is one, I’ll take pleasure in knowing that there’s a room partitioned off for slime like him.
This guy is so infuriating to me I can’t even really bear to think about it. Fucking scummy slimy greedy shyster who doesn’t give a good goddamn about these families, who are themselves guilty of negligent behavior by not involving themselves in their kids’ lives.
His last attempt was pretty much laughed out of court, and I hope the end result will be the same here, but our greedy fast-food culture where nobody wants to take responsibility for themselves will guarantee that he’ll have chance after chance to try and take away every last little bit of fun that’s available to decent folks like ourselves.
Howard Stern off the air in Pittsburgh
Definitely an interesting bit of news. There are two things at work here that annoy me about this. First off is the new “zero-tolerence” policies of Clear Channel and Viacom. This is all due of course to boobie-gate, and the…
This Jack Thompson person kind of caught my eye here. I want to get in contact with him, personally and tell him that videogames aren’t to blame. But the parents are… I checked through a few reports and all the kids who have been convicted have been under age for the videogame’s “Age Rating” symbols. Like the court case against a local nurse who was shot by 2 kids who where between the ages of 16 to 14.